I just stumbled onto this site while looking for lost
mbrs of F/26th TARGET ACQUISITION ( Viet~Nam )
I just returned from our forth reunion.
We had about sixty men and about 25 guests, would
like to find more of the men .
I founded our e-grp at;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/C-F-26thARTILLERY-TAB
my Nam Page at;
http://www.geocities.com/tnrebelin/DMZ-FO.html

MIA; Cobra( AH-1G )Pilot. It took me almost

thirty years to find out what happened to a pilot
I saw captured in 1970, about due W of Gio Linh
OP A-2 and about due N of where A-3 had been.
At that time I observed a flight of one UH-1
and three AH-1 (s) flying, skirting the southern
edge of the DMZ, flying W to E. They turned at a
point N of A-4 and headed in the general direction
of Quang Tri City or Red Devil. When they were N of
A-4 and W of A-2 one of the cobras was hit and
auto-rotated. The other two Cobras came back, each
making a run ...shooting at the enemy very near the
downed craft.
As the second Cobra had mad his run and had recovered Alt ...he first apeared to be turning to make a second run , then lost control in
auto-rotation. He landed a few hundred meters from the first in a clearing in the brushy area. He fired
his mini ...traversing twiced..then out of power or
7.62, He opened the canope and stood and fired a pistol. As he was doing this ( firing -straight-
one-arm, ...like slow fire practicing on a range !
The enemy fired into the air as if baiting his last shots. Some were..as he fired these shots were
slowly comming up along , from the rear of the AH
towards him.
It was getting dark fast(end of day) , I could
not tell if they pulled him down or if he jumped.
A few seconds later I could see that a number of
them were taking him NNW from the point of the
capture. One on each side of him and another 7-8
men loosely circled around him.
The light was poor ...but my best guess is that
atleast 50-60 of the enemy had been headed SSE when
the event begain, after the two Cobras were downed
and one pilot captured the enemy split, 8-9 of them
going with the POW and the rest continuing on their
way SSE.
After counless efort to find out whoi this man
was and what happened to him. I ran onto several FOs
with the Sundowner program ( Birbdogs )
I still do not know the man's name, but do now
know he was taken to a clearing next to the Song
Ben Hai , striped, and staked out, FO with the Cat
Killers said the "...large naked white man staked out
in an area of little folage...was there two days then
gone...."
Another FO also with the Sundowners stated that he remembered the event( the man staked out).
The FO that gave me the most detail also stated, "...
in the time fram and exactly(Just north of) the location you ave I observed the most disturbing seen
of my life... ...we finaly made two very low
passes but could not tell if he was alive or not...
..he did not move, we were not fired on...
...now that you mention that there seems to be no-record of this lossy... I can not recall what kind
report we made ..but most likely a request for
search and rescue... But nothing happened, the body
was there two days then gone.."

I had always thought that the family of the man
should know how he stood and fired his pistol..
seeminly taking very careful aim and fire...

I admit to counting his shot and on his sixth
curseing him... You *******...Why....you'll regret
that...damm !

I imagin that the did live just long enough to regret not having use the last shot for himself.

Well ...I still don't know his name...
..but at least I don't worry about him still
as a POW...

KEEP LOOKING....OVER-TURN EVERY ROCK