The Truth of What Happened That fateful day
Posted for: JAMES BORLAND HIEMENZ:

I remember that night all too well. Hiemenz was part of the crew that included Jeff Olsen, Mel Grant, and Jack Apodaca, as well as four others from 2nd Brigade. Jeff was a Diamondhead AC flying a Little Bear ship. Your last 'Letters from you' refers to the incident. It was the 'Medal Mission', Division Ready, and they had been called to do C&C at a contact near Trang Bang, I believe.

Ed Mitchell was AC and I was PP in a Nighthawk, and we were the first aircraft on the scene. Ed made a couple of low passes to see if we could get anyone out, but there was no hope for any of them. All would have died instantly.

As fate would have it, Ed and I were flying together the next afternoon at Tay Ninh, when we crashed picking up a Flamebath. Jacky Landers was killed in that one, and our Crew Chief was medevaced home. I remember that we had to wait several hours for a flight back to Cu Chi on the Division Ready ship. It was delayed coming to get us because they had to take the eight body bags from the night before down to Hotel Mike.

Ed might be able to add a bit to this, if you want more. I had only been in country a bit over two months at the time.

George
Posted by: Ron Leonard
Email: webmaster@25thaviation.org
Relationship: We served together
Friday, December 16, 2005
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