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From: Roger Hanson 725 S. 2nd Washington,Iowa
Date: 6/23/2002
Time: 8:38:35 AM
Remote Name: 208.145.207.60
On Jan 13'69 I was the door gunner on the slick used for command and control of the cobras of the 235th ahc. We were under alert and my crew and 2 cobra crews were on the flight line in a small building used for quick scrambling when an assignment would come in during the night. When we were hit I was unable to take a direct route to my ship due to direct contact with 2 VC who were able to hit one of the cobra pilots running in front of me with a B40 rocket. My ship got off the ground with one pilot and my crew chief. Extreme small weapons fire, both VC and friendly from our own perimeter shooting at anything that moved on our flight line forced me to dive into the swamp area behind our revetments. When my ship landed for fuel after things had calmed down somewhat I was able to get on my helicopter. We lost several cobras on the ground. We only lost the one pilot but several others were killed, mainly from the gaurd posts on the perimeter.