Enclosure 8
From: Colonel Richard I. Wiles
Colonel Richard I. Wiles
Post Office Box 160
June 11, 1993
Dear Bob,
I saw the note in Ivy Leaves regarding a helicopter which was shot down in the 4th Division AO in 1968.
I witnessed the incident. At the time I was the commander of the 2d Howitzer Bn, 9th Field Artillery. The 2/9th was the direct support battalion for the divisions 3rd Brigade. I was flying in the Brigade Commanders command and control helicopter during the insertion of a battalion into, what turned out to be, a hot LZ. The LZ was small and could accommodate only one UH-1 at a time. The first ship into the LZ was shot down (by a B-40, as I recall) as it was lifting off after dropping its infantry. The burning Huey made it impossible for any other ships to get into the LZ. That left one squad in the hostile LZ alone. The Infantry battalion commander, LTC Yarborough (“Salidin” was his radio code name) had his C ‘n’ C ship fly over the LZ so he could drop a fire extinguisher to the soldiers on the ground. The LZ was n the peak of a hill. The first extinguisher missed. Yarborough had the chopper hover so he could lower a second extinguisher to the ground. While in the hover his Huey was also shot down.
Since LTC Yarborough was then in no position to continue to command the operation, the brigade commander, COL Stan McClellan, took charge. He found an alternate LZ a short distance from the original LZ before they could be eliminated by the NVA.
I heard that Yarborough’s chopper was also shot down by a
B-40 which hit the door gunner. The
door gunner was killed. Yarborough
lost a part of his foot. I do not
remember Yarboroughs first name and have lost track of him.
McClellan became a Major General; last I heard of him he was retired in
Two of my
MajGen Richard X. Larkin and MajGen William C. Moore