LEWIS RICHARD GARY

Narrative

Bobby Williams and I were both vying for the next fire team leader slot. For some unknown reason operations swapped his crew for mine and put them in the aircraft I had been flying the night before they were shot down. The Pilot Richard Lewis had been in country a few months, Glenn Fey had been transferred from the 134th AHC two weeks prior and Jerome Jacobs was I believe a postal clerk who was working his tail off to be a door gunner. It is believed they were hit by an RPG on the right side of the aircraft; I have a photo of the aircraft in the air right after they were hit and it shows no damage to the left side. I heard the elapsed time from when the aircraft was hit until it was completely burned was only four minutes. We know that at least part of the crew was alive prior to impact because they were keying the radio while using the intercom. This was a heavy (48 rockets) and evidently they were unable to jettison the pods prior to impact. The aircraft burned with all hands. The next day I took the dental records to morgue to help with identification of the remains. From: Jim McLaughlin"