Medevac-Queson Mountains-Vietnam-updated

Sometime in September, 1970 we were flying with our sister ship re-supply marine units located somewhere near the Queson Mountains when we received an emergency medevac call requesting immediate assistance for a marine patrol. The patrol had been out for several days and when they made camp the previous night they had set out their claymore mines to protect the perimeter. Sometime during the evening the vc turned the claymore mines around so that they faced the marines.

Early the next morning the vc made some noise very close to the perimeter and so the marines in an effort to protect themselves triggered the claymores and discharged hundreds of pellets right into themselves wounding the entire seven marine patrol and critically wounding 2 or 3 of them.

We quickly proceeded to the area and hovered above while our sister ship provided assistance. After ensuring the vc were gone, the helicopter hovered near the steep mountain and tried to position itself to pick up the marines. The hill side was too steep and too heavily forage (with trees) to allow the chopper to get very close.

Finally the helicopter lowered what we called a jungle penetrator, which is a long tube that had fold out seats, and was used to extract people from dense jungle areas. The process of extracting the entire team took some time and I believe one of the helicopter crew members was lowered to help strap the wounded onto the penetrator. They could only extract 2 people at a time so it took a number of minutes to bring out all 7 marines..... some who were screaming because of shattered bones and multiple bullet punctures.

Our sister ship brought the marines to Charlie Med and we hooked up later at the base to hear first hand about the mission. It was somewhat frustrating for us to be hovering waiting to assist while our sister ship was involved in all the action.

Note: The "Claymore" designated M-18A1 is an anti-personnel mine that weighs approximately 3.5 lbs has over 700 steel balls that adhere to C-4 explosive (1.5 lbs) and is usually placed on the ground using its 2 sets of scissor legs. It has an effective range of 100 meters but is optimally used when enemy personnel are within 50 meters. It could be used for a variety of purposes but primarily in defensive situations and ambushes. The claymore is "triggered" with a firing device connected to a blasting cap.