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Posted on 06/20/2004 12:01:28 AM PDT by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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 1st Air Commando Squadron, USAF In early March 1966, a 450-man Special Forces camp in the A Shau Valley came under attack by a North Vietnamese force of two to four thousand. Mortar shells rained down on the camp. The weather in the A Shau, a box canyon high in the mountains, was always bad, either raining or fogged in. An AC-47 managed to get in under the weather, though, to come to the camp's defense. The three hundred foot ceiling made the gunship an easy target. Ground fire disabled first one engine and then the other. Responding to the MAYDAY, aircraft scrambled from Pleiku, Qui Nhon, and Nha Trang. Major Bernie Fisher, of the 1st Air Commando Squadron, was piloting an A-1E Skyraider. He and his wingman went in with orders to destroy the wreckage of the AC-47 to keep it out of enemy hands. Successful at that, they flew cover for two C-123 Providers carrying medical supplies and ordnance for the A Shau defenders. The Providers were hit hard by ground fire as they made their drops, but they managed to drop their bundles and escape from the valley. Major Fisher, low on fuel, also was forced to abandon the camp and return to base for fuel.  The next morning, the weather was a little better when Fisher was ordered back to the A Shau. The camp had just been overrun when Fisher and two other A-1s arrived on the scene. The A-1s began strafing passes over the camp. The A-1s would make a run, break left, and make another run. The North Vietnamese quickly saw the pattern and took advantage of it. The number three plane, flown by Major "Jump" Myers of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron, was hit at the end of a strafing pass. His engine quit and the aircraft caught fire. At so low an altitude, Myers had no choice; he had to ride the plane in. If the plane went into the jungle, he had little chance of surviving the crash. His only chance was the pierced steel planking (PSP) runway that served the camp. But the camp was now controlled by the North Vietnamese. Myers pickled his bombload into the jungle and made for the PSP runway. He made a belly landing, skidding sideways nearly six hundred feet. The crippled plane hit a bank and became a large ball of flame.  Overhead, Fisher thought that Myers had died in the crash and reported it back to the command post. Just then, the smoke cleared momentarily and Myers ran out of the inferno. Fisher asked a nearby Marine helicopter for a rescue pickup and returned to the fight. When ten minutes had passed without a rescue chopper appearing, Fisher asked for an estimated time of arrival. The choppers were at least twenty minutes away. Myers was only twenty feet from capture, however. Fisher decided to make the pickup himself. Flying through smoke and fire, he broke into the clear over the runway. In spite of the expended rocket casings and damage from mortar fire on the PSP runway, Fisher dropped his plane in. The plane skidded as he braked. The plane came to a stop in the fuel dump at the far end of the runway, hitting some of the barrels and damaging the A-1's wings and tail. Fisher turned the aircraft around and headed back up the runway toward the burning wreckage of Myers' aircraft. Myers jumped up as Fisher passed the burning A-1 and Fisher stopped his plane.  Myers ran for the A-1E, but could not get aboard because of the prop wash. Fisher throttled back and Myers clambered up the wing, falling head first into the cockpit. Without taking time to strap in, Fisher turned the plane around again and opened the throttle. Holding the plane down until the last possible moment, Fisher's A-1 raced down the runway and then leapt for the sky. Major Bernard F. Fisher's bravery under fire as he risked his life to save a comrade from capture or death earned him an Air Force Medal of Honor. Fisher became the first recipient of the Air Force Medal of Honor in Vietnam. **** During the Battle of A Shau on March 10, 1966, a C-123 crew flying in the vicinity of the Special Forces Camp taped the actual rescue as it was in progress. The tape was later given to Major Fisher as a souvenir. The recording was not started until after the initial decisions to rescue Major Dafford ("Jump") Myers were made and the first recorded sentences were of Fisher telling fellow Skyraider Pilots (Captains Franciso "Paco" VASQUEZ, 29, of Puerto Rico; John LUCAS, 28, of Steubenville, Ohio; and Dennis HAGUE, 28, of Kellogg, Idaho) how he planned to land on the debris- littered strip where Myers was down. Another pair of Skyraider pilots, Jim GUNTER and Pete HOUK, arrived as the rescue was unfolding. They flew cover for the takeoff portion of the rescue and then continued to hit the Viet Cong positions after the rescue was completed.  PIC Major Bernard F. Fisher and Lt Col Gene Deatrick, 1st Air Commando Squadron      |
Thank you kind sir.
Do you realize how often Sam and I say to each other...Damn, how does he find this stuff? And Sam's one of the best scroungers around but you always manage to find something we've not seen.
Morning Phil Dragoo.
Thanks for all the additional info and pics.
Really got a kick out of the two B-57/ground - ground/B-57 views.
BTTT!!!!!!!
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