July 4th, 1970. A post dedicated to the families of Chief Warrant Officers Stearns and Jernigan, Killed in Action On That Day.

This post comes as a special request from Greg Stearns. His father was one of two Cobra pilots I watched die on July 4th, 1970 during a fierce battle with the Dong Nghai Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army. Unfortunately, Greg was a little kid when the Army came to tell his family that his father had been shot down and killed "during a routine patrol", and throughout all those years, he lived that lie not knowing anything about the heroics exhibited by his father and Jernigan on that day.

We connected as a result of a memorial that I wrote for his dad and Jernigan on The Virtual Wall where I outlined the details of that fight. From that, Greg connected with me via my email address that I left on the post and I was able to give him the eyewitness reports of that day and dispel the notion that it was anything but "routine".  Since then, I've connected with many members of his family and, for me, it has been a most rewarding experience to give them the closure that none of them had from that horrible day.

Dateline: July 4th, 1970.
Location: Just north of Xuan Loc, South Vietnam, approximately 40 miles northeast of Saigon.
Base of Operations: 'Fire Support Base Mace, 199th Light Infantry Brigade. U.S. Army.
Subject: The combat loss of Chief Warrant Officers Stearns and Jernigan, AH 1 G Cobra gunship.

On that day, I was assigned to fly as co pilot for CW2 Craig Wolman, the aircraft commander of a UH 1 D model Huey that was designated as the Command and Control aircraft for the Brigade Commander, Colonel Collins. Memory robs me of some details and it may be that Colonel Shelton was on board that day but I'm not sure.

In any event, we received a call that a large convoy of ours was under attack by a larger force of enemy troops belonging to the Dong Nghai Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army. We were ordered to take off immediately and fly the Colonel to the site of the ambush and provide Command and Control. I clearly remember running to the Huey and performing the prestart duties of a copilot as Wolman and the Colonel were strapping in and preparing for God only knows what.

We departed FSB Mace and within minutes we could see helicopters flying above the battle field and lots of smoke in the air. Despite the fact that I had only been in Vietnam for six weeks, I could tell that there was one hell of a fight going on because of the smoke that came from mortars and RPGs. The Colonel knew it and told Wolman to enter a holding pattern west of the road where our men were pinned down and to make north and south runs from that holding pattern.

Wolman was doing all of the flying and I was running cross checks of the instrument panel and scanning the outside of the aircraft to insure that there would be no mid air collisions with other helicopters in the area. That was the first moment that I saw the details of the men on the ground as they took cover behind the vehicles in the convoy, the tracers arcing back and forth from their position and ours, as well as the aircraft circling over the fight.

I recall an OH 6 Loach to the north and the Cobra being flown by Stearns and Jernigan flying toward us but on the other side of the road from where we were. They were right outside the copilots cockpit window and very close to where I was seated.

When we reached the northern end of the ambush, the Colonel told us to turn south and continue with the holding pattern west of the road. I didn't know it at the time but the NVA knew that there would be air support from Mace and they had set up a 51 caliber anti aircraft position at the southern most end of the jungle.

Stearns and Jernigan had seen it and as we reached the southern limit of our holding pattern, Wolman made his turn to begin the second pass of the northern track back to the ambush site. That's when I noticed that Stearns and Jernigan began their turn back toward the ambush site. They were right outside my window and separated from us by roughly 200 yards or so. I almost wish that I hadn't been making instrument cross checks because, before I knew what was really going on, they began their rocket run.

The radio chatter between the Colonel and the ground commander got my attention and I immediately went back to the instrument cross checks. Before I knew it, there was a huge fireball on the ground and no Cobra. One minute I was watching them begin their dive and the next minute they were gone.

With the fireball still in the air, the Colonel expressed his regret that we had to witness the loss of our brothers and ordered us to back off of that area. Not knowing much of anything about combat, my initial thoughts were to shoot the place up but, as it turned out, the Colonel knew exactly what to do as it was his job to command the ground forces and getting killed would have put everybody in further danger.

Wolman backed out of the holding pattern and the gunner who saw the entire thing told us that the Cobra, as he dove toward the 51 caliber position, had taken a direct hit in the cockpit. At 190 knots dive speed, it only took an instant for them to hit the 51 caliber position which killed everybody on the ground and totally eliminated the air threat to the other helicopters in the area. Later on, I had a discussion with some of the ground troops who went in to retrieve the bodies and they told me that there were many NVA bodies all over the place and apparently, Stearns and Jernigan had hit their main staging area.

With the NVA wiped out, it was no time at all before our boys were tearing up the jungle on the east side of the road and the ambush was over. From the very beginning of our arrival until the battle was over, there couldn't have been more than five or ten minutes time consumed. With that, we returned to base and shut down for the day.

Watching that action with Stearns and Jernigan effectively killing everybody that was assigned to shoot us down, changed my life. I began flying differently and never flew in a straight line any more. I was almost always weaving back and forth and changing altitude to make it hard for them to get a good shot at us. Ed Wolfe, my room mate at the time, told me that he adopted that strategy as well. I don't think Ed was there that day but he and I discussed it as we were both new guys and the word spread like wildfire throughout the unit.

In addition to those changes, every July 4th from that day until this, has not been about the Declaration of Independence. It's been about Stearns and Jernigan and the real price we have to pay when fighting those who want to kill us. I see that sight many more times than just the 4th of July and have spoken of it often during sessions at the VA when "flashbacks" are discussed.

In any event, Greg Stearns, Frank's son, asked me to please put this account here so that he and his family could read the details of his hero father instead of a pilot that was shot down and killed on a routine mission.

To Buck, Rene, Uncle George and all the members of the Stearns family, let me say that I have never seen bravery like that throughout the rest of the war and, for whatever it is worth, I saw incredible acts of bravery from Xuan Loc all the way to the Chup Rubber Plantation in Cambodia. God Bless you guys and your entire family and thank you for asking me to set things right for all of you and clear up any misgivings about the manner in which these two heroes died.

Tim Butler, Former Chief Warrant Officer, U.S. Army, 199th Light Infantry Brigade, July 4th, 1970.