Buon Enao Project, October, 1962

The "Buon Enao Project" as we knew it, was formally named "The Tribal Area Development Program", then the "Village Defense Program" and finally the "Civilian Irregular Defense Group" (CIDG).

There were four "A" detachments deployed on this mission. My team -- from "B" Company and three from "C" Company, 1st SFG (LO T-105, dated 28 July 1962) were assigned to relieve Cpt. Ron Shackleton's team -- which had set up the initial base at Buon Enao -- and to expand the project.

Shackleton only had half a team (7) with him. Since Cpt. Cordell was the ranking officer, his team was selected to stay at Buon Enao as the control and support team, acting similar to a "B" team. The vast majority of the work of training and securing the villages, as well as patrolling, was done by the outlying and unheralded "A" teams.

My Team members were:
(This time we were deployed with a full 12 man "A" team)

Special Forces Detachment A-223
Buon Tah Mo, August 1962 to February 1963

CO 1LT James M. McFadden

XO  1LT Carl J. Regan

Team Sergeant  MSG (E8)Arthur T. Fields Jr.

Intel Sergeant  SSG Richard M. Grabish

Heavy Weapons  MSG (E7) LeLand E. Chitwood

Light Weapons  SGT Jack L. Hamilton

Senior Medic  SFC Leo F. Drake

Junior Medic  SP5 Donald L. Van Koevering

Senior Commo  SFC William L. Planck

Junior Commo  SGT Phillip D. Wilson

Senior Demo  PFC James K. Gornto

Junior Demo  PFC Ramon W. Morgan

We flew out of Kadena AFB on an unmarked C-47, with a Taiwanese pilot. We landed at Ban Me Thout where we were met and taken to Buon Enao. There we were given two old World War II vehicles, a green jeep and a 2-1/2 ton truck. We were introduced to the village chief of Buon Tah Mo and told that we would be going there to establish a base.

We piled our gear and what supplies we were given onto the vehicles, and with a small lightly armed group of Rhade setout through the jungle, for the village. There were no roads so the going was slow and rocky as we hacked our way through the jungle. The Rhade had no vehicles and therefore did not need roads. Foot and animal paths sufficed.

The village chief had already started the village fortifications. Upon arriving we built our team house, commo bunker, ammo storage bunker, infirmary, and other facilities that were needed. We did this in conjunction with training the men of the village in the use of weapons and tactics. We also trained and armed a strike force battalion.

Then we started reaching out and bringing in the surrounding villages. We trained and armed them and then sent them back to their villages, along with a strike force unit to defend them while they fortified their village and made it secure. All the while we kept up our patrols in ever increasing range, using secured villages as patrol bases in a stepping stone fashion.

As we went along, we had to develop new techniques and tactics. As we advanced toward the Cambodian border the VC started emptying out the villages that we had not yet reached -- taking the villagers into the jungle and going underground. We discovered the VC had established a training camp in the foothills of the Cu Ken mountains near Ban Don along the Song Srepok River. This VC base stood between us and Ban Don, so we decided to take it out.

We cleared a Landing Zone at our primary base in Buon Tah Mo and readied our Strike Force, equipping them with German 9mm MP-40 submachine guns, new web gear, black uniforms, bush hats and Batta boots.

The plan was to hit and destroy the VC training camp and then one company would sweep north in a "U" and the other company would sweep south in a "U", with both companies returning by foot back to base camp at Buon Tah Mo. There were no officers on the ground for this operation. The code name and my call sign for this operation was "POWDER BLUE".

For air support, we had one WWII B-26 bomber and two FARMGATE AT-28s.

The Aircraft involved in this operation were:

3 H-21C SHAWNEE helicopters which flew two lifts each to bring troops into the battlefield (81st Transportation Company, Pleiku (Holloway Field)

1 WWII Douglas B-26 COUNTER INVADER bomber which flew air cover and dropped bombs on VC complex. The pilot was Capt VanHovel.

2 FARMGATE AT-28 TROJAN aircraft which flew air cover for the operation. The pilots were Capt Bill Chambers and Capt Robert Walker. Capt Chambers was shot down on the morning of 16 Oct 62.

1 HELIO U-10 SUPER COURIER (civilian name: L-28). This is the one on which three Americans were KIA.

BILL: Bob Walker and I were getting bored sitting around and nothing happening. The U-10 was sitting on the ground also waiting for some word from the field that they had contact with the bad guys (you were out in the field with them??) Your Capt. said he was sure he could find some targets for us, and he went with Capt. Booth and Sgt. Foxx in the U-10. They were going to make contact with the forces on the ground and find us some targets. We were to take off about 30 minutes after they did.

The CIA guy was going to fly in the back seat with me, but he had finished off too many bottles of gin the night before and could not even climb up on the wing of my aircraft. We decided he could fly with me later-that was one time that the gin saved his life. (By the way- of the seventy some-odd missions I flew there, I had a Vietnamese in the back seat two times and they were privates, we hardly ever flew with them in the aircraft).

CHARLIE: We did sporadically contact Art's troops who had moved in by helicopter across a ridge west of us. We talked to the U-10 (Foxx was on the FM) that over flew us in preparation of air strikes by Commando T-28's. We received a single radio transmission that the U-10 was on fire and was going down. We could not raise anyone on the radios, and Helmick and I set out toward the shoot down site.

Then the Commando T-28's began to over fly us. We were horrified at the thought that the guys (Billy Chambers and Walker, I think) would mistake us for the VC and attack us. As it turns out they did not and we felt safer with them overhead. We frequently threw colored smoke to let them know of our willingness to be seen.

For Slide Show of Buon Enao Photographs (large), Click Here

BILL: I well remember seeing your orange smoke on the ground. We had been briefed that you would mark your position with it. Too bad our communications were so bad- maybe I would have avoided being downed. I also remember being briefed that if you needed air support you would lay down panels on the ground with an arrow pointing in the direction of the target with strips ( I forget how many for so many kilometers) indicating distance! Glad you didn't have to do that- I can think of better things to do than be under fire while trying to lay down panels! Hope our services can talk to each other today.

CHARLIE: I also took those marker panels and cut holes in them and made the Rhade wear them like a cape so you could see us. I was very frightened that you guys would shoot us. One or two of the Rhade kept saying, when they saw you guys scrutinizing us, "We must run, Airplane shoot!" I kept yelling no, no! If we run we are dead! I finally told my interpreter, Peter Gunn, to tell them that the first man to run I would shoot him myself. They calmed down after you guys flew down and inspected us, and began to overfly us as we traveled.

BILL: Charlie, I wondered about them wearing orange with the VC around, but it sure made it easy for us to see you. They looked like they were moving very orderly. I remember some of you waving at us. I sure wanted to have radio contact with you.

CHARLIE: My waving included me clasping my hands onto my ears as though placing headsets. I wanted to try, against the facts, to see if you could contact us on the pitiful PRC-10 (FM) set we were using. I remember the one low pass you or Walker made at your own risk to "check us out" and I'm probably alive today due to (1) you doing that and seeing we were Caucasians and not Asians, and then (2) flying over us till dark!

-AT-28's at Nha Trang 1962

ART: In the early morning of 15 Oct 1962, three C-21C Shawnee (Flying Bananas) helicopters flew in. The first lift was loaded and the copters lifted off.

I was standing in the door of the lead chopper and it was struggling with it's heavy load. All of a sudden the door filled with tree branches and leaves, I thought we were going down for sure, but the pilot gave it the gas and we went up above the treetops. When we landed at the objective we immediately captured two VC. The Viet Cong prisoners were brought over to me and upon questioning them, my interpreter, pointing to the jungle, said to me: "many VC! many VC!!" I threw a smoke grenade toward the VC encampment and the B-26 started its run, dropping bombs and strafing the area. Not all the VC in the camp had small arms and those that were not killed scattered into the thick jungle. They were in small groups that we encountered during the remainder of the operation. We had to be careful of the women and children that were with them

By the evening of 15 October 1962, we had destroyed the VC training camp and were securing the objective. I was in communication with the senior Special Forces Commander, CPT Terry Cordell, coordinating the resupply of ammo and supplies in order to continue the mission. My Radio Operator was up in a tree putting up the jungle antenna for better communication. CPT Cordell was in the HELIO U-10D observation aircraft, flying overhead -- low and slow. I was speaking with him on the FM radio (PRC-10) and suddenly he went blank. My Radioman shouted, "look! look!!" I looked up and saw the aircraft going straight up with fire coming from the nose area. It looped over and started spiraling down into the jungle. On board the plane were CPT Terry D. Cordell (U. S. Army Special Forces, 1st SFG, Okinawa) and two USAF personnel, Capt Herbert W. "Willoughby" Booth Jr., the pilot, and T/Sgt Richard L. "Dick" Foxx, the Combat Air Controller (USAF Det. 2 Alpha, 1st Air Commando Group) All were killed in the resulting crash.

CHARLIE: As night approached, we came upon a grass house village unoccupied. We torched it to give off smoke the next morning, expecting this would aid the hoped for arrival of T-28s the next morning. Due to a raging mad Gaur (this is a type of wild water buffalo) roaring toward us, we had our Rhade shouting to each other. Art's group was at this time arriving from the West toward the shootdown site. We joined with them.

Art's group got to the downed plane before we did. All aboard were dead, and very badly burned, as was the plane. I commend Art. He was the ranking man and he took immediate charge. We had a few families with crying babies who had somewhere joined the group. We had a pitiful defense in numbers. Under Art's command we decided not to try to outshoot the VC. They probed us all night, and sounded trumpets or whistles. Helmick and I took the horizontal stabilizer from the wreck and propped it up so we could lie and lean on it during the long night. I was glad for daylight.

ART: It was night and very dark in deep thick jungle when we reached the crash site. The Viet Cong were also trying to reach the crash site and we killed a few in the process of locating the wreckage. When the plane went down through the jungle trees, the left wing had broken and folded over the cockpit. I found all three aboard dead with their bodies severely burned.

I set up a defensive perimeter (circle) around the crash site to keep the VC from the bodies and the still smoldering wreckage. Because I had no way of knowing for sure if there were VC within the circle I gave the order that anything that moved within or without the defensive position would be shot. Luckily we had sealed off the area before the VC had penetrated it. I radioed in my coordinates and called for a chopper to evacuate the KIAs. I was told that the chopper would be coming from Pleiku and would arrive in the early morning.We left the bodies in the wreckage until the next morning. The VC probed our defenses all night with sporadic small arms fire, bugles and whistles.

At daybreak I sent out a party to search for a clearing to be used as an Landing Zone for the incoming chopper. A clearing was found and it was checked out for obstacles and panels were laid out marking the spot. It was later verified from the air that the clearing we had marked for the LZ was in fact the only clearing for miles. First to arrive (unannounced) was a C-47 and a A H-34 helicopter. The C-47 made a couple of passes over the crash site and flew off toward BMT. The H-34 with USAF Air commandos Col. Mike Doyle (CO), SSG Hap Lutz (medic) and SSG William Cody (Combat air controller) aboard landed at the LZ we had set up. The H-34 was flown by an American, with a Vietnamese "advisee" in the other seat. The H-34 came under fire and lifted off. It went around a couple of times before they could land again.

We had extracted the bodies from the wreckage and loaded them on stretchers. When the H-34 finally touched down again we quickly loaded the bodies, along with the recovery team, and it lifted off for Ban Me Thout where the C-47 was waiting to take them to Saigon.

Just as the H-34 was lifting off a FARM-GATE AT-28 came in low and slow and was also shot down. It came screaming into the ground and almost hit us. People were running for cover. I am sure that it was one of the same planes that provided air cover the previous day. It was fully loaded. Ammo was exploding like the 4th of July in the burning wreckage. Despite exploding ammunition and ordnance shrapnel set of by the intense heat and thick smoke from the devastating fire of the burning aircraft I got him (Capt. Bill Chambers) out of the wreckage alive. I almost lost some of our people looking for the second pilot before we realized there was none. The pilot had taken off without his Vietnamese counterpart. A short time later a CH-21 came wobbling in and we placed the badly injured pilot aboard for evacuation.

SF sergeant from either BounHo or Boun Tah Mo team with Rhade fighters at BounTrap, east of the shootdown site

Air Commandos and SF troops load aboard a "deuce and half" for trip out of Boun Ho. From left to right, unnamed Rhade troop, Commando Charlie Jones boosting Dick Foxx on to the tailgate. SF weapons sergeant Roberg is seated facing Foxx, next to unnamed SF sergeant. Commando Joe Orr, armed with the M-2 folding stock .30 caliber carbine, walks toward the truck The M-2 with two or three 18 round magazines, was a favorite due to its light weight and high rate of fire.

USAF Commando SSgt.Charlie Jones with his "section" of Rhade troops. This is in Boun Dhung. Jones also had a 60 MM mortar team, not shown. He carries the Commando-newly acquired Colt Armalite AR-15, the forerunner of the military's M-16. The Army times reported that Jones was the first to fire the weapon in combat, likely on this operation. Also seen is USAF standard issue .38 caliber revolver, and WP and frag grenades, and a "bug out" kit (This kit with pemmican bars, tetracycline pills and iodine pills for purifying water, was supposedly enough to last for a fast three day survival "bug out." The roll of white wire is to fashion a jungle "ground plane" antenna, vital for FM PRC-10 communication out of the jungle canopy.

Later that day we tracked down the group of VC that had shot down the two aircraft. They were holed up in a straw shack at the edge of a rice-field. We surrounded the hut and engaged them in a firefight. They were all killed. As we were mopping up, we discovered that the weapon used to bring down the aircraft was an American BAR, probably left over from the Indo-China War.

BILL: Yes, I did fly air support on 15 Oct. but we didn't expend any ordnance. We saw you on the ground but you had not made contact with the VC. It may have looked like there was only one aircraft (you probably never saw us close together - we always flew spread out quite a bit) but we always flew two T-28s together. I'm not sure of the B-26 pilot, but I think it might have been Capt. Van Hovel from our unit. We were the only ones flying B-26s and AT-28s at that time. I think that Air America later flew them. Gene Rossel might know about Van Hovel. I was told that the B-26 later finished off my T-28 (bombed). I learned later that they found only one bullet hole in the aircraft - right in the carb. What a lucky (or unlucky) shot.

CHARLIE: First one of the wobbly H-21s came, then the beautiful T-28s. Then, the Air Commando Commander Lt. Col. Miles Doyle and Commando Medic Hap Lutz arrived in either an H-19 or H-34. It was piloted by an American Army "advisor" and a Vietnamese "advisee," and the American crew chief. It came under fire, and went around once or twice, Doyle wanted to see the crash site, so we had to move him along the trail to the site. We finally got the bodies positioned on stretchers to place aboard the chopper, when I heard the sounds of gunfire I tried to recognize as a fifty cal. Art later said it was a BAR. WE had Billy overhead flying cover for us. The saddest thing in cases like this is the lack of communication. I could not tell Billy what I was hearing, to warn him, and sure enough, he was downed, almost crashing into us as the H-19 lifted off.

BILL: When I took the hit I quickly considered blowing the canopy and dropping the ordnance but there were friendlies in the area and heavy jungle. An open canopy has about the same drag as the speed brake open. So, I had to take my chances. As it was, I took some tops out of trees before getting to the clearing.

ART: A CH-21 helicopter was called in to take out the bodies, however the KIAs had already been evacuated aboard the H-34 when it arrived. Bill Chambers AT-28 had just crashed so we placed him aboard the CH-21 and it took him to Ban Me Thout where the C-47 was waiting to fly them all to Saigon. Later that day we tracked down the group of VC that had shot down the two aircraft. They were holed up in a straw shack at the edge of a rice-field. We surrounded engaged them in a firefight and killed them all. That was when we discovered that the weapon used to bring down the aircraft was an American BAR probably left over from the Indo-China War.

I returned to base camp (Buon Tah Mo) with over four hundred villagers that we had liberated from the VC. We were greeted by the brass from Saigon who took our film and debriefed us. So far as can be determined this was the first helicopter assault of the Vietnam War led by an American.

In November my team split sending half (six) to open a base camp at Ban Don.They were CPT McFadden (promoted while on TDY), MSG (E7) Chitwood SFC (E7) Planck, SSG Grabish, SGT Hamilton, and SP5 Van Koevering.

In the meantime, we continued to secure and train villagers and kill VC until we deployed back to Okinawa in February 1963.

The still-smoldering remains of USAF Air Commando Captain Billy Chambers' T-28, taken immediately after his shootdown between Boun Dhung and Boun Chur, SVN, 16 October, 1962.

Air Commando Charlie Jones, with gear preparing for the operation

Rhade interpreter Y Tin (partially hidden) and Charlie Jones, near Boun Dhung. Upon learning Foxx was KIA, Y Tin fell weeping on his face, crying: "Mu Jac! Mu Jac!" which is Rhade for: "terrible". Foxx had nicknamed Y Tin "Peter Gunn", by which name we called him until I left

CHARLIE: We flew the bodies to a masonry type one room structure and posted a Vietnamese guard on the place. We re-boarded the chopper to return to try to get Billy out. Art and an H-21 had extricated him, unknown to us until we landed back there. It was back at the village, Buon Enao, when I was questioned closely by some regular Army Colonels about all this (by Doyle, too, who directed me back to Bien Hoa for more reports). We were worried about the possible consequences of not having a Vietnamese "advisee" aboard either the T-28 or the U-10).

At Bien Hoa, I received a call from some Army Capt. in Saigon. They flew me to Tan Son Nhut where I was picked up in a jeep and taken to a makeshift morgue. There I verbally scuffled with the "mortuary officer," (an extra duty, I'm sure) over HOW I knew the identities of the remains of my buddies! We tagged them, and they were replaced in the cooler. I foolishly had placed Foxx's forty-four magnum Ruger in with his body, thinking it would accompany him home. It was ruined, the heat had fired the rounds in the cylinder, and the pressure had badly warped the piece. I thought Joanne, his wife, or his family would cherish it as a memento. They never got it.

About a week later, we formed in a formation for the bodies to be loaded aboard a C-123 for the flight to the Philippines, to be further "groomed" for shipment home.

I was there (Buon Enao) when Capt. Colt Terry came to replace Capt. Cordell, and served under him till I left Buon Enao for Father Hoa's village in the South in the last of November. SSGT Charles Cody came to replace Foxx. Capt. Ramey and Al Wight replaced the needs for the U-10 pilots for our SF work.

Charlie Jones walks past a bare-breasted Rhade woman. Ban Don, SVN.

Left to Right: Y Tin, Capt Colt
Terry, and Lt.
McFadden

Left to right: Y Tin, Rhade Boun Enao interpreter, Capt Colt Terry who had just replaced KIA Terry Cordell as OIC of SF team, and Lt. McFadden, looking at baby elephant. Ban Don, SVN, late October 1962.

Sergeant Ort, Boun Enao SF team Medic, and Charlie Jones, right, watch a "breaking" process of a captured wild elephant. Ban Don, SVN.

This is a very abbreviated recollection of the events surrounding the very astute leadership of Art, and his life-saving actions of Billy Chambers and the others, and facts about the first FACs to be KIA in the SEA war.

BILL: We took off and tried to contact the U-10 on the radio and could not raise them. We called the camp to see if they had contact with them but they couldn't contact them either. So Bob and I flew around the area looking for them. Finally we saw this smoke coming up from the ground and it was their aircraft. One wing was folded over the cockpit.

The next morning Bob and I were flying cover for the recovery team, which included Lt. Col. Miles Doyle, our commander from Bien Hoa who had flown in the night before. We had contact with the recovery team on the ground and they reported no contact with hostile forces. I was making passes over our people, really just "showing the Eagle" to try to keep the VC from trying anything. I was in the middle of one pass when my engine lost power and smoke started streaming out of it. I didn't know whether I'd blown a jug or what.

I let Walker know I was going down and apparently the Chopper was on our frequency and took off immediately. I was too low to bail out (no ejection seat) and had to ride it in. About all that was left of the T-28 was the cockpit laying on its side. I couldn't get the canopy open more than about one third. I remember when the aircraft finally stopped, I tried to blow the canopy but it wouldn't move (it used compressed air to blow back the canopy and the air line was apparently ruptured). I then moved the canopy handle to manual and tried to pull it open. It opened a few inches, enough to get part of my shoulder on it. I finally got it opened enough to try to squeeze out, but the shoulder holster hung up on the railing. I had to get back inside and move the holster under my armpit, then was barely able to get out. I would never have been able to get the CIA guy out of the back seat.

I then moved - bent over because my back was injured and I couldn't stand up - to the nearest undergrowth and prepared to fight it out as long as I could. We had been told by our Intel. that the VC would capture you if you could move with them, otherwise they would put a bullet in your head. Almost immediately, I saw the H-21 coming into the landing. A crewman was standing the doorway with a machine gun. I stood up as much as I could and waved my arms and started moving toward the Chopper. The guy in the chopper waved for me to stay put. Unknown to me at the time, Rhade Montagnard Strike Force troops under the command of MSG Fields had secured the clearing, which was the only one around, as a landing zone for the CH-21 flying in from Pleiku to evacuate the bodies of the three KIAs. MSgt. Fields and some of his troops got a stretcher from the chopper, placed me on it, and then loaded me on the H-21 for evacuation. The H-21 took me to the Ban Me Thuot airfield where a C-47 was standing by to fly me out. I have no idea what unit the CH-21 was assigned to. In 1962 the Army was the only one flying this aircraft there. The Marines flew the H-34s. I was told it was the same bird that flew the brass into the U-10 crash site. The C-47, B-26, AT-28s and the U-10 were all FARMGATE aircraft and crews.

I know this has been windy but I wanted to tell you everything I remembered. An interesting note: While I was in the hospital at Clark AFB having X-rays taken, I was visited by another CIA type. He wanted to let me know what to say if anyone asked me questions. I was to say that I did have a Vietnamese in the back seat with me, etc. As you know, I can't verify any of what he told me (maybe you can), but he told me they had captured two Chinese advisors. He further said that they (CIA, or whoever "they" were) had turned the interrogation of the two over to a French team.

General Taylor visits Boun Enao. Left to right: One of the two identical twins, who were "interrogators" of captured VC (see his folding stock M-2 carbine); Gen. Taylor; back of unnamed photographer; Captain Terry Cordell; SgtMaj. Team Sergeant O'Donovan; and unnamed "regular" Army colonel. This was a few days before Cordell and the others were KIA.

Jones with unnamed Rhade boy soldier, one of the village defense cadre. Boun Enao, SVN.

Commando Dick Foxx, left, and Charlie Jones prepare for the operation during which Foxx was KIA. They stand in front of their "home-on-stilts," entered by climbing a notched log, behind Foxx.

ART: I am in the process of setting the record straight on the death of CPT Terry Cordell, the first U.S. Army Special Forces officer killed in combat in Vietnam, and the two USAF Airmen, Capt. Herbert Booth and TSgt Richard Foxx killed in the same aircraft with him. The information I have provided will go a long way toward this goal. In my research I was appalled to find that not one person involved in this operation has ever been contacted, yet much has been written. "OPERATION POWDER BLUE" has been documented as the first American helicopter assault operation of the Vietnam War. Without question this was the most significant assault operation of the "Buon Enao Project" and the "Village Defense Program". Because of the three Americans KIA during this operation the Army was forced to go public; and sadly it in part greatly influenced the decision to implement "Operation Switchback", which put us under command and control of the MACV and back in uniform.

Farewell to Commandos Foxx, Booth and
Cordell .jpg

The bodies of Commando TSgt. Dick Foxx, Comando Captain Willoughby Booth, and SF Captain Terry Cordell are bade goodby by their buddies at Ton San Nhut airport as they begin their journey home. The first leg is in a C-123 cargo plane to the Philippines. Charlie Jones is fourth from the right, front row. The other groups are a team of SF, and a group of USAF Air Commando pilots.

For those who provided information for this article, I give special thanks to the USAF Air Commandos, Eugene Roussel, Bill Chambers and Charlie Jones, and Jim Meade.

I would also like to thank Special Forces Curtis Terry (who replaced Cordell) , Bill Helmick and my Rhade Interpreter Y' Tim Hwing (Pedro), who now lives in Greensboro, NC. This has been an international effort with Jim Meade in Australia, Eugene Russel in California, Bill Chambers in Oklahoma and Charlie Jones in Florida. We all owe a debt of gratitude to our webmaster, who has so graciously given of her time and knowledge to put this together for us, Anne Faulkner in Canada.