Shortly after midnight on June 19, 1968, two U.S. Navy aviators were down in North Vietnam—and the darkness around them belonged to the enemy.
Lieutenant (junior grade) Clyde E. Lassen lifted off from USS Preble in a UH-2A Seasprite from Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Seven, Detachment 104. Somewhere beyond the coast, the pilot and radar intercept officer of a Navy F-4J Phantom II were alive on hostile ground. Reaching them meant flying over unfamiliar terrain, through antiaircraft defenses, into a steep, tree-covered landscape that offered almost nowhere to land.
Lassen found the survivors. Getting them aboard was another matter.
Dense growth defeated attempts to lower a jungle penetrator through the canopy. Flares briefly revealed the terrain, then burned out. In the darkness, the helicopter struck a tree, damaging its horizontal stabilizer and cabin door. Enemy fire reached up from below while Lassen’s crew fought to keep the rescue alive.
They could have turned back. Fuel was disappearing. The aircraft was damaged. Every minute made the escape harder.
Lassen turned on the landing lights.
The lights gave the downed aviators a path to the helicopter—and gave enemy gunners a target. Holding the Seasprite in the clearing, Lassen kept the aircraft there until both men were aboard. Then he flew for the coast, evading more antiaircraft fire before landing on USS Jouett with fuel for only about five minutes of flight remaining.
The mission was a crew achievement as much as an extraordinary act of airmanship. Copilot Lieutenant (junior grade) LeRoy Cook received the Navy Cross. Aircrewmen Bruce Dallas and Don West received Silver Stars. Lassen received the Medal of Honor, becoming the only Navy helicopter pilot awarded the nation’s highest military decoration for service in Vietnam.
Tenacity is not the absence of danger. It is seeing every reason to turn away—and still holding the light steady so others can find their way home.
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