On 12 March 1969 our UH-IH was the Command and Control aircraft for Col. Knight, Major Sheehan, and CSM Gilbert.  In the afternoon we received word that Alpha Company, 1/8^th Infantry, had made contact with a battalion-sized element of NVA forces in the Polei Kleng area and had five seriously wounded men awaiting extraction.  A medevac had already extracted some of the wounded but had been so severely shot up that it had to return to a secure LZ.  CSM Gilbert urged the Command Group to fly to the contact area and complete the evacuation of the casualties.  We moved as rapidly as possible to the LZ and made an attempt to get into the wounded.  Enemy automatic weapons had the company pinned down, and the LZ was getting especially heavy fire.  CSM Gilbert, from his door seat, was able to fire into the enemy positions with his own weapon, and directed the fire of the door-gunners.  He saw that the casualties would be unable to move through the enemy fire to the helicopter, so he ordered the ship out of the LZ. 

We tried another time to get into the LZ, and once again took very heavy fire.  When we got into the LZ, the company was still pinned down and unable to move the wounded.  CSM Gilbert directed the gunners to fire into the enemy and attempt to draw the fire away, but the NVA were in control of the situation and we had to lift off again.  After this second attempt it didn’t look as though we would be able to get the wounded out, but CSM Gilbert directed us to fly over the enemy positions closest to the LZ and try to silence them, then to come into the LZ from the left.  We began taking fire as we got into the LZ, and when we were about 50 feet off the ground automatic fire shattered the pilot’s plexi-glass, wounding him, and sprayed the whole right side of the craft, wounding the door-gunner and knocking out his M-60.  CSM Gilbert moved into the doorway to protect Colonel Knight from getting hit, and to fire into an enemy position he had spotted.  From this position he could see that we were directly over the wounded and that it was impossible to land.  Because we were still getting a number of direct hits, it was difficult to maneuver.  CSM Gilbert ordered us out, and was in the doorway covering Colonel Knight  and firing into the enemy when he was hit and killed instantly.  I feel that if it had not been for CSM Gilbert’s directions, and his own fire, we would not have been able to fly out of the LZ.  As it was, he kept enough of the enemy down that we were able to gain altitude and leave the area.  There would surely have been more injuries to the occupants of the craft if CSM Gilbert had not been firing from the right side of the craft and blocking the doorway.  With the door-gun incapacitated, our right side was defenseless.  The enemy on that side would surely have zeroed in on us if CSM Gilbert had not kept them down.

                                                                                                                Clifton L. Chambley

                                                                                                                1LT, Signal

                                                                                                                Pilot