FOLEY DOUGLAS LEE

Narrative

Eyewitness account of James W. "Bill" Griffin from his personal diary: "The B-52 were to hit an area about 6 miles West of Ben Cat and we are to lift the 5th Recon in to check the damage inflicted by the heavy bombing. We picked up the troops at Phou Loi and started for the L.Z. when Charlie One dropped below the formation and said that he had a momentary loss of power and was going into Ben Cat. I tried to follow him but the formation was ahead of me and I lost sight of him. I arrived at Ben Cat and he was not there, so I gave him a call and he said that he was coming on in. About this time Mr. McCune, who was flying with me said that he saw a helicopter fall and I saw a large burst of flames on the ground about 2 miles south of my position. I headed to the site and circled the wreckage and drew heavy automatic weapons fire in the vicinity. I could see that no one could have escaped from the crash so I went back to Ben Cat and landed. The people on the ground stated that this was the same spot that accounted for another aircraft the day before. Capt. Altomonte(this flight surgeon was involved in almost all operations.)the flight surgeon said that there were about four machine guns opened fire every time that any aircraft flew over this position. Killed in the crash were Lt. Foley, WO Toulouse, plus 8 ARVN and the crew-chief and gunner who were new in the company and I didn't even know them. It appears that the helicopter broke into pieces before hitting the ground. Sure is a mess! 3 Sep 1965"