| Date: 19 February 1971 |
| Aircraft type: O-2A Skymaster |
| Serial Number: 68-11001 |
| Military Unit: 20 TASS, 504 TASG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Da Nang |
| Name(s): |
| 1Lt James Larry Hull (KIA) |
| Sgt William Matthew Fernandez (US Army) (KIA) |
| A Covey FAC crew was killed on the 19th during a search for an Army helicopter that was lost in southern Laos. UH-1H 68-15255 of the 101st Airborne Division had been attempting to recover a Special Forces reconnaissance team in the A Shau Valley on the 18th when it was shot down and crashed killing all on board. The O-2 (call sign Covey 27) crashed in the jungle near Ban Pelou, some 55 miles west of Da Nang, and neither of the occupants was able to bale out. The next day another UH-1 airlifted in a Special Forces team that recovered the body of Sgt Fernandez but 1Lt ‘Woodstock’ Hull’s body was trapped in the wreckage and could not be recovered due to enemy action. Although the suspected crash site of the O-2 was located during the 1990s it was just across the South Vietnamese border into Laos and it was not until May 2006 that a joint US/Laotian team excavated the crash site and found human remains. The remains were later confirmed as being those of 1Lt Hull and were buried in Arlington National Cemetery in November 2006. |
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