THE WALL OF FACES

There are two accounts of this incident: First Account - On January 20, 1972, SP4 Harry J. Edwards, one of four riflemen, PFC David D. Berdahl, the door gunner, and a four man crew were aboard a UH-1H helicopter (tail #69-16717) on a recovery mission for downed F-4 fighter jet pilots. At about 1815 hours, the aircraft was returning from the mission northwest of Kne Sanh in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, when an anti-aircraft weapon fired on and hit the aircraft, causing it to catch fire. At first, the fire appeared at the forward end of the tail boom, but immediately spread over the boom and then engulfed the entire aircraft. The helicopter autorotated to the bank of the Raoquan River, landed hard and rolled over onto its left side. The aircraft commander of another UH-1H followed the burning aircraft down, made a pass overhead, and came to a hover adjacent to the downed helicopter. Landing was impossible because of jagged rocks. While in a hover, the aircraft commander saw one man dressed in a flight suit, helmet and armored vest pinned down in the burning aircraft. This individual was apparently Berdahl. The hovering helicopter was forced to leave because the downed aircraft started to explode. He did not observe anyone leaving the aircraft alive, but picked up 5 survivors from the crash site and flew about 50 feet downstream to pick up another survivor. Berdahl and Edwards were declared Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered. It has not been possible since that day to locate them if alive, or to recover their bodies, if dead. It was not uncommon for men to die trying to rescue another wounded or downed comrade--each would say it was their duty, and that the same would be done for them. They kept the faith with each other. Edwards had only turned 20 years old the previous November, and Berdahl was only four days older than the legal age for being in a combat zone. He was just 19 years old. Second Account - PFC David D. Berdahl and SP4 Harry J. Edwards were KIA in 69-16717. Two other men died as a result of the crash but several days later. Sgt. Fernando Figueroa died January 24, 1971 of burns received on 20 January and SP4 Walter C. B. Moran died on January 23, 1971. Both died at Camp Zama. Confirmed KIA on the Military USA site and per WO1 Frank Angotti, the PIC who was at Zama with them. Edwards, Figueroa and Moran were Army Rangers assigned to D 3-5 after the 75th Rangers stood down. They crewed our Hueys as rescue forces for downed aircrew. They were crewmembers and not passengers. Interestingly, they wore Nomex instead of fatigues under the web gear. The aircraft was on a mission to rescue two F-4E pilots who ejected from a stormy Fast Fac from Da Nang who had landed on a road in Laos. Dustoff snagged the pilots and enroute, AAA got Charlie Horse 25 and the crash happened in the Ba Long River Valley. Pilots were William L. Allen and Frankie L. Angotti (CH 25). Bill Allen was our scout platoon leader who happened to be in a Huey that day. Of those who did not die, all were burned pretty badly. [Taken from vhpa.org]