[Ambush Master]

EYEWITNESS STATEMENT BY SGT MARTIN T. BENNETT, XXX-XX-XXXX, OF EVENTS OF
22 JANUARY 1971.

ON 22 Jan 71 at approx 0900 hours MSG G. came up to our class and asked for volunteers to go out and secure a downed helicopter. Captain S., SSG H., SGT Opperman, SGT Celano, and SGT Bennett offered our assistance. The first chopper load consisted of SFC M., CPT S., SSG H., and SGT Bennett. The second chopper had MSG G., SSG Lovelace, SGT Opperman, and SGT Celano. The first chopper went into the LZ, hovered, dropped the ladders and we went down and set up security. The second chopper came in, hovered, for approx 5 minutes and then took fire from approx 3 AKs. The chopper swerved to the right and it's main rotor struck a tree. Somewhere between the time that the shooting started and the chopper hit the tree, MSG G. jumped from the ladder. After the chopper hit the tree, I saw it Climb out of control and then spin. I really didn't think that it had gone down, even though I could hear the whine of the engine after it had crashed, there was just too much happening. When the ground fire started SFC M. pulled us all together to tighten our security and at the same time we weren't sure where the LOH was. He got an azimuth from one of the choppers overhead and we started moving. CPT S. started out on point with me behind him then SFC M., MSG G. and last SSG H.. Somewhere between where we started and the LOH, I ended up as point. It was about 25 to 35 meters. We crawled up to within about 10 meters of the LOH, which was burning, and I saw a bunker. I saw one of the pilots and made my way up to him to see if he was alive, he wasn't. At this time I saw the other pilot piled up in the door of a bunker. It looked as though the two had been thrown from the aircraft upon impact due to the fact that the instrument panel and other parts of the aircraft were between the wreckage and where I found the pilots. The second pilot was also dead. CPT S. and myself, upon command from SFC M., proceeded to drag the bodies back to the LZ. When we got them to the LZ we tied them together and were awaiting a dustoff. When the dustoff arrived, it hovered about 30 meters from our, position and started lowering the rescue seat. We were popping a signal panel and the door gunner saw us, but they wouldn't come to our position. It was at this time that we were told that the second chopper had gone down. SFC M. told us to forget the bodies and move out in the direction of the dustoff. I again took up the point position when I came up on the bunker that I had found before I stopped and asked SFC M. what I should do. He said just run across the top of it, so I took off. We ran across another bunker about 10 to 15 meters from the first and we crossed it in the same manner. Right after we got across this second bunker and broke out of the brush we saw the downed Huey. There was a dustoff medic coming down to it and when we got up to the chopper I saw SGT Celano still entangled in the ladder. I hesitated and SFC M. hollered at me to get around to the other side of the chopper and set up security. When I got around to the other side I found SGT Opperman's body like Celano's, still entangled in the ladder. As near as I could figure it, neither of them really knew or thought that it was going to crash, and just held on and rode it into the ground.
I told SFC M. that I had found another body and he said not to worry
about it until we got the wounded medevaced. SFC M.,
CPT S. and MSG G. were on the right side of the chopper giving assistance to the medic, keeping commo going, and keeping up security while SSG H. and myself were on the left side for security. After the wounded had been gotten out SFC M. came over to me and said "Let's go find Lovelace, he's not here." We moved about 30 meters to the rear of the chopper and found his body under a bunch of brush. We then drug him over to the chopper and put all of the bodies together in a group. I went back to security and a short time later SFC M. called me over to have me go check out a bunker, off about 20 to 25 meters that looked like it had a man on top of it. I had seen this same bunker from my position when we were at the LOH and I knew that what he thought was a man was a big sheet of canvas on top of a bunker and it had rolled up due to the wash from the choppers. SFC M. accepted this and the medic mentioned that we should get the radios out of the chopper and I was behind him and about 10 meters from SFC M. when a terrific explosion went off between SFC M. and myself. It knocked me off my feet and for a distance of about 6 to 10 feet off into the underbrush. When I hit the ground I started crawling towards SSG H. and the medic. SFC M. was hollering get away and then a second explosion went off in approx the same area. At this time I thought it was a B-40 and that SFC M. and everyone on his side of the ship was dead. I didn't hear him hollering and I could just barely hear anything anyway. I got to SSG H. and the medic and we lay there thinking that everyone else was dead and there we were without any commo. We were waving at the gunships which were flying at about tree top level trying to communicate, but it didn't do any good. Finally I decided that I should make my way to the other side of the chopper with SSG H. covering me and try to retrieve the radio. At about the time I got up even with the nose of the chopper I saw some movement from the bushes and it was SFC M.. I called out to him and he answered and I called to H. and the medic to come on when I moved to where SFC M., MSG G. and CPT S. were I saw that CPT S. had been injured by the blasts. The medic went to work immediately and we moved away from the chopper over to where we had left the LOH pilots on our LZ. We were there for about five minutes before the reinforcements arrived and when they did we just fell back to the center of their perimeter and proceeded to move all of the bodies to the LZ. SFC M., SSG H. and myself were finally extracted after being on the ground for seven hours.



Martin T. Bennett
SGT, XXX-XX-XXXX


EYEWITNESS STATEMENT BY SFC ALTON E. M., XXX-XX-XXXX, OF EVENTS OF
22 JANUARY 1971



At approximately 0945 hrs 22 January 1971, CPT S., SGT Bennett, SSG H., and myself were dispatched by helicopter to the site of a downed LOH to secure the area. Upon arriving at the site of the downed LOH we dropped the ladders and climbed down. We set up security on the LZ so the second chopper came in and dropped their ladders and 4 people climbed down. This chopper was hovering too high and the people who had climbed out on the ladders were approximately 30 feet off the ground. At this time the chopper started receiving fire from the ground and it looked to me as though the chopper pulled pitch and started to fly away. About the time the chopper started to move away, one of the four men on the ladder dropped off. I did not know at this time that the pilot had been hit and that the chopper crashed. We then moved off the LZ and headed for the downed LOH. Upon finding the LOH we realized that we were in a base camp of some type. We found bunkers, food, clothing, water containers and numerous other items throughout the area. We also found two bodies from the LOH. We secured the bodies and their equipment and moved back to the LZ for extraction. Upon reaching the LZ we were told that the second chopper had also crashed a short distance away. I told the other people to move to the site of the second chopper. We had to move back across the bunker complex to reach the crash site. When we got there, I positioned the people around the crashed helicopter and started looking for the people. We found the bodies of the pilot and two of the men who were on the ladder when the chopper crashed. I got SGT Bennett and we started looking for the third man who was on the ladder. We found him dead about 30 meters from the crash. The other three crew members and MSG G., the one who jumped from the ladder, were alive but in need of immediate medical attention. We gave what attention we could and called for a Dustoff to extract them. About this time two explosions occured near the crashed chopper. CPT S. was wounded as a result of these explosions. The Dustoff came in and we began extracting the wounded. It took several Dustoff helicopters to get all the wounded and dead out. About this time a Reaction Company from the 25th Infantry Division arrived at the scene. They secured the area and we were extracted and taken back to CLT.



Alton E. M.
SFC, XXX-XX-XXXX
Det B-53, 5th SFGA