CHAPTER 11

Spring and Summer Fighting

_The Monsoons--The Weather Breaks--Sure Wind 202--Operations Elsewhere in I Corps--Changing the Watch_

Commanded by Colonel Andre D. Gomez, the strength of the Marine task element at Da Nang stood at 450 officers and men as 1964 opened. Lieutenant Colonel Ross’ HMM-361 continued its assignment as the task element’s helicopter squadron while Lieutenant Colonel Cassidy’s 204-man MABS-16 sub unit retained responsibility for maintaining and operating the support facilities.

Shortly after New Year’s Day, ComUSMACV advised Colonel Gomez that the entire Marine task element would be withdrawn from the Republic of Vietnam during the first half of 1964. This decision was one of CinCPac’s continuing responses to the Defense Department plans for reducing the level of direct American military involvement in Vietnam. Additionally, Gomez was informed that the task element would be called upon to initiate a training program designed to prepare Vietnamese Air Force pilots and mechanics to operate and maintain the UH-34Ds. This program was scheduled to culminate with the takeover of the 24 Marine helicopters by a new VNAF squadron on 30 June, and the subsequent departure of the entire task element for Okinawa where it would rejoin MAG-16, its parent organization.[11-1]

_The Monsoons_

The new year broke with Marine flight operations at Da Nang still proceeding at a reduced rate due to the heavy monsoon weather. As had been the case at the close of 1963, medical evacuation and resupply missions continued to constitute the major source of work for HMM-361’s crews. The first Marine helicopter loss during 1964 occurred during one such mission on 3 January when an aircraft was shot down while attempting to perform a medical evacuation about 30 miles due west of Da Nang. Hit at least six times on its descent toward the landing zone, the UH-34D crashed into the jungle. Its crew miraculously escaped injury and was rescued by another Marine helicopter. The aircraft, damaged beyond repair, was intentionally destroyed by U.S. Special Forces personnel. This was only the second Marine helicopter loss definitely attributed to Communist fire since SHUFLY’s arrival at Soc Trang nearly two years earlier.

In the second week of January the weather over the mountains west to Da Nang broke long enough for Lieutenant Colonel Ross’ squadron to accomplish a critical trooplift. On short notice the Marines were ordered to remove a 200-man CIDG force from the hills about 30 miles west-southwest of Da Nang. Accompanied by a U.S. Army advisor, the South Vietnamese unit had been conducting a reconnaissance in force about eight miles west of its camp at An Diem.[11-A] Under cover of the monsoon clouds, which limited effective U.S. or VNAF air support, Viet Cong elements of undetermined strength had closed in on the government force, threatening to isolate and destroy it before the weather lifted.

[11-A] See map of outposts in I CTZ, page 81.

The immediate nature of this particular mission left little time for detailed planning and briefing. I Corps headquarters could only advise the Marines of such vital information as the unit’s radio call sign, radio frequency, size, and location. To familiarize himself with the terrain in the vicinity of the pickup site, Lieutenant Colonel Ross first made a reconnaissance flight to the area in an O-1B. His reconnaissance revealed the landing zone to be “a precarious hill top knob exposed to a 360° field of fire,” Ross later recalled.[11-2]

The reconnaissance accomplished, the squadron commander returned to Da Nang, exchanged the O-1B for a UH-34D, and led a flight of 14 helicopters to the pickup point. In accordance with the squadron’s standing operating procedure, Ross, the flight leader, was to land first, drop off a loadmaster, and lift out the first Vietnamese heliteam. Upon approaching the hilltop, however, the lead helicopter was forced away by heavy small arms fire which punctured the aft section of the aircraft’s fuselage, wounding the loadmaster.

The second aircraft, following at close interval, was also hit. Lieutenant Colonel Ross then ordered the entire formation into a holding pattern out of small arms range while he attempted to persuade the American advisor to move the Vietnamese unit overland a short distance to a less exposed landing zone beside a stream. This the U.S. advisor was reluctant to do. “I was convinced,” Ross concluded, “that his real concern was the shattered morale of his ARVN troops and doubts about being able to get them moving to the alternate site.”[11-3] After some delay the Vietnamese unit finally moved to the new landing zone, whereupon the Marines completed the troop lift. Still, the helicopters were exposed to unnecessary risks.

Understandably concerned with problems of this nature which tended to plague all but the larger preplanned operations, Lieutenant Colonel Ross questioned the “ability of the advisors to make operational decisions based upon considerations beyond their own tactical problems.”[11-4] In this particular case the selection of the exposed hilltop landing zone tended to substantiate the Marine commander’s complaints.

[Illustration: _Loadmaster directs a helicopter into a recently cleared landing zone. (USMC Photo A329576)._]

During the second week of January, General Greene, the newly appointed Commandant of the Marine Corps, visited the Marine installation at Da Nang. The Commandant conducted an inspection of the compound and was briefed on operations by Colonel Gomez and his staff. After presenting combat decorations to several members of the task element, Greene departed for Hawaii where he was to visit the FMFPac headquarters.

The Commandant summed up his impressions of the Marine helicopter task element in testimony before the House Committee on Armed Services several weeks after his return to Washington. “I was assured by General Harkins and his officers--and by the officers of the supported Vietnamese units--that this squadron has performed its supporting mission in an outstanding manner,” related Greene. “Everything that I observed,” he added, “certainly attested to the high morale and effectiveness of this unit.”[11-5][11-A]

[11-A] A more frequent visitor to the Marine helicopter task element was Colonel Anderson, the MAAG Chief of Staff. An experienced aviator, Colonel Anderson had commanded a Marine bomber squadron (VMB-443) in the latter stages of World War II. While serving as the MAAG Chief of Staff during 1963 and 1964, Anderson participated in a number of combat missions as a pilot with the various squadrons assigned to SHUFLY.

Late January and early February saw the normal rotation of several of the task element’s key personnel as well as its helicopter squadron. On 14 January, Colonel Robert A. Merchant, an officer with a diverse military background, assumed command of SHUFLY. Merchant had commanded an artillery battalion on Okinawa in World War II, a Marine attack squadron in Korea, and had served on the joint staff of the Specified Commander for the Middle East in Beirut during the 1958 Lebanon Operation. More recently he had graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Having flown with the task element’s squadron while on temporary duty in Vietnam the previous October and since his arrival in early January, Merchant was thoroughly familiar with SHUFLY’s operations.

Command of the MABS-16 sub unit changed hands two weeks later when Lieutenant Colonel Samuel G. Beal relieved Lieutenant Colonel Cassidy. Beal, also a veteran of World War II and Korea, came from the 4th Marines in Hawaii where he had served as that unit’s air liaison officer.

Lieutenant Colonel Ross’ HMM-361 ended its tour at Da Nang on 1 February. The squadron’s arrival in I Corps unfortunately had coincided with the arrival of the early monsoon rains. The unit’s flight statistics had suffered also from the interruption caused by the political infighting which had deposed President Diem. As a result, its operations never reached the sustained tempo which had characterized the records of the Marine helicopter squadrons previously assigned to SHUFLY. Lieutenant Colonel Ross’ UH-34Ds totalled 4,236 combat flight hours and just under 7,000 combat sorties--figures which, considering the conditions surrounding their accumulation, compared favorably with the number of combat flight hours (7,249) and sorties (11,900) averaged by the four previous UH-34D squadrons to serve in Vietnam.[11-6]

HMM-364, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John H. La Voy, a pilot who had flown his first combat helicopter missions during the Korean War, initiated support operations from Da Nang on 1 February. Under the existing plans to deactivate the Marine task element, La Voy’s squadron was scheduled to be the last Marine helicopter unit to operate in South Vietnam. As such, HMM-364’s pilots and maintenance crews were to launch the training program that would prepare the Vietnamese Air Force personnel to take over the Marine helicopters upon the task element’s departure from Da Nang.

On 4 February the first class of eight Vietnamese pilots began a 50-hour package of flight instruction under the supervision of Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s pilots. Included in the course of instruction were operational missions, night and instrument flying, formation work, and landing practice. Each student was already a qualified copilot with at least 25 flight hours in VNAF UH-34s--a factor which allowed the training to be conducted concurrently with normal operations. This was accomplished by having the Vietnamese trainees fly as copilots with a Marine pilot on operational flights. In addition to being an effective training method this system had two other advantages. First, it enabled the Vietnamese students to acquire a first-hand knowledge of the helicopter tactics most commonly used in the northern provinces. Secondly, it allowed Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s squadron to concentrate on its primary mission of providing combat support for the ground forces in I Corps.

Another vital aspect of the training program involved preparing Vietnamese ground personnel to keep the squadron operational. This demanded extensive training of mechanics, crew chiefs, engineering, supply, operations, and ordnance personnel. “This additional duty,” Lieutenant Colonel La Voy explained, “was a tremendous burden on all departments of my squadron, whose primary job was to keep aircraft in commission and to conduct combat operations.” The language barrier understandably threatened the success of the overall training effort. In La Voy’s opinion, however, “the eagerness of the students to learn and the wealth of practical experience and varied demonstrations” combined to help reduce problems imposed by the language difference.[11-7]

The progress of the program proved the concepts sound. The first small group of student pilots was graduated on 9 March despite numerous flight cancellations due to bad weather during the training period. Subsequent classes of VNAF pilots continued to train with the Marine helicopter task element throughout 1964. Eventually, a more advanced training program would have the Vietnamese pilots flying sections of two and four helicopters as integral elements of larger Marine helicopter operations.

Although heavy monsoon clouds lingered over I Corps throughout most of the month of March, brief periods of good weather sometimes allowed heliborne incursions into the mountainous areas. One such period began on the 5th and lasted long enough for Marine, Army, and VNAF helicopters to lift a 54-man ARVN patrol from An Diem to a landing zone near the Laotian border. During the operation one escorting U.S. Army UH-1B gunship accidentally struck a tree and was forced to land in a nearby jungle clearing. Two Marine helicopters quickly rescued the crew and weapons of the downed UH-1B, but drew automatic weapons fire in the process. That afternoon 15 Marine helicopters and two armed UH-1Bs returned to the crash site with 64 ARVN troops who established a perimeter around the damaged helicopter after being landed. A maintenance team then landed and repaired the aircraft which subsequently was flown back to Da Nang.

Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s crews undertook to correct several problems which they identified during these initial combat operations. One was the need for machine gun fire to protect the port (left) side of the transport helicopters as they approached contested landing zones. To fill this requirement the squadron’s metalsmiths designed and fabricated a flexible mount for an additional M-60 machine gun. This new mount was designed to allow the machine gun to be swung out a portside window from the cabin. Placed on each of HMM-364’s 24 helicopters, this modification ultimately added a gunner to each crew and enabled the Marines to deliver fire to either or both sides of the aircraft during the critical landing phase of helilifts.[11-8]

La Voy personally instituted another change which made the coordination of trooplifts more effective. Prior to HMM-364’s arrival in Vietnam, different Marines had served as loadmasters for each heliborne operation. While this system of rotating the loadmaster assignment had stood the test of numerous operations since its inception in late 1962, La Voy believed that it could be improved. Accordingly, he assigned one pilot and two crew chiefs permanent additional responsibilities as loadmasters. Thereafter, this three-man team was responsible for coordinating loading and unloading activities at pickup points and landing zones for all troop lifts. Thus, through a relatively minor adjustment, the Marines helped insure the closer coordination of their helicopter operations with ARVN ground forces.[11-9]

In early March hostile incidents around the Da Nang air base increased dramatically. The incidents usually took the form of sniper fire from the village situated just across the perimeter fence from the living compound. The primary target of the enemy snipers seemed to be the task element’s electrical generators whose high noise level prevented sentries from determining the firing position. Tensions heightened on the night of the 15th when a terrorist hurled a gasoline-filled bottle into the doorway of the staff noncommissioned officers quarters. The crude bomb fortunately failed to ignite. Several days later, however, a Marine in the compound was wounded by sniper fire from beyond the perimeter wire.

These latest incidents led Colonel Merchant to request that the security platoon from the 3d Marine Division be redeployed to help protect the base camp and flight line. This request was approved by ComUSMACV and CGFMFPac without delay. On 24 March a 53-man platoon from the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines arrived at Da Nang on a Marine KC-130 and assumed responsibility for security around the Marine compound and flight line. Attached to the MABS-16 sub unit, the infantry platoon freed Colonel Merchant’s aviation personnel to devote full time to their primary mission--providing helicopter support to I Corps. Like its predecessor which had been withdrawn only three months earlier, the new infantry unit would assist with rescue operations in insecure areas and on occasion would be called upon to provide security around TAFDS bladders during helicopter operations in more remote areas.

[Illustration: _South Vietnamese troops unload ammunition from a UH-34D while a Marine loadmaster, braced against wheel and wheel strut, exchanges information with the Leatherneck pilot. (USMC Photo A329570)._]

The same day that the platoon from the 3d Marine Division arrived at Da Nang, a task element Marine was involved in an act of heroism which later earned him the Bronze Star Medal. While escorting Marine helicopters on a resupply mission about five miles west-northwest of Tam Ky, a U.S. Army UH-1B gunship from Da Nang was hit by Viet Cong fire and crashed in flames. Marine Lance Corporal Walter L. Rupp, a volunteer machine gunner on board the Army gunship, acted rapidly to help secure the area despite having suffered injuries in the crash. Manning an M-60 machine gun, Rupp delivered fire on the approaching enemy while the pilot, copilot, and three other passengers were pulled from the wreckage. All six American personnel, including the injured Marine, were evacuated safely to Da Nang, and then flown to the U.S. Army Field Hospital at Nha Trang for more extensive medical attention.

_The Weather Breaks_

Much of I Corps began experiencing improved weather conditions during the first days of April. Relying on helicopter support, the ARVN resumed its offensives into the rugged mountainous regions. On the 6th a combined Allied helicopter flight lifted 42 ARVN soldiers from Tam Ky to a landing zone about 18 miles directly west of Quang Ngai. An Army UH-1B was shot down by Communist fire during the operation. Shortly after the crash, one of HMM-364’s helicopters landed to rescue the crew and strip the weapons from the downed aircraft. Marine mechanics then helped Army aviation technicians disassemble the UH-1B whereupon it was suspended beneath an Army UH-37 (a twin-engine, piston-powered, heavy helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky) in a specially designed sling and helilifted back to Da Nang for repairs.

Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s squadron suffered its first combat aircraft loss on 14 April. The incident occurred after one of HMM-364’s helicopters was hit in the engine by Viet Cong fire while attempting to evacuate wounded Vietnamese infantrymen from a hillside landing zone about 40 miles west of Da Nang near the Laotian border. Struck while taking off, the UH-34D plunged 150 feet down the steep hillside and crashed through the jungle into a stream bed. One Marine manning an M-60 machine gun suffered a broken leg in the crash. The other crew members and passengers, however, were able to carry him up the hill to the ARVN landing zone. Heavy thunder showers prevented rescue for two hours, but the weather finally broke and the men were helilifted to Da Nang. The aircraft was destroyed the next day.

Four days after this incident, HMM-364 committed all available aircraft to a battalion-size heliborne assault into rugged northwestern Thua Thien Province. The ARVN’s objective was a mountainous area on the northern rim of the A Shau Valley, a 30-mile-long, two-mile-wide trough whose location adjacent to the Laotian border invited Communist infiltration. Although enemy activity would eventually force the government to abandon its string of outposts in the valley, the issue of control of the area was still unresolved in early 1964.

Colonel Merchant, as commander of the Aviation Headquarters Operations Center for I Corps, assigned 20 Marine UH-34Ds, four VNAF UH-34s, five U.S. Army UH-1B gunships, and three Marine O-1Bs to the operation which the ARVN code named LAM SON 115. Additionally, 14 VNAF T-28s, four A-1H Skyraiders, and two observation aircraft were assigned by the Joint General Staff to provide support for the helicopter assault. The operation was to be controlled by Colonel Merchant as the Tactical Air Commander Airborne (TACA) from a U.S. Air Force U-10, whose radios would permit the commander and his staff to communicate with every aircraft participating in the effort. (The Marine helicopters had UHF and VHF communications, while the Marine observation aircraft used UHF and FM. The Army UH-1Bs had UHF; the VNAF transport helicopters also relied upon UHF radios.)

In addition to Merchant, the airborne control staff from the ASOC included Lieutenant Colonel William Montgomery, USAF, and a Vietnamese officer. The Vietnamese representative was to assist in clearing close air strikes with ARVN ground forces and also was to help resolve any language problems which developed.

The one-day operation began early on 18 April with Marine and VNAF transport helicopters lifting 200 South Vietnamese soldiers from an outpost in the northwestern portion of the A Shau Valley into a rugged landing zone approximately six miles further north. Later the same morning 300 more Vietnamese troops were helilifted from a government outpost in the central portion of the valley to a second landing zone situated six miles north of the 200-man unit which had been flown in earlier. HMM-364’s helicopters averaged almost 8 hours per aircraft while flying 160 total hours in support of LAM SON 115. Only one Marine UH-34D and one VNAF helicopter were hit by enemy fire during the execution of the well-planned and efficiently coordinated operation. No aircraft were lost.

Often the daily support flights proved more hazardous then the large assault operations whose details were planned in advance. An incident that occurred on 21 April while a UH-34D was evacuating a wounded South Vietnamese soldier from the mountains 15 miles west of Tam Ky confirmed the dangers inherent in such daily operations. In an effort to lure the evacuation helicopter within range of their weapons, the Communists ignited a yellow smoke grenade in a clearing close by the actual landing zone. The pilot alertly identified the correct landing zone, thereby foiling the enemy ruse.

[Illustration:

MAJOR MARINE HELICOPTER OPERATIONS FIRST HALF 1964 ]

[Illustration: _HMM-364 loadmaster directs loaded UH-34D into a hilltop landing zone during operations in I Corps. (USMC Photo A329571)._]

Several days later, Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s Marines encountered an equally clever Viet Cong tactic while performing another evacuation mission, this time in support of a U.S. Special Forces patrol 20 miles west of Thuong Duc. Army UH-1B gunships made several low-level reconnaissance passes over the pickup site while the UH-34D pilot prepared to hoist the casualties through the dense jungle. When the gunship crews reported no enemy activity, the Marine pilot maneuvered his aircraft into a hovering position above the invisible patrol. At this juncture, well-concealed Viet Cong began firing automatic weapons at the hovering helicopter and forced it to seek safety away from the pickup area. The escorting gunships then wheeled in from above, returning the Viet Cong’s fire with rockets and machine guns. The enemy promptly ceased firing, whereupon the Marine helicopter again maneuvered into position above the patrol. Again the enemy challenged the aircraft with fire, this time striking it in the rear portion of the fuselage. Although no serious damage was done, the evacuation helicopter was again forced away from the patrol’s position.

The UH-1Bs once more placed suppressive fire on the enemy position, finally allowing a second Marine helicopter to hoist the wounded man through the trees. A new burst of enemy fire, however, interrupted a subsequent effort to retrieve the body of a dead patrol member. An HMM-364 helicopter returned to the area the following day and completed the evacuation.

Although neither resulted in U.S. or VNAF aircraft losses, the incidents of 21 and 24 April confirmed that the Viet Cong was devising new methods with which to counter the Allies’ helicopters. His use of false smoke signals and his persistent refusal to compromise his position by firing on the faster, more heavily armed U.S. gunships represented crude but effective additions to his expanding repertoire of counter-helicopter tactics. Although unappreciated by the Leatherneck crews, the enemy’s most recent flurry of actions had no lasting effect on the overall pattern of helicopter operations.

_Sure Wind 202_

In late April Colonel Merchant’s Marines joined with VNAF and U.S. Army elements to launch what would be the costliest and most viciously opposed heliborne assault attempted in South Vietnam during the 1962–1965 period. On the 26th, Merchant, Lieutenant Colonel La Voy, and Lieutenant Colonel George Brigham, the task element operations officer, flew to Quang Ngai and Pleiku to participate in the final stages of planning for a multi-battalion heliborne offensive into the Do Xa area, the mountainous Viet Cong stronghold located along the northern border of II Corps. At Quang Ngai officials from the II Corps headquarters had already completed the general plans for Operation SURE WIND 202 (Vietnamese code name: QUYET THANG 202), the size of which demanded the use of all transport helicopters available in both I and II Corps. The Marine representatives learned that HMM-364’s role in the upcoming operation would be to helilift a 420-man South Vietnamese battalion from the Quang Ngai airfield to Landing Zone BRAVO, an objective located about 30 miles due west of the pickup point. Simultaneous with this assault, a U.S. Army helicopter company based at Pleiku was scheduled to transport two ARVN battalions (960 troops) from Gi Lang, an outpost located 24 miles west-southwest of Quang Ngai, to a second landing zone about eight miles west-southwest of Landing Zone BRAVO. The operation was to begin on the morning of 27 April, with the first assault waves scheduled to land at 0930.

Due to the distance between the mountainous landing zones and because two different helicopter units would be conducting the respective trooplifts, the operation plan treated the two assaults as separate operations. A U.S. Air Force U-10 aircraft had been assigned to carry Colonel Merchant, the TACA, and other ASOC representatives who would coordinate the helilift into Landing Zone BRAVO. Twenty Vietnamese A-1H Skyraiders had been assigned to provide tactical air support for the Marine portion of the operation. Twelve of these attack aircraft were scheduled to conduct preparatory strikes on and around the landing zones, four were to orbit above the area after the helicopter landing began, and the remaining four were to be positioned on airstrip alert at Da Nang. Five Army UH-1B gunships were assigned to escort the Marine UH-34Ds to and from the landing zone.

The preparatory air strikes around Landing Zone BRAVO began as the first ARVN heliteams boarded the 19 Marine and two VNAF helicopters at Quang Ngai. Following the VNAF’s air strikes, the escorting Army gunships swept in for a prelanding reconnaissance of the zone. They were met by fire from Viet Cong .50 and .30 caliber machine guns. The gunships countered with repeated rocket and machine gun attacks on those enemy positions that could be located but were unable to silence the Communist weapons. Meanwhile, the loaded Marine and VNAF helicopters cleared Quang Ngai and were closing on the objective. After the UH-1Bs expended their entire ordnance load and most of their fuel in attempts to neutralize enemy fire, Colonel Merchant ordered all helicopters, transports and gunships alike, back to Quang Ngai to rearm and refuel.

With the transports and gunships enroute to Quang Ngai, the ASOC summoned the on-call VNAF A-1Hs to attack the Viet Cong positions. During ensuing strikes one Skyraider was damaged severely by .50 caliber machine gun fire. The Vietnamese pilot turned his smoking aircraft eastward in an unsuccessful effort to nurse it to the Quang Ngai airstrip. The attack bomber crashed less than one mile from the west end of the small airstrip.

The A-1H air strikes on and around Landing Zone BRAVO continued until 1225. Shortly after the strikes ceased Colonel Merchant ordered the first wave of transport helicopters to land the ARVN assault force. Escorting UH-1Bs were still drawing fire as the first flight of three UH-34Ds approached the contested landing zone. This time, however, the Marine and VNAF pilots were not deterred. The first UH-34Ds touched down at 1230 with their machine gunners pouring streams of orange tracers into the surrounding jungle. Despite the high volume of suppressive fire, several helicopters in the first wave sustained hits from Viet Cong automatic weapons. One, damaged critically, crashed in the landing zone. Its crew members, all of whom escaped injury, were picked up by another Marine helicopter, piloted by Major John R. Braddon, which had been designated as the search and rescue aircraft for the operation. Another UH-34D with battle damage proceeded to the outpost from which the Army helicopter missions were originating and made an emergency landing.

[Illustration: _A formation of Marine UH-34Ds lift South Vietnamese troops into mountains southwest of Da Nang. (USMC Photo A329574)._]

The second assault wave was delayed while VNAF Skyraiders renewed their efforts to dislodge the enemy from his positions around the embattled landing zone. The helilift resumed at 1355 in the face of reduced but stubborn Communist resistance. During this phase of the troop lift, one VNAF and several Marine helicopters were hit by enemy .50 caliber fire. The Vietnamese aircraft, which lost its tail rotor controls, spun sharply while trying to take off and crashed near the center of the zone. Its crew members escaped injury and were picked up by Major Braddon’s rescue helicopter.[11-B]

[11-B] For his role in the two successful rescue attempts, Braddon was awarded the Silver Star Medal.

After this incident, as the South Vietnamese soldiers began fanning out from the landing zone and forcing the Communist gunners to withdraw deeper into the jungle, the landing proceeded somewhat faster. The fourth and final assault lift of the day was executed at 1730, after which 357 of the 420 ARVN troops had been transported into Landing Zone BRAVO. During the first day of the operation, 15 of the 19 participating Marine UH-34Ds were hit. Only 11 Marine and VNAF helicopters originally assigned to support the operation remained airworthy.

[Illustration: _At the loadmaster’s direction, a Marine UH-34D waits in a crude landing zone as an unidentified U.S. advisor and two Vietnamese soldiers unload supplies. Other ARVN troops provide security. (USMC Photo A329572)._]

The heliborne assault portion of SURE WIND 202 was completed the next morning. Fourteen UH-34Ds from HMM-364, several of which had been repaired during the night, and four Army UH-1Bs lifted the remainder of the South Vietnamese battalion into the landing zone. By then the intensity of the enemy action in the surrounding hills had diminished greatly. Only one Marine helicopter was hit and it suffered only minor damage. Upon finishing their tasks, HMM-364’s aircraft proceeded to Gi Lang, the outpost from which the Army helicopter company was operating, to help it complete its portion of the assault lift.

Aircraft losses for the operation continued to accumulate on the second day when a Marine UH-34D was caught in the rotor wash of other landing helicopters and crashed while approaching the runway at Quang Ngai. The aircraft plummeted into an irrigation canal adjacent to the airstrip, rolled over onto its side, and completely submerged. The crewmen managed to climb to safety but the helicopter was a total loss.

On 29 April, three UH-34Ds flew a maintenance-inspection team and a Marine security squad from Da Nang into Landing Zone BRAVO to assess the damage suffered by the two helicopters which had been shot down on the first day of SURE WIND 202. The inspection team found that four bullets had struck the Marine aircraft. The VNAF aircraft, on the other hand, was riddled by nearly 30 bullets, including a .50 caliber round that had severed the tail rotor control cable. The inspection team concluded that both helicopters were damaged beyond repair and proceeded to destroy them where they had fallen.

Originally, MACV and II Corps planners had anticipated that the Marine helicopters would not be required to support SURE WIND 202 beyond the initial assault. It soon became apparent, however, that the daily helicopter requirements for the operation would exceed the aviation assets available in II Corps. The American command in Saigon, therefore, directed Colonel Merchant’s task element to continue providing support for the duration of the offensive. Accordingly, the task element commander assigned a liaison officer to the 2d ARVN Division headquarters. This officer was tasked with coordinating daily aircraft requirements. When SURE WIND 202 finally ended on 25 May, HMM-364’s crews had contributed 983 sorties and 800 flight hours to the South Vietnamese effort in northwestern II Corps.[11-10]

_Operations Elsewhere in I Corps_

While some of HMM-364’s crews continued flying support missions from Quang Ngai, others conducted a critical operation in western I Corps. The mission, which already had been delayed five days because of the Marines’ extensive commitment during the early stages of SURE WIND 202, was executed on 30 April. It involved 17 Marine UH-34Ds, four Army UH-1Bs (two transports and two gunships), two Marine O-1Bs, two VNAF Skyraiders, and one South Vietnamese observation aircraft. Their assignment was to evacuate a 78-man ARVN patrol which had been under frequent enemy fire for six days in the rugged jungle about 42 miles west of Da Nang. The transport helicopters encountered almost continuous small arms fire during the landing and subsequent evacuation. One Marine helicopter carrying a crew of four Marines and five ARVN passengers was shot down while climbing away from the contested landing zone. The pilot made a forced landing in a nearby clearing and the nine men were evacuated under fire by other UH-34Ds. Despite the hazardous nature of the mission, the entire South Vietnamese patrol was removed to the safety of Nam Dong, a well-defended Special Forces camp located in a valley 34 miles west of Da Nang.

Acts of heroism were commonplace during the 30 April evacuation. One Marine copilot assumed control of his severely damaged helicopter and flew it to Nam Dong after the pilot and crew chief had been wounded. Staff Sergeant John C. Thompson, who served as one of the loadmasters for the operation, was later awarded the Navy Cross for his role in the action. Having arrived in the landing zone aboard the first transport helicopter, the Marine noncommissioned officer exposed himself to Viet Cong fire almost continuously while supervising the loading of each aircraft. After the last five South Vietnamese troops had boarded the final helicopter, Thompson shouted to its pilot that he would remain on the ground to provide covering fire while the aircraft took off. But the pilot ordered Staff Sergeant Thompson on board and then succeeded in maneuvering the heavily loaded UH-34D out of the empty landing zone.

By late May it had become apparent to U.S. military authorities in South Vietnam that the demand for American transport helicopters in I Corps would continue beyond the 30 June date which had been set earlier for SHUFLY’s departure. General Westmoreland, therefore, proposed to the Commander in Chief, Pacific, that the Marine unit be retained at Da Nang indefinitely. He further recommended that HMM-364 turn over its helicopters and maintenance equipment to the Vietnamese Air Force on 30 June as scheduled, and that the unit be replaced by another Marine UH-34D squadron. These recommendations were forwarded to the Joint Chiefs of Staff who approved them on 10 June. In response, the Marine Corps began immediate preparations to deploy a new, fully equipped, medium helicopter squadron to Da Nang.

HMM-364 began its final month in Vietnam by supporting another heliborne assault into II Corps. This time the Marines teamed with the U.S. Army’s 52d Aviation Battalion to lift an ARVN battalion from Dak To, a town situated in western Kontum Province, to an objective in the Do Xa base area. To support the operation, which was code named SURE WIND 303, Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s crews positioned a TAFDS fuel bladder at the Dak To airstrip on 1 June. Two days later, 15 Marine UH-34Ds contributed 180 sorties to the assault phase of the new government operation. No battle damage was recorded by Marine aircraft during this latest incursion into northern II Corps.

The Marine task element’s responsibilities were expanded slightly in the first week of June when MACV directed Colonel Merchant to provide search and rescue (SAR) support for U.S. aerial reconnaissance operations which had begun over Laos and North Vietnam. After 7 June at least two UH-34Ds (one section) were positioned together either at Quang Tri or at Khe Sanh, ready to conduct SAR missions for downed American and VNAF pilots. While based at Khe Sanh the helicopters were also used to support Advisory Team One on Tiger Tooth Mountain. At Quang Tri the SAR helicopters operated from a clearing adjacent to a local soccer field. Years later, Marine pilots who had stood the SAR duty there would recall the incongruous sight of small Vietnamese boys playfully pursuing their soccer games alongside parked combat aircraft and a TAFDS bladder.

In addition to normal support operations, HMM-364’s pilots devoted much of the second week of June to a search for Privates First Class Fred T. Schrenkengost and Robert L. Greer, two MABS-16 Marines who had disappeared from the Da Nang compound on 7 June. Intelligence reports indicated that both men had been captured by Communist guerrillas about five miles south of the airfield while sight-seeing on rented motor bikes. The aerial search produced no signs of the missing enlisted men but reliable Vietnamese sources reported that the Viet Cong had displayed them in several villages. The task element commander finally called off the fruitless search on 15 June, a full week after it had begun. Ground efforts by the South Vietnamese to locate the men continued but were also futile. The two Marines were never found.[11-C]

[11-C] The status of PFC Fred T. Schrenkengost was changed from missing in action to killed in action, body not recovered, on 23 July 1974. The status of PFC Robert L. Greer was likewise changed on 14 November 1975.

While the aerial search south of Da Nang was in its final stages, HMM-364 suffered its last aircraft loss in Vietnam when a helicopter crashed while carrying supplies from Khe Sanh to Major Gray’s Advisory Team One on Tiger Tooth Mountain. The accident occurred on 13 June when a UH-34D was caught in severe down drafts while attempting to land in the small landing zone near the top of the jagged 5,000-foot-high peak. The crew and passengers luckily escaped injury and were rescued but the aircraft was damaged too extensively to be repaired. Marines stripped the UH-34D of radios and machine guns and then burned the hulk.

_Changing the Watch_

On 16 June, three days after the crash on Tiger Tooth Mountain, Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s unit ceased its operations and began preparations for turning over its helicopters and equipment to the Vietnamese Air Force. The Marines spent three days removing the automatic stabilization equipment (the helicopter’s equivalent of an automatic pilot) and the USMC identification from the 24 UH-34Ds. While HMM-364’s men accomplished the necessary last-minute preparations, pilots from a new Marine medium helicopter squadron, HMM-162, began flying their UH-34Ds ashore from the LPH-8, USS _Valley Forge_. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver W. Curtis, an Oklahoman who held four Distinguished Flying Crosses for air actions fought during World War II and Korea, HMM-162 was the first Marine squadron since Lieutenant Colonel Clapp’s to deploy to Vietnam with its complement of aircraft and maintenance equipment. With HMM-162’s arrival, elements of Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s unit began departing for Okinawa on board refueler-transport aircraft from VMGR-152. Also on board one of the KC-130s bound for Okinawa was Lieutenant Colonel Beal, who relinquished command of the MABS-16 sub unit to Major Marion R. Green on the last day of June.

The newly commissioned VNAF 217th Squadron informally accepted the aircraft from HMM-364 on 19 June. Formal acceptance occurred 10 days later with Major General Paul J. Fontana, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, attending a ceremony presided over by the I Corps commanding general. Following the exchange of equipment, the Vietnamese officials presented various orders of the Cross of Valor, their nation’s second highest decoration, to Marine pilots who had distinguished themselves during Operation SURE WIND 202. Vice Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky, commanding general of the Vietnamese Air Force, then presented Vietnamese pilot wings to Colonel Merchant, Lieutenant Colonel La Voy, and to each Marine instructor-pilot who had participated in the helicopter pilot training program. HMM-364’s tour in South Vietnam ended officially on 30 June when the last of its members boarded KC-130’s bound for Okinawa. Since initiating combat flight operations in February, the squadron’s helicopters had logged 2,665 combat sorties and 2,365 combat hours. Another statistic underscored the intensity of the actions in which the unit had participated. Well over half of the squadron’s 24 helicopters had been damaged by enemy fire during its five-month deployment in Vietnam.[11-11]