Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

·C05303949
Chapter Thirteen
to man the radios. Arriving unharmed at the facilities above.]
~aw no
bodies and no damage except for a burning generator. But a Hmong who ventured
beyond the living quarters drew firc and was wounded, and part of the
team escorted him back down. An enemy soldier came into sight, then as suddenly
disappeared after a blast from I Ishotgun.· was then
himself wounded in the Ie ,but made his wa back down the ath
Daylight gave the advantage back to the air torce.] Ithinking the
site crew all dead, directed A-26 and A-IE strikes that-inaccurate enough to
wound several! IHmong defenders-nevertheless forced the North
Vietnamese to seek cover. At this point, USAF Jolly Green Giant helicopters,
their pilots unaware of the sapper attack and still under instructions to evacuate
part of the Site 85 staff, were already on their way."0 .
Ken Wood, flying an Air America UH-I out of Long Tieng, also had no
inkling of the Site 85 disaster until he heard the beeping signal of a survival
radio on the air force guard frequency. Arriving at Phou Pha Thi, Wood found
A-lEs trying to silence the site's 12.7mm machinegun, captured and being
fired by the North Vietnamese.69D
Captain Wood saw light reflected from a survival kit mirror on the ledge.
below the crest and maneuvered in toward it, a mile above the valley floor. He
hovered over the ledge while Chief M.Sgt. Richard Etchberger used the rescue
cable to lower himself to the ledge. He hoisted a wounded technician, then
another, up to the helicopter. Then, with a third survivor who dashed down
from his hiding place at the last moment and simply grabbed the cable, Etchberger
was lifted off the ledge. Throughout this exercise, made even more perilous
by wind and fog, the Huey had taken no fire. But as it rose from the
relative shelter of the cliff, automatic weapons fire tore through its belly, and
Sergeant Etchberger suffered a fatal bullet wound.D
" Castle, One Da~ Too Long, 125-27;I
I ~ l-- _
68 Castle, One Day Too Long, 125,1270
69 These accounts of helicopteroperations on 11 March are taken from OneDayToo-Long, ChapterlOD
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