| Date: 7 November 1965 |
| Aircraft type: SH-3A Sea King |
| Serial Number: 148993 |
| Military Unit: HS-2 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Independence |
| Name(s): |
| Lt(jg) Terry Campbell (Survived) |
| Lt(jg) Melvin Howell (Survived) |
| J Wirth (Survived) |
| Huey Huseth (Survived) |
| The day after the crew of HS-2’s Sea King (Nimble 62) had rescued Sgt Berkley Naugle after Jolly Green 85 had been shot down, Lt Campbell and his crew took off again to continue the search for the others survivors. As the Naval task force crossed the coast the helicopter was hit by small arms fire and the pilot was forced to crash-land on the top of a 4,000 feet high mountain. The accompanying pair of Skyraiders strafed and bombed enemy troops as they attempted to close with the stricken helicopter. On hearing of the loss of Nimble 62, another Sea King was launched from the Independence and a USAF HH-3E took off from a forward operating base in Laos. The North Vietnamese brought in a mobile anti-aircraft gun to supplement the machine gun and small arms fire and eventually both Navy Skyraiders were hit and had to make belly landings at Da Nang. In the meantime the HH-3 and a Navy UH-2 arrived and safely extracted the crew of Nimble 62. Another flight of Skyraiders then destroyed the downed Sea King to prevent it falling into enemy hands. |
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