by Charles E. "Chuck" Oualline
Silver Spur 3
© 2001
During the July 4th, 2000 reunion of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) in Washington, D. C., a most remarkable thing happened at The Wall. I wish to share this with the other Silver Spurs.
I had never visited The Wall. I attended the VHPA memorial service on July 2nd but did not have time to find all the 26 names on my list. My wife and I marched with the other VHPA members and their ladies in a wonderful parade on the 4th, which broke up close to The Wall. Then Jan and I walked down to the memorial for the second time in my life, to complete my business.
At panel 51W I found the names of the four good men we Silver Spurs lost on one bad day in July of 1968. I knelt to make a rubbing of CW2 James D. Smith on line 44. I was vaguely aware of a couple standing behind me, searching for a name. Just as I finished the rubbing, the wife said to her husband something like, "I think he has it covered with that paper."
I stood up in shock and asked, "Are you looking for James Smith?" They were, and I could not believe it! They were distant relatives of Smith's, they were from California, and this was their first visit to our memorial.
Then I asked if they knew how Jim Smith died. They replied that he was a pilot and they knew only that he was killed in a helicopter. I told them it didn't happen like that.
I recounted how one of our scout ships was shot down and how Smith's UH-1H landed to help the scouts who were still inside their aircraft, 1Lt Doug Chaney and SP5 Francis D. Johnson. The young chief warrant officer bravely got out of his pilot's seat to run to the crippled OH-6A, probably so the Huey door gunners could stay on their guns. Then the enemy opened up on Smith and his Huey, killing its crew chief, SP4 Bruce R. Wenban, and raking the ship with 16 rounds. The other pilot was forced to take off to save the ship and what was left of the crew, leaving Smith behind the cover of a rice paddy dike.
Through a few tears I told the couple how we tried repeatedly to land to pick up our people, but were driven off by ground fire. I tried in an OH-6A and Ollie Pate tried in a Huey, and others may have tried. (Poor Ollie would lose his life with five others only three months later.) It was after dark before infantry troops secured the site so that CW2 Anthony and others could recover the bodies of Smith and the two scouts. I told the couple I think we made the right decisions at the time, but that I still second-guess myself and it still hurts. The relatives gratefully received the information, comforted me, and said they would relay my facts to the rest of the family. Later, my wife saw the man weeping quietly away from the panel.
What are the odds of meeting the relatives of a comrade while you make a rubbing of his name, on your first visit and theirs, 32 years after his death? My friend, Joe Galloway, the famous author who works in Washington, tells me that people meet at The Wall in similar circumstances quite often. I know that God was involved in my meeting.
At her request, I have since communicated with Jim Smith's mother, who lives in California. I agree with Bill Barber: Angels DO fly low.
© 2001
Photo Courtesy of Ingo Haas, HHT - 3/17th
"HONOR" created by Joyce Daugirda - US Navy & Army veteran
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