The Ashau Mission
By Norm Urban, Captain, USMC ret
They say memory is the second thing to go with age. I remember the mission well (and the aftermath), but at my age, I don't know how accurate the memory is.
We had been listening to radio calls from the Ashau Special Forces camp, asking for help, for a few days prior to the March 11, 1966 "Ashau" mission. The Special Forces camp, on the Laotian border, manned by a SF detachment, an Arvin unit, and a detachment of "Nungs", had been surrounded by the NVA and VC forces. The N. Vietnamese 235B Div HQ was reported to be set up in the valley. The enemy had set an aircraft trap by humping 37MM anti-aircraft weapons to the top of the surrounding hills and mountains. So far, the bad guys had downed at least one Army UH-1E and an Air Force AC-47. It seemed to us at Phu Bai, that the Army couldn't or wouldn't do anything further to bring troops in, or get these guys out. LtCol C.O. "Chuck" House finally gathered the squadron together in our mess tent, and explained the situation. House then stated that he was going to Ashau to take a look, and if any of us chose to follow him, that was OK by him. As far as I know, we Marines (HMM-163) had no orders to do anything to support the camp. Fifteen minutes later, there were no operable H-34s left on the ramp at Phu Bai.
Ashau was socked in with an overcast sitting on top of the mountains surrounding the valley. LtCol House had plotted all the known AA gun sites on his chart. (The day before, on March 10, A-1 Skyraider pilot, Air Force Major Bernie Fisher, landed on the shot up runway at Ashau to rescue his wingman who had bellied in his Spad, riddled with bullet holes by these same AA guns. He took off in a hail of enemy fire. Fisher won the CMH in doing so.) We approached the valley north of the camp by scud running up a mountain stream, crossing the tops with our rotors in the soup, then scud running down into the valley and under the overcast, which was about 200 feet above the terrain. We then turned left towards the camp about 15 miles south. Fortunately, the enemy AA guns were in the clouds above us.
Suddenly circling around us was a flight of Air Force A-1 Skyraiders loaded with napalm (forever changing this Marine pilot’s opinion of Air Force pilot's skill and courage). These guys had to punch through the solid overcast using just a Tacan fix, (radial & distance), hoping they'd break out below...awesome!
As we approached the camp, the good guys were coming out through the north barricade gate, while the bad guys came in, through and over the SW wall. That's where the Skyraiders dropped their ordinance. We followed LtCol House's lead and landed just outside the camp in 15-foot high elephant grass. Some H-34s, mine included, were immediately overloaded with panicked Nungs and Arvin, while other ships had no one loading because they couldn't be seen down in the elephant grass. I remember seeing a Special Forces soldier putting Orientals aboard, but not jumping on himself.
About then, the lead H-34 (LtCol House's) kind of exploded and smoke poured out. My bird, BU143977, had way too much weight aboard to lift off, and it looked like mortars were “walking” into the landing zone. We had perhaps 25 soldiers in the cabin and three or four hanging on the struts. I started yelling to the crew below to get them off, shoot if necessary. We weren't going anywhere the way we were.
Finally, we managed to lift off, trailing barbed wire from the tail wheel, and rose into the soup above. Most other H-34s made it out individually, some full of bullet and shrapnel holes. VFR on top, as a flight of one, we headed back to Phu Bai. Mission time 2.4 hours, .9 IFR.
LtCol. House and his crew joined the Ashau refugees led by a Special Forces Captain. House took command and led the E&E column, choosing a route the SF Captain didn't agree with. Later that night, the Captain's route was heavily mortared, while the path House took brought them out safely. The next day, or maybe the following, House and his crew were picked up by one of our birds.
Aftermath:
The next day, the squadron (HMM-163) was given a stand down, to repair and recuperate. The only birds flying were the 2 med-evac standby ships. I was Section leader of the med-evac flight in BU 149318. I was to fly some photographers over the valley so they could take pictures, now that the weather had cleared. We flew over at 10,000', or as high as I could get, and watched the AF bomb the anti-aircraft positions while the photographers took their photos.
As we landed back at Phu Bai, Major Wyman Blakeman, the Ops Officer, gave me the turn up sign. After refueling, I restarted and he told me on the radio, to go back to Ashau to try to rescue a Skyraider driver who had been shot down by the 37MM AA gun he was working over. We flew back out at altitude, and contacted an Army O-1 Bird Dog, who directed us to the downed pilot. I instructed my wingman to stay as high as he could, and to try to keep us in sight. My co-pilot, 1/lt Joe Weiss, and I then flew east, descended and approached the pick up point in defilade keeping hills between the AA gun and us. I did a hover check and found we could not hover at that weight and altitude. I instructed the AF pilot on his survival radio, to try to move downhill, while we flew off and burned up fuel. About 45 minutes of flying in full rich mixture at a high power setting and throwing out the life raft, survival gear, tool box and anything else not fastened down, did the job. We returned for the pick up, spotted his smoke flare, and came to a hover for an “out-of-ground-effect” hoist pick up. With Weiss on the throttle/collective, looking inside, and me on the cyclic and rudders looking outside, and our wheels in the treetops, we made the pick up in the red paint on the 100’ hoist cable. We got the guy (Major “Buzz” Blaylock, USAF) and scooted out of there with Blaylock hugging my feet from the cabin below. My wingman joined up, followed by the A-1 Skyraider wingman. I led the flight into a right echelon (2 H-34s and an A-1) left break over our camp at Phu Bai at 300'. The squadron, on stand down and alerted by Blakeman via the loudspeaker, welcomed us home. Nice to return the AF Ashau escort favor.
Later, all of us who flew the Ashau mission had to testify before a court of inquiry in Danang regarding shooting friendlys off our aircraft. I don't know if LtCol. House ever gave that order, but I certainly did...and so stated.
LtCol. House was awarded the Navy Cross and got a letter of reprimand at the same time for telling it all to the press. (see “The Cat From Hue” by John Laurence, CBS News. ISBN I-891620-31-2) House was also made an honorary member of the Special Forces at a ceremony at our camp. Subsequently, Barry Sadler’s song “The Ballad of the Green Berets” was often sung in our squadron O Club (tent) during Happy Hour