| Date: 6 February 1967 |
| Aircraft type: O-1F Bird Dog |
| Serial Number: 57-2807 |
| Military Unit: 23 TASS, 504 TASG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Nakhon Phanom |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Lucius Lamar Heiskell (KIA) |
| Aircraft type: HH-3E Jolly Green Giant |
| Serial Number: 65-12779 |
| Military Unit: 38th ARRS, 3 ARRG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Udorn |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Patrick Hardy Wood (KIA) |
| Capt Richard Abbot Kibbey (KIA) |
| SSgt Donald Joe Hall (KIA) |
| A2C Duane D Hackney (Survived) |
| The slow and vulnerable little Bird Dog FAC aircraft rarely crossed into North Vietnam except in areas that were thought to be relatively free of AAA. Capt Heiskell (call sign Nail 65) took off from Nakhon Phanom with another Bird Dog and flew to the eastern border of Laos on a visual reconnaissance mission looking for trucks in the Mu Gia Pass. The two aircraft crossed into North Vietnam but came under heavy fire from automatic weapons or 57mm anti-aircraft guns. Capt Heiskell’s aircraft was hit in the rear fuselage and crashed near the Mu Gia Pass in the Annamite Mountains, some 60 miles east of Nakhon Phanom. The other Bird Dog pilot saw Capt Heiskell bail out of his aircraft and land safely. However, when he reached the ground he radioed that he was surrounded by enemy troops and that a rescue was not feasible at that time. Later in the day two SAR missions were launched with two HH-3Es escorted by two A-1s. The first mission had to be abandoned because of bad weather. On the second mission Jolly Green 05 flown by Maj P H Wood of the 38th ARRS lowered the pararescueman, A2C Duane Hackney, who spent some time on the ground searching for Capt Heiskell and eventually located him. Tragically, just as the helicopter was about to leave the area with the survivor on board it was hit by 37mm ground fire, exploded and crashed near the top of a 900 metre-high karst ridge. Capt Heiskell and all the helicopter crew, with the exception of the pararescueman, were killed in the crash. Hackney had strapped a parachute onto Capt Heiskell and saw him out of the helicopter and then jumped himself. Unfortunately, Capt Heiskell did not survive the attempted escape but Duane Hackney was luckier in that, although he did not have time to buckle his parachute properly before jumping, he managed to pull the ripcord and survived despite plummeting to the ground through the branches of a tall tree. The badly injured Hackney was quickly rescued by the parajumper of Jolly Green 36. Duane Hackney became the first living enlisted recipient of the Air Force Cross and was one of the most decorated airmen of the war. He retired as a Chief Master Sergeant and died of a heart attack in September 1993. In 2017 and 2018 a team from the Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons excavated the crash site of Jolly Green 05 and recovered human remains that were sent to the DPAA. Through DNA testing and dental analysis the remains of Maj Wood, Capt Kibbey and SSgt Hall were identified and all were subsequently buried in Arlington National Cemetery. |
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