Lt. Fleming and the Green Hornets

The Bell UH-1 light utility helicopter was used extensively by the Air Force, Army, and Marines in Vietnam.

With a one- or two-man crew, the Huey could carry a payload of 4,000 pounds or 10 passengers at a top speed of 115 miles per hour.

A modified version, carrying machineguns or rocket launchers, served as an Army gunship.

A photograph of a USAF UH-1F Bell helicoptr.

Specifications:

• Length: 44 feet, 7 inches;
• Height: 14 feet, 11 inches;
• Main Rotor: 48 feet, 0 inches;
• Tail Rotor: 8 feet, 6 inches;
• Empty Weight: 4,403 pounds;
• Max Gross Weight: 9,000 pounds;
• Engine: T58-GE-3 turboshaft engine rated at 1,070 shp;
• Cruise Speed: 123 mph;
• Max Speed: 138 mph;
• Service Ceiling: 24,830 feet.

The Birth Of A Hero

James P. Fleming was born in Sedalia, Missouri, on March 12, 1943 to John H. and Dixie L. Fleming.  His father was a career Air Force pilot who flew combat missions in the  Pacific during World War II. Later, he spent decades in SAC (Strategic Air Command) as a "Cold War Warrier.

No doubt his father's profound influence encouraged his son, James, to become an Air Force Pilot.

After James P. Fleming graduated from Washington State University in 1966 he had already been commissioned through the Reserve Officers Training Corps program.

Lt. Fleming was then sent to attend pilot training in Laredo, Texas where he volunteered to fly helicopters, and his first post was to Minot AFB, North Dakota where he supported missile operations as a Bell UH-1F pilot.

He also flew missions for the US Forest Service in support of firefighting teams, as well as a mission to Greenland to search for the wreckage of a nuclear weapons armed B-52 which had crashed.

He then attended special ops training at Hurlburt Field, Florida, followed by being assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron in the Republic of Vietnam in 1968.

The Vietnam War

First Lieutenant, U.S. Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron

James Fleming never had any doubt that he would follow in the footsteps of his father, a career Air Force pilot. After graduating from Washington State University, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Air Force. Following flight school, he became a UH-1F (Huey) helicopter pilot with the Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron.

In 1968, he was living in the jungle of Vietnam and flying Special Forces teams on long-range reconnaissance patrols deep into enemy territory.

On November 26, his five-ship Green Hornet flight—two Huey gunships and three lightly armed Huey slicks—heard over the radio that one of the Special Forces patrols it had inserted earlier was being overrun by a large group of North Vietnamese.

The Green Hornets went to get them!

On this particular date Lt. James P. Fleming began his flight by flying a UH-1F slick as the  Aircraft Commander for the 20th Special Operations Squadron. This was his second day of flying seeing being sent to Vietnam.

That morning, as part of a flight of five (two gunships and three slicks), the "Green Hornets" departed Duc Co and inserted Recon Team Chisel of the 20th Special Operations Group Command and Control South into Cambodia for a tactiacl operation called  Tango-51 and which was a part of Operation "Daniel Boone".

Just before noon on 26 November 1968, a transport helicopter inserted a Special Forces team into hostile territory by a UH-IF chopper which was manned by Lt. James P. Fleming, aircraft commander; Maj. Paul E. McClellan, copilot; and the gunners, Staff Sergeant Fred J. Cook and Sergeant Paul R. Johnson.

The team leader of Chisel was SSG Ancil "Sonny" Franks. The one-one (assistant team leader) was Sgt. Charles Hughes. Capt. Randolf Harrison, the new CO of the CCS Recon Company, was a team member who came along to learn how his men worked. Three Montagnards made up the rest of the recon team.

The Green Hornets returned to Duc Co for lunch and fuel. Midafternoon the flight inserted another team further south in Cambodia. In the meantime, Chisel had moved quickly toward a wide river where they were to surveil enemy boat traffic.

The NVA (North Vietnamese Army) hit the team as they were setting up their site and trapped them in a small depression near the river. Hughes’ initial radio calls were not answered. As the NVA threw more troops into the battle, Chisel was surrounded on three sides and pinned against the river. 

Their next set of radio calls were picked up by their COVEY FAC (Forward Air Control), USAF Maj. Charles E. Anonsen, flying in a Cessna O2 Skymaster. He alerted the Green Hornets, now returning the Duc Co, and they then diverted toward Chisel but were low on fuel.

A photograph of a Cessna O2 Skymaster working as a Forward Air Controllet in Vietnam during the war.

November 26, 1968

Four hours later the reconnaissance team made contact with the enemy. Their leader, Lt. Randolph C. Harrison, sent out a radio call for gunship fire support, but the green berets quickly realized that they were hopelessly outnumbered and called again for immediate evacuation.

Overhead, an Air Force F AC responded to the urgent request. He found the six men pinned down along a river bank and under intense fire from heavy machine guns and automatic weapons.

The FAC, Major Charles E. Anonsen, spotted a clearing in the jungle 100 yards from the green berets and a second, much smaller, clearing within 25 yards. He doubted whether a chopper could land in the second clearing, but the question was academic because the beleaguered Americans were trapped in the dense undergrowth and unable to move toward either one.

20th Special Operations Squadron UH-1P Hueys refueling at Đắk Tô, Central Highlands, Vietnam.

Meanwhile, a flight of three transport and two gunship helicopters had also heard the call. The five choppers were enroute to a refueling stop but quickly changed course and headed for the riverbank. Lt. Fleming flew the second transport bird.

Major Anonsen briefed the arriving helicopters and asked the green berets to pop a smoke grenade. The red smoke filtering up through the foliage pinpointed the position of the friendly soldiers.

The jungle on three sides of the Americans came alive as the two gunships sent a stream of fire slanting earthward and the enemy instantly answered back. The airborne gunners strained to spot the hostile machine guns as Major Leonard Gonzales and Captain David Miller wheeled their UH-ls above the river.

The gunship crews located the guns 200 yards south of the green berets and ripped the positions with high explosive rockets, destroying two of the heavy weapons. But the North Vietnamese had also found the range and laced Captain Miller's aircraft with machinegun fire.

Despite a rapid loss of oil pressure, Miller's crippled craft made two more firing passes before being riddled by a second accurate burst. Dave Miller knew he was done as he pulled up and out of the fight and headed northeast. As the bird lost power, he steered it to a safe landing in a clearing across the river, performing what Maj. Anonsen would later call "a beautiful autorotation."

Now the first transport helicopter commanded by Maj. Dale L. Eppinger swung into action. While the stricken gunship settled into the emergency landing, Eppinger maneuvered his UH-1 to follow closely behind. He touched down alongside the downed bird and instantly Capt. Miller and his crew climbed aboard. Low on fuel, the
transport bird wheeled away to the forward base at Due Co.

Within minutes, Miller's abandoned chopper was ripped by enemy fire and destroyed. A second helicopter was forced to depart because of low fuel and only the FAC, one gunship, and one transport bird remained.

The Rescue

The FAC radioed the green berets to move to the small clearing while Lt. Fleming descended toward the river. Maj. Gonzales forced the enemy gunners to keep their heads down as he made multiple passes with guns blazing to cover Jim Fleming's approach.

At treetop height, Jim realized that the clearing was too small and overgrown for a landing, and he· headed instead for the nearby riverbank.  Perhaps he could hover just above the shoreline with his landing skids bumping the bank and his tail boom extended out over the water. That's exactly what Jim did, performing a feat of unbelievable flying skill as his crew searched frantically for the recon team.

They were nowhere in sight and the team's radioman could barely be heard above the chatter of the hostile guns. Finally, the message came through. The team could not make it to the pickup point.

Fleming's bird was an inviting target as he backed out over the river through a hail of bullets. His gunners, Sergeants Cook and Johnson, answered back, raking the concealed emplacements with M-60 machine gun fire. Maj. Gonzales said later, "It was a sheer miracle that he wasn't shot down on the takeoff."

Gonzales was nearly out of ammunition, and both he and Jim Fleming were critically low on fuel. If the rescue force withdrew, the American soldiers were doomed. With their backs to the river, the green berets hastily ringed their position with Claymore mines and hoped for a miracle.

Overhead Jim prepared for one last-ditch attempt. He recalls, "The first time we went in I wasn't really conscious of the danger. You know, it was what we had been trained to do. And so we did it. But then I guess it all got to me. Watching Miller getting shot down, the heaviest hostile fire I'd ever seen .... Frankly, I was scared to death!"

Nevertheless, Jim let down to the river for the second time, dropping below the bank to partially shield the UH-1 from the deadly barrage. But this time the North Vietnamese knew precisely where he was headed and concentrated their fire on the pickup point, strafing the chopper from all sides.

By now, the six Special Forces men had been under siege for an hour, and the enemy began to move in for the kill. Jim witnessed a grisly scene as the North Vietnamese reached the string of mines and one enemy soldier was blown into the air. The green berets killed three attackers who had advanced to within ten yards of the landing zone, then turned their backs on death and desperately dashed for the helicopter.

In the hovering UH-1, Sergeant Cook fired at the advancing foe while Sergeant Johnson tried in vain to clear a jammed gun. As the team reached the rope ladder, Cook continued firing with one hand, while pulling the soldiers aboard with the other. "Sergeant Cook is about 5 feet 7 and weighs not much more than 120 pounds," Jim Fleming said later. "But those Special Forces boys, some of whom were 200 pounds or more, said that Cook literally lifted them into the helicopter with one hand!"

Jim struggled to hold his craft steady while it rocked and bounced as the green berets climbed aboard. Sergeant Johnson helped Cook drag the last man in as the ship backed out from the bank and sped downriver, the rope ladder dragging in the water.

Overhead Maj. Gonzales, who had been supporting Lt. Fleming throughout, ran out of ammunition at the very moment that the team climbed to safety. He had strafed within five yards of the friendly soldiers to screen them from the enemy.

It was only as the two choppers whirled eastward to Due Co with fuel tanks nearly dry that Jim Fleming and Paul McClellan noticed the bullet holes in the windshield. Neither could remember being hit and neither cared to dwell on the fact that they had missed death by inches.

A photograph of 1st Lt. James P. Fleming immediately after landing from Medal of Honor mission.

Postscript

1st Lieutenant Fleming was presented the Medal of Honor by President Richard M. Nixon in a ceremony at The White House, 14 May 1970.

A photograph of 1st Lt. James P. Fleming wearing his Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Honor Citation for Lt. Fleming:

“The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain [then First Lieutenant] James Phillip Fleming, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 20th Special Operations Squadron, 14th Special Operations Wing, in action near Duc Co, Republic of Vietnam, on 26 November 1968. Captain Fleming distinguished himself as the Aircraft Commander of a UH-1F transport helicopter. Captain Fleming went to the aid of a six-man special forces long range reconnaissance patrol that was in danger of being overrun by a large, heavily armed hostile force. Despite the knowledge that one helicopter had been downed by intense hostile fire, Captain Fleming descended, and balanced his helicopter on a river bank with the tail boom hanging over open water. The patrol could not penetrate to the landing site and he was forced to withdraw. Dangerously low on fuel, Captain Fleming repeated his original landing maneuver. Disregarding his own safety, he remained in this exposed position. Hostile fire crashed through his windscreen as the patrol boarded his helicopter. Captain Fleming made a successful takeoff through a barrage of hostile fire and recovered safely at a forward base. Captain Fleming’s profound concern for his fellowmen, and at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.”

During his military career, Colonel Fleming had also been awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and eight Air Medals. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1996 after thirty years of service.

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Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!