THE WALL OF FACES

Lam Son 719 was a large-scale offensive against enemy communications lines which was conducted in that part of Laos adjacent to the two northern provinces of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese would provide and command ground forces, while U.S. forces would furnish airlift and supporting fire. Phase I, renamed Operation Dewey Canyon II, involved an armored attack by the U.S. from Vandegrift base camp toward Khe Sanh, while the ARVN moved into position for the attack across the Laotian border. Phase II began with an ARVN helicopter assault and armored brigade thrust along Route 9 into Laos. ARVN ground troops were transported by American helicopters, while U.S. Air Force provided cover strikes around the landing zones. On March 5, 1971, during one of these maneuvers, a UH1H helicopter (tail #67-17341) was in a flight of ten aircraft on a combat assault mission in Savannakhet Province, Laos. The crew of the aircraft consisted of WO Ralph A. Moreira Jr., pilot; Capt. David L. Nelson, aircraft commander; SP4 Michael E. King, door gunner; and SP4 Joel C. Hatley, crew chief. While on its final approach to Landing Zone Sophia, and at the time the pilot should have been making his final turn, Nelson radioed that the aircraft had been hit in the fuel cell and that the door gunner had been wounded in the head. He then said they would attempt to return to the fire support base on the same flight path as previously briefed. After the other aircraft had disembarked their troops and were on their way back to the fire support base, some of the other crewmen said they saw a chopper believed to be that commanded by Nelson burst into flames, crash and explode. As soon as the ball of flame was observed, attempts to make radio contact were made with no success. No formal air to ground search was attempted because of enemy anti-aircraft fire and ground activity in the area. All aboard the aircraft were declared Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered. In 1988 a former officer in the Royal Lao Army, Somdee Phommachanh, stated on national television that he was held captive along with two Americans at a prison camp in northern Laos. The Americans had been brought to the camp at Houay Ling in 1978. One day Somdee found one of the prisoners dead in his cell. Somdee identified the American very positively from a photo. His name, he said, was David Nelson. Nelson was Somdee's friend and he would not forget him. Somdee buried his friend with all the care he would a cherished loved one, given his limited ability as a prisoner of war. Although Somdee has been threatened, he has stuck to his story. Nelson's family is grateful to know his fate, but outraged that David Nelson died over FIVE YEARS after American troops left Southeast Asia and the President of the United States had announced that 'all American prisoners of war had been released.' The U.S. Government did not inform the other families of this development. January 5-10, 1990, a joint USLao team excavated the site of the crash of the helicopter lost on March 5, 1971. Not one piece of aircraft material was recovered, although an unspecified number of teeth and a ring were found. No remains whatever were found that could be attributed to David Nelson, but on September 17, 1990, the Defense Department announced that all four men onboard the aircraft had been positively identified and that the remains would be buried in a 'group' grave. When asked about the Somdee report, Ms. Shari Lawrence, a civilian working with U.S. Army Public Affairs Office said, 'We are not concerned with that.' [Taken from vhpa.org]

I've been thinking a lot about Ralph Moreira Jr. and his family. I think it's because we're older. And when we're older we review our lives. I'm Ralph's brazilian cousin. My grandmother and I went to the USA to visit her son (Ralph's father). I was 13 years old, and Ralph was 11, I think. The first time I saw him he has using an uniform... a boyscout uniform!! Please, my relatives, be in touch with your brazilian family! [email protected] (This site insists in tell me my e-mail is invalid, but it's not)

This tape reflects the chaos around LZ Sophia on 05 March 1971. By this date, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) had rolled in a lot of 23 and 37 millimeter AAA(automatic antiaircraft) guns in the area and brought in more .51 caliber machine-guns for triangular ambush sites of the American helicopters. Additionally, the NVA had brought in an enormous amount of signal intelligence gear which put them on the American radio frequencies. An example of this signals intelligence can be read in John Bishop's story of his shootdown on 03 March 1971 while enroute to LZ Lolo. (That story is being prepared and will be posted to the home page soon.) The amount of AAA fire forced an awkward approach into the LZ, referred to in other tapes as a "buttonhole" approach. As can be heard, UH-1Hs were falling out of the sky from the AAA. Dolphin 29 was shot down in flames, "29's on fire, 29's on fire and going down," and another Dolphin was shot down when he tried to go in after him. A third helicopter (Dolphin 17) did manage to get in under heavy fire and get Dolphin 29's crew. The other crew was extracted later. Auction Lead is Captain David Nelson, C/158 (WORWAC class 67-3). Captain Nelson took heavy fire while going into LZ Lolo. His gunner, SP4 Mike King, was hit in the head. His co-pilot was WO1 Ralph Moreira, and the crewchief was SP4 Joel Hatley. Shortly, Nelson can be heard explaining what is going on and that he was heading for "Kilo Serria" (Khe Sanh). Soon after that transmission, his last, the aircraft blew up at altitude. There were no survivors. It would take over 19 years, until 05 Oct 1990, before the remains of Captain Nelson and his crew were recovered from Loas and interred at Arlington National Cemetary. While this tape consist of excerpts (because of the large file sizes),the actual time interval from the beginning to the end of this segment is only about a three minute period of time.
Information obtained from:
http://www3.servtech.com/americal/174/sound.htm