Statement
Of
Gunnery Sergeant Leroy N. POULSON, USMC
[The following is a verbatim transcription of the official statement of
Leroy N. Poulson. His service number has been deleted to protect his
privacy. Paragraph breaks, italics and bold text have been added for
readability…Editor]
I was flying on a Med-Evac
mission with Captain PLESS and Captain FAIRFIELD acting as pilot and
co-pilot. Lance Corporal PHELPS was our crew chief. We received an urgent
distress message from Land Shark (I believe) to all planes in the area for
help. The word was that an Army helicopter had gone down and four men had
been captured by the Viet Cong. Captain PLESS said "Shall we help them”
and we all put “thumbs up" indicating we were with him.
When we arrived in the area, we could
see the Viet Cong down below; I also saw four uniformed men being beaten by
the Viet Cong. Captain PLESS gave the order for me to fire. I fired close
to the perimeter of the Viet Cong and they all took off in a group for a
tree line near a village.
Captain PLESS, with a great show of
airmanship, rolled in and shot his rockets into the fleeing Viet Cong.
Captain PLESS then did a hard left and strafed the ‘ville and tree line,
while Lance Corporal PHELPS and I fired our internal machine guns. Captain
PLESS's airmanship was so fantastic in his gun runs and maneuvering of the
helicopter, it was hard to believe if you were not there. After several gun
runs, we landed on the beach. I unplugged my headset, unhooked my gunner’s
belt and jumped out of the aircraft to get to the wounded.
Lance Corporal PHELPS immediately came over to my internal
gun and covered me as I went over to check the med-evacs. Lance
Corporal PHELPS did an outstanding job of cover fire and I owe my life to
his accurate fire. The first Med-Evac was fairly easy to
get to the airplane because he could walk with my aid. After putting him in
the aircraft, I went out to get another man. The second man was a large
man, and was down in a gully or tide-line type place. I was
having a hard time with him. As I bent over to try to pick him up, a round
hit right above me. I waived for help, because every time I tried to
pick the men up, I would sink into the sand. Captain FAIRFIELD came to my
aid and we dragged the man into the aircraft.
Captain FAIRFIELD and I went out to get the third man. He
was heavier than the second man, so Lance Corporal PHELPS came out to help
us. Lance Corporal PHELPS and Captain FAIRFIELD were at each arm and I had
the man by his legs. At the same time they were carrying the man,
they were firing at the enemy with their revolvers. At one time, Lance
Corporal PHELPS dropped the man we were carrying and shot a Viet Cong that
was about ten or fifteen feet from us. This Med-Evac was
about thirty to forty feet from the helicopter and was quite difficult to
get into the aircraft. We finally got him into the bird. We were receiving
heavy automatic fire at all times while we were on the beach. I had
determined that the fourth man was dead, for when I checked him, he appeared
to have his throat cut and was not breathing and had no heart beat. We did
not go back to get him. Captain FAIRFIELD also went over and checked this
man and also felt he was dead.
As we were putting the third Med-Evac into the
aircraft, an Army Huey began to strafe the ‘ville and tree lines to keep the
enemy away from us. Without their support, we would have been unable to
complete our mission.
As we put the med-evac in the aircraft, an H-34 landed on the
beach. I later found out that it was an ARVN [Probably VNAV]
aircraft. We took off so I cannot say if he picked up the last body. As we
took off, we had extreme difficulty getting airborne. We skipped across the
water and Captain PLESS, with another outstanding show of airmanship managed
to get us airborne. We were taking heavy fire on take-off, but made it.
Once we were airborne, we took the wounded men directly to the First
Hospital Company at Chu Lai, applying first aid enroute. Following their
delivery, we returned to Ky Ha.
L. N. POULSON
