John Keene

 

Ran across one of your old pictures on the web-site that rocked me. I hadn't seen this guy's face for over thirty years. His story is a strong and sad one, his name is Cpl. Keene In your photograph, he is standing in a white t-shirt in the lower right hand corner picture and looks about 17 years old.

John and I first met at advanced infantry school just prior to leaving for Viet Nam at Camp Pendleton. I believe he was from Phily, not sure. He was a likeable kid, a unique personality and character, who seemed to always be one step away from trouble. He told me once, that he felt ietNam was his reason for being, and that the excitement of flying combat missions was all he ever wanted to do. I'm sure I pointed out the fact, that he just might be crazy.

He and I were on board the vessel (Valley Forge I think) that took our squadron aircraft back to Viet Nam after the Okinawa emergency maintenance program. We off loaded at Quang Tri and helped setup the base before it was even an official base. Living in tents, we started to fly the first support missions to Khe Sanh around the end of the first week of January.

My aircraft was assigned support duty in four day stints at Khe Sanh. John was assigned as my gunner while he waited for assignment to his own bird. One other aircraft and mine were the only support for the hills during this time, and we were actually based out of Khe Sanh until the Siege began.

The first couple of weeks were relatively uneventful. Recon operations began to pick up by the second week, they began with very normal insertions and extractions, but within a few days, the presence of the NVA was starting to become obvious. We would insert a team a few klicks West of Khe Sanh and sometimes come under intense fire as we were leaving the zone.

One team, I think they were with 2/3 but am not sure about that, was code named "Bus Stop", I remember the name because of the movie, but they seemed to always be in the middle of it, as radio traffic from operations was getting stronger everyday. We had picked up Bus Stop at Camp Carroll, and had just inserted them into the hills near highway 9 when they came under heavy small arms and RPG fire. We must have put them right on top of a company or something, because when we began to circle back, all I could see were green tracers and explosions everywhere.

I believe the pilot was a Capt. Lathrop or something like that, he was from Louisiana (I think) and wound up getting his back broken in a later shootdown supporting Hill 881. As the pilot started to circle the zone, we began taking heavy automatic weapons fire, probably 50 cal, as they looked like basketballs flying up at us. Peachy and I began to lay down suppressive fire as best we could, but we were both were concerned about hitting the recon team. The exploding rounds from our guns were confusing as well, because they looked like muzzle flashes to me, but you
know that.

Radio calls from the team began as the operator told us they had two KIA's and four WIA's from one RPG round. They were huddled in two craters and were more than ready for us to come back in for them. The pilot wanted to go back in immediately and a heated discussion broke out between himself and the co-pilot. It was decided that we had to wait for the NVA to break off or until the Huey gunships got on station, which ever happened first. All this time Bus Stop was feeling strongly about getting out of there, and let us know about it. Our wingman and my aircraft continued laying down 50 cal rounds while we waited for the Hueys.

It seemed like forever for the gunships to get there, but as they arrived they began to light up the area surrounding the LZ. The NVA backed off and the team's radio calls began to fade to nothing. We were concerned that the team had been eliminated when we received a final call from Bus Stop. They had all jumped into one crater when the gunships arrived and been hit by another RPG. The entire team were casualties, all wounded and or killed.

As I talked the pilot into the zone, I could see the team all piled up in a crater. Two of team were able to move around on their own, but that was it. As we sat down, we began to take small arms fire from my side of the aircraft. I began to return fire, when without a moments hesitation, Peachy got out and started to help get the team in, all the time returning fire with his sidearm. Bus Stop had suffered four KIA's and the rest were all wounded, some very badly. John returned to the crater over and over, all the time under fire while helping each guy in.

We took the team to Charlie Med at Khe Sanh, and were surprised to see that our aircraft had only taken four hits.

Six weeks after this incident, Peachy had managed to get his own helicopter and was picking up med evacs at Khe Sanh, when a artillery round landed on the tarmac sending fragments through his face. He was severely wounded and almost died and would have, if they hadn't been at Charlie Med.

He was evacuated to a stateside hospital and we never saw him again. All the crewchiefs got together and had a plack made up with the Tiger emblem, flight wings, all our signatures and sent it to him. We received a letter from him later, and he told us that had lost an eye and was ndergoing surgery after surgery to repair the damage to his face.

I lost contact with him after that and have thought of him often. I heard a rumor that John had died a few years later in an accident.

His courage, and that of the pilots on the Bus Stop mission were never recognized. The missions we flew during the siege were filled with sacrifices like John's, I think back now and wish I had done something to try and bring attention to his actions, but I suppose the daily grind and endless flying time just didn't allow it.

Webmaster note:  "Hip" is Kreig Loftin '67-68 Crew Chief