While we were returning to L39 the SAR was progressing. At 1200 (0500Z) SANDY 1 reported he had contact with friendlies in the area. Two minutes later SHAKO and TOMCAT flights were diverted to LION (Ubon CRC) for the SAR if they were needed. SANDY 1 was in contact with ground party CV393 and will have them check out the crash site. At 1217 (0517Z) a log entry indicated “Ground Team Good” and no ground fire. At 1218 (0518Z) it was reported that a Porter aircraft has good contact with the ground team and CROWN. However, it would take hours for the team to get to the area. At 1220 (0520Z) it was logged that there were 2 USAF aboard RAVEN 30. The information source was unspecified, but this would have been the worst case. SMOKEY did not provide the information so it may have been AIRA Vientiane. At 1240 (0540Z) aircraft PCL (the Porter?) advises that a ground party is 5 to 6 kilometers away and there are no hostiles in the area. If McBride did put in an airstrike in the vicinity of the crash site, this report is suspect. A logged description of the area at 1245 (0545Z) said “Terrain flat. River about 5 feet. Bank on each side approximately 15 feet with heavy fern growth on each side. Aircraft is partially submerged. Part of canopy is above water.” By this time the JOLLY GREENs were holding west of the site and the SANDYs were checking out the area. At 1302 (0602Z) JOLLY GREEN 17 moves in and advises that he doesn't think there are any survivors. Minutes later he reports he has one body in sight and will try for pick up of deceased. By 1308 (0608Z) the PJ was on the way down. This recovery is not without risks. The recovery helicopter has to hover over the wreckage while the PJs extract the crew from the wrecked aircraft in the river. The PJs then have to negotiate each of the deceased crew members in turn into a Stokes basket lowered for that purpose. The basket is then winched up to the helicopter for each deceased crew member. During this time the recovery helicopter and its crew is very vulnerable to ground fire. At 1315 (0615Z) both of the deceased crew were picked up and the JOLLY GREEN was returning to Channel 89 (NKP) with an ETA of 1410 (0710Z).
Back at the AlRA site, discussions center on the O-1 wreckage. The decision is made to bomb the aircraft to deny the use of the radios by the enemy. However, it is getting too late in the day to make that happen before dark.
Jack Strobel, the AAIRA, told me that l was going to NKP to identify Hoss and recover the remains of the observer. The afternoon was waning and to get on it. l drove back to Air Ops where a Porter was waiting to take us north. We had an escort of four Laotian military to accompany us. I climbed in the right seat of the Porter with the little guys in back. It was an ordinary workhorse Porter - grey in color without insignia, used to move people and supplies throughout the country.
The Filipino pilot introduced himself, gave a two minute introduction to the aircraft, and off we went. He did the super short takeoff for my benefit. In a Porter it is impressive. He runs the turboprop up to full power, gets the tail up and then cuts in the variable pitch prop at which time the Porter begins a take off roll and virtually jumps into the air. After what had just happened, this was the thrill for the day. For the hour's flight to NKP we talked about the Philippines after l told him l grew up there. This was good for me because it got my mind on something else.
When we landed at NKP we taxied up to the ramp near the tower. We were met by a NAIL FAC, a mutual friend of Hoss and myself. He said that he had already identified Hoss and said l did not have to do that chore. I was thankful. He briefed me on the findings and gave me a bag with Hoss's personal effects in it. His billfold was still wet from the river. There were tears in both of our eyes as we talked. An ambulance brought the remains of the observer to the aircraft. The escorts carefully lifted the body bag into the Porter and laid it out on the floor of the aircraft. This Porter like many had a parachute drop trap door in the floor of its cargo bay. We had to avoid laying the body over the trap door should it come open unexpectedly from the weight. Your mind operates in strange and tragic-comic ways during times of stress. The fast forward of my thoughts played out a situation where we lost the observer through the trap door on the return trip and we had to explain the loss of our deceased passenger when we returned to L39. Coming back to reality, l thanked the FAC for his efforts, particularly in the identification, and shook his hand; our eyes met and we embraced, tears streaming down onto the shoulders of the other - a combat brotherhood in mourning. l bid him farewell not knowing this was the last time I would see him. I walked back to the Porter, climbed in, maneuvering around the fallen comrade on the floor. I looked at our Lao escorts and said in my very best Lao “sia chay lay lay” (many many sorries). Their faces acknowledged and told their feelings. Nationality, service, rank or manliness didn't count. We were grieving for our friends. The scream of the Porter’s turboprop crossed the ramp. Young Americans in t-shirts and cammie pants who had watched the unfolding scene, turned away and returned to work. The NAIL waved or maybe he saluted our departure. He felt the loss because he had worked with the Lao observers at NKP. As we taxied out I stared at the HOBOs and the NIMRODs dressed for war, the O-2s and the Helios parked along the NKP ramps. I thought, what the hell is this all about? And what does it all mean? Minutes later we were in the air heading south.
It was a somber flight down the Mekong. Evening was coming on and the shadows were getting long across the majestic mile wide river. We crossed the fence and landed to the south. When we taxied up to Air Ops at L39, there was a Lao military honor guard waiting with a number of the MR3 and air community present, Lao and American. The escorts smartly removed the body from the Porter and a brief ceremony began on the ramp. l thanked the pilot, climbed out of the Porter, and slipped away to my jeep.
I drove to the site. There on my desk was a message from Gus Sonnenberg, Assistant Air Attache at the Embassy in Vientiane. I had been appointed Summary Court Officer for Major E. E. McBride. Even in death, the paperwork must be done. Hoss was no longer a mister. He had passed back through the veil of secrecy back into the Air force. Today there had been bad very bad pi.
Twenty three days after the incident, a highly classified intelligence collector visited the area. Mission 1049, a United States KH4A photo reconnaisance satellite, silently crossed the Savannakhet Plain from north to south at an altitude of approximately 100 miles. The weather was perfect over the crash site. On Pass 119, its 24 inch focal length, aft panoramic camera captured the scene on frame 241. The people on the ground were unaware of its existence or its visit. Similarly, the CIA photo interpreters at the Washington Navy Yard and the DIA photo interpreters at Arlington Hall Station, Virginia who later reviewed this frame of photography, were equally unaware of the tragedy that occurred three weeks earlier along the Sé Bang Hiang which is clearly visible on the photo. How far apart in viewpoint was the bean counting world of Washington and the battlefield in Laos.
Epilogue, The Pentagon, Fall 1969
When I left Laos in 1969, I was reassigned to the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence, Headquarters USAF (AFIN) at the Pentagon. As with all new guys you did your time in the hole. The proper name for this uninspiring job was the AFIN Liaison Officer to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Military Intelligence Center (NMIC). It was a night and weekend job in the bowels of the Pentagon being a message sorter and reviewer for the day empire of analysts and briefers. You were at the absolute bottom of the food chain, even below a watch officer. Talk about a real downer after Laos where you were really doing something worthwhile. The only good news was that you could review, and read if you desired, messages of all classifications, on all subjects, worldwide. I devoured the Laos message traffic.
Early one morning, as the coffee jug was running dry and the eyes were very heavy, I began to read even another message concerning Laos. As with many of the Pathet Lao/PAVN messages, it was full of patriotic rhetoric. This message was an admonition to be more security conscious and be alert to American aircraft. It cited a year old incident as the example. The next few sentences spoke of a FAC putting in air strikes, fighters bombing the patriotic forces, the patriotic forces shooting at the FAC airplane and its crash in the river. I was stunned. This was the McBride incident told from the other side. I read further. The strikes disrupted the re-equipping of regional Pathet Lao/PAVN forces. The units had gathered to turn in their older weapons and were being issued the newer AK-47s when the air strikes occurred. The message concluded that obviously the Americans knew this was happening due to a breach of security and attacked at the most inopportune time. Therefore be more vigilant. End of message.
The country boy unknowingly waded into a bee hive of bad guys itching to try out their new toys. HOBO 41 was right. There probably was alot of ground fire that day. How ironic! What happened a year earlier was answered by the enemy themselves and I happened to be on duty that night to read that particular message. Hoss passed into Valhalla doing what he loved to do - flying airplanes and getting the bad guys. However, I am convinced that his last moments concerned not the war or himself but the guy in back - his observer. That was the kind of person he was.
24. CV393 was a “Compagnie Volunteer” (Volunteer Company). It was a
company sized MR3 paramilitary unit. Apparently the presence of the
Porter in the area checking on the team was coincidental. However, this
team may have been the source of the intelligence concerning the PL/PAVN
units in the area.
25. This summary was gleaned from discussions with PJs who did such
recoveries.
26. From 38ARRS log for November 27, 1968.
27. There is continuing confusion about the NAIL’s identity. For years,
I associated the call sign of NAIL 20 with this incident. My memorabilia
did not record his name nor did my brain despite his visiting Savannakhet
on a special invite. (USAF military personnel normally did not visit Laos
on “social calls” without Embassy approval.) Early in 1969 the NKP 56 SOW
TUOC intel folks told me of the loss of this FAC. The call sign NAIL 20
does not match the current USPACOM JTF-FA records of actual KIA/MIA from
the 23TASS during this period. It may have been NAIL 40, Captain Robert
Rex, who was KIA on 9 March 1969 at XD574628 while supporting a Special
Forces team insertion. This is a detail that remains to be resolved.
28. In February, 1995, the first generation of U.S. space-based national
intelligence reconnaissance imagery, including the KH4A, was declassified
by Executive Order 12951. I have a copy of frame 241 and am reviewing it
for additional insights.
