| Hi,
I'm Tom Runkle. CE of UH-1H 039. My gunner's name was John Dominguez that
day of the collision. He and I flew most of our missions together. He
survives and lives in TX. We're in regular contact with each other again.
Maybe you'd like to include him in the column as a crewmember on 039 and
479. He also was my gunner on UH-1H 479 until we took over 039. Also regards
AH 584, we were the CC ship flying along with the Cobra in which Daley and
Goodlett were killed in the crash. Both our aircraft were reconning the LZ
prior to an insert when they buried in. We set down at the site alone as the
rest of the troop had before the crash, diverted to pick up the scheduled
ground troops for the insert. Talk about fear. Need I say that without
overhead cover or having ground troops with us for quite some time there I
surely aged considerably as my pilot and I strolled the flooded rice paddy
wreckage site looking for the remains of the 2 pilots. We had only our
pistols for protection at that point. The co-pilot remained with my ship to
keep it running as did my gunner on his 60 who was Nilo Balatbat from
Manilla. John Dominguez was not flying with me that day for some reason.
Nilo had just transferred in from the 101st Paratroop Div. as a volunteer
gunner. Nilo did eventually come out to join us in the search and we did
discover both sets of remains. After the troop came on station at the site
and inserted we finally had a protective perimeter around us and overhead
cover support from some of our Cobras and Loaches. Even though no hostile
gunfire was heard at the site itself I'll never forget that feeling that I
was going to die there that day in an old long deserted brackish water rice
paddy. There was no sign of habitation anywhere near us, friendly or
otherwise. At the time we had no way of knowing why the crash had occurred.
It was later written up as pilot error I believe though. We brought Dailey
and Goodlet back to GR at DiAn in bags. What a way to start the day. Later
"Bro"..........Tom Runkle A-Trp. Lift Plt. CE 3/17 69-70 |