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These stories are true, but the names may be Sometime in the spring of '70, we became aware that a SF base camp out in the boonies was under attack. I don't remember where it was located or what type of camp it was. What I remember is that it was an example of extreme greed and cowardice on the part of the ARVN troops. As I recall, the camp was on a hilltop, surrounded by a plain. A large force of NVA and VC attacked, isolating the camp, except for a wedge-shaped piece of the plain, which was held by ARVN troops. SF called in air support and Cobra gunships rolled in on the enemy, firing rockets, 20mm HE and WP rounds and firing their miniguns. It had to have been a devastating attack, but the enemy held and returned fire, downing one of the gunships. The crew were able to put it down on the area held by the ARVNs and get out,though one of them was wounded. There were many wounded as the battle continued. Air Force supply ships dropped ammo and food, hitting the ARVN zone. SF requested ammo and food, but the ARVN wanted to SELL it to them!! The battle developed into a seige, with the SF and ARVN troops completely surrounded by the enemy. As it continued, the supply ships kept coming and one was shot down. At some point, several days into it, two Medevac choppers from the 71st (they had a base at the 71st by that point, and kept their birds on our helipad.) were dispatched to pick up seriously wounded. When the choppers landed, they were rushed by ARVN troops who wanted out of the fight. They dragged the wounded off the chopper and a bunch of them climbed in, pointing weapons at the crew, and told them to get out of there. The second chopper in the flight saw what had happened and circled overhead. The chopper was badly overloaded, but the crew chief couldn't get them off. They were hanging on the skids and the bird couldn't get away from them. The crew chief started tossing them out the door and kicking them off the skids so they could get out. One of the ARVN, seeing he wasn't going to get out, grapped an RPG and fired it at the chopper, blowing off the tail section. This put the bird in an immediate ground spin, throwing everyone who wasn't hooked up out onto the ground. The chopper crashed and started to burn, but almost everyone got out, though the co-pilot had been killed and crew chief wounded. Calling in gunships on the ARVN to drive them away from the crew, the second chopper went in and picked up the co-pilots' body and the rest of the crew. This battle went on for some time, with several more AF supply planes being shot down or damaged, then the enemy faded away. The bodies of the dead were brought in to the 71st for processing. I remember rows of body bags laid out on stretchers (I have a picture of it called "Going Home"). These bodies had, in some cases been out in the jungle for a week or more, with tigers and rats eating at them. They were very ripe, even in the bags, and the stench permeated the whole area around the ER until we could get them out of there. I probably have a whole bunch of details messed up, but this is essentially what I remember, with very little embellishment. It was a sorry time and the Medevac crews wouldn't rescue any ARVN wounded for a time after this incident. Comments: E-mail me Thanks for visiting ...SP5 Steven Streeper
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