| Date: 20 June 1966 |
| Aircraft type: UC-123B Provider |
| Serial Number: 56-4378 |
| Military Unit: Special Aerial Spray Flight, 309 ACS, 315 ACW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Bien Hoa detached to Tan Son Nhut |
| Name(s): |
| 1Lt Paul L Clanton (Survived) |
| 1Lt Steven A Aigner (Survived) |
| SSgt Elijah R Winstead (Survived) |
| The Ranch Hand unit had not lost an aircraft since April 1962. However on 20th June the unit’s luck ran out and an aircraft (call sign Cowboy) was hit by small arms fire about three miles north of Tam Ky near the coast between Chu Lai and Da Nang. Two aircraft were spraying defoliant on an area known as the Pineapple Forest when one of the Providers was hit in the engine while on its fifth pass. Fortunately the pilot was able to make a successful crash landing in a rice paddy and, although the aircraft caught fire, all the crew escaped. The pilot had been seriously injured in the crash and was pulled free of the burning wreckage by the other two members of the crew who had suffered only minor injuries. Approaching VC forces were kept at bay by the C-123’s fighter escort that strafed a tree line where the enemy troops had assembled. A flight of six Marine Corps helicopters heard the pilot’s distress call and two of the helicopters landed at the crash site to rescue the crew while under fire from enemy troops. The aircraft’s wreckage was later destroyed by a flight of B-57s to prevent it being scavenged by the Viet Cong. |
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