WOOD, PATRICK HARDY
Name: Patrick Hardy Wood
Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 23 January 1931
Home City of Record: Kansas City MO
Date of Loss: 06 February 1967
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 174600N 1054800E (WE847643)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: HH3E
Other Personnel in Incident: Donald J. Hall; Richard A. Kibbey; Lucius L.
Heiskell (all missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On February 6, 1967, Capt. Lucius L. Heiskell was a pilot and was
flying an O1F aircraft on a visual reconnaissance mission with another O1F
when his aircraft was struck by enemy fire forcing him to bail out. His
parachute was followed to the ground and voice contact with him indicated
that immediate rescue was not feasible due to enemy troops in the area.
Beeper signals continued and later an HH3E helicopter flown by Maj. Patrick
H. Wood was dispatched to recover Heiskell. He was at this time located near
the border of Laos and North Vietnam about 5 miles from the Mu Gia Pass.
Wood's crew that day included Capt. Richard A. Kibbey and SSgt. Donald J.
Hall.
Heiskell was hoisted aboard, but as the helicopter was departing the area,
it was hit by ground fire causing it to explode and crash. The helicopter
pararescueman survived and was treated for burns. The remainder of the crew,
Hall, Kibbey and Wood, as well as Heiskell, were not located.
When 591 Americans were released in 1973, the crew of the HH3E was not among
them. They were numbered with nearly 3000 Americans who remained missing,
prisoner, or unaccounted for at the end of the war.
Since American involvement in Vietnam ended in 1975, over 10,000 reports
relating to Americans missing, prisoner, or otherwise unaccounted for in
Indochina have been received by the U.S. Government. Many officials, having
examined this largely classified information, have reluctantly concluded
that many Americans are still alive today, held captive by our long-ago
enemy.
Whether Wood and the crew of the HH3E survived the crash of their aircraft
to be captured is not known. It is not known if they might be among those
thought to be still alive today. What is certain, however, is that as long
as even one American remains alive, held against his will, we owe him our
very best efforts to bring him to freedom.
Patrick H. Wood was promoted to the rank of Colonel during the time he was
maintained Missing in Action.
Sat Jan 31 1998
Msg: Can You help me find.......
This is an extract from Survivor! an April 1984 Airman article by TSgt.
Dan Allsup, Airman Staff Writer
For his bravery as a 20-year-old pararescueman during the Vietnam conflict,
TSgt. Duane D. Hackney was presented the Air Force Cross, second only to the
Medal of Honor. He was the youngest person, and the first living enlisted
member, to receive the medal.
That was in 1967, the year he also won the Cheney Award. Today, the
barrel-chested Hackney carries the same 180 pounds on his 5-foot-10-inch
frame as he did the day he stood at attention to receive the Air Force
Cross. The once cherubic face has matured in the last 17 years, but his
youthful appearance and candid brown eyes match his enthusiasm for life.
To cover the fading burn scars on his arms - permanent reminders of that
eventful day in Southeast Asia - 36-year-old us sually wears the
long-sleeved uniform shirt with a tie. On his chest are eight rows of
ribbons, which stretch from the top of his pocket nearly to the collar. The
54 medals make up enough fruit salad to serve lunch to a Jolly Green Giant
helicopter crew.
TSgt. Hackney tells his stories with just the right mix of gusto, salty
language, and humor laced with pathos. When recounting his Vietnam
experiences he punctuates his tales with slicing hand gestures and rolling
eyeballs.
His emotions alternately soar, while remembering the adrenaline-pumping rush
of combat, or plunge when remembers the friends left behind forever in a
distant jungle.
{{These are details of the attempted rescue of Cricket FAC, Captain Lucius
Heiskell, who was shot down while flying an O-1 Bird Dog of the 23rd TASS at
NKP. In addition to Sgt Hackney, other crewmen on the HH-3E helicopter
included Major Patrick Hardy Wood, Donald J. Hall and Richard A. Kibbey.}}
. . .on the morning of Feb. 6, 1967, near Mu Gia pass in North Vietnam. "Oh,
man, that was so long ago,' he says now. "We had just picked up our
equipment to go on alert status when we heard a plane had gone down. They
scrambled us about 9 a.m.
"We were the pirmary rescue helicopter, an HH-3E Jolly Green Giant. As soon
as we got near the area, we heard the downed pilot on the radio, but we
couldn't see him. I was lowered to the ground on a hoist. I looked around
and saw footprints all around - Vietnamese because the tread on their shoes
was a lot different than the tread on our combat boots.
"We had lost radio contact with the pilot, so I figured the North Vietnamese
were probably chasing him and he had to stop communicating for a while."
The PJ was in the jungle for nearly two hours, tripping over tangled vines
and roots while trying to locate the downed pilot and avoiding contact with
the enemy. Finally the poor weather got worse and the rescue team was
forced to abandon the search. They flew back to Da Nang and waited at base
operations until late in the afternoon, when the downed pilot was heard from
again.
"Once we knew the pilot was still alive, we decided to try it again - to go
for it," TSgt Hackney continued. "We knew we had to get him out before
dark, because after the sun dropped, our chances for getting him would drop
from about 90% to 30%..
"When we went in again, a Sandy [an A-1 Skyraider escort aircraft] told us
not to go over this one ridge because of heavy AAA and small-arms fire. But
we had to - that's where the pilot was! Once we got over the area, they
lowered me on a hoist again, and this time I found the pilot. He was pretty
messed up.
"I got him into the hoist, but on the way back up, the helicopter started
drawing more fire, so the Sandy dropped in and knocked them out. Then the
enemy's anti-aircraft gun picked us up on radar. The first hit jarred us
pretty bad and there was a lot of fire and smoke. I knew we had to get out
of the chopper."
In the confusion, TSgt. Hackney managed to find his parachute and strap it
on the rescued pilot before helping him out of the HH-3E. Groping around in
the heavy smoke looking for the fire extinguisher, the PJ found another
parachute, this one oil-soaked. He has his arms through the harness when
the second enemy round hit. The anti-aircraft shell severed the fuel line
and blew the PJ through the closed door of the helicopter, 200 feet above
the ground.
Semi-conscious, and weakened by shrapnel wounds and third degree burns, TSgt
Hackney managed to pull the rip cord and hug the unbuckled parachute to his
chest. He fell into a tree, which probably saved his life, but from there
he plummeted downward onto a ledge in a crevasse about 80 feet below the
jungle floor.
"When I came to on the ledge I could look up and see the Vietnamese jumping
from one side of the ravine to the other looking for me. If they had ever
looked down, they would have spotted me. I saw four of them, but I figured
there were more in the area.
"A little later I heard an A-1E Skyraider over me and popped a flare. He saw
my smoke and called in a Jolly Green Giant that came in and picked me up. I
guess I was probably on the ground less than an hour the entire time."
The PJ later learned he was the only survivor of the aborted rescue effort.
His four fellow crewmembers and the pilot he had pulled out of the jungle
were never heard from again.
For giving the pilot his own parachute at great risk to his own life, then
Sgt Hackney was presented the Air Force Cross by Gen. Howell M. Estes, then
commander-in-chief of the Military Airlift Command.
In the ceremony, conducted during an 800-man military parade at Scott AFB,
Il., Gen. Estes also presented the young pararescueman the Silver Star, the
Bronze star, and the Purple heart. Sgt Hackney added those medals to the
Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters, and an Air Force
Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, awards he had earned on
previous missions.
. . .His heroics that day in February 1967 also won him the 1967 Cheney
Award presented to airmen who perform an "act of valor, extreme fortitude,
or self-sacrifice in a humanitarian mission in connection with an aircraft."
Feb 01 1998
From: Steve Whitton
Subject: Re: Duane D. Hackney
I DID FIND OUT THE MOST DECORATED VET OF THE WAR, DUANE D. HACKNEY, PAST
AWAY SEVERAL YEARS AGO. AS A PARARESCUE MAN, DUANE D. HACKNEY SAVE
UNCOUNTABLE LIVES THAT EVENTUALLY BECAME FATHERS AND GRANDFATHERS.
STEVE WHITTON
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