Orosz, Andrew John, SP4

Andrew Orosz was part of the following incident during which he was killed:

MISADVENTURE (FRIENDLY FIRE) - On November 19, 1967, during the Battle of
Dak To, one of the worst friendly fire incidents of the Vietnam War occurred 
when a Marine Corps fighter-bomber dropped two bombs into the perimeter where 
officers and noncommissioned officers of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry had set 
up a command post with their radio operators. The soldiers of the 173rd 
Airborne Brigade were dug in on the steep southern slope of Hill 875, fighting 
beside napalm fires and exposed to the guns of North Vietnamese Army shooting 
from tunnels nearby. Just past dusk, after making three dry runs over the 
battlefield, the Marine Corps A-4 attack jet descended to 1,000 feet above the 
jungle and released two 250-pound Mk-81 bombs fitted with Snakeye fins. 

Barreling in at a shallow 10-degree angle at hundreds of miles per hour, the two 
bombs from the A-4 hit the ground. One was a dud. The other exploded in a huge 
orange fireball. Instead of hitting the North Vietnamese, the bomb struck the 
branches of a lone tree along the Americans’ perimeter, under which the battalion 
had set up their command post. It was also a casualty-collection point where the 
most badly wounded soldiers were being treated by medics while awaiting medevac 
helicopters to take them off the hill. The bomb killed 21 men and wounded 10 more, 
including most of the remaining senior leaders and medics. A single radio operator 
was spared when he was protected by a pile of broken tree trunks that absorbed 
deadly fragments.

The dead included MAJ Charles Watters, a 40-year-old Catholic priest who served as 
the battalion’s chaplain. Earlier in the battle, Watters had ventured out past 
the perimeter several times to rescue wounded soldiers, carrying or dragging them 
to safety, providing first aid, and administering last rites to the dying—actions 
for which he was later awarded the Medal of Honor. After witnessing what happened 
below, a crewman on a U.S. Air Force AC-47 “Spooky” gunship flying in a slow 
circle 3,000 feet above the dead and wounded troops tossed parachute flares out 
the back of the plane to help survivors on the ground see in the darkness. 

The lost Americans included: 
  PFC Mario A. Cisneros
  SP4 Gary R. Cooper
  SP4 Gerald L. George Jr.
  SP4 Mark R. Hering
  SP4 Thomas P. Huddleston
  PVT Roger A. Kros
  PFC Robert C. Lavallee Jr.
  SP4 Andrew J. Orosz
  PFC William A. Ross
  SP4 Robert J. Sanders
  SP4 Jack H. Shoop Jr.
  SP4 Lewis B. Smith
  PFC James R. Speller
  SP4 Harry E. Stephens
  1LT Richard W. Thompson
  PFC Richard Walker Jr.
  MAJ Charles J. Watters
  SSG Remer G. Williams

The remains of three Skysoldiers have never been found:
  SP4 Jack L. Croxdale II
  PFC Benjamin D. DeHerrera
  SGT Donald Iandoli

A January 1968 U.S. Air Force investigation into the incident was inconclusive, 
declaring that “there is insufficient evidence to determine the exact cause of 
the short round” before blaming “improper release conditions.” The investigator 
recommended that pilots undergo remedial training and that the investigation be 
closed, as it had revealed “no gross personnel errors nor evidence of equipment 
malfunction.” 

[Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and “The Secret History of a Vietnam War 
Airstrike Gone Terribly Wrong” by John Ismay, nytimes.com, January 2019] 

  
POSTED ON 11.19.2009
 
POSTED BY: SMALL TOWN GIRL

ANGEL DAY

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