CAU SONG BE, Vietnam — It was 41 years before I realized Tom
Baca and Larry Liss had arrived ahead of me at Cau Song Be Special Forces Camp on
May 14, 1967.
Though Warrant Officer Tom Baca had broadcast a radio
message on the Guard emergency channel, asking for help from any helicopter
flying near the camp, I thought for decades my Huey had landed ahead of his.
When I made my approach to the Cau Song Be landing strip there was no other
aircraft in sight.
*****
Tom Baca
recalled he was flying an unarmed VIP Huey belonging to Lieutenant General Frederick
Weyand, who commanded II Field Force Vietnam — or IIFFV.
“Our mission was
transporting the IIFFV staff chaplain to several Special Forces facilities in
the III Corps Tactical Zone,” Tom said. “For the previous 90 days, Operation
Junction City, the largest operation of the Vietnam War to date, was ongoing. Coincidentally,
the operation was ending that night at midnight.”
The missions
that day were to be light duty. Tom, with only 12 days left on his combat tour,
was looking forward to returning home.
 |
| Warrant Officer Tom Baca in 1967 |
“I had reported
to the heliport at Long Binh at sunrise on May 14. I had already flown 6 hours
on various missions before taking off with the chaplain for the Bu Dop and Cau
Song Be Special Forces camps in the northern part of III Corps,” Tom said. “I
ended up flying 10 hours and 42 minutes that day.
“I was really in
the go-home mode. During my year in Vietnam I had my share of scary moments,
especially with the 118th Assault Helicopter Company. I figured I had had my
last dose of action and May 14th would be just another day to mark off the
short-timer’s calendar,” Tom recalled.
His copilot that
day was Larry Liss. “I flew with someone else during the morning missions and
Larry came on board for the chaplain mission. I had not met nor flown with him
until that day. First we went to the Bu Dop Special Forces Camp. We left there
for Cau Song Be around 2:30 or 3 p.m.,” Tom said.
“I remember
landing at Cau Song Be and getting out of the aircraft to go into the camp with
the chaplain. Very quickly, I was asked to do a medical evacuation of some
wounded about 8 miles from the camp. I was told there were no other aircraft
available. I went back to the aircraft with the location and frequencies for
the ground forces. Larry was ready to go and we took off,” Tom said.
“The landing
zone was extremely hazardous. Each side of the trail was covered with a 30-foot-high
bamboo forest that extended for several thousand meters on both sides of the
trail,” Tom said. “We flew to the location of the firefight using voice
directions from the advisor on the ground. Visual contact with the friendly
troops was not made, but the advisor said our aircraft was directly over their
position. We realized the only way to land was to ‘create’ a landing zone,
using the main rotor blades to cut through the bamboo,” he said. “Most critical
was the tail rotor, which would have to be centered on the narrow trail.
“We descended into the vegetation, inflicting damage on our Huey’s
main rotor blades. The landing zone was in an active firefight, with casualties
being shot near the aircraft. Some South Vietnamese Civilian Irregular Defense
Group — or CIDG — troops were being fired upon as they were approaching the
aircraft. All air and artillery support
had been withdrawn due to the close proximity of friendly and enemy forces,”
Tom recalled.
*****
 |
| Captain Larry Liss in 1967 |
Captain Larry Liss said he “was sitting on the
edge of the cargo bay of his helicopter on the Cau Song Be airstrip, waiting
for Tom and the chaplain, when a Special Forces noncom came up and told me what
was happening and asked if we could help.
“I said. ‘I think so’ and told him we’d talk to
Tom, who was coming back to the helicopter a few minutes later. I told Tom what
was up and said I would be willing to give it a shot,” Larry said. “I remember
Tom’s face changed. And why wouldn’t it, with only 12 days to go? But he said,
‘Yes.’”
Tom and Larry then flew to the ambush to evacuate
some of the wounded from the battle. On board their helicopter were Captain
Wallace “Wally” Johnson, the Cau Song Be Special Forces Camp commander, and camp
medic Jim Dopp.
“We flew that first sortie and were able to get
a handle on what was really happening and, by the time we got back to the
airfield, Jack came in,” Larry said.
*****
In
May 1967, Specialist 5 James “Jim” Dopp was the Special Forces A-333 team medic,
stationed at Cau Song Be.
“Typical
of most A teams in the area at that time, we usually had one or more
operations in the field,” Jim explained. “At the beginning of May, one of our
operations had
encountered an enemy force much larger than we had become accustomed to
engaging in this Area
of Operations. That field operation had two Special Forces soldiers, Master
Sergeant “Hoot” Gibson and Specialist 5 Dan Lawler. Both were severely wounded and Specialist
Lawler died several days later at the 93rd Medical Evacuation Hospital in
Saigon.
“A
new team sergeant arrived from the 10th Special Forces in Germany, Master
Sergeant Douglas Lloyd. Although new in country and new to the team, Master
Sergeant Doug Lloyd insisted on taking his turn on the next operation and was joined by the most experienced NCO
remaining on the team, Sergeant First Class Hughes,” Jim recalled. “They walked
into a large ambush. The survivors were regrouping and radioed for assistance.
“We
had limited resources and requested the B Team commander, Major Ronnie Mendoza, to get us air
support and, more specifically, helicopters to extract the team members and surviving CIDG. Major
Mendoza arrived at Cau Song Be and instructed me to gather emergency medical
supplies. I boarded his helicopter with two other team members, who carried weaponry and a fair
amount of ammunition to cover the extraction,” Jim said.
“The
vegetation in the area
was extremely dense, with short visibility and few remarkable features to make
it possible to identify
their location from the earlier reports they had sent. We began crisscrossing
the operations area
and someone on the ground popped smoke,” he said.
 |
| Cau Song Be from the air in 1967 |
“We
were over very thick vegetation not far from the Song Be River. Sometimes the VC would pop
smoke to draw in a helicopter
so they could down it with rocket-propelled grenades. Despite the potential
danger, Major Mendoza ordered his pilot to go in closer. What we found was one of the Special Forces
team members, Sergeant First Class Hughes, wounded and holed up with Vietnamese First
Lieutenant Au and a few CIDG.
“There
were no clear areas near these men where a helicopter could set down or even hover safely, so
we bundled some machetes
and threw them down so they could begin to cut some area clear. Then the major
started to tie a rope
around my waist, telling me he wanted me on the ground as quickly as possible to help Sergeant Hughes,”
Jim continued.
“The
helicopter began taking small arms fire. To keep me from being exposed too long, he asked
his pilot to move down as close as he could get. Then the rear rotor clipped a tree and the
helicopter started wobbling erratically. The pilot said he thought we were going down. He managed to
keep us in the air several minutes and got to what was an abandoned section of Highway
14. The pilot managed to set us down on the road,” Jim said.
“The
major was able to get an additional helicopter sent to pick us up and start the extraction of the
CIDG company which had been ambushed.
“Inasmuch
as one helicopter
had already been forced down, it took extreme courage for these pilots to
return to the area
with neither active air support nor a ground element to suppress anti-aircraft
fire. I flew back to
the area to show the crew where we had seen Sergeant Hughes,” Jim said, describing
the medical evacuation being flown by Tom and Larry.
“The
pilot found a small, extremely tight landing pad surrounded by high trees. I estimate 40-50
feet or more. We took out the first 6 CIDG to reach the helicopter. As we lifted off, intense
small-arms fire was directed at the helicopter. Some of the fire with green tracers appeared to me to
be from what I came to know as a wheel-mounted .51-caliber machine gun, a formidable
anti-aircraft weapon,” the Special Forces medic said.
He
said it was the most intense small-arms fire he encountered during his combat
tour.
“I
do not know if the
second helicopter landed where we had been or had set down in a different area,
but it came into the A camp a few minutes after we landed. Several of the CIDG
had been wounded and I took them to our field hospital to treat them, Jim said.
*****
Captain Wallace “Wally” Johnson, who commanded the Special
Forces A Team at Cau Song Be, said, “activity in camp was reasonably normal” during
the early afternoon of May 14.
Wally recalled being in the team house, visiting with the chaplain
about Lang Vei Special Forces Camp in I Corps to the north. The North Vietnam Army
recently had overrun the camp. One of Wally’s friends, Captain Bill Crenshaw,
and his executive officer had been killed in the attack.
The chaplain told Wally he had been at Lang Vei shortly
after the attack. “He said he was told the attack started within the camp,”
Wally said.
 |
| Wally Johnson after war |
“Within a few minutes of that conversation, all ‘heck’ broke
loose. Our guys had come under attack by an unknown North Vietnam Army and Viet
Cong unit about 4 kilometers from the camp. It was later determined to be a
regimental-size unit of between 600 and 700 enemy combatants,” Wally recalled.
“I’m not sure of the exact radio conversation with Gibson,
but I am clear he said Dan Lawler and Doug Lloyd had been hit and they were
still alive, informing me that the wounds looked pretty bad,” Wally said. “I
felt that we had little time to get them out of there and get medical attention
to Doug and Dan.
“I remember grabbing my weapon and web gear and heading
toward the one helicopter sitting on the field with Special Forces medic Jim
Dopp. I asked the pilots, Tom Baca and Larry Liss, to help with the medevac.
They immediately volunteered, even though I noticed their aircraft was an
unarmed, VIP aircraft. There was no hesitation
“At the ambush site, Gibson continued to adjust artillery
support. I think 8-inch howitzer support came from Quan Loi and airstrikes in
the target area were provided by A-1E aircraft,” Wally recalled. “The aircraft
had been dropping bombs and strafing the enemy area while the helicopter I was
in maneuvered around the incoming bombings. During the initial extraction, I
called off the artillery and airstrikes due to the closeness of the NVA to our
troops.
“The pilots — Tom Baca on the initial run — successfully
created a makeshift landing zone close to Gibson’s position by forcing the
helicopter down through the bamboo forest,” Wally said. “About 15 minutes prior
to that another helicopter had attempted a similar landing on the trail, but
damaged its tail rotor blade and had to withdraw to a safer position.”
He said Tom and Larry’s helicopter was able to extract 6
CIDG troops during the medical evacuation from the battlefield before returning
to Cau Song Be “to figure out how to get closer to Gibson and Lloyd and the
rest of the Civilian Irregulars, which numbered about 100.
“We arrived back at Cau Song Be (Chi Linh) and, as we
landed, we saw the paymaster’s helicopter, piloted by Jack Swickard, had also
landed on our airstrip.
“The pilots began coordinating how to extract the remaining
forces. I elected to stay back to coordinate what I knew would have to be the
total extraction of our entire unit,” Wally said.
*****
I remember a Special Forces major rushed to my helicopter as
soon as we landed at Cau Song Be and told me through the cockpit window he needed
help extracting a company of CIDG troops ambushed by a large force of North
Vietnamese soldiers. “I’ve called for an airstrike,” the major told me.
Tom landed behind me during my conversation with the major.
I wrote an FM radio frequency on a piece of paper and asked Lieutenant Al
Croteau to deliver it to the pilot of the Huey on the airstrip behind us. A
short time later, Tom Baca’s voice came over the radio.
 |
| WO1 Jack Swickard |
We took our flight maps, left our helicopters and held an
impromptu meeting with the major along the side of the runway. Because Tom and
Larry were flying an unarmed helicopter, it was decided I would take off first.
Tom and Larry would fly close formation on my Huey, which was armed with 2 M-60
machine guns.
During our meeting, the major showed us on the maps where
the CIDG soldiers and Special Forces advisors were fighting for their lives.
The ambush had been sprung along a narrow road linked to the Special Forces
camp. We estimated the fighting was a 10-minute flight from the camp. Fortunately,
Tom and I had refueled our helicopters before landing at Cau Song Be, so we
could stay on station for about 2.5 hours.
Our meeting completed, we returned to the helicopters. The
major boarded my Huey and sat in a seat behind me. I handed him a headset,
which he plugged into the radio and intercom system.
Our helicopters took off in trail formation and turned south,
crossing National Highway 14 and flying into War Zone D. There were trees as
far as I could see. As we flew along the narrow road running to the ambush, the
major described how the airstrike he had ordered would clear the area of enemy
so our helicopters could land and extract the allied troops.
We circled near the ambush site, waiting for the FAC — or
forward air controller — to arrive in an Air Force observation plane. The FAC
would direct the jets making the airstrikes.
The FAC arrived several minutes later and began circling
above the ambushed soldiers. Our Hueys were flying a circular pattern nearby
and about 500 feet above the FAC.
The Air Force pilot called the senior Special Forces NCO
with the CIDG troops and told him to “pop smoke.” Nine pillars of colored smoke
began rising from beneath the trees and surrounding brush. The FAC asked the
NCO the color of the smoke grenade he had thrown. “Green,” came the reply.
“I have 2 green smokes,” the FAC said. “Give me your
location.” A brief radio description followed.
“I can’t put in an airstrike,” the FAC told the advisor.
“You have enemy within 5 meters of you in all directions. If we put in an
airstrike, we’ll kill all of you.”
The mission appeared to be over. Our 2 helicopters flew back
to the Cau Song Be airstrip. The Special Forces major got out of my Huey and
walked to my window.
“I can’t ask you to go in without air cover, but I’d
appreciate whatever you can do,” the major told me.
“We’ll see what we can do,” I replied. Then I keyed the
intercom and said, “Al, you don’t have to go in with us, if you don’t want to.”
I knew we would be lucky to pull off an extraction without air cover. There was
a good chance we would be wounded or killed.
“I’m staying with you,” Al answered.
“Two gunships will accompany you,” the major said before we
headed back to our Hueys.
*****
Lieutenant Al Croteau said, “I remember the major talking to
Jack.”
“The way I remember it is when we landed, the major came
over to Jack and said, ‘We’ve got this problem,’ and Jack said to me, ‘Should
we go?’ And I said, ‘I got to go where you go.’”
*****
The 2 helicopters took off together a second time, heading
toward the ambush.
After takeoff, I looked to my left and saw the 2 UH-1C Huey
gunships keeping pace with us. Then we began descending. To gain surprise, we
flew as low as we could. For most of the flight in, the helicopters’ fuselage
was below the tops of the trees and directly over the narrow, dirt road leading
to the ambush.
 |
| WO1 Ken Dolan in 1967 |
If we had come in high, we would have had to descend above the
enemy soldiers. We knew we would be easy targets. If we flew in low, we figured
the enemy wouldn’t hear us until it was too late to get off a good shot. Moreover,
by flying in low, we would appear to be flying faster and be more difficult to
hit.
However, by flying low it was impossible to navigate. We
knew the CIDG troops were on the road ahead of us, but so was the enemy. Additionally,
we would have to begin decelerating in time to land in the midst of the
friendly troops. That would make us easy targets.
Warrant Officer Ken Dolan, flying as my copilot that day, kept his hands and feet near our Huey's controls in case something happened to me during the flight into the landing zone.
When I figured we were near the CIDG troops, I keyed my radio.
“When you hear us coming, throw a smoke grenade into the middle of the road,” I
told the Special Forces sergeant.
“Roger,” he replied.
About 60 seconds later I saw green smoke rising from the
middle of the road. “Tally-ho, green smoke,” I told the advisor over the radio
as I pulled up the nose of my helicopter to prepare to land. Tom and Larry were
flying closely behind us.
“Negative! Negative!” the advisor shouted back. “Do not land
at the green smoke!”
Tom and I shoved the noses of our Hueys down and pulled
pitch to regain our airspeed. We flew past the green smoke at about 60 knots. Seconds
later I saw a cloud of purple smoke up the road. The Special Forces advisor
confirmed this was the color he had thrown.
*****
 |
| Lt. Al Croteau |
Lieutenant Al Croteau said, “When we were coming in, Jack was
talking to the ground. I distinctly remember him saying, ‘Pop smoke.’ They set
out the smoke. I was listening to the radio, and Jack said, ‘I’ve got green
smoke,’ and the advisor came back and said, ‘No, that’s not the right color.
That’s not my smoke.’
“I said, ‘I hope Jack gets the right color because, if he
doesn’t, we’re going to be landing in the wrong place.’
“The purple smoke wasn’t that far in front of us. We were
right on it,” Al said, estimating the helicopter landed 50-60 yards past the green
smoke, which had been thrown by the enemy to lure the helicopters into a trap.
*****
Forty-one years later I would learn during a casual
conversation with Tom he and Larry had landed at Cau Song Be Special Forces
Camp, medically evacuated the 6 CIDG soldiers from the ambush, and then
delivered them to the camp hospital in the care of Jim Dopp.
Until that conversation in 2008, I had thought Ken Dolan, Al
Croteau and I had landed at Cau Song Be first. After taking the wounded to the
hospital, Tom and Larry had flown around the airfield traffic pattern, and
landed behind me.
We all would learn we focused on different elements of the
mission on the sunny afternoon of May 14, 1967.
