04 Aug 2008 I knew Tex in Weisbaden Germany when our dads were in the Air Force stationed there. We were 10-12 years old and he was my Little League catcher and best friend for life. I think of him often and the days we had going to the swimming pool in Germany, getting Gummi Bears, playing baseball and generally being kids. My mom told me he had been killed and I checked him on the Wall web site. I love you, buddy, and think of you often. I included him in a screenplay in his memory, to be sold soon. From a friend from Little League, Weisbaden, Germany, Bob Peak San Francisco, CA bob@beamit.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall The point where Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos meet provided the NVA with an avenue into the border area west of Dak To and a protected location where they could emplace heavy artillery capable of reaching as far east as Ben Het and Dak Seang. This situation existed throughout the war, and on 01 Apr 1970 the NVA once again took advantage of it by staging a large force into the area around the small Special Forces camp at Dak Seang. Road access to Dak Seang was extremely limited and easily cut by the NVA, forcing resupply of the camp by air. Once the NVA were in place, helo operations were judged to be too risky and the burden fell on the C-7 Caribou units. Air drops began on 01 Apr, meeting little resistance, but that changed on 02 Apr when C-7A tail number 61-2406 was hit during its run and crashed about 5 miles away, killing all three crewmen. The drops continued, and although 13 more C-7s were hit none were lost until C-7B 62-4180 was heavily hit on the afternoon of 04 Apr, crashing about 2 miles from the camp with a loss of three men. The final C-7 loss at Dak Seang was on 06 Apr when three men from the 457th Tac Alft Sqdn were killed when C-7B tail number 63-9746 was shot down: Capt Julius P. Jaeger, Atlanta, GA, pilot (Silver Star); 1stLt Theron C. Fehrenbach, Lafayette, LA, copilot; and TSgt Gordon M. Gaylord, Woodstock, IL, flight engineer. The C-7s then switched to making night drops guided by spotlights from AC-119 gunships, a technique used successfully for the next 68 drops. This effort sustained the defenders until the NVA, discouraged by their inability to take the camp, withdrew toward Laos. Helo resupply and landings on the Dak Seang airstrip resumed on 13 April, but heavy fighting continued around Dak Seang for another two weeks.

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