Description:
On November 8, 1967, Captain Gerald O. Young, a Jolly Green helicopter rescue pilot, flying a HH-3E with the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Da Nang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam, volunteered to fly escort for a night rescue mission in an attempt to recover a group of soldiers surrounded by enemy forces and in danger of being killed or captured. Because of severe and accurate hostile fire in the area, previous attempts to rescue the men had failed, and two helicopters had already been lost. Entering the area under cover of darkness, the rescue helicopters located the isolated team in a defensive position on the side of a steep slope. They elected to attempt the rescue with a tactic requiring the pilot to steady the craft by resting one wheel on the hill slope, holding the other two in the air in a semi-hovering attitude, and avoiding rotor contact with the ground. The lead helicopter attempted the initial rescue, picking up three men before sustaining severe damage by hostile automatic weapons fire and being forced to withdraw. Captain Young and his crew elected to attempt to pick up the remaining survivors. Captain Young was informed of the severe enemy fire and advised that the supporting helicopter gunships had found it impossible to suppress the concentrated enemy fire. They were now low on fuel and ammunition and might be force to withdraw at any moment. With the full knowledge of the odds against a night rescue in mountainous terrain, heavy automatic weapons fire being directed at him and the possibility his supporting firepower would be withdrawn, Captain Young and his crew elected to recover the survivors.
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