Statement
Of
Lance Corporal John G. PHELPS, USMC
[Lance Corporal Phelps was Pless’s crew chief. The
following is a verbatim transcription from his official. Editorial
comments and explanations have been added in square brackets in italics,
paragraph breaks, bold text and italics have been added for readability.
LCpl PHELPS reportedly flew as PLESS’s crew chief on many gunship
missions.….Editor]
On 19 August 1967, Captain PLESS,
Captain FAIRFIELD, Gunnery Sergeant POULSON and myself were assigned as
the crew of an armed UH-1E helo on Med-Evac chase [armed escort] We
had just refueled and headed out on another mission, a Med-Evac pick-up in
the R.O.K. [Republic of Korea, Marines] area, with the Med-Evac pick-up
bird a few minutes behind us. On our way to this next pick-up, we
received a call on “Guard” from an unidentified aircraft. The message was
that an aircraft had been shot up, and that four of the personnel aboard
had been taken by the V.C. [Viet Cong]
We called on “Guard” and answered the
call with “We are a fully armed UH-1E gunship and are in the area. Can
we give assistance?” Our call was not answered, but we continued to
the area. The aircraft in distress had said they were a mile or so north
of the mouth of the Song Tra Khuc river.
When we approached the area, Captain
PLESS asked the crew, “You all with me?” He knew the answer would be
yes. As we flew on, we saw four U.S. personnel laying on the beach, and
around them, not less than forty or fifty armed V.C. They, the V.C. were
beating the helpless personnel. As we flew over the group of people, one
of the men laying on the beach waved to us, and for his efforts got a
rifle butt in the face.
The V.C. were too close to the
Americans to safely fire at them, but the V.C. were killing them anyway,
so Captain PLESS ordered the right door gunner, Gunnery Sergeant POULSON,
to fire on the V.C. It took only a short burst to send the V.C. running
for cover.
When Captain PLESS saw this, he
immediately rolled in hot with rockets and guns. The smoke from our W.P.
rockets [white phosphorous incendiary warheads] obscured the V.C.
who were running when we had started our attacks, but Captain PLESS
continued to fire into the smoke, displaying the most remarkable
airmanship I have ever seen in my eighteen months in country as an air
crewman. As crew chief of the aircraft, and knowing its capabilities, I
couldn’t believe what he was making the helo do, but when the smoke
started to clear, I saw bodies laying everywhere.
We then flew to the edge of the water
where the badly hurt Americans were located. Before setting down,
Captain PLESS pointed the guns of the aircraft into the ‘ville and fired
off the remaining ammo. In landing, Captain PLESS put the aircraft
between the wounded men and the V.C. The way he had landed put me facing
the V.C.
I started firing my M-60, [machine
gun] while the gunner, being on the side next to the wounded, jumped out
and ran to the men. Picking up the first man who was the closest, he
helped him into the aircraft; this man was still conscious, and didn’t
seem to be in bad shape.
Then the gunner, Gunnery Sergeant
POULSON, ran to the next man, tried to pick him up, but found that the man
was far to heavy to carry by himself. The co-pilot, Captain FAIRFIELD,
and myself seeing this, jumped from the aircraft and started to run over
to Gunnery Sergeant POULSON to help him.
When several V.C., who were out of my
line of fire, came running down the beach, Captain FAIRFIELD pulled the
other door gun off its mount and fired at the V.C., killing all with the
first short burst. At this time, Captain FAIRFIELD told me to return to
the airplane to provide covering fire.
Then more V.C. came running at the
aircraft from the ‘ville, shooting as they came. I fired until they all
lay on the sand. Some of the V.C. were still shooting at the plane; I
couldn’t see them, but I could see the sand kicking up all around the
plane. I kept my gun going, firing in the tree line and under bushes at
the end of the beach.
About this time, the co-pilot and
gunner came back to the plane with the second man, then went back for the
third. Captain PLESS, seeing that the third man was far too much for the
Captain and Gunnery Sergeant POULSON to handle, told me to go out and help
them. I gave my gun to the one wounded man who was still conscious, and
asked him if he thought he could use it; he said “Yes”, so I jumped out
and ran to the other man.
The three of us could move him, and we
were about twenty feet from the aircraft, when a lone V.C. with a hand
grenade of some kind came running from behind the plane. I let go of the
wounded man and drew my pistol, firing all six rounds into the V.C.. He
was only about ten or fifteen feet away, so I knew I was hitting him.
We got the last man into the aircraft,
and started to take off, but the plane was so heavy that we could hardly
get it off the ground. We had to take off over the water because we were
taking so much fire.
One Army gun bird, a UH-1E like ours,
tried to suppress the fire and give us cover. After a few
frightening moments, we lifted off. On our way to the 1st
Hospital Company, we rendered first aid to the wounded men. We then
returned to Ky Ha. [Apparently this
strafing aircraft was UH1-H slick mounting only 2 door guns, possibly
flown by R.L.Redeker, US Army or J.P. van Duzee, US Army. No Army
Huey gunships were reported in the area until after Pless's departure. ]
J. G. PHELPS
