Information on U.S. Army helicopter UH-1B tail number 63-08557
Date: 06/10/1965
Incident number: 65061020.TXT Accident case number: 0C245 Total Loss Accident
Unit: 118 AML
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was LOSS TO INVENTORY
for Air/land Assault , Hot Area.
While on Landing Zone this helicopter was on the Ground at 0000 feet and 000 knots.
South Vietnam
Helicopter took 1 hits from:
Explosive Weapon; Non-Artillery launched or static weapons containing explosive charges. (MORTAR)
causing a Blast.
Systems damaged were: PERSONNEL
Casualties = 04 KIA . . Number killed in accident = 0 . . Injured = 0 . . Passengers = 0
The helicopter was parked. Aircraft Destroyed.
Both mission and flight capability were terminated.
Burned
costing 193648
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Army Aviation
Safety Center database. Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center Helicopter
database. Also: UH1P1, 01509, CRAFX, CASRP, STMNT, CALTR (Crash Facts Message. Casualty Report.
)
Loss to Inventory
Crew Members:
AC WO1 SAEGAERT DONALD RUSSELL BNR
P CPT HALL WALTER LOUIS BNR
CE SSG COMPA JOSEPH JAMES JR BNR
G SGT HAGEN CRAIG LOUIS BNR
Passengers and/or other participants:
SFC OWENS FRED MONROE, AR, PX, BNR
SSG CURLEE ROBERT LEE JR, AR, PX, BNR
REFNO Synopsis:
South Vietnam Walter L. Hall
Bruce G. Johnson
Fred M. Owen
Robert L. Curlee
Donald R. Saegaert
Joseph J. Compa, Jr.
Craig L. Hagen
(0096)
On June 19, 1965, those involved in this loss incident were on
board a UH-1B helicopter on a combat operation into a landing zone
six kilometers from the town of Dong Xoai, Phuoc Long Province.
Their helicopter was hit by ground fire and crashed. Captain
Johnson, an advisor to the South Vietnamese Army's 5th Infantry
Division, reported to another helicopter in the area that the
aircraft's crew and all others on board were dead and his position
was receiving incoming enemy mortar fire. There was no further
transmission from Captain Johnson after the end of the mortar fire.
A later search of the area failed to produce any sign of the seven
servicemen.
In late 1965, a Viet Cong produced film was captured which appeared
to depict a portion of the battle at Dong Xoai. The film appeared
to show the dead bodies of Sergeant First Class Owen and First
Lieutenant Hall. Information was later received from another
source that the seven U.S. were killed in this incident, four found
in the helicopter and three others at the airstrip. Intelligence
reports of unidentified U.S. POWs sightings several months before
this incident occurred were received later and were placed in the
file of these servicemen. One report associated with the capture
of an American at the battle of Binh Gia was placed in Captain
Johnson's file, but may have correlated to the capture of another
Captain several months earlier.
Captain Johnson was initially reported missing. Returning U.S.
POWs were unable to provide information about his precise fate or
the fate of the others. Captain Johnson was declared dead/body not
recovered in February 1978.
This record was last updated on 09/20/1998
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: The VHPA Webmaster Gary Roush.
KIA statistics
Return to the KIA panel date index
Date posted on this site: 09/07/2007
Copyright © 1998 - 2007 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association