Mike Dopson is a relative of mine, a distant cousin on my mother's side. He
retired from the USN as a Commander. He did two tours in Vietnam, as a
Rescue Helicopter pilot. He is also a true Patriot, a Christian, and an
unsung hero, as he made many flights into North Vietnam to rescue downed
pilots. HOOOAH to Mike.
AJ
Si vis pacem, para bellum. Numquam cede, numquam succumbe. Cave canem.
MOLON LABE !!
"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be
restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." --John Adams
-----Original Message-----
Michael Imler Dopson
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2011 12:46 PM
Subject: Hero Name Unknown
I will tell you a true story that happened in my first squadron, HS-8. We
were on our second tour to (1966-67) Vietnam, this time we had armored and
armed H-3 Helicopters for Search & Rescue (SAR). The Navy was responsible
for all over water (Feet Wet) rescues and up to 35-50 miles inland (Feet
Dry). Anything further into Indian Country was the Air Forces Mission from
Thailand.
We were to support all Alpha Strikes hitting North Vietnam from the Sea.
There were two designated SAR points, not original names, but we made do,
"South SAR & North SAR".
The players were a HH-3A, Sikorsky Sea King (Crew of Four)
And a North American RA-5 Vigilante (Vigie); Crew of Two
Douglas A-1 Skyraider; SAR Combat Air Patrol (CAP), aka SARCAP aka SPAD;
Single Pilot
AD-4 Skyraider
The flight crew in the HH-3a were Navy Lt. Bill Schiller and Ltjg Ken Rose,
the crewmen were AW-3 Adams and I can't remember the other one's name.
The Crew in the RA-5 was the Pilot (no name known) and the Radar Intercept
Officer (RIO), Lt. Pendergast. Pendergast was a 6' 4", 230 guy, no whimp.
The Pilot's name of the of the A-1 SPAD was never known---he was flying off
of CV-19 - USS Handcock. The SPADS carried a mixed bag of shootum-ups. As
the pic shows they carried 5" Havars (Heavy Rockets) on their outboard
racks, on the in board bomb rack the carried a LAU-33AA 2.75" Rocket Pods
and in the wings they carried ea. side two 20MM Cannon. Great Aircraft for
the mission--lots of on station time (10-12 hours).
Story Narrative: The RA-5 was on photo recon South of Hia Phong Harbor
taking pics for a A-6 & A-7 Alpha Strike. While Feet Dry it got hit by
"AAA" and lost its starboard engine and was getting a fire warning light in
its port engine. The pilot was trying his best to get to Feet Wet so he
could be picked up by Navy SAR. Just as he hit Feet Wet, the Vigie gave up
the ghost and the pilot and RIO hit the silk. Just before hitting the silk
they got out their last Emergency Radio Call and knew that the HH-3 was
inbound to them along with the SPAD. The RIO landed just off shore in 2-3
feet of water, the Vigie made some what a controlled crash about 500-1000
yds further up the beach so he thought that the pilot had stayed with the
aircraft and decided to ditch it along the beach (We learned later that the
pilot had hit the silk also, that for some reason the aircraft landed
itself, and the pilot was never recovered by the North Vietnamese Army
{NVA})---so, he started a hike to the loction of the Vigie. He had just
started when he heard the HH-3 coming in from somewhere still Feet Wet. He
pulled his Navy Issue .38 S & W loaded with tracer and fired the five rounds
into the sky to give the SAR crew his location. He never got very far when
about 12-15 NVA came out of the bushes and took him prisoner. Two of the
guards pulled his .38, shouldered their rifles and the rest took out for the
Vigie, also thinking they would find the other crewmember there. The two
guards started the RIO the opposite direction and when they were about 1500
yd. from the others the SAR HH-3 came into sight. The guards were still
holding him prisoner with his own empty .38 (they never checked to see if it
was loaded or not), so Pendergast turns on the one whose hands are empty and
clobbers the crap out him--and down he goes. The other one jumps back and
dry fires the .38 and Pendergast reaches inside of his left flight suit
pocket and pulls out his B/U, a little .25 cal Browning Auto and points at
the guards head from 3' and goes Bap Bap--dead NVA. Well Pendergast takes
out like a scared rabbit and runs towards the incoming HH-3 and meets it
about 15 yd. out Feet Wet in about 3' of water. The HH-3 comes to a hover
and starts the pickup, but it also starts taking heavy automatic ground fire
from the beach along with morter fire. The cockpit of it starts looking
like a sieve, Ken Rose's instrument panel is shot to pieces and a round goes
between two fingers of his left hand, numbing it, but not breaking the skin
or bones.
Now for the SPAD---he is the real hero, because if it hadn't been for him
the HH-3 would have been shot out of the Air. He makes multiple rocket runs
on the heavy machine guns and mortars, taking them out. Then he starts his
20MM strafing runs to take out the ground NVA that are becoming a pain in
the tail. He has soon expended all of his ordinance and the HH-3 is still
hovering and very vulnerable, so he makes fake passes to scare the ground
NVA. He gets right down on the deck and chases them with that big beautful
24' diameter four bladed prop. His aircraft is now shot to pieces by ground
fire. He personally has been hit four times in his lower body, his port
landing gear is hanging down like a broken leg as he pulls off his attack as
the helo egresses. His aircraft can no longer be recovered back on board a
carrier and due to his injuries they don't think the can survive a ditching
along side of a carrier or small boy, so he is sent to Danang Air Base and
he bellies it in along side of the run way.
The HH-3 along with Pendergast makes it safely back to the carrier.
The Helo Aircraft Commander and Co-Pilot get a Navy Silver Star as well as
the crewmen. The Spad Pilot is recommended for a Congresson Medal of Honor,
but it is later down graded to a DFC. Early in the war medals were hard to
come by for support flight crews and flowed like water during the last few
years up to 1973.
Mike
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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