Doc, I have had several e-mail conversations with both Susan and her Dad (tho' nothing recently). She said the Army basically said nothing regarding the crash, except that it was weather-related. I remember the whole thing well, as I was working not too far away at the time. They had picked up three guys from a couple of places and were taking them back to English: one for DEROS processing, and two for R&R. Going low level up (Northbound) the beach just past the mouth of the Bong Son river when they went thru a rain squall - and snagged one of those damn fishing nets the Viets used to hang up like volleyball nets to dry. The aircraft ended upside down and broken into two big pieces and several smaller - one of the blades was in four or five pieces. You have my permission to guess my opinion re: flying low level in a rain squall. Both pilots came to us in mid-April as we were pre-occupied with the siege at Dak Seang. They were flight school classmates and 119th roommates, and Wentzel had just been made an A/C, and O'Brien was to be made one pretty soon. I flew with and remembered the C/E, Richie, pretty well. I arrived at the crash site shortly after the bodies were all dusted off, and took a bunch of pictures. The crash investigator arrived while I was there and didn't have a camera, so he "took" my roll of film. He was supposed to return the photos I took prior to the crash, but he never did. At various times I flew with every one of those guys, and liked them all. What a waste.

Pickett