ELIASON WENDELL THEO

Narrative

INCIDENT 65033101.KIA In support of the ARVN operations, the Marine pilots flew both resupply and strike missions. The strike missions produced the only significant enemy contact experienced by Marines during this period. On 31 March, the group flew helicopter support for ARVN Operation QUYET THANG 512. A force of 17 UH-34Ds from HMM-163, two UH-34D SAR/maintenance helicopters from HMM-162, and seven U.S. Army Bell UH-1 'Huey' gunships was assigned to lift 465 troops of the ARVN 5th Airborne Battalion. The air task force was to move the ARVN paratroopers from the vicinity of Tam Ky in Quang Tin Province to a landing zone about 25 miles south of Da Nang. Led by LTC Ewers, the helicopters encountered such heavy antiaircraft fire when they approached the landing zone that Ewers later remarked that the squadron might have flown into a trap. In the first lift, Ewers' wingman, 1LT Wendell T. Eliason was killed in the landing zone, but his co-pilot, 1LT Donald R. Wilson, managed to fly the badly damaged craft back to Da Nang. Four other helicopters in this lift also had to be returned to Da Nang for battle damage repair. from "The 9th MEB in Vietnam"