Prologue

Early April 1969, Operation Oklahoma Hills had begun in the jungle mountains west of DaNang RVN.  These mountains rose from near sea level southwest of DaNang and extended in a large arc toward the north and northeast until they reached the South China Sea north of DaNang.  Charlie Ridge was the southern most ridge of the mountains.  Average elevations of the ridges and peaks extended above 3,000 feet with Hill 1235 being more than 4,050 feet.  East of Charlie Ridge the terrain from DaNang to Hill 55 and on to AnHoa was low and flat farm land.  It was covered with small clusters of framer's huts, rice fields, tree lines, dikes and ditches.  The farmers used animal power to work the fields so there was a large number of small farms.  Even though there was no electric power in the area, at night there was always some light around the small villages.  This allowed for very good ground reference when flying above 1,000 feet.  The highest elevation in that area was Hill 55 (55 meters above sea level).

Medical Evacuation Mission

The night of 8 April, 1969 Lt. Gene Barnes was section leader for the night medevac mission, I was his wingman, Lt. Jerry W. Soukup was my co-pilot, and LCpl. Cecil A. Collier, Jr. was our crew chief.  We launched just after 1900 hours to pick up medevacs on Charlie Ridge.  We flew to the vicinity of Hill 55 and joined up with the gun ships.  They had made radio contact with I/3/7 (India Company, Third Battalion, 7th Marines), but had not been able to locate the medevacs position., which was on the north edge of the crest of Charlie Ridge at an elevation of approximately 3,000 feet.  The sky was overcast above 1,500 to 2,000 feet MSL throughout the area with some broken layers below 1,500 in rain showers.  The visibility was very good below these layers.  At the gun ship commanders request, India was firing pop-up flares, but the flares were not visible to us.  As we orbited, hoping the gun ships could locate the medevac zone, Lt. Barnes' UHF radio failed and his transmissions were becoming very weak.  He passed the lead to us and we continued to orbit, keeping the gun ships in sight.  At about 2000 hours we spotted a flare about 10 miles to our west.  It illuminated the overcast in a burnt yellow color and silhouetted the terrain along the ravine that ran just north of Charlie Ridge.  I suggested that with the terrain and weather situation, it would be best to leave our wingman and the gun ships and proceed as a single aircraft -- everyone concurred.

With the gun ships and Lt. Barnes orbiting near DaNang, I turned up the ravine and requested that the zone be illuminated until we arrived.  There was a strong possibility that we could go IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) at any time so Lt. Soukup was monitoring the flight instruments.  We had a radar altimeter that gave us a reading of our altitude above the terrain up to 6,000 feet which was quite useful in this type of situation.  While inbound to the zone, we received a zone brief.  They were calling the zone 40 feet wide (east to west) by 50 feet long (north to south) with a bomb crater on the north edge of the zone where the terrain dropped off sharply into the ravine.  Trees surrounded the zone on the east, south, and west sides.  The size of the zone was of concern to us because a CH-46D has a rotor diameter of 51 feet and is 84 feet from the aft tip of the aft rotor blade to the forward tip of the forward blade.  If they were accurate on the zone size, we would either have to hoist from a low hover, which is not a good way to bring critically injured aboard, or we might be able to make a rear wheel landing on the edge of the crater.  All the way to the zone we were just below the overcast and still below the zone elevation.  As we neared the zone, I slowed and climbed above the edge of the ravine.  We maneuvered east and south of the zone; I had to stay very near to the zone and just above the trees because the ridge of the zone extended up into the overcast.  They had expended their M-79 flares so the zone was being illuminated by a trip flare when we arrived.  With the light from the ground flare and our search light, it was easy to determine that the zone brief was accurate and we could not land in the zone.  The zone was very uneven with a ten degree down slope to the north.  It had been created by cutting down a few trees with C-4 around a bomb crater that was on the edge of the ravine.  It was littered with several logs and stumps, and was only 40-50 feet wide but because the ground dropped off sharply at the edge of the crater, trees beyond that point were not a factor.  The edge of the crater was the only possible landing site.  With the crew chief and gunner watching clearance for the aft blades, I turned on the hover light and started the approach.  I had no visual references after the crater passed under the nose of the aircraft.  LCpl. Collier served as "my eyes in the back of the aircraft", giving me directions which enabled me to land our rear wheels on the north outside edge of the crater.   With the front of the aircraft still flying, I held the nose 20 degrees up on the gyro and maintained near hover power.  This attitude caused the aircraft to try to back up which prevented us from slipping down the hill.  With the rear wheels on the ground Lt. Soukup lowered the ramp; seconds later it started to rain.  Because we had launched as the "chase" aircraft, we didn't have a corpsman aboard.  LCpl. Collier  took charge of loading the injured from the ramp.  Loading was very difficult because the injured had to be moved across the littered zone in near pitch darkness, then into the bomb crater in order to get on the ramp which extended over the edge of, and above the bottom of the crater.  All the time they were under constant threat of enemy fire.  With the down wash from our rear rotor and the rain, it would have been a challenge for a healthy Marine to cross the crater and get into the aircraft, and almost impossible to load an injured person without assistance from inside the aircraft.  With the assistance of LCpl. Collier standing on the ramp and the aft cabin lights on dim, the India Marines were able to complete the task in just over ten minutes.  During that time, LCpl. Collier remained in a very exposed and illuminated position on the ramp.

By the time the wounded were aboard, it had stopped raining but the zone was now covered in fog.  Visibility was about 100 feet.  I looked to the northeast where the lights of DaNang should have been - - it was pitch black.  There was no hope of leaving the zone under visual conditions so we lifted from the zone, making a climbing turn to the east trying to stay over the ravine until we reached 4,500 feet.  At that point we turned toward Hill 55.  When the altitude on the radar altimeter indicated that we had crossed Charlie Ridge, and out TACAN indicated we were over Hill 55, we descended to visual conditions and delivered the wounded to "C" Med., then returned to base at Marble Mountain.

Epilogue

Three days later (11 April 1969) Lt. Gene Barnes was lost with all his crew when they experienced blade failure in YK-16 while returning from a mission in support of "Operation Oklahoma Hills, Jerry Soukup, Cecil Collier and I are still living.

Although all members of the crew contributed significantly to the completion of the mission, I am unable to remember the gunners names.  I apologize for this omission.

Submitted by:
    Zebedee L. "Zeb" Rush, Major USMC(Ret)