“ Lost to battle damage while cruising WSW at 1,500 feet MSL near Hue City in South Vietnam. Large caliber bullets entered starboard side damaging number two engine and one hydraulic system. Number two engine explosion compromised fire door and number one engine. Fire from the rear swept forward consuming hydraulic fluid and producing thick, acrid smoke. Crew of five on board. Pilot entered nose-low autorotation, secured engines and crashed with high forward speed, 8 miles north of Hue City, near Highway 1. Pilot and copilot were ejected on impact with their armored seats. Pilot survived, copilot died. Crew chief threw one passenger with clothes aflame from the cabin while still airborne, during autorotative flare to reduce airspeed; passenger survived his injuries. Crew chief was burned and paralyzed in the crash and succumbed eight days later. The gunner died on impact. ”

“ I was piloting 152529 on June 11, 1969, on an administrative mission to pick up a forward transmission from Quang Tri. Before the return to Marble Mountain Air Facility, where HMM-165 was stationed, I was goig to deliver one passenger, a Marine PFC Dixon, to Camp Evans Army base, where hs brother was an Army medevac piot. About eights miles from landing, I descended from 500' MSL to 1500" mSL. As I raised to collective to level of, there was anexplosion and I saw the Ng for #2 engine dropping. As I began single engine emergency procedure, the crew chief yelled "fire" oner the ICS, thich, acrid smoke and fire hit the cokpit, the second engibne exploded and the sound of the Nr drooping caused me to enter and autorotation, yaw the aircraft to see out of the right side window and head for the ground. As the ground approached, I straightened out the aircraft, raised the nose to an extremely high angle of attack to bleed off airspeed, rocked the nose forward and pulled the collective full up. I felt the bump as the rear wheels touched. My next memory was lying on my back outside of the aircraft. ”