THE WALL OF FACES

Great pilot - good friend . We scrambled together RIPon the downed aircraft - high and low - I shall never forget our parting words. He is always in my thoughts - I visited the “Wall” with Honor Flight last year - touched his marker and Ken’s too for the 1st time since that fatal day. .

Friend through basic training as well as Primary and advanced Rotary training. We also joined Knights of Columbus before Larry was deployed. Too many fine men were lost to war.

Radio Research Units (RRU’s) operated in Vietnam under the direction of the U.S. Army Security Agency and conducted classified missions. Their work included intercepting radio communications of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, then forwarding the captured intelligence to division commanders in pursuit of their tactical war-fighting operations. The airborne platforms for RRU’s included Project Left Bank UH-1H helicopters configured with radio direction finding equipment. The ships were unarmed except for personal weapons and maintained a crew of four, two pilots and two Radio Intercept Operators. They tracked the enemy via radio transmissions intercepts and fixed their locations with triangulation. This required slow flying with many turning patterns. During one such radio direction finding mission on November 29, 1969, a Left Bank flight from the 11th General Support Aviation Company at Phouc Vinh flying in support of the 371st Radio Research Company was brought down by enemy fire six miles northwest of Song Be in Phuoc Long Province, RVN. The helicopter went low, purportedly to treetop level to drop a smoke grenade on the enemy position for the “Pink Team” hunter-killer aircraft covering them, when they were caught in the crossfire of enemy .51 caliber machine guns; however, it was a rocket-propelled grenade round through the chin bubble that brought the aircraft down. There were no survivors. The lost crew included aircraft commander CW2 Jack D. Knepp, pilot WO1 Dennis D. Bogle, and Radio Intercept Operators SP4 James R. Smith and PFC Henry N. Heide II. The post-crash fire destroyed the helicopter and made identifying remains difficult for the aero rifle team sent to secure the site. A Pink Team AH-1G Cobra (#68-15188) aircraft B Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, covering the flight was also shot down in the hail of fire, resulting in further casualties. WO1 Kenneth A. Luse and CW2 Lawrence J. Babyak died when their Cobra crashed after sustaining .51 caliber hits while trying to suppress the enemy fire near the downed Left Bank flight. Luce was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. U.S. Air Force jets were scrambled and napalmed the area to keep the classified out of enemy hands. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and vhpa.org]

Larry Babyak was built like a brick, handsome, with a healthy glow and a neatly trimmed mustache. A polished musician with a warm tenor voice, he was truly humble but confident and charismatic. He was a man's man (a pilot) yet unafraid to show his emotions. Yep, the good die young and we are all the less for it.

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The remembrances from your friends Dave Campbell and Richard Clift attest to their love and respect for you. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us....