THE WIRE STRIKE CRASH OF
1967
The true account of
a Robin Hood Crash
by the crewchief Doug Ward
On the morning of June 3rd 1967, we were flying an "ash and
trash" mission, heading down to Long Binh, to pick up some passengers and
fly them around the 1st Div. AO.
My AC was 1st Lt. Jack Cornett, my peter pilot was WO1 Allen
Newman, my gunner (his 1st day) was Edmund Exum, and I was crew
chief. We picked up our pacs, 2 Lt. Colonels, 2 Majors, a CSM, an E-8, from 1st
Div. Engineers, and a Pfc. From Div. PIO. We were to fly them around to several
Engineer bases and projects for the rest of the day.
We flew to 3or 4 places, then at about 10:00 a.m., after topping off with
fuel, we were low leveling back to Long Binh. We approached a village, in a tree
line, and Mr. Newman had the controls ( he was flying right seat that day). As
we popped up over the tree line, I was watching the village for ground fire.
While we cleared the tree line, I looked forward and saw the power lines. I
yelled into my mike, " look out, power lines". I think Lt. Cornett
yelled about the same time.
Mr. Newman tried to fly over them, but we snagged the top cable with our
skids about dead center between the 2 towers. We had been flying about 90 knots.
I watched as the power cable stretched and then broke at the tower on the right.
( I was in the right gun well) The cable came whipping back into the ship, got
into our main rotor, and punctured the fuel cell, just aft of the gun well. That’s
when we caught fire. I remember the fire curling around the edge of my gun well.
We went into a nose up attitude, almost nosing over backwards, and fell out of
the sky. We hit tail boom first, then slammed down on the left side, and rolled
partially upside down. There were flames everywhere.
I was hanging upside down from my chicken strap. I popped the latch and
landed on my back, outside the aircraft. I stood up and unlatched the seatbelt
that was holding the Pfc. I dragged him a short distance away, then went back to
the ship and saw a passenger in the flames. I grabbed him and dragged him out. I
then saw Lt. Cornett’s door come off and as he unlatched his harness, I
dragged him out. As we turned away - the aircraft exploded. We dragged the
sergeant and the Pfc. farther away from the fire. We then ran around to
the front of the aircraft to get Mr. Newman. There was nothing but fire; only
fire!
We went back to where we left the Sergeant and the Pfc. The Sergeant seemed
to be pretty much ok, but the Pfc. was badly injured. A flight of gun ships had
seen the smoke and we had gun cover right away. (Gunslinger gun ships, out of
Phu Loi) One of the gunships made firing pass with his flex guns between us and
the village. The gun pilot told Lt. Cornett that there were people coming out of
the village towards us. The gun run stopped them. One of the gun ships landed
and we carried the Pfc. out to the ship. They said they could take only two of
us, so we gave them the Pfc. and the Sgt. The only weapon we had was Lt.
Cornett's .38, so I asked the crew chief for his M-60. He said no way, and gave
me an M-14 , one magazine, and a box of ammo.
We ran back to a clump of bushes and small trees, and set up there. It was
pretty close to the burning ship and ammo was cooking off everywhere. It was the
only cover near us, so we just stayed down and tried to watch all around, as
best we could. Lt. Cornett was continuously on the radio with the gun ships and
as they had to leave to refuel, another team would come on station. We were on
the ground from somewhere around 10 or 11:00 until around 7 or 8 that night.
They came after us with about 2 or 3 "Hook" loads of 1st
Div. Grunts. And a slick from our unit carried us back to Lai Khe.
I ended up being awarded a Soldiers Medal for pulling two pacs and my AC out,
but I lost my Pilot and Gunner. You never forget that, ever. Daily since then I
have remembered the crash and the crew members that were lost.
As far as I have been able to find out, in addition to Mr. Newman and my
gunner, Eddie Exum, the passengers who died were as follows
Ltc. Joseph Kieran
Ltc.Rodney Smith
Maj. Millard Treadwell
Maj. Lowell Morgan
Sgt. Maj. Terry Rimes
I think about the crash almost every night, mostly through nightmares and
remember the fire and the smell.
I don’t think it will ever go away.
Doug Ward
173rd AHC
Crewchief/Gunner
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