| HMM-262 COMBAT HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION |
| Home of the Tigers in Vietnam 1966-71 and Iraq 2007 |
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Incident Date 700922 HMM-262 CH-46D 152577+ Hostile Fire, Crash
BEACH LEO ALBERT JR : 378545211 : USMC : SGT : E5 : 6112 : 20 : DETROIT : MI : 19700922 : hostile, crash, land : Crew : body recovered : Quang Nam (Da Nang) : 02 : 19500605 : Cauc : Roman Catholic/single : 07W : 082 DAVIS WILLIAM STANLEY : 552641833 : USMCR : 1stLT : O2 : 7562 (H-46) : 24 : ALHAMBRA : CA : 19700922 : hostile, crash, land : AircraftCommander : body recovered : Quang Nam (Da Nang) : 03 : 19450927 : Cauc : Catholic/married : 07W : 083 KIMBROUGH HAROLD BRUCE : 429847576 : USMCR : 1stLT : O2 : 7562 (H-46) : 24 : BATESVILLE : AR : 19700922 : hostile, crash, land : Crew : body recovered : Quang Nam (Da Nang) : 03 : 19460412 : Cauc : Protestant/married : 07W : 084 SMITH FREDERICK JOSEPH : 183389545 : USMC : LCPL : E3 : 6055 : 22 : PITTSBURGH : PA : 19700922 : hostile, crash, land : Crew : body recovered :Quang Nam (Da Nang) : 02 : 19480823 : Cauc : Roman Catholic/single : 07W : 085 TEFFS JAMES RICHARD : 440465403 : USMC : CPL : E4 : 6242 : 22 : TULSA : OK : 19700922 : hostile, crash, land : Crew : body recovered : Quang Nam (Da Nang) : 03 : 19471110 : Cauc : Roman Catholic/single : 07W : 085 -------------------------------------------------------- Personal Narrative:I was originally assigned that mission as gunner, but had been on active stand-by all that day for possible missions into Laos. Fred Smith, who had only recently completed his gunner qualifications offered to take the later medevac standby mission for me. At the time it was unusual for a standby medevac mission to launch as our squadron (262) normally had two reliable 46's already available as primary birds. The stand-by was merely a back-up. As it happened, I was around the flight ops area when the decision to launch the stand-by choppers. Although it drew red flags in my mind, nothing really clicked until later. As not only being a gunner, I was also assigned to the Hydraulics Maintenance Department and we had been working off and on for the day on a landing gear problem with one of our other birds. I had gone out to the flight deck when they were checking the work on the gear problem that night. Anyway, we had fired up this bird and was not only toying with the repaired landing gear but were somewhat monitoring radio traffic. I listened as a ROK compound was messaging that a chopper had gone down in flames and that they were going to try to secure the area. It wasn't but a few minutes later that we were informed that ET-13 had gone down. I should have been on that ship, Fred Smith should have been safe in his rack back at his hootch. I knew and had flown with all the other members of that ill-fated flight. Beach, especially, the crew chief. Sgt. Beach was a leader, had a couple of tours under his belt, in fact as I recall, I was thinking he was on his third. A confident crew-chief and was highly regarded. Our Squadron, the following day, launched two choppers for the recovery mission, and I know a few details of that although I was refused permission to play an active part for personal reasons. Later reports were just that the ship had gone down in flames and the recovery team found evidence that all fire extinguishers had been used indicating that the flight crew had done their best in the true tradition of the Marines. The last I heard there were conflicting reports that the bird had been brought down by ground fire or by mechanical problems. I think the ROK's had reported tracer fire from the gound, but who knows? Submitted by Bob Cunningham, HMM-262 Combat Air Crew First Hand Narrative: Leo was a fine young man, he always had a smile on his face. He was one of the best crew chiefs that HMM-262 EVER had. He would never back down from a mission; he was always there at night making sure his bird flew a good mission the next day, not just a re-supply. This day Leo was scheduled to be off duty. I was posting the crews for that night and the next days flights. One of the youngest crew chiefs was posted to fly that mission but it was his birthday and asked me to let him off that night to drink a beer for his birthday. We did this sometimes for our crew members so I agreed and assigned Leo to take his place for the flight. Leo came to me and said he really didn't want to fly the mission, somthing just didn't feel right about it. We talked a few minutes and Leo felt better about it and decided to fly. For 37 years I have thought about this; Leo please forgive me. To his family I ask you to please find it in your heart to forgive me. We were in a war, and in wars, decisions were sometimes made by very young men, made not knowing that we would have to live with these decisions for the rest of our lives
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