War Stories

AMSC KENNETH E. WHEELER, USN was assigned to Helicopter Attack (Light) Three, Seawolves, Republic of Vietnam from Dec 1970 to Dec 1971 as a Combat Aircrew Doorgunner/NATOPS Evaluator and Aircrew Trainer. He first served on Det-3 at Ca Mau, RVN as the Det petty officer in charge, doorgunner and crewchief on the Navy two helo fire team, providing close attack air support for the Navy SEALS, Brown Water Navy boats and all other friendly forces. The gunships were armed with rockets, pod mounted and door mounted mini guns, a door mounted 50 cal machine gun, M60 machine guns and various …

Battle at Ha Tien 23 March 1969, Da Dung Mountain AreaOther articles with limited information have been written about these two difficult days in the lives of these brave pilots and gunners from Detachment Three. As other articles I have written, I write this to add to our history and to pay tribute to those that fought these horrific battles, those killed in action and the survivors. In other articles, details and participants were left out that need to be recognized for their heroism and participation in these missions. I have collected much of this missing history and using official …

Seawolf Combat missions, SEAWOLF Door Gunner AVIATION MACHINIST’S MATE (Jet) 2ND CLASS VINCENT PAONE, DET 6, Submitted by fellow Gunner Petty Officer Dan Higgins who was on the first mission and on the ground helping on the second. Edited by AECS Bill Rutledge Highly combat decorated Petty Officer Vincent Paone was assigned to HA(L)-3 Seawolf Detachment 6 from Feb 68 until June 69. Paone flew over 700 combat missions with Det 6 from Dong Tam, RVN. Among his many decorations are The Silver Star, 2 Single Action Airmedals (Heroism) Purple Heart, 38 strike flight Airmedals, Cross of Gallantry and many …

Flight Crew: Lt. Vince Ammendola, pilot Lt. Troung, copilot John Mederios, left door, mini-gun Sgt. Ninh, training Mike Worthington, right door, 50 cal. The SEAWOLVES from Det-4 were “SCRAMBLED” for support of the River Boats and Vietnamese Army that were doing a sweep near the Parrot’s Beak close to the Cambodian border and ran into a bit of trouble. As always, the trail bird took off first to cover the lead on take off. Not long after take off, while climbing to 400-600 feet, covering the lead on take off, something went horribly wrong. I felt a thud, then a …

Somebody wanted to know if any of us had ever survived a stabilizer bar failure on a Huey. I did one on New Year’s Day 1971. It was a wild ride and I almost did not make it out. We were climbing out of Ca Mau at 1,300 feet heading into the 33rd light CP in the U Minh Forest, a notably bad place. I was flying when the aircraft suddenly began violent vertical vibrations. The nose dropped down 70 degrees and the aircraft rolled left 70 degrees. A very unusual attitude for a Huey – it was a K …