From Ron Miller 11/11/2008
I just found your website--wow! More there than I can process today.
I graduated from flight school on the same date you graduated from ATC. That's also the same date that General Tommy Franks graduated from OCS.
Our tours in VN coincide perfectly. I was with the 189th AHC (Ghostriders) and was Ghostrider 172. I was at Dak to during the same period you were there, but I worked mostly with the Special Forces, who were also there. In fact when I first started flying missions out of Dak To, I believe there was only the SF camp there. On my first mission at Dak To--probably March or April of 1967--mine was one of only a few aircraft in the area. I was with the 155th then. We spent a night or two at the camp and were the only aircraft to stay overnight. There was no tower, only a landing strip, as I remember. Times sure changed after that!
The only memorable thing I did at Dak To that you might remember if you were working the tower that day, was to lose control of the tail rotor as I was hovering out of the refueling area. My irreversible servo reversed, and I lost control of the tail rotor while at the hover. Not a good time to lose control! After a brilliant demonstration of how well a helicopter doesn't hover without control of the tail rotor, the servo began functioning properly again. I regained control without striking any other aircraft or flying into the refueling area.
I normally think of the Battle of Dak To on Veterans' Day as they come the same time of the year. So every Veterans' Day I think of the things that happened back then and all of the people we lost. I also remember the smell. Most of all the smell. There were so many 173rd troopers killed that they ran out of room in the refrigerated conex containers. They had to stack the bodies not far from the runway while deciding what to do with them so that graves registration could process them. I'm sure you remember that smell, or you may have blocked it from your memory. These are the memories that Veterans' Day brings for me.
I don't have time today to look at everything on your site; that will be left for another day. I did want to thank you for putting it together.
Thanks for all of the work you have done on this site. You are truly keeping the past alive for all of us who care. Later,
Ron Miller, Ghostrider 172.
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Ernie Camacho:
So you visited Dak To before any of the build-up in late June began. At that point there was just the SF camp and the old French airfield. Yes I remember the 173 and their injured. One soldier from the 173rd, waiting for a ride out, told me that his best friend died, laying in the dust and heat in the NW corner of the field where the 173rd was, because their officers wouldn't let the 4th handle their wounded. Something like "we take care of our own", even though they were swamped with wounded and the 4th was sitting idle.
Lots of other memories too. BTW, the 173rd area is the only part of the field not shown in the image I have up on the website.
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Ron Miller:
Ernie: The A/C I was flying the day the servo went out was 168, so my call sign that day would have been Ghostrider 168. 172 was my assigned A/C, but when it was down for maintenance, I would fly somebody else. I was doing the SOG missions during November, so I missed most/all of the body recovery missions for the 173rd. I have a hard time believing that about the 173rd commander not letting the 4th ID help out with the wounded. If it is true, an investigation should be started immediately. It is never too late to expose malfeasance.
I spent several hours looking at your site, and others, yesterday. In fact I try to spend a good portion of every Veterans' Day thinking about those times, the dead troopers and my lost pilot friends. I usually think a lot about Dak To as the dates coincide.
Our Company did a lot of work at Dak To before the build up. In fact I remember coming into the field after the buildup and thinking, "What the fuck has happened to Dak To?"
Although there is mention of a DakTo I, I have no recollection of that airfield. Although I might remember telling a C-130 that he was approaching the wrong airstrip when he was coming in to that field? But then, I'm not sure I actually remember it. It was 41 years ago.
No, I have no photos. Didn't really think about the future. Just tried to stay alive to make it to the night time for food, beer and good times!
While you were at Holloway, did you ever run across the civilian controllers with Lear Sigler (LSI)? I was friends with Dick Pratt and Eli (Ellis) Miller. I have had recent contact with Dick, but haven't been able to locate Eli.
Later, Ron.
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Ernie Camacho:
Ron:
The charge that the 173rd "took care of its own" and let them die when medical help from the 4th ID was available, was from a 173rd soldier. I only heard it from him. I do remember Dust Off's coming in to both the 173rd area and the 4th, so I know that there were two medical units on the field. Only the 4th had a place for storing bodies, a conex.
Even though I was an air traffic controller, I too did not know of Dak To 1 until recently. I've come across stories on the web about an operation Hawthorne that I think was run from Dak To 1.
As for the build up, when I got there in June our little controller team was the only people outside of the SF camp. There was nothing but tall grass everywhere. All the build up came afterward. I don't remember if I tell the story on the website, but that first night was very memorable for me. The SF folks said they were expecting to be attacked that night, but they wouldn't let us inside their perimeter (one patrol didn't come back; a second only had a couple come back). We ended up setting up our GP medium where our tower would later be, across from the ramp. Sure enough, that night saw a heavy mortar attack. We spent the night in a trench, then ran over to the SF camp at first light. They still wouldn't let us inside so we crouched behind pallets of C rations, waiting for the bugles to tell us the attack was coming. It never came. And, we were glad to not have been inside the SF camp. They had a number of casualties. Welcome to Dak To!
When I was at Holloway, before June, I was working GCA radar approach, so I didn't spend much time in the tower. And later, when the civilians took over the tower, I didn't go up there at all, so I didn't get to know any of the civilian controllers. Dak To was supposed to only last a few months, but I ended up staying there until I DROS'ed.
Ernie
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Ron Miller:
Ernie: As I remember it, the refrigerated conex container and graves registration were on the side of the runway opposite the tower, perhaps on the SE side of the runway. I remember coming in to land on the runway, smelling the dead bodies and looking to my left (I was landing to the west) and seeing them stacked up outside of the conex container. The men were being killed faster than graves registration could process the bodies, and they had no more refrigerated containers to store them in. Do you remember that? I know I didn't dream it, but I have heard no one else mention it. It was a gruesome time there at Dak To.
I don't believe the charge made by that 173rd trooper. No commander would make that type of decision. The trooper probably got misinformation as it filtered down to him. In fact, for seriously injured soldiers on a medevac mission, I would sometimes just bypass the medical treatment available there at Dak To, and take the men directly to the hospital at the AF base at Pleiku. That's where they did the major surgery. Medical assistance available at Dak To was rudimentary compared to the surgical hospital at Pleiku. For the most serious cases, the medical team would stabilize the patient at Pleiku and then send them to Cam Ran Bay for surgery.
Let me know what you remember about the bodies being stacked up next to graves registration during the height of the battle.
Ron (Ghostrider 172)
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Ernie Camacho:
Ron:
You remember it exactly right. But, the 4th ID med-evac was at the SW corner of the runway. In the airfield photo on my website, you'll see 3 tents, oriented perpendicular to the runway, in that corner (the top of the photo is facing South, the runway is 10/28). I think you can make out the conex on the west side of the west-most tent. I have a photograph on the website of a C123 parked on the runway while it's being loaded with bodies. Here's the photo, below.
You'll notice two soldiers carrying a stretcher to the plane, and you can see the red cross flag above the med-evac tent on the left of the photo. The white object to the left of the parked chopper is the refrigerated conex. I was very familiar with the med-evac there. We often cleared choppers directly to the med-evac pad from wherever they were coming from, and we kept all other aircraft clear of them.
As for the story that 173rd trooper told me, I'll refrain from passing it along. I know he was pissed that his buddy was dead, when he'd assumed he'd pull out OK. That may have colored his story. But then again, I've seen enough idiotic decisions that I certainly did not doubt him at the time. The story of Hill 875 has a few such idiotic incidents, but the author did not mention this one.
Ernie
I just found your website--wow! More there than I can process today.
I graduated from flight school on the same date you graduated from ATC. That's also the same date that General Tommy Franks graduated from OCS.
Our tours in VN coincide perfectly. I was with the 189th AHC (Ghostriders) and was Ghostrider 172. I was at Dak to during the same period you were there, but I worked mostly with the Special Forces, who were also there. In fact when I first started flying missions out of Dak To, I believe there was only the SF camp there. On my first mission at Dak To--probably March or April of 1967--mine was one of only a few aircraft in the area. I was with the 155th then. We spent a night or two at the camp and were the only aircraft to stay overnight. There was no tower, only a landing strip, as I remember. Times sure changed after that!
The only memorable thing I did at Dak To that you might remember if you were working the tower that day, was to lose control of the tail rotor as I was hovering out of the refueling area. My irreversible servo reversed, and I lost control of the tail rotor while at the hover. Not a good time to lose control! After a brilliant demonstration of how well a helicopter doesn't hover without control of the tail rotor, the servo began functioning properly again. I regained control without striking any other aircraft or flying into the refueling area.
I normally think of the Battle of Dak To on Veterans' Day as they come the same time of the year. So every Veterans' Day I think of the things that happened back then and all of the people we lost. I also remember the smell. Most of all the smell. There were so many 173rd troopers killed that they ran out of room in the refrigerated conex containers. They had to stack the bodies not far from the runway while deciding what to do with them so that graves registration could process them. I'm sure you remember that smell, or you may have blocked it from your memory. These are the memories that Veterans' Day brings for me.
I don't have time today to look at everything on your site; that will be left for another day. I did want to thank you for putting it together.
Thanks for all of the work you have done on this site. You are truly keeping the past alive for all of us who care. Later,
Ron Miller, Ghostrider 172.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ernie Camacho:
So you visited Dak To before any of the build-up in late June began. At that point there was just the SF camp and the old French airfield. Yes I remember the 173 and their injured. One soldier from the 173rd, waiting for a ride out, told me that his best friend died, laying in the dust and heat in the NW corner of the field where the 173rd was, because their officers wouldn't let the 4th handle their wounded. Something like "we take care of our own", even though they were swamped with wounded and the 4th was sitting idle.
Lots of other memories too. BTW, the 173rd area is the only part of the field not shown in the image I have up on the website.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Miller:
Ernie: The A/C I was flying the day the servo went out was 168, so my call sign that day would have been Ghostrider 168. 172 was my assigned A/C, but when it was down for maintenance, I would fly somebody else. I was doing the SOG missions during November, so I missed most/all of the body recovery missions for the 173rd. I have a hard time believing that about the 173rd commander not letting the 4th ID help out with the wounded. If it is true, an investigation should be started immediately. It is never too late to expose malfeasance.
I spent several hours looking at your site, and others, yesterday. In fact I try to spend a good portion of every Veterans' Day thinking about those times, the dead troopers and my lost pilot friends. I usually think a lot about Dak To as the dates coincide.
Our Company did a lot of work at Dak To before the build up. In fact I remember coming into the field after the buildup and thinking, "What the fuck has happened to Dak To?"
Although there is mention of a DakTo I, I have no recollection of that airfield. Although I might remember telling a C-130 that he was approaching the wrong airstrip when he was coming in to that field? But then, I'm not sure I actually remember it. It was 41 years ago.
No, I have no photos. Didn't really think about the future. Just tried to stay alive to make it to the night time for food, beer and good times!
While you were at Holloway, did you ever run across the civilian controllers with Lear Sigler (LSI)? I was friends with Dick Pratt and Eli (Ellis) Miller. I have had recent contact with Dick, but haven't been able to locate Eli.
Later, Ron.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ernie Camacho:
Ron:
The charge that the 173rd "took care of its own" and let them die when medical help from the 4th ID was available, was from a 173rd soldier. I only heard it from him. I do remember Dust Off's coming in to both the 173rd area and the 4th, so I know that there were two medical units on the field. Only the 4th had a place for storing bodies, a conex.
Even though I was an air traffic controller, I too did not know of Dak To 1 until recently. I've come across stories on the web about an operation Hawthorne that I think was run from Dak To 1.
As for the build up, when I got there in June our little controller team was the only people outside of the SF camp. There was nothing but tall grass everywhere. All the build up came afterward. I don't remember if I tell the story on the website, but that first night was very memorable for me. The SF folks said they were expecting to be attacked that night, but they wouldn't let us inside their perimeter (one patrol didn't come back; a second only had a couple come back). We ended up setting up our GP medium where our tower would later be, across from the ramp. Sure enough, that night saw a heavy mortar attack. We spent the night in a trench, then ran over to the SF camp at first light. They still wouldn't let us inside so we crouched behind pallets of C rations, waiting for the bugles to tell us the attack was coming. It never came. And, we were glad to not have been inside the SF camp. They had a number of casualties. Welcome to Dak To!
When I was at Holloway, before June, I was working GCA radar approach, so I didn't spend much time in the tower. And later, when the civilians took over the tower, I didn't go up there at all, so I didn't get to know any of the civilian controllers. Dak To was supposed to only last a few months, but I ended up staying there until I DROS'ed.
Ernie
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Miller:
Ernie: As I remember it, the refrigerated conex container and graves registration were on the side of the runway opposite the tower, perhaps on the SE side of the runway. I remember coming in to land on the runway, smelling the dead bodies and looking to my left (I was landing to the west) and seeing them stacked up outside of the conex container. The men were being killed faster than graves registration could process the bodies, and they had no more refrigerated containers to store them in. Do you remember that? I know I didn't dream it, but I have heard no one else mention it. It was a gruesome time there at Dak To.
I don't believe the charge made by that 173rd trooper. No commander would make that type of decision. The trooper probably got misinformation as it filtered down to him. In fact, for seriously injured soldiers on a medevac mission, I would sometimes just bypass the medical treatment available there at Dak To, and take the men directly to the hospital at the AF base at Pleiku. That's where they did the major surgery. Medical assistance available at Dak To was rudimentary compared to the surgical hospital at Pleiku. For the most serious cases, the medical team would stabilize the patient at Pleiku and then send them to Cam Ran Bay for surgery.
Let me know what you remember about the bodies being stacked up next to graves registration during the height of the battle.
Ron (Ghostrider 172)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ernie Camacho:
Ron:
You remember it exactly right. But, the 4th ID med-evac was at the SW corner of the runway. In the airfield photo on my website, you'll see 3 tents, oriented perpendicular to the runway, in that corner (the top of the photo is facing South, the runway is 10/28). I think you can make out the conex on the west side of the west-most tent. I have a photograph on the website of a C123 parked on the runway while it's being loaded with bodies. Here's the photo, below.
You'll notice two soldiers carrying a stretcher to the plane, and you can see the red cross flag above the med-evac tent on the left of the photo. The white object to the left of the parked chopper is the refrigerated conex. I was very familiar with the med-evac there. We often cleared choppers directly to the med-evac pad from wherever they were coming from, and we kept all other aircraft clear of them.
As for the story that 173rd trooper told me, I'll refrain from passing it along. I know he was pissed that his buddy was dead, when he'd assumed he'd pull out OK. That may have colored his story. But then again, I've seen enough idiotic decisions that I certainly did not doubt him at the time. The story of Hill 875 has a few such idiotic incidents, but the author did not mention this one.
Ernie