Note shrapnel damage to right side and shattered bubble. Exhaust pipes were cut off shorter by the blast, and the battery had a hole in it. Otherwise, it is in good shape.
by P. Bishop - retouched by GAUCHO
BLOW YOURSELF DOWN
On this particular day, the scouts were assigned to support a group of Engineers who were servicing listening devices. These were placed on trails to trigger H&I fire when noise or movement was detected. The crews were Bob Potvin and Phil Bishop in one OH-13 and Frank Vanatta with an unknown gunner in the other.
The pair were scouting near an intended landing area when they happened across a bunker complex and a pile of web gear which included a bag about the size of a potato sack in the middle of it. The pair hovered around the area, throwing grenades and firing into the entrances of the bunkers. Bob and Phil were working over the area near the web gear when Phil began moving his fire toward the gear itself. Bob recalls starting to tell Phil "Don’t shoot into the ba ..." as he watched the tracers move toward the target. When the rounds reached the bag there was a HUGE explosion that blew Phil into Bob’s lap and put the helicopter into translational lift. The machine was shaking and loosing RPM, and it was obvious that it was not going to fly much farther. Both of the crew had debris from the explosion in their eyes and Bob was having trouble seeing where he was flying. They landed next to a shell crater, shut down the helicopter and headed for the relative protection of the crater. They grabbed their personal weapons, the M-60, some grenades and the first aid kit. They put the kit to good use trying to clean up the many small nicks and cuts that were bleeding profusely caused by the debris sent their way by the explosion. They did their best to put bandages on each other, even with the trouble they were having seeing well. With the hastily applied bandages, they figure that they must have looked to be in pretty bad shape when the rescue helicopter arrived.
The crew of the second helicopter heard the explosion, and Frank turned his machine to see what Bob and Phil were doing. There was not much of a conversation between the two helicopters, but it quickly became obvious what had happened. As Frank flew cover for the other crew, he called in the Cavalry -- literally. Soon, two Cobras were overhead providing a more potent cover for the downed crew. An OH-6 soon arrived and flew the two crewmembers back to LZ Sharon. After treatment, Bob was taken to the MASH unit at the Quang Tri Marine base where the doctors removed a piece of plexiglass from his right eye, and then on to the hospital at Tuy Hoa. He returned to the unit about a week later. Phil’s injuries were not as bad, so he did not accompany Bob to the hospital.
Bob tried to look up the pilot who recovered them in the OH-6 - a Lieutenant named Phil Molinari - but he had DEROSed by the time Bob got back to LZ Betty. Bob finally tracked Molinari down over thirty years later, but he could not recall that incident. Bob assured him that what was just another day for him was a significant personal event for Bob.
information supplied by Bob Potvin and Phil Bishop
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OH-13 after being
recovered to LZ Betty
Note shrapnel damage to right side and shattered bubble. Exhaust pipes were cut off shorter by the blast, and the battery had a hole in it. Otherwise, it is in good shape. by P. Bishop - retouched by GAUCHO |