| Date: 15 October 1962 |
| Aircraft type: U-10A Courier |
| Serial Number: 62-5909 |
| Military Unit: Detachment 2A, 1 ACG |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Bien Hoa |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Herbert Willoughby Booth (KIA) |
| TSgt Richard Lyman Foxx (KIA) |
| Capt Terry Denver Cordell (US Army) (KIA) |
| The Helio Courier was a rugged four/five-seat light aircraft with an excellent STOL capability that suited it to the kind of airstrips carved out of the jungle and high ground in Southeast Asia. A small number had been bought by the USAF for evaluation in the late 1950s and the type was used by the Air Commandos for psychological warfare, especially leaflet dropping and aerial broadcasting of propaganda to the enemy. The U-10 was also used by Air America in Laos where many of the airstrips required the Courier’s ruggedness and STOL capability. Capt Booth’s aircraft was involved in either a leaflet drop or a forward air control mission for a small-scale ground force operation named Powder Blue and was shot down. Ground troops saw the aircraft on fire and spiral down into the ground near Ban Me Thuot in Darlac province in the Central Highlands. The bodies were recovered by helicopter the next day despite Viet Cong opposition. |
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