May Day, May Day!



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Our last incident before step-down,  A  late night mission involved picking up a US advisor to assist.  Pilot Meseca, co-pilot Van (VN),  1st gunner Keech, & 2nd gunner Richey landed on a helo pad in a small village.  Instead of one adivsor getting aboard, two got in, loaded to the hilt with weapons, ammo, flak jackets, the works, making for an extrmely overloaded "B".

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 As  the bird lifted, the streess of being over weight was apparent.  The gunners began jettisoning what they could as the tail section struck a palm tree, breaking off the tail rotor & gearbox.  The two non-flyers were panicking while the gunners were trying to keep them calm.




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 Mr Mesica was at he controls as the doomed crew headed into an unknown & uncontrolable landing.  After realizing that the made a safe landing, the gunners jumped out with their free guns to set their perimeter only to come waste deep in barbed wire on both sides of the Huey & can't move. Keech & Richey see torches & hears VN voices coming thru the undergrowth & have their fingers on the trigger when Lt Van, the VN copilot, yells "Don't fire, No VC, friendleys!" 

When the sun came up, the damage could be seen, along with the kids tht would not have been around that morning had Mr.Van not been with them.