by Albracht, William; Wolf, Marvin; Galloway, Joseph L. (FRW)
“Maybe that wasn’t his name—I heard that he got a Silver Star, so maybe that’s why I remember him as Lieutenant Silver,” Barham says.
Barham returned to Vietnam in 1972 for about three months on a classified mission called Project Friday Gap. This was a Military Intelligence operation to instruct men from Cambodia’s short-lived Khmer Republic in Special Forces staff procedures. (Recall that Barham speaks Cambodian.) These students returned to Cambodia to become the staff for Khmer Special Forces. The Khmer Republic was swept away by the genocidal Khmer Rouge in 1975.
Barham left the Army in 1973 as a captain. In 1975 he was hired as a civilian contractor to train Saudi Arabia’s National Guard, an elite palace guard. In 1980 he switched employers to work on the Saudi Naval Expansion Program. When he returned to the States in 1985, Barham went into construction; he owned a construction company in Utah. In 2005 he was employed as a contractor in support of FEMA for the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. In 2012 he went to New York for FEMA in support of the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort. His home is in Summerdale, Alabama.
Francis “Butch” Barnes
Butch, who served on Firebase Susan and whose gun was taken out of service just when Kate needed it the most, now lives in Antioch, California, and is an engine maintenance supervisor for Delta Airlines.
Nolan Black
Shortly after Kate was abandoned, the remains of Nolan Black and his crew were recovered by elements of the 7/17th Cavalry. The stunning Washington, DC, memorial wall listing the names of America’s fallen in the Vietnam War has spawned several adjuncts, including a searchable database of the names on the wall. Comments are allowed, and what follows here was taken from the public comments on Black’s page. They are in many ways typical of comments for all who were lost in this war.
From Black’s Widow, Carol:
Nolan, I miss you as though you left us yesterday, and here it is 30-plus years later . . . I feel your presence at times, as if you’ve never left. Laura is a beautiful woman, you would be so proud of her. She is kind, loving and strong. She was married a month ago. Dad gave her away and it was beautiful! I felt as if you and Mom were there, looking down on her. Others have written about knowing you while in Vietnam . . . While it is painful, it is also beautiful to know that you are being remembered and held close to their hearts, too. I love you, miss you and am proud of you.
Carol, Later:
Happy 60th Birthday. I have been thinking of you a lot lately. Wondering what you would look like as a 60-year-old. Somehow, all I can picture is the way you were the last time I saw you. Laura and I were talking about you last evening. We played a little “I wonder, what would have happened, if you came back.” I pictured you having retired from the Army as a jet pilot [sic] and now working for UPS, doing their flights. We would have been able to take some of those trips we talked about. Maybe even bought the house on the ocean we dreamed of. I saw a happy family, with you enjoying Laura’s daughters, your granddaughters Sarah and Ashley. I know you would have been every bit the loving grandpa, as you were the loving daddy. You would have been the strong dad for Laura as she went through her painful divorce. We would have continued to grow in our love for one another, and in our faith in God. Happy birthday, keep flying high and wait for me. Someday, we will fly together, forever.
From His Daughter, Laura:
I was born in 8/68, so I never really got to know my father “in person,” but through my mother, Carol, and my grandparents, I have come to know him. I know he loved to fly and was proud to serve his country, so I know that his death was not in vain. I was brought up to be proud of him and all others who have fought. A Purple Heart Chapter in Wisconsin bears his name. He lives on, through us and all others. I am very proud, of him and all the other heroes, alive, or gone, but not forgotten.
I wanted to thank all the guys who have written me letters about my dad. They mean more to me than you could ever know. Please continue.
From Steven Parker, a Roommate in Vietnam
I think of you often. I remember the late-night conversations about your family, your dreams, fears, your dedication. I also remember the day you died, in support of Firebase Kate. It still wakes me at night. From all the Blue Stars and Jokers. God Speed, Nolan, keep watch for us, we’re right there on your wing. Catch the wind.
After Nolan’s death Carol remarried. She believes that her Nolan is “with the Lord in heaven, living the rest of eternity at peace surrounded by the love he so well deserves,” she wrote. Their daughter, Laura “is a wonderful, devoted mother and grandmother who . . . exemplifies the love of a mother for her children.” Laura has connected with two other children of her birth mother.
Carol says that she now lives a life “filled with sorrow, joy, peace, struggles and the bittersweet memories of the first love of my life, Nolan Eugene Black. A part of my heart was torn from me when he died, and it remains gone to this day. The raw edges have scarred over with time, but the missing piece is with him.”
Reg Brockwell
Brockwell left Vietnam in March 1970 and spent the remainder of his two-year service at Fort Sill as an assistant operations officer. “I was offered the general’s aide position if I’d extend for six months in Vietnam,” he explains. “By that time, I’d decided I wouldn’t stay there six more minutes.”
After release from active duty, Brockwell returned to Houston and resumed his former job at Shell Oil. “About forty of us had gotten out of the military at roughly the same time,” he recalls. “Shell told us that we had a year, because that’s what [a federal law said] they had to give us, but we’d better find another job. Sure enough, at the end of the year they called us all into an auditorium and told us we were gone. I looked for another chemical engineering job, but couldn’t find one that I liked or that I felt was suitable. Trading stocks was my hobby, and one day my Merrill Lynch stockbroker asked me if I’d ever thought about doing that for a living. I tried it, and I loved it, and 35 years later I retired and converted it back into a hobby.”
This book would never have been written without a big push from Brockwell: “Initially I was going through a lot of documents trying to find out what had happened to a Bronze Star that I’d been told that I’d been awarded—I had been awarded one in an impact ceremony, but the paperwork had never come through,” he explains. “In Vietnam it was Go here and do this, and Go there and do that. I had no idea what the big picture was. After I came home, I started looking at the big picture. I had a recurring nightmare at the time where I was walking into this village and it said, ‘Welcome to Bon Sar Pa.’ I had no idea where it was. I don’t know if it was suppression or what, but in my nightmare I was always in a situation where I was totally overwhelmed. Then, in the mid-seventies, I saw a movie starring Burt Lancaster called Go Tell the Spartans, which was based on a book called Incident at Muc Wa. A small firebase was surrounded, and the people had to walk off. [In Vietnamese, muc wa means “too much.”] All were killed except one. I went back and started looking at some maps and I saw that Bon Sar Pa was on the road between Duc Lap and Bu Prang, and close to a volcano near [firebases] Martha and Helen.”
He continues. “Things started coming back to me. I read a booklet written by an SF soldier, Special Forces at War, and he mentioned . . . Kate, Annie, and Susan. I remembered still more and started doing some research through the archives in 1992. Later I went out to Texas Tech and used their archives of the Vietnam War.
“I began to realize that I was selfishly looking for a potential Bronze Star, and some of the people on this firebase, namely Bill Albracht, had received nothing for what I considered to be a very heroic deed. So I interviewed Major Lattin and several other people along the way, and I was finally able to get in touch with Albracht and [confirmed] that he didn’t receive any recognition for [his role as Kate’s commander]. Then I talked to Sergeant Pierelli and, beginning in 2005, I wrote The Battle for LZ Kate, copyrighted it in 2007
[and then posted on the Internet] for the sole purpose of [revealing] what, at that time, was probably the better-known, but least publicized, battle of the war.
“As I did the research, things kept coming back. I was going through my pictures one day and looked at those that I’d taken of the 105 crew from Kate who had lost Norton. The 5th of the 27th artillery ended up naming a firebase for Norton, but when you think about what had happened to Ron Ross and Michael Norton, it was really depressing. Nobody seemed to have a handle on what was going on. It almost seemed like the US military had said, ‘We just have to write this bad deal off.’ It almost came down to the point that they said, ‘There’s nothing that we can do.’
“I have a couple of Stars and Stripes articles that basically talked about how the Vietnamese, who were nowhere in sight, were pounding the NVA at Bu Prang and these firebases,” he says, throwing up his hands, as if to say he can’t believe it.
Brockwell and his wife still live in Houston.
William J. Brydon
For his role in our escape and evasion, Australian Army Major Brydon was “mentioned in dispatches,” which entitled him to use the initials M.I.D. after his name forever thereafter. His citation read, in part: “During this operation, Major Brydon controlled his companies with outstanding ability. When a fire support base in the area was threatened by the enemy and the decision had been made to vacate it, he planned and controlled the successful withdrawal of the Allied garrison using his own companies as a screen. The calm and professional manner in which Major Brydon executed this withdrawal averted a potentially serious situation, Major Brydon’s professional ability and his untiring efforts to improve the effectiveness of those under his command have set a fine example to United States, Vietnamese and Australian Commanders involved in the Special Forces program and reflect great credit on himself, the Australian Army Training Team and the Australian Army.”
Brydon retired as a lieutenant colonel and died of a heart attack at age 74 at his home in Beenleigh, Queensland, Australia, in 2006.
Mike Caldwell
Mike recovered fully from his shrapnel wounds. Following his discharge from active duty, he returned to his home in West Sacramento, California, and for several years worked at McClellan Air Force Base. After qualifying for a small business loan program for wounded veterans, he started a trucking business. Today his six trucks haul industrial waste to a variety of disposal sites.
Les Davison
John “Les” Davison left the Army in October 1970 and returned to Illinois to earn a BA and an MA. When his GI Bill benefits ran out, he pushed paper for several US government agencies. While working, he attended law school night classes and became an attorney in 1987. Davison took early retirement in 2001 and works summers in various national parks. He is also a substitute teacher in Arlington, Virginia.
Les provided the table below, listing the names of all the aviators who participated in resupplying us on the night of October 31.
Tail #
Crew
(pilot/copilot/crew chief/gunner)
Slicks
Gunships
152
CW2 James C. Cole
WO1 Jerry Watson
Sp4 Peter Barthman
Sp4 David E. Kadel
WO1 John “Les” Davison
1Lt Norman Simpson
Sp5 Craig W. Mosher
PFC Thomas M. Moore
254
CW2 Kenneth Donovan
1Lt James A. Hitch
Sp5 Mike Wilcox
Sp4 Larry Gillikin
WO1 Dennis Fenlon
CW2 Robert Collins
Sp4 Thomas W. Love
Sp4 Calvin Serain
620
WO1 Frank G. Uhring
WO1 David J. De Sio
Sp4 Ernest C. Plummer
Sp4 Edward J. Close
WO1 John “Jack” Coonce
WO1 Kenneth Shriver
Sp4 Ronnie Wiles
Sp4 Robert E. Blake
073
CW2 James L. Abbott
MAJ Dean M. Owen
Sp4 Jesse Craig
Sp4 Richard Farlow
WO1 Charles “Pete” Cosmos
1Lt Walter Foster
Sp5 Gregory Bundros
Sp4 Rafael Alvarez, Jr.
765
WO1 Larry D. Ingram
Colonel B. R. Wright
Sp4 Richard D. Matson
Sp4 Johnny D. Bledshaw
According to Davison, each of the eighteen pilots who flew that mission, including Colonel Wright, the 17th Aviation Group commander, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The eighteen enlisted crew chiefs and door gunners were each awarded the Air Medal, with “V” device, indicating the award was for valor.
This strikes me as unfair to the enlisted crewmen, who were exposed to the same dangers as their pilots. It should also be noted that pilots flew in armored seats with a front flak vest. Crewmen had only flak vests.
Elton J. Delaune
Every officer learns early in his career that he is responsible for everything that his men do, and for everything that they fail to do. Because Lieutenant Colonel Delaune had operational control of Firebase Kate, our successful E&E accrued to his credit. Soon after leaving Vietnam, he was promoted to full colonel. The Army paid his full salary and allowances, as well as tuition and books, to enroll in an MBA program at Syracuse University. Later he attended the Army War College. Promoted twice more, he became the very model of a modern major general. Delaune served as deputy chief of staff for resource management for US Army Europe in 1977 and 1978, and retired soon afterward. He died in 2006.
Rocco DeNote
Rocco was always there when I called from Kate. He slept on the floor, took his meals there, and left only for brief toilet breaks. He knew everything that was happening and was absolutely invaluable. I put him in for a Bronze Star for Meritorious Service, and he told me that it meant more to him than anything else he received in Vietnam.
After returning to civilian life, Rocco went to college on the GI Bill, then settled in the Cape May area at the southern tip of New Jersey, married, and started a family. He found work with the local police force. In his tenth year as a cop, Rocco was shot in the head by an elderly man wielding a shotgun. His road back to fully functional was long and slow; eventually he made an almost complete recovery. Parts of his memory are gone, especially those relating to playing musical instruments. He became a grandfather in 2013 and now works as a substitute schoolteacher.
Ken Donovan
“Being older now, my attitude has changed from when I was younger,” he says. “I think this applies to all the guys who were there: The meaning of our Vietnam experience lies within us. Not with the politicians. Not with the commanders. We were willing to step forward to serve our country when that wasn’t necessarily the fashionable thing to do. I kept faith with my fellow soldiers, and I was courageous when I had to be, and I think that applied to all of us. I lost about twenty-six friends—flight school classmates and guys in my unit. Forty-some years after the fact, I feel bad because we lost their capability. These men were courageous, intelligent, aggressive, all the good things that we want in our citizens, and we lost that. If we look at most of the guys [that I knew] who survived, we had some doctors, a lot of attorneys, many successful businessmen. Contributing members of society. We lost all that. My overriding emotion is a sense
of loss.
“Dick Pugh, one of my flight school classmates, was killed the day after Christmas, 1968. So every Christmas, when I sit down with my family, I toast Dick. I think as long as you’re alive in somebody’s memory, you’re still alive.”
About 40,000 American helicopter pilots served in Vietnam. Of those men, 2,002, along with 2,704 crewmen, were killed in Vietnam.
Donovan left active duty in 1971 and earned a degree from Michigan State University. He also joined the Michigan Army National Guard. In 1979, he was offered the opportunity to join the Active Guard Reserve Program, and served as an instructor pilot. Soon after, he accepted a direct commission to second lieutenant.
He flew for twenty-five years. “I did everything that Ken Donovan can do in a Huey,” he says. “I had a great time in Vietnam; we lived in the aircraft. During the LZ Kate/Bu Prang deal, on Thanksgiving Day I flew from 0300 hours until dusk the next day, my longest day in a slick.”
Donovan’s last five years in the Michigan Guard were in a non-aviation assignment as a battalion and then brigade operations and training officer. Donovan retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1985 after twenty-eight years of service. Following that, he worked in the defense industry and retired as VP of sales and marketing for an engineering firm in 2008. Still tall and trim, he lives in retirement near Tampa, Florida.
Al Dykes
Dykes spent his entire Air Force career as a navigator. After Vietnam he served on several different classified programs until he retired from active duty with more than twenty years of service. He then continued to work for the Air Force as an adviser and consultant on a variety of classified programs. Dykes continued to enjoy life with his wife in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. In the course of preparing this book, I was privileged to reconnect with Al; we and our wives became very good friends. He died after a long illness on November 7, 2014.
