Hi Again!
The following isn’t about my display, but it is related to it, and I thought you might find it interesting. When I got to mom and dad’s house yesterday, before going to the hospital, dad had left an old (April 2005) copy of the Air Force Magazine out for me to see. In the magazine was an article titled “20 seconds over Long Binh” by John T. Correll.
The article tells the heroic story of the events that earned A1C John Levitow the Medal of Honor. It was Feb. 24, 1969, and the second day of the Tet offensive. In response to rocket and mortar attacks, Spooky 71 (The plane shown in the paint scheme plans I used to paint my model), took off from Bien Hoa Air Base for a “combat air patrol circuit” over the Saigon/Tan Son Nhut area. Levitow was the loadmaster on Spooky 71 that fateful night. He was on his 180th combat mission, but had never flown with this crew before. He was filling in for a loadmaster who had taken his place when he was sick.
At about 11:30 PM, thirty minutes before being relieved by another gunship for the midnight-to-dawn shift, Spooky 71 was diverted to provide support to the Long Binh Army post that was under mortar attack. Seeing the source of the mortars, Spooky 71 flew to knock them out. In route, the unlucky gunship flew into the path of an 82mm mortar round, which struck the top of the right wing.
According to the article, the commander, Lt. Col. Robert A. Davidson said, “The resultant damage was a hole two feet in diameter through the wing and over 3,500 shrapnel holes riddling the fuselage… The occupants were helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage like so many rag dolls.”
The navigator, Maj. William P. Platt said, “At that moment, a loud explosion was heard and a bright flash filled the aircraft. Even in the navigation compartment the flash lit up the inside of the aircraft like daylight. The aircraft veered slightly to the right and down.”
Levitow said, “I felt as if someone had taken a two-by-four and squarely hit me against the whole right-hand side of my body. All… of the enlisted got wounded and the officers did not. I think it was a very discriminatory flight.” Levitow and one of the gunners, Sgt, Ellis C. Owen, were in the process of dropping a flare when the mortar struck. According to Levitow, when they were hit, he Owen, Sgt. Thomas Baer, the other gunner and SSgt Edward Fuzie, the flight engineer were knocked to the floor and the flare was knocked out of his hands. Since his “finger was through the safety pin ring the safety pin was pulled.”
The flare was armed and rolling loose in the aircraft. At most there would be 20 seconds before it exploded. Levitow, who had 40 pieces of shrapnel in his leg between his knee and his hip, was dragging one of the crewmen to the center of the cabin he saw the flare between the No. 1 minigun and a jumble of spilled ammunition. Platt said, “Levitow was struggling toward the flare despite the violent maneuvering of the aircraft… Dense blue smoke was pouring out of the burning flare fuse.”
Had the flare ignited, it would quickly fill the aircraft with toxic smoke, incapacitating the entire crew. Levitow recalls, “I couldn’t walk. I crawled to the location of the flare. I had a real tough time grabbing hold of it with two hands because of the pain in my leg and everything. They tell me I ended up jumping on it, finally getting control and dragging myself and the flare back to the rear cargo door which was open and just managed to push it outside the door as it ejected and ignited simultaneously.”
The citation to accompany Levitow’s Medal of Honor put it this way: “Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft.”
Carpenter said that he “had the aircraft in a 30-degree bank and how Levitow ever managed to get the flare and throw it out, I’ll never know.” In the nomination package Carpenter added, “Levitow’s progress was clearly marked with his own blood on the f loor of the aircraft.
Spooky 71 limped back to base with Carpenter saying, “I consider the fact that the aircraft was able to fly at all a miracle.” Despite the fact that the gunship had a two foot hole in its wing, a flat right tire, and was leaking both aviation fuel and isopropyl alcohol, two highly flammable substances, Carpenter was able to bring her in safely, get her stopped and get the crew off the aircraft without further incident.
Levitow passed away November 8, 2000, at the young age of 55 following a lengthy battle with cancer. He willed his Medal of Honor to the Enlisted Heritage Hall at the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy at Maxell, AFB, Gunter Annex, Alabama. It is part of an award-winning display that includes a surplus C-47, with the color and markings that Spooky71 bore in February 1969, and a life like mannequin of Levitow inside, struggling to get the flare to the door.
As a bonus, dad attached a note dated 4/6/05 that reads:
“I saved this article because it describes and pictures what I did in Vietnam in 1966. Bien Hoa is where I first reported in Jauary. I was later assigned to Saigon/Tan Son Nhut, Binh Tuy and finally Danang where I was flying over the Ho Chi Minhtrail at night shooting at trucks.
I left in Oct. 66 because Janey was very ill and needed to be moved to a different climate. In January ’67 my crew was shot down and killed by a hit in the flare box mentioned in this article. The toxic fumes knocked out the pilot and co-pilot such that they crashed in level flight. (In this article the flare did not ignite inside the plane,)
I would have been rotating back to the States before then anyway, but most of the crew that I trained were still there and I hated to hear that – in fact, the load master was brand new on the last mission I flew – where we were involved in two hours of flare support for some marines who were surrounded by VC or NVN south of Da Nang. He got brought up to speed in a hurry.
I could go on and on with stories, but I won’t.”
CHEERS!!!