The Sandbag Times Issue No:24

News Special
Heroic Huey pilot to receive Medal of Honor five decades later
May 15, 1967. On that May morning
in Vietnam, Maj. Kettles’ and several
other helicopter pilots ferried about
80 soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the 101st
Airborne Division to a landing zone near the
Song Tra Cau River. The river, just eight or 10
feet above sea level, drifted past a 1,500-foot
hill. “Very steep, which set them up for an
ambush,” Kettles recalls. “Which did happen.”
Hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers, dug
into tunnels and bunkers, attacked the
Americans with machine guns, mortars and
recoilless rifles. “Two or three hours after they
were inserted, they had been mauled over and
the battalion commander called for
reinforcements,” Kettles says. Kettles
volunteered to fly in reinforcements and to
retrieve the wounded and dead. As they
swooped in to land, the North Vietnamese
focused their fire on the helicopters. Soldiers
were killed before they could leap from the
aircraft, according to the official account of the
fight. Air Force jets dropped napalm on the
machine gun positions overlooking the landing
zone, but it had little
effect. The attack
continued, riddling the
helicopters with bullets.
Kettles refused to
leave, however, until
the fresh troops and
supplies had been
dropped off and the
dead and wounded
crowded aboard to be
flown out. Kettles ran
the gauntlet again,
bringing more
reinforcements amid
mortar and machine
gun fire that seriously wounded his gunner and
tore into his helicopter. The crew from another
helicopter reported to Kettles that fuel was
pouring from his aircraft. Kettles wobbled
back to the base. "Immediately, all the pilots
and copilots in the company decided, 'This is
Medal of Honor material right there.' "I don’t
know if there's anyone who's gotten an Medal
of Honor who deserved it more," he said.
"There's no better candidate as far as I'm
concerned." On hearing the news he said The
Medal of Honor, he says, “belongs to them
certainly as much as myself. I just happened
to be the lead position where the decisions
were mine, properly so. Read the full story
and watch the video of Major Kettles here.
Would you
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Learn a skill that could stop sleep
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We're looking for ex-servicemen/ women of any age from any
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The approach is non-invasive, doesn't involve drugs or therapy
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Approved by the Help for Heroes Research Approvals Committee and
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Spaces are limited and group sessions are
being held at your local Help for Heroes
Recovery Centre in 2016.
The next sessions are:
Plymouth 28 June
Colchester 29 June
Scotland/Wales TBA
Contact Justin Havens now to register or ask
any questions:
research@justinhavens.com
07976 724181
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