Just off to the left of camera (in the aforementioned photo) the terrain sloped upward into the hill whose top was the fire support base. A number of ARVN troops were reclining there, grinning and animatedly trying to direct our attention to a half dozen mangled and burned corpses, lying just down slope from them. To this day, I do not understand the smiles on their faces, but smiles there were nonetheless. As the disposition of the 178th crew was still the over-riding concern, I examined the bodies towards determining if any were Americans. Given the state of the remains, race was no easily discernible. What was, ws the presence, or lack thereof, of Nomex in what was left of the uniforms. It was only marginally comforting that I found none.

Normally, in an accident investigation, there are certain things that you do try to obtain pictures of; evidence of point of impact, blade strikes, control positions, gauge readings and the like. Given the conditions here, this was a complete impossibility. I shot film of the length and breadth of the wreckage, from opposing directions. Any mechanical analysis would only be accomplished, once what little remained was recovered from the field. With the disposition of our crew unclear, and with nothing else to be gained on site, e decide to head back to Chu Lai.

To my considerable surprise, our pick-up would be made on the top of the hill, at the fire support base. Hot as it now was, a little not so minor mountain climbing was not something I was looking forward to. On Photo 1, our path there is easily discernible as a "ribbon" that runs directly from the crash site to the top of the hill. This was a shallow ravine of rock and dried mud, caused by water run off from the top of the plateau and erosion. Pushing and pulling each other, the five of us managed to make it up the steep slope, over the dusty soil and surprisingly slippery dry rock. The altitude was considerable s we were all gasping for breath.

Upon reaching the top, we came upon a Brigadier General (one of the Assistant Americal Division Commanders) and his aide, who had also come out to the crash site. He declined to be inserted at the base of the hill and was also awaiting extraction. Pickups of both our parties occurred within half and hour. Enroute back to Chu Lai, we made one stop, but my memory is hazy as to exactly where this was; it might have even been on the main flight line. In any event, with the crew still unaccounted for, there was concern that a set of remains, removed from the crash site, might be an American. We met up with another UH-1 and transferred this body to our ship. While wrapped in a poncho and too horribly disfigured by impact and burns to describe, there was the appearance he was wearing the remains of a flight helmet. We brought the corpse to the 27th Medical Hospital for identification and disposition, then returned the Hue to the flight line and shut down.

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