We lost another hero:

John Whitehead D 229 Scout Platoon leader who flew out with 9 on board his OH 6 helicopter on April 8th 1972 passed away yesterday at Columbus GA.   Marv Zumwalt, the remaining MACV Advisor that John saved during the rescue called notifiying us with the information.  John received the Distinguished Service Cross for this efforts on that day.

Capt. Whitehead, a Scout in Delta Troop, 229th, may have broken the world record for the number of passengers carried by an OH-6A, when he rescued the advisors under heavy fire.  Desperate ARVNs seized the opportunity by mobbing his helicopter, and Whitehead and his gunner flew out with three advisors and four Vietnamese jamming the aircraft and hanging from the skids.

An old term denoting conspicuous valor is to be “mentioned in the dispatches”, and John Whitehead certainly was.  The task force daily journal mentions few individuals by name, and then only for particular reasons.  Brigadier General Hamlet’s succinct orders designating who would rescue whom, followed by reports from the 3rd Brigade (Separate) Deputy Commander, COL John Casey, were logged on 8 April:

0830 hours – CG: S-3 will rescue personnel from Nui Ba Dinh.  DCO-A, D/229, 75th Rangers will rescue Cornish 67 from Cat Lo Bridge.  CO 1/21, F/9 Cav will move 2,000 ARVN from Bu Dop to Song Be.

This 0830 log entry is as poignant as it is significant.  In the real world, unlike in the movies, soldiers and missions within like units are normally either somewhat or completely interchangeable, and there is not a case of “There’s only one man who could pull this off.”

The Commanding General assessed the major missions for his brigade that morning, and without any of the dramatics one learns to expect from the less informed, he designated which missions would be performed by which units and leaders.  Once the missions were tasked to the particular units, it became the luck of the draw as to which particular pilots had already been assigned to be flying that day, and who would be assigned in what order.  No planning the night before, no preparing the roster for a special mission.  The missions were assigned to the units, and they were carried out with the personnel and equipment on hand.

So it was that John Whitehead’s unit was tasked to rescue advisors, and his job became to get them out.  Had that mission fallen to the other Cavalry Troop, it would probably have been their Scout Platoon Leader, Joe Harris, who would have attempted the rescue.  Would he or anyone else have succeeded as well as John Whitehead, or would he have died near the Cat Lo bridge instead of in the rubber plantation near Bu Dop?

The die was cast as the assignments were divided, and the progress of the missions were logged:

1045 hours – DCO-A: Bay run on ground at Cat Lo Bridge, putting CBU around advisors position checking with LOH after CBU.

1055 hours – DCO-A: LOH received ground to air fire vicinity of XT 7297, unknown damage.  AH-1G also hit from D/229.

1110 hours – DCO-A: 3 advisors at Cat Lo Bridge rescued by D/229 and 75th Rangers.  Critically wounded update to follow.

1215 hours – DCO-A: LOH used for extraction at Cat Lo took 4 hits small arms and 51 cal.  Carried 3 U.S., 4 ARVN, pilot and gunner total 9 people.  Pilot CPT Whitehead, Gunner SGT Waites.

Nine people on an OH-6A that had been hit by automatic weapons fire.  Nine men on a LOH, with the blood flowing in the airstream.

In 1998, an unsuccessful effort was made to have John Whitehead’s Distinguished Service Cross award upgraded to a well-deserved Medal of Honor.  As the Deputy Brigade Commander remarked on the day it happened, if John Whitehead had landed within sight of journalists, he would have been assured the Medal Of Honor.

Here's a link to the full story:

http://www.229thavbn.com/Rescue-from-Cat-Lo-Bridge.htm

My unit, the Blue Max had fire teams present at the Cat Lo Bridge that day trying to keep the NVA from overunning the friendly position.  Shortly before John Whithead's rescue a Dustoff pilot lost his life attempting to get in and pull the wounded and American Advisors out of the ambush.

On April 8th, I was nearby in my Cobra fighting another day long battle at Nui Ba Den mountain.  The radio chatter that day was incredible.

RIP John Whitehead.

Damn, what a badass.