That was the engine problem the service platoon leader told them to fly back to camp Holloway after it had several hot starts, a hang start and ran at high temp. He was supposed to go get it and fix it himself or fly it back himself. That was the standard army maintenance officer rule. He did neither. I got in a lot of hot water for posting limits on the instrument panel to " keep stupidity from killing anyone else". Officially the downing is listed as "downed by enemy fire" but you can bet your ass there was not a round fired at that helicopter when it went down. That guy got relieved as Service platoon leader and moved into another job. I was in the 545th and absolutely furious at him and had trouble with him for the rest of his tour. After Nam he was an LTC and we had another run in. I threatened to discuss his war record and that ended the discussion.
Had another ship gone to Dak To to replace the bad one I am sure they would not have died. At least not that day.
Thanks for putting up the truth Tom
^5 and Salute
Bob T