Boeing CH-47A Chinook helicopter 64-13152 (Crashed).

64-13152

   64-13152, Boeing build number B-124, was a CH-47A helicopter. The U.S. Army acceptance date was 6 September 1965. The administrative strike date was 19 April 1968. 64-13152 accumulated 531.0 aircraft hours.

   At some point, 64-13152 was assigned to A Company - "Wildcats", 228th Assault Support Helicopter Battalion (ASHB) in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), and remained there until it was lost in combat on 19 April 1968.

   While at a hover preparing to drop a sling load of ammunition, the crew reported an explosion in aft pylon in vicinity of number 2 engine. The aircraft settled to the ground nose down with violent shudders and fire in the aft area. The crew exited, one with 3rd degree burns (Kenny Sager). Twenty minutes later, the fire caused the ammunition to explode, destroying aircraft.

   The last known location of 64-13152 was in the Republic of Vietnam.

   Aircraft status: Crashed in combat.

Wade O. Kane, a crew chief with A Company , 228th ASHB, 1st Air Cavalry Division, from June 1967 to June 1968, wrote: "I wish to mention some minor errors on your historical page. 64-13152, crewed by Gary Holderbecker, I think, was on the ground when it was hit. I can remember Gary saying "I was on the ramp, and I heard a loud bang, and when I looked up I could see sky". I think it was LZ Tiger or maybe Snapper in the Ashau Valley, and they were sitting with the ramp on the ground and the front end in the air."

My name is Andrew J. Lasco, SP5, LH DG. Gary was laying over the hell hole to guide the load in. When we hit, the back of the ship dropped and Larry was hanging in mid-air looking not to come down into and through the hole. I turned over my shoulder to see Larry looking over his shoulder at me and a column of black smoke passed over us. What happened is we were bringing in a sling load to LZ Tiger. The drop zone was a hollow on the side of a steep hill with a blasted tree stump above. We came hovering over the tree stump, Gary was telling the pilot to back up over the hollow, the rear blades got fouled into the tree stump, or even the ground since there was the vibrations of the blades hitting 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3, POW (since I guess Ken was not briefed on the need to be the "eyes" to the rear, or he couldn't actually see the stump as it was at a higher elevation that was visible to him), the engines over pressured and blew the entire aft pylon off. The ship started sliding down the hill until the sling load underneath halted our slide. We all got out except the Tail gunner, who was wounded; Gary went back in to get him out, the fuel pumps were still going and pumping a river of fuel downhill over top of the fuselage. Ken Sager's face and hands had skin hanging off, since he had no gloves and his faceshield was up when the engines flashed. We walked Ken up to the Ho Chi Minh trail holding his arms, since he was in so much pain and probably blinded, I don't know if he was permanently. Ken had only been in A Company a short time, maybe a week, or not more than a month, and this was his first chance to crew. Gary was a heck of a good guy, and I used to play a lot of craps with Larry between missions. We also flew into Khe Sanh and had to dodge 122 mm Katyushas and couldn't land, because there were too many ARVN's waiting to jump on board to try and self evacuate. I'm sorry to hear about Larry Barlage.

This aircraft was piloted by:

CW2 John R. Fox, Aircraft Commander, 1968

UNK Doug Martin, Pilot, 1968

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This aircraft was crewed by:

UNK Gary Holderbeck, Flight Engineer, 1968

UNK Kenny Sager, Tail Gunner, 1968

SP5 Andrew J. Lasco, LH Door Gunner, 1968

SP5 Larry C. Barlage, RH Door Gunner, 5 January 1968 - 19 April 1968.

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