Cristman, Frederick Lewis, CW3

"Lam Son 719 was a large-scale offensive against enemy communications lines which was conducted in that part of Laos adjacent to the two northern provinces of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese would provide and command ground forces, while U.S. Forces would furnish airlift and supporting fire...
Phase II of the operation involved an ARVN helicopter assault and armored brigade thrust along Route 9 into Laos. ARVN ground troops were transported by American helicopters, while U.S. Air Forces provided cover strikes around the landing zones.

During one of these maneuvers, CW2 Frederick L. Cristman was flying a UH1C helicopter (serial #65-9489) with a crew of three - SP4 Paul A. Langenour, door gunner, WO1 Jon M. Sparks, co-pilot, and SP5 Ricardo M. Garcia, crew chief. - covering a downed U.S. helicopter during a rescue effort. Cristman's aircraft flew as the trail ship in a flight of two UH1s on their armed escort mission.

The landing zone (LZ) was under fire, and the pilot of the downed craft was a buddy of Fred's. He worked the area with his minigun while another helicopter successfully extracted the pilot. Cristman and his crew continued to work the hot LZ  while other helicopters came in. His gunship was hit by enemy gunfire. Christman radioed in to the flight leader that his transmission oil pressure caution light was on, and that he was making an emergency landing on the LZ. This was verified by the lead aircraft, who made several passes over the downed helicopter. Cristman's aircraft crashed into the ARVN perimeter..."   Source: http://www.pownetwork.org

From this point on the details of the incident grow murky. All scenarios essentially agree that a mortar exploded on the top of the helicopter. The gunner (Langenour) was the first out of the aircraft and joined ARVN forces at the perimeter. Langenour has said the other three men were alive when he jumped out. One version seems to indicate the three were killed instantly by the first mortar. Others hold that the three successfully exited the aircraft, but were knocked to the ground by the concussion from the explosion. At the time enemy forces were encrouching on the area and heavy groundfire and additional mortar fire rained on the LZ. The flight leader's aircraft was heavily damaged and was forced to leave the area. Langenour eventually returned to a U.S. military area. What happened to Cristman, Sparks and Garcia will likely remain a mystery. Most likely the three did escape the initial mortar hit and were killed by NVA mortar shells and gunfire, however in 1973 a Vietnam defector claimed a man looking like Cristman (the defector identified Cristman from a photograph) was captured alive, but died later died, and that the rest of the crew were buried nearby. This story, however, hasn't been verified. All three were initially declared MIA, but later officially declared dead. Their bodies have never been recovered.