Where were you on 11 Feb. 1971?
Back in Aug,2010 I posted a "Possible story to come" Please go back and read that background on page 2 this forum before you read "the rest of the story"
This is long although I have left a bunch out for brevity.
I received a letter from Bob Bunney my aero scout crewchief after many years of trying to locate him. His overriding question was what happened on 11 Feb. 1971? He said he remembered us taking off but nothing after that. All he had to go by was the Citation for the Distinguished Flying Cross he received some time later.Well, after meetng FTF and many calls we have ironed out the details.
I want you all to know that the DFC is not common for enlisted crew,a deal I never quite understood, and this was not the first valorious award I put him in for. He received an Air Medal with "V" device [V for valor] in October preceding this action.
Well here goes.
Sp/4 Bob Bunney spent most of the day in great pain and unconscious. Unconscious due to Gods' mercy and occassional assist from the anesthetic value of a .45 auto applied to the side of his head.We had no morphine and the North Vietnamese [NVA] were nearly walking on us.[I agonized for years hoping I had done no serious damage. Thank God he is no crazier now than he was then!]
It was the time of "Lam Son 719" and my Air Cav Troop was tasked to screen the northern flank of an Engineer unit trying to drive an alternate route to QL 9[Viet National Highway] through the "punchbowl"out to Khe Sahn. My OH-58 Light Aero Scout aircraft was conductiong a low level recon of an area just south of the DMZ called "Rocket Ridge" So called because that is where most of our rocket attacks on Quang Tri came from.
It was about 0730 when we went up the ridgeback the first time and we took tremendous anti-aircraft machinegun fire[12.7 mm sometimes called"51s"]. Fortunately,in spite of extremely close range[3 - 30 meters] and Spec.4 Bunneys' suppressive fire they did not hit us and we escaped down the hill[approx. 1800-2000 feet]with only our feathers ruffled.
After an hour and a half of calling in artillery and tac. air strikes we could see that that was not working. The top of that ridge was solid granite and not more than 20 yards wide at the most and as little as ,maybe 5 yards at the narrowest. All the ordinance was falling off the sides and doing little,if any, damage to the NVA gun emplacements.
So, we got the call to go back up and do a bomb damage assessment run.[BDA] I told my copilot and crew chief that this was a "fools mission" and if they wanted to get out and wait for me nothing would be said to them.[At the time we were sitting in a secure re-arm refuel point].
The Co-pilot was taking his "Area of Operations Check" with me in the co-pilots/observer seat doing the eval.So, he wanted to go and Bob Bunney in the back said,"they shot at us now I'm gonna give them bast**ds some back". So like three little pigs off we go to "market" Needless to say, they put the first round up through the belly and engine at a range of about 5 feet! I was looking into the eyes of that gunner when I silenced him but mutually supporting positions opened up on all quadrants riddling our aircraft with fire. Sp4 Bunney, in order to expand his fields of fire was HANGING OUT of the aircfaft on a fully extended seat belt laying extremely accurate fire on the right side of the aircraft thus reducing the volume of small arms and A/A fire we were taking.I covered the left side until I had to take the controls for the emergency landing.[autorotation] We went down a very steep ravine until I could go no further with our rotor decaying out of safe limits and the sides were so narrow that I barely had blade clearence while still 300- 400 feet above the bottom. A 215 foot tree was directly in front and my only real option was to try to land in the tree[you know it isn't going to stay there but it does help to cushion to the ground!]
The aircraft turned upside down and backwards when it finally got to the ground.The co-pilot was unconcious 'til I started pulling on him and he came too.[he had fainted,as is common under those conditions] Bunney was also unconcious but had a very severe leg injury.I thought that the ammo box or the grenade box or whatever flying around during the crash sequence might have caused some of that damage. I found out later that not only was that the case but Bunney,while hanging out of the aircraft had taken a 7.62 round in that same leg.
The copilot and I carried Bob about 50 yards to a rock outcropping and set up a hasty defense position. I went back to the aircraft to salvage the M-60 machine gun, some ammo and a few grenades. When I went back the 3rd time there were NVA soldiers standing around and on the belly shooting at a gunship overhead. I used my grenade to try to destroy the aircraft and them and went back to our little defense position.
Backtracking, I know the tree was 215 feet because that evening when I finally got a med.evac in he had 215 feet of cable on his hoist.I sent two KIA and six WIA up that hoist and had to walk out with a squad of our Aero-Rifle Platoon grunts.
I have'nt mentioned the UH-1 that was shot down trying to get troops on the ground to help save us.[ hence the number of med evacs mentioned above],nor have I mentioned the gunfights during the day with probing patrols, these are different stories perhaps for another time.
This was to be Bobs story and I hope I haven't under sold him in trying to make this as complete and as brief as possible. So, let me end it this way for now.
I don't know where you were on 11Feb.1971, but I do know where Bob Bunney was and what he did. He fought with courage and valor against overwhelming odds to try to protect his aircraft, my crew and me.
Thanks Bob for saving our bacon that day.
HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY BOB , tomorrow is YOUR DAY. Nick
PS; Bob received not only the DFC that day but also was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat. NR
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