Article reproduced from the Palm Beach Post
Saturday September 24th, 2003
| Bill Jeczalik was awarded a Silver Star for his service in Vietnam |
| Jeczalik, a Boyton Beach resident, says an early love of airplanes led him to the military |
Special to Neighborhood Post
I was an "airplane nut" for as long as I can remember. I even strung speaker wires from an old TV my dad put in the basement that could pick up the tower at a nearby airport to a speaker I could listen to as I scanned the sky with binoculars.
In 1966, while a senior in high school, I took the tests at the local Army recruiter to enter their Warrant Officer Flight Program (which was the only military program that didn't require some college). Two weeks after high school graduation, the recruiter called and said there was a slot open.
After graduating a year later, the Army selected the top few in the class to attend the CH-47 transition class - myself included. I was sent to Vietnam in October 1967 and was assigned to the 178th Assualt Support Helicopter Company (a CH-47 Chinook outfit) in Chu Lai, about 50 miles south of Danang. After the required experience, I was made an "aircraft commander."
On May 12, 1968, our unit was called upon to withdraw personnel from a forward operation base at Kham Duc, about 10 miles from Laos. Four ships were sent for the extraction, and the captain in charge of the flight and the lead aircraft took us low and shallow like airliners toward the runway.
About a mile from touchdown, the North Vietnamese Army fired on the lead Chinook. The captain transmitted, "we're on fire and going in." His Chinook struck the runway, rotated left and burst into flames. I was sure there were no survivors, but all the crew escaped.
While the first aircraft was being attacked, a large amount of small arms fire was directed at our aircraft, hitting fuselage and blades. As per procedure, we returned to Chu Lai to check for damage.
During that time, the commander for the area called for an emergency evacuation of Kham Duc by any and all aircraft in the area. C-130, C-123, CH-46, and our CH-47s made runs in and out of Kham Duc under heavy fire. I saw a C-130 Hercules (an Air Force four-engine tubo prop) take off mistakenly toward the enemy's heavy weapons, be hit in the cockpit and crash in a ball of fire against a hillside with, I learned later, a hundred Americans and South Vietnamese on board.
I and my pilot, Dennis Rogers, landed during the battle and loaded about 40 South Vietnamese Army personnel and took off. It looked like a scene in a war movie.
The flight engineer told us on the intercom that one of the soldiers in the back inadvertently stuck his rifle tip into the exposed rotating drive shaft. We elected to proceed to a safe area to check for damage. Luckily there was none.
By that time, the operation was declared complete. For bravery during this action, all aircraft commanders (seven from our unit, myself included) were awarded the Silver Star.
This occured two months before my 20th birthday.
Bill Jeczalik, a resident of Boyton Beach, served in Vietnam.