Worst Moment At about 1000 hrs on February 14, 1970 a flight of four took off from Nha Trang AAF enroute to the Dong Bo Mountain. (about 4 miles South West of our airstrip).
I was flying the Command and Control UH-1 on this combat aviation support mission for the 5th Special Forces Group at Nha Trang, Vietnam. I was flying from the right seat and the Aircraft Commander was Warrant Officer Allan R. Larson.
Another slick (Army Aircraft 67-17127) was equipped with an Airborne Personnel Detector. We refered to it as a "sniffer" because it's purpose was to detect any smoke in the area. Smoke = fire and only people use fire. If we detected smoke we knew Charlie was in the area. That's why we also had two gunships in the flight. Smoke = fire = Charlie = getting shot at!
In flight, 2" hoses would scoop up outside air and feed it to the machine. The detection method used by people sniffers depended on effluents unique to human beings; such as those found in urine and sweat. The machine would read the amounts and ratios of ammonia and carbon from smokein the air and give the operators information about things on the ground such as campfires, body wastes, body sweat, body gasses, etc. Animals also produce ammonia in their body waists. Ever clean the litter box? Animals do not create fire/smoke so the machine used the combination to minimize false alerts. The air would have to be collected at the lowest possible altitude to get the samples as undiluted and close to it's origin as possible. "As low as possible" can only be comprehended by people who crewed helicopters in Vietnam. And since the missions were flown directly above suspected enemy locations, as much speed as the sniffer machine could handle was also critical for survival against small arms, RPGs, hand grenades, rocks and sticks thrown, etc. The Sniffer operator had a radio channel through which he would report indications of recent human presence to a partner map marker.
The crew of the sniffer ship consisted of the Aircraft Commander Warrant Officer Eldon Ray (Duke) Payne, Pilot Thomas Andrew Guenther, Crew Chief Specialist 5 Michael Allen Hughey, Door Gunner Platoon Sgt Bobbie Herald Brewer and two Special Forces sniffer equipment operators CPT Ronald George Neubauer and SGT Kenneth Leon Delaney.
The Lead Gunship was Piloted by WO1 Gardner and 1st Lt Thomas J. MeKeegan Jr. I don't remember who was in the 2nd gunship.
The mission of the sniffer ship was to fly 50 feet above the trees at 70 knots to detect any smoke in the area.
At about 1005 hrs the sniffer machine started getting medium to high readings. The lead gunship was about 100 meters behind the sniffer ship and based on their observations reported that the sniffer ship may have had an equipment failure causing to aircraft to nose down which resulted in a lose of altitude which put it into the trees. At this point the aircraft had a very slow airspeed and low rotor RPM which caused it to hit the trees and roll to the ground and explode. About 2 Seconds after impact the aircraft burst into flames.
I immediately flew to the crash site and hovered overhead. I sent my Door Gunner, Sp4 Johnson down on the helicopter hoist near the crash site and stuggled to maintain a steady hoover which would not entangle him in the trees. I was quided by verbal directions from my door gunner, SP4 Beck. SP4 Beck spotted a man in a green uniform running from the top of the hill towards the wreakage. This observation coupled with the medium to high reading from the sniffer machine was a good indication that we were sitting ducks.
My "pucker factor" was at an all time high. I expected to recieve fire at any moment. - "Pucker Factor" is the formal name of the equation that states the more hairy the situation is, the more of the seat cushion will be sucked up your asshole. It can be expressed in its mathematical formula of S (suction)+ H (height) above ground) + I (interest in staying alive) + T (# of tracers coming your way) - Thus the term 'SHIT!' can also be used to denote a situation where high Pucker Factor is being encountered.
SP4 Beck said that he saw the man again, this time running up the hill.
We got word from SP4 Johnson that the aircraft was burning so intensly that he could not get very near it and there were no survivors to extract.
We brought SP4 Johnson back up and asked him if he saw a man in a green uniform. He said that he did not see anyone while he was on the ground and we were never able to identify this person.
We returned to Nha Trang airfield, sadened but glad to get back.
Chain of Command Commanding Officer Maj. Darryl M. Stevens, 16 Jan. 70-7 Jul. 70. XO CPT. Roger Green
