174th Assault
Helicopter Company

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DOLPHINS & SHARKS

9 April 1968

To: Commanding Officer
14th Combat Aviation Battalion
APO 96374

1. At approximately 1230 hours on 8 April, one of our assigned aircraft was shot down by hostile fire in the area of Quang Nhai. Two of the crewmembers were killed and the pilot severely injured. He is without a doubt alive today only because of an extremely heroic act on the part of a member of your command.

2. The injured pilot, as soon as he was able to talk after extensive surgery, informed members of this unit that he wished he was able to write so he could write this man up for an award. He states that there were at least two fifty caliber machine guns within fifty meters of his location. Heavy fire from these weapons had already shot his ship down, shot up a gunship that had attempted to assist him and prevented our other aircraft from rendering assistance. An aircraft from the 174th Assault Helicopter Company did manage to land and evacuate the injured pilot to Chu Lai.

3. This valorous act is certainly most deserving of an award. 1LT Lloyd, the injured pilot, has specifically requested of me that I do something to get this man an appropriate award.

4. Request that the Distinguished Flying Cross be recommended for the person(s) responsible for this action. It is my desire that this letter serve as a statement representing what 1LT Lloyd saw and knew about the action.

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(Following are excerpts from several e-mail messages I received from Mike Banek in May 1997, in response to my request that he provide me some information on the above letter from Major Watke. --WebMaster)

Mike says, in part,

... I heard Russ Baer died. We saw each other at the '94 or '95 174th reunion in Ft. Walton Beach. He was the door gunner on a Shark the day I tried with a mini-gun to bring down a VC running in the open...after three 2-second bursts, all I did was manage to raise a bunch of spray from the rice paddy...I think Captain Tom Woods was the AC (aircraft commander). From a drift hover, he ordered Russ to stop him...Russ squeezed off TWO rounds from his upside-down M-60 and wounded him so he could be questioned by advancing troops. I was recounting that story in a crowded motel room when I heard someone from the back say, "Hey, that's my story!" We became fast friends and exchanged cards and letters. My heart goes out to his family...he was a true warrior.

Russ made me aware of a new perspective that I never realized as a young 20 year old AC...what appears to be heroic as hell in the front seat often looks dumber than hell from the back. Also, twenty-year-old heroes were a dime-a-dozen back then...and it was often the "back seaters" who laid down supressive fire, left the helicopter to effect a rescue, or pulled an injured pilot from his magnesium grave.

I was the AC of the Dolphin on this mission on 8 April 1968, and I would really like to know who the 174th crewman was when Major Glen Gibson (the 174th Commanding Officer) and I rescued this downed OH-23 Scout pilot. We were leading a huge formation at the time. The citation reads as though I were alone, but the real heroes that day were 1LT Lloyd for faking being dead while VC kicked both his shattered and burned legs, and for clinging to life while waiting for his comrades to take him home...our crew chief for racing out into the open to drag 1LT Lloyd back to the Huey...and those two "magnificent bastards" who hovered in gun-laden Sharks overhead while staring down two 12.75's (also known as .51-caliber anti-aircraft guns). Those Sharks spewed firepower everywhere. They clearly saved my butt that day. Actually, I'll bet the enemy gunners where as much in awe of those gleaming white Shark's teeth as they were of the mini's and rockets!

So, as you requested, I am sending a few photos and some info for the home page. Maj. Gibson is far too shy to offer the account...but for my kids sake, so that they may know some of what "daddy did in the War," I will forgo the humility. More importantly, I would really like to know who the crewman was, our crew chief, because he's the one who unassed the helicopter under file and rescued Lt. Lloyd while Major Gibson and I sank very low in our armored seats and watched while the two gutsy Sharks "hovered" overhead and pedal-turned a hail of protective fire. I think Rex Pearson and Captain Woods were the two Shark AC's, but am uncertain.

As for Major Gibson, when we were first notified of the downed OH-23 Scout, they asked for volunteers from our flight to attempt a rescue. After a long deafening silence, then after asking me if I was up for it, Major Gibson volunteered us. Then, although I was flying as the aircraft commander, I was only a Warrant Officer WO-1 and was flying with my Company Commander, who was also qualified as an aircraft commander. Major Gibson let me fly the helicopter in and out of what was clearly a life-threatening situation. I turned it back to him outbound for Chu Lai. I have never forgotten the leadership and respect he showed me that day. I don't think I would have trusted a 21 year old kid with my life. --Mike Banek, May 1997.

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Following is the Award Citation Dated 9 September 1968 Orders Number 7041

THE DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS

Is Awarded To

WARRANT OFFICER MICHAEL BANEK
For heroism while participating in aerial flight evidenced by voluntary action above and beyond the call of duty in the Republic of Vietnam. Warrant Officer Banek distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 8 April 1968 while serving as pilot on an UH-1D helicopter on an air assault mission in support of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry. On that date, Warrant Officer Banek rescued a seriously wounded pilot whose aircraft had been shot down by intense anti-aircraft fire. Other ships that had attempted the rescue had been driven off, badly damaged and with wounded crew members. Pick up of the pilot had to be made from a zone in the middle of an anti-aircraft position and within 50 meters of two (enemy) 50 caliber machineguns. Electing to approach at high speed and low level, Warrant Officer Banek, by expert use of available cover and defilade, was able to surprise the waiting enemy gunners and effect the rescue. Warrant Officer Banek's outstanding display of flying ability, personal heroism, and devotion to duty is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, the Americal Division, and the United States Army.

Authority: By direction of the President under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved 2 July 1926.

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1st photo above: Mike Banek in front of Shark 137, a UH-1C gunship. Mike was flying a Dolphin UH-1D "slick" the day of the rescue of Lt. Lloyd, and later moved to the Shark gunships. 2nd photo above: UH-1C Shark at what appears to be the Fire Support Base at Minh Long, southwest of Quang Ngai city. 3nd photo above: Mike preflighting the rotor head of Shark 137. Photo just above: Mike after his tour with the 174th AHC when he was flying for Air America. When I asked Mike for more info about the Air America connection, he provided the following: As far as the Air America caption goes, add that I flew for them for 1 1/2 years in Vietnam and Laos. I served as First Officer in "Stretch" B/F model Hueys (had rotor brakes). Had time in S-58 "twin packs," Porters, Volpars, C-46, C-47, Caribou's, etc. I met the actor, Robert Downey Jr., in Savannah in Feb of this year (1997)...he was shooting another John Grisham novel. I told him the part he played in the movie "Air America" was me! He freaked out. I was the proverbial naive kid from the coast, hustled by the CIA with the old line, "Don't worry kid, we don't get shot...we're an airline!" In reality, the pilots were real loony tunes and hardened mercenaries from as far back as Dien Bien Phu. During Vietnam in the 60's, we were in awe of "high-time" combat pilots...remember? Well, at Air America there was one high-timer called "Shower Shoes Wilson" (he refused to wear combat/flying boots and flew with those rubber shower shoes). When asked how much time he had in C-47's (Goony Birds), his favorite ride, he replied, "about 5,000 hours..." The kid scoffed back at him that that wasn't all that much combat time in these parts...to wit he clarified, "Well that's in that one over there." Then, as he pointed to various ships along the flight line, "in that one its 6,000 hours, and that one 3,000, and over there 4,500, and the one in the back..." True story!