What Happened to a Huey Crew When Their Ship Went Down in the Jungle

On 11 November 1966, near the Cambodian border in the Central Highlands, a UH-1C gunship called Shamrock 544, of D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, turned to help another gunship and flew into a long burst of 12.7mm tracer. The fuel cell exploded, the tail boom was partly torn away, and the ship went into the trees on fire. All four men aboard lived through the crash. This is what happened to each of them next: the two minutes in the burning cockpit, a night under artillery and Puff, one walk for water, and a lieutenant colonel riding a cable down from a Chinook. The crew: Capt. Larry Beyer, aircraft commander, a former Air Force B-52 pilot; WO Pruett Helm, pilot; SP4 David Pacer, crew chief; PFC John Fish, door gunner. Most of what we know comes from Col. (Ret.) Phil Courts, then Croc 6, the gun platoon leader of the 119th Assault Helicopter Company, who was over LZ Red Warrior that afternoon and recorded the words of Helm and Fish. The rescue was made by Lt. Col. Foy Rice, commander of the 52nd Combat Aviation Battalion. And in March 1969 Maj. Lawrence F. Beyer published his own version, "Fight to Live," in U.S. Army Aviation Digest: a story he called a fictional account of a true survival ordeal, with the names changed, ending with a list of what a crew should carry and wear. The opening scene on the dusty strip and the "you" in the door during the crash are composites. The four men, the units, the day and the rescue are not. The water jug in the ring comes from the version the captain wrote. Were you ever on a crew that went down? Did you fly the ship that came for one, or ride the cable down to get them? Tell us your unit, your aircraft and your year. And if you knew any of the men of Shamrock 544, the Croc gun platoon or the 52nd CAB, tell us about them. Chapters: 0:00 Four men, one burst of tracer 0:32 November 1966: a crowded strip in the Central Highlands 0:51 Part 1. Four seats 2:33 Part 2. The call 4:50 Part 3. The straw mats 7:14 Part 4. Shamrock comes in 9:07 Part 5. Into the trees 11:05 Part 6. Two minutes 12:39 Part 7. What they had 14:40 Part 8. The night 16:02 Part 9. The cable 17:55 Part 10. The story in the magazine 20:07 What happened to the four seats 21:53 Back to the strip and the jug of water 22:23 Your turn: were you on a crew that went down? Sources: Phil Courts, "Shootout on the Cambodian Border, 11 November 1966," VHPA stories, 2014 (with the accounts of John Fish and Pruett Helm). https://www.vhpa.org/stories/Shootout... VHPA incident H123ACD, UH-1B 63-08600, 119th AHC, 11 Nov 1966, with extract of the after action report. https://mail.vhpa.org/KIA/incident/H1... VHPA, CPT John J. Livingston, 117th AHC, UH-1B 63-08663, 11 Nov 1966. https://vhpa.org/KIA/K11221.HTM VHPA Museum, D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry ("Shamrock"). https://museum.vhpa.org/10thcav/1stsq... VHPA, LTC Lawrence F. Beyer. https://mail.vhpa.org/DAT/datB/G60211... MAJ Lawrence F. Beyer, "Fight to Live," U.S. Army Aviation Digest, March 1969, pp. 38-48. https://archive.org/details/sim_unite... U.S. Army Aviation Digest, October 1970 (crew of four). https://archive.org/details/sim_unite... CW2 Benito A. Trevino, "Don't Give Up the Ship," U.S. Army Aviation Digest, June 1970. https://archive.org/details/sim_unite... James M. "Mike" Vaughn, "Two Down," Centaurs in Vietnam (D Troop, 3/4 Cav). https://www.centaursinvietnam.org/War... John J. Tolson, Airmobility 1961-1971, CMH Pub 90-4. https://archive.org/details/CMHPub90-4 Film and photographs: U.S. National Archives (NARA) and the Department of Defense, public domain as works of the U.S. government. No movie clips. #VietnamWar #Huey #ArmyAviation