Fred and I were assigned to CCN, a MACVSOG unit in Da Nang. On May 9, 1969, there was a recon team on a training mission that needed to be extracted. I was supposed to ride the lead helicopter to drop ropes through the jungle canopy to the team below so we could lift them out. Freddy was supposed to be in the second chopper, but as we were about to leave base camp, he insisted that we trade places. I was due to rotate back to the States in a couple of weeks. Freddy said I was too “short” to take the chance of riding the lead bird. I thought it a little superstitious, even silly, but acquiesced and traded places with Freddy.

We flew out to Elephant Valley and located the team on the ground. I remember watching from above as Fred’s helicopter began to hover above the team… then for no apparent reason the H-34 simply lost altitude and crashed into the jungle, bursting into flames. I learned later that day that Fred survived that crash. The team waved off my chopper and called in a dust-off (med-evac bird) to take out the wounded. But in a moment of supreme irony, Fred hooked up to a rope dangling from the dust-off. As the chopper began to pull away, it lost a tail rotor and fell into the jungle. Freddy died instantly.

Freddy died that day in my place. I think about him every day and wish he was here. Here’s an article I found by pure chance about Fred.