George,

I believe the LRRP team was from the 4th Infantry Division. This was on Nov.1, 1968. The A/C of the aircraft was Baby Huey aka Dave W. from Texas. The crewchief was Len Barker and the gunner Jeff Dana. I can't remember the peter-pilot's name. Both him and Dave were wounded. The action took place in the area north of FSB 29 and west of Ben Het. There was an exit ramp off the Ho Chi Minh trail there.

Dave had tried to get in there on the first pass and took heavy fire. He did a turn around and was able to land on the second try. They caught heavy automatic weapons and small arms fire during the entire extraction.

Once airborne he was able to gain enough altitude to get out of harm's way and was able to auto-rotate in the flat area near the road which ran between Dak To and Ben Het. Several ships landed. Besides Dave and the peter-pilot I think three of the LRRP team members were also wounded. God! I wish I could remember that pilot's name. He was a big guy with freckles and red hair. I think we were going to give him the call sign of Howdy but he wasn't there long enough to get it.

We need to get Dave on line to tell the story. If you go to the 119th web site and go to the air controllers link site there is a picture of Gator 519 sitting at Dak To.