|
Stars
and Stripes - May 3, 1972
Abandoned
to N. Viets QUANG TRI FALLS
"The Helicopter That Got Away"
DA NANG, Vietnam (AP) - North Vietnamese troops in Quang Tri tried to lure an
American rescue helicopter into a trap but were killed when the Americans
recognized the ruse.
The incident was one of the harrowing aspects of Monday's rescue operation
that pulled 80 Americans, 51 Vietnamese and a French photographer out of
the city just before it was abandoned to the North Vietnamese.
While none of the four big Air Force Jolly Green Giant helicopters was
damaged, two supporting aircraft were lost to ground fire and one pilot is
missing, officials said.
Otherwise the daring operation went off nearly as planned, although Air
Force rescuemen said there was a mad rush by refugees for the first
helicopter when it landed - possibly because they didn't realize there
would be more.
One of the rescue specialists, Sgt. Robert LaPointe, 22 Lynn, Mass., found
himself stranded on the ground as the first helicopter lifted out.
After 15 minutes the remaining persons on the ground were pretty well
organized and "we didn't have any more trouble loading them,"
LaPointe said." When the second helicopter landed, I was the first to
get on. I sure wasn't going to be left behind."
LaPointe and the other pararescueman, Sgt. David W. Young, 23, Clinton,
Iowa, said they drew less fire from North Vietnamese troops on the ground
than expected.
"It sure was the noisiest place I've ever been in, though,"
LaPointe said. "There were explosions going on all over the
place."
LaPointe said that as his helicopter came in two men in dirty, dark clothes
emerged from an alley and fired on the aircraft.
"I opened up with my minigun and got rid of them," he said.
"We didn't have any trouble on the ground."
While three of the big helicopters took part in the actual rescue, the
fourth, hovering as a reserve ship, received a radio call to fly down to
the rescue site.
The call was a fake by North Vietnamese troops using the American radio
frequency, an officer said. The message was, "Hey, we've got more
people down here."
The helicopter landed and a pararescueman jumped off to make a search. He
saw two enemy soldiers coming toward him, firing a machine gun. A gunner
aboard the chopper killed them, the pararescueman jumped aboard and the
helicopter pulled out.
"There are so many frequencies, and Charlie knows some of ours. We've
been sucked in before," an officer said. "We saw nothing
moving," said Young. "Quang Tri always looked desolate, but it's
really desolate now. There were a lot of shelled out houses and some
military equipment in the streets.
"It looks like maybe some of the South Vietnamese just left everything
behind, changed into civilian clothes and went south."
The first helicopter came out with 37 persons, the second with 45 and the
third with 50. There was one woman in the group, a Vietnamese nurse.
|