Another Raven FAC Story
submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson
We were looking for 120 mm NVA Artillery over the PDJ. Suddenly, Steve’s engine caught fire. He immediately shut the O-1 engine down and turned toward the closest exit point from the PDJ, roughly a southeasterly heading. I followed in trail, and we notified ABCCC of the potential SAR. I reminded him to jettison the rockets, but he either didn’t hear me or forgot. I had forgotten to jettison my rockets after having the engine shot out just three months prior, so I knew he might also forget.
After a few minutes of gliding, Raven 24 became concerned that he would not make it off of the PDJ before landing. We both knew the high probability of capture on the PDJ. He decided to restart the engine. When the engine came back on so did the fire, so he shut down again.
He finally made it off the PDJ and was gliding down a small river valley. With no great landing sites available he continued gliding away from the PDJ.
Finally he ran out of altitude with no place to land. Unfortunately, a large tree stood in his path, so he did what looked like a hammerhead stall to get over the tree. At the top of the tree he lowered some flaps and turned off the battery switch just before impact.
I watched in horror as the wings rippled and buckled from the impact. I didn’t think he could survive the crash, but he walked (actually ran) away from the crash site with the Laotian Army observer in tow.
Almost immediately he came up on Guard frequency. I felt great to hear that Texas drawl again over the radio! I called ABCCC to let them know that Raven 24 was on the ground and okay, and they told me an Air America chopper was on the way. I backtracked to the edge of the PDJ and dropped a smoke canister for the chopper to see.
The chopper was flying at treetop level across the PDJ! Raven 24 was immediately picked up. I don’t think he spent more than 10 minutes on the ground.
This was my last flight before R&R. The next day Raven 24 and I caught the C-130 flight to Bangkok. You can imagine the raised eyebrows of my wife when she found out he had crashed the day before. Also, let the record show he pulled out some of the stitches in his knee while in the company of a lady friend one night in Bangkok.