66-15028 being raised at Long Beach Memorial
I am sure you know this gunship belonged to Troop A, 3/17 Cavalry in Vietnam from November of 1967 (when the unit arrived) until we turned it in with the others so we could receive the new Cobras about March of 1968. I was the troop's operations officer from November 1967 through early September of 1968. I am sure I flew the ship while training before deployment, but not in Vietnam.
This aircraft was hit once by small arms in its "armament" on 12 December 1967 but completed its mission and was repaired. It was hit once by small arms in the "main rotor blade system" on 2 February 1968 as the Tet Offensive was winding down, but again completed its mission and was repaired. In between, it had quite a morning on the first day of the Offensive, 31 January 1968.
The unit A Troop was supporting, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, collected and believed all kinds of intelligence that pointed to a major attack in their Long Binh area in the early morning of 31 January. Enemy units were on the move everywhere in large numbers. Our troop picked up a lot of that intelligence, and so did the 51st Long Range Reconnaissance Company, the LRRPs, who were OPCON to the 199th as were we. The 199th had its base camp on the north end of the Long Binh complex. A Troop was living at Di An a few kilometers west, but we used the 199th's Redcatcher Helipad within their compound to rearm and refuel. (Later we would move our entire troop into their compound.)
We covered the LRRPs with our gunships night and day and we kept a fire team of two ships on standby status at the 51st HQ at Bien Hoa each night. Night extractions of the LRRP teams were quite common if they thought they were discovered, and our gunships would scramble with the single lift ship which picked up the small teams.
The LRRPs and we picked up lots of indications of increased enemy movement in large numbers in the days before the Offensive. The S-2 of the 199th was particularly good, and our Air Cavalry troop was only one of his sources. He predicted a major attack on Bien Hoa Air Force Base, the likes of which we had never seen, at 0300 on 31 January. Bien Hoa was a few kilometers north of us at Di An. I do not recall if the S-2 correctly predicted that Long Binh would also be attacked. I don't think he predicted a country-wide offensive, but he stressed that we had never seen the large number of enemy units which would attack us.
The 199th took the S-2's prediction seriously, and so did we. They passed all this information upstairs to Saigon, but no one there seemed to pay any attention. I have forever wondered how we knew the Offensive was coming and reported everything to General Westmoreland's staff, yet the battles seemed to completely surprise them.
Colonel Frederic E. Davison was in temporary command of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade because its commander, Brigadier General Robert C. Forbes, was on leave in the States. Colonel Davison would later become the first black officer to be promoted to brigadier general in combat, the first black officer to command a U. S. brigade, the first to command a brigade in combat, and later, after he received a second star, the first black officer to command a U. S. division. We thought the world of him. After the dust and smoke of Tet settled, Col. Davison gave our gunships credit for saving Long Binh from being overrun. UH-1C number 66-15028 was one of those gunships.
Col. Davison had faith in his S-2. He deployed his battalions to positions in the field to protect Bien Hoa and Long Binh, and I am prety sure no other III Corps unit was ready to defend when the Offensive broke. Major Pulliam, A Troop's commander, and I also laid our plans. We would put most of the troop to bed during daylight and have everyone awake, dressed, and ready at 0300 on the 31st.
Our gunship team would stand by with the 51st and thir pickup Huey at Bien Hoa that night, as usual, but we would have two more teams (two gunships each) on ready alert and would put two gun teams in the air at 0200. The 51st landed small LRRP teams all around the jungle trails which led to Bien Hoa, more teams than usual. I do not believe any units were as well prepared for the attack as the 199th and all its support units.
I was excited and a little apprehensive on the afternoon and night of 30 January, and I never made it to bed. There were radios in the tent we used for operations and troop HQ at Di An, but I chose to sit ourside in the rear seat of my open jeep, next to its radios. I wanted to be able to watch in the direction of Bien Hoa at the appointed time.
I sat out there in the dark behind our tent. One radio was tuned to the 51st LRRP frequency. About 0100, reports started coming in from nearly all their teams which were hiding out there in the enemy's jungle. they were picking up all kinds of enemy movement, reported in hushed whispers over their portable PRC-25s. Other A Troop members were gathered around my jeep in the darkness. We listened to the LRRPs, spellbound, and prayed for them as we could picture them under their camouflage, motionless, afraid to even breathe, as dozens of NVA soldiers trotted past them on a dark trail. Never before had there been so many reports of so many enemy soldiers who were all on the move.
My wristwatch was always synchronized to the exact time, because the troop depended on me to give them correct time at my briefings. I remember using a red lens flashlight to watch my sweep second hand as it approached the top of the dial at 0300. Our enemy was exactly on time! The sky lit up over Bien Hoa as we had never seen it, and we heard the rocket explosions in a few seconds.
CPT Jerry Thiels was our gunship platoon commander. He is also the bravest man I have ever known. This was his second tour in Vietnam, and he had a Silver Star (maybe two) from the first tour. I am pretty sure that #66-15028 was the ship he usually flew, so it probably is the one in which he was aloft with a wingman and another gunship team of two at 0200. If Jerry was not flying 028 when the battle started, he definitely flew it later in the morning. I will explain.
At 0300 Jerry reported that rockets were streaming into Bien Hoa and that he could see one launch site! The fiery rocket tails pointed back to the launchers. Thiels and his weapons people dived on that launch site while it was still putting up 122 mm rockets! Jerry silenced the launchers with a few pairs of our own rockets, and that site was not heard from again. Someone went in there within the next few days (I cannot remember if we did) and found blood, equipment, and unused 122 mm rockets.
Long Binh was also under attack by enemy infantry. They occupied the widow's village to the compound's west, across the street from Redcatcher Helipad, and fired at the compound and our aircraft from the sizeable village which was just outside the barbed wire on the north side. Some NVA got onto Redcatcher, and at least one sniper stayed there about a day and a half and we were denied use of the helipad's fuel and ammuniton. Clerks and cooks were pressed into service for perimeter defense of Long binh. The enemy also followed its rocket attack on Bien Hoa with infantry, but I don't believe they got inside at any point. The 199th compound on the north end of Long Binh seemed to be in the most danger of being breached. As I said, our gunships kept the infantry mostly outside.
Since we could not use Redcatcher, we told our ships to use only the Di An airstrip to refuel and rearm. We organized people to help the weapons ship crews break rockets and machine gun belts out of boxes and to refuel and rearm in the dark. We turned the ships around as quickly as possible and tried to keep two teams up at all times while the others refueled, rearmed, and repaired. This went on from 0300 until about 1015 in the morning. Even my operations sergeant and all my RTOs except one were down at the airstrip breaking out ammo. The maintenance crews worked feverishly to repair battle damage and send gunships back into the fight. We simply stretched Army green tape over bullet holes in rotor blades since there was no time to use epoxy.
Never before had whole enemy units been visible to us! They were not trying to hide and disappear, as usual, but stayed, fought, and tried to advance. Although their weapons were no match for ours, there were many of them. Besides the gunships, artillery fire directed by the 199th ground units and by us took a steady toll with steady fire. The North Vietnamese died bravely in great numbers. Jerry Thiels's gunships destroyed at least 20 structures in the enemy village to Long Binh's north and slaughtered the NVA soldiers in the streets. They shot up nine of our helicopters, six of which were gunships. One of these was hit on two occasions.
Jerry Thiels first went into the air at 0200. He continued to fly until about 1015, but not in the same UH-1C. He was shot out of the sky four different times in four different ships! I know for a fact that 028 was one of the ships; it took seven small arms hits in the main rotor system and was forced to make a precautionary landing. I am not certain of the order in which Jerry flew 028, but it was likely the first one, which attacked the rocket site. On one of his forced landings (perhaps in 028,) Jerry brought it down just inside a Long Binh compound south of Redcatcher, but the crew had to play hide-and-seek with the enemy for a while before we could pick them up. I think he limped home to Di An with two of the gunships. Jerry was able to autorotate or land all four downed ships safely, someplace or another, but each time he would fly or get a ride back to Di An and immediately take another of his ships and return to the battle. One of Thiels's gunners was lightly wounded at coordinates YT 0513 at 0720 hours. I don't know which ship he was flying then, nor do I remember the nature of the wound. I don't remember if Major Pulliam finally grounded Jerry about 1015 hours, of if we just ran out of operational gunships.
I can say with certainty (from records) that Jerry Thiels was flying 028 sometime on the morning of 31 January 1968 when it took seven small arms hits in the main rotor system and was forced to make a precautionary landing. From cross-referencing other records, I can say it is likely this happened at 0600 hours at YT 055135, although a different ship may have taken hits at this time and place.
We recommended Jerry Thiels for a Distinguished Service Cross, our nation's second highest award. We would have recommended a Medal of Honor, except for the fact, frankly, that not enough of our people were killed or wounded to support such an award. Months later, for no good reason, some rear echelon officer downgraded Jerry's award to a Silver Star. Although a Silver Star (or two or three) is quite prestigious, he deserved more this time. You can be proud that such a hero flew your memorial ship to prevent disaster at Bien Hoa and Long Binh in 1968. Today Jerry Thiels lives peacefully with his family in Le Compte, Louisiana.
Copyright 2004 Charles E. Oualline
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