SHOT DOWN: His Huey Crashed & Fights the NVA Uphill for 5 Days | Dennis Fujii | Medal of Honor

we cut as many wounded on board as possible and we took off we started to take off anyway and when we were about maybe 10 feet off the ground the motor runs hit hit uh one hit you know front blew up in the blue apart the instrument panel in front of Pilots and one hit the tail boom and we just crashed to the ground and we were stranded the chopper could not fly anymore and we were in a situation where we needed help to be evacuated you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good will prevail Born and Raised on the island of Kauai at the Waimea Hospital you know but in my family I was the only one that went into the service I just wanted to get away and do something different and the Armory was the best thing that was happening at the time so I I enlisted in December 27 1967. I went to Fort Worth California for my basic and I went to AIT at Fort Gordon Georgia then from there when we jump school at Fort Benning Georgia I went to Vietnam and I arrived there in during the summer time which is in June of 1968. and it was I just got off of my 30-day leave they sent me home I leave first before I went to Nam and um it was really nice here during the summer but when I went to Vietnam it was in the middle of the monsoon rainy every day every night just sweat all the time you know it was a completely different uh lifestyle for me the smells of the place and uh wet all the time very difficult I was a crew chief and my job mostly was flying you know dust off Medevac and that was doing my last tour but before then I was flying in the Slicks which is a regular Huey and then I flew in a gunships the Charlie model gunships and um three years basically of um helicopter Duty in Vietnam explain what that means dust off what is that well it it's a medical evacuation helicopter used to pick up the wounded and um because a plane has very difficult time getting to the area that the battle is going on for one thing you know it's easy to fly there but to land it's very difficult because you always stick in fire landing and taking off the enemy knows that you got to come in so they just wait and getting to the the wounded is the most critical thing because we need to get the wounded to the evacuation centers like the hospital or a field Hospital to get them emergency help quickly as possible and the quicker you get there the more lives we can save so that's the reason why the Medevac duty is strictly volunteer because they know how dangerous it is and in a situation that when we hit the ground we don't want to stand a ground for more than a few seconds you know we want to be able to see the situation what's happening there where the wounded are and because one as we're coming in the pilot is already talking to the guys on the ground and he's telling the pilot or we've got four or five Kias you know killed in action or wia's wounded in action so he knows basically how much we can carry all that information is being monitored by two pilots and two guys in our back which is me and nomadic we have everything that's going on and the thing is time is really important as soon as we take off I'm helping the medic remove the rice clothes check the wounds where he's wounded what kind of wound he's got you know we're rolling over check the back he's got any sucking chest wound or whatever so the medic you know he's working as fast as he can and as many as patients as he can so we might have three four five even six wounded so it's just made of getting to us or to them I should say and um it's getting them Service as quickly as possible because they're scared you know and a lot of them never been wounded before and being wounded you know your mind is just racing along and we don't want them to go into shock because there can be as badly as getting wounded seriously a guy can die from shock very easily you gotta lie to him you know a lot of times the normal is not that bad because you don't want them freaking out and um by the time you get him to the hospital it might be really fast he'd be dead you know he died from shock but um we try the quicker we get them to and the best that we can we make them get to the hospital in good shape already Pet Stop and really for doctors to examine the mission for which you received your Medal of Honor the whole company was informed that there was this big um uh operation that was going on and from what we were briefing was um they told us that uh South Vietnamese were being sent into Laos to kind of um cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail from the the Communists of North North Vietnamese or Viet Congo whatever units that were working in Laos and allows one thing is one area that we didn't want to go into that River area was completely hot and the enemy was just all over the place and uh that day on February the 18th we took off from the old Marina base at caisson and from there into Laos was just a hop skip and a job it was very very close and anyway me and the medic weren't brief as to what to expect so we we took off after we had lunch we took off just like a normal day and you know it's you know flying to Laos and we're going to pick up some badly wounded and that was our job to pick up the bed they wounded soft Vietnamese forces that needed help and um when we flew across the border which was really quick with too often with just a few minutes we had already reached the Border and we started flying into Laos and it wasn't more than two minutes at the most I would say all hell broke loose just intense ground fire and so much automatic firing going on and empty aircraft fired it I never experienced before I mean they were getting hit from every angle you could hear the bottom of the ship getting hit you know the sound one they hit the bullets hit and I'll sing it Jesus man the bottom is where the fuel cell is so I was thinking you know Fuel and fire explosion and um but the chipper just kept on going that's how reliable it was and um yeah it's the first time I started seeing airbrush at the aircraft fire which which is Big Stuff which you use to shoot down Jets and he was having a hard time trying to bring us down because the helicopter is so much slower than a jet so for them to get used to to firing was extremely difficult for them which is I was really glad it was about for them and um but the strange thing is the terrain and everything the vegetation was so different from South Vietnam once we got into Laos it was very sparse vegetation just here and there not really thick jungles in you know a double canopy and wasn't anything like that but yet the enemy was all over and we couldn't see them they're so well camouflaged and you know under the ground and but they kept on shooting us and shooting at us and um and of course we started shooting back with what little we had which uh I don't know if it was doing any good or not but um it made us feel better anyway to shoot back and um gradually um the pilots informed us that the hill above us I see these you know pretty good sized heel and that's the hill they were flying to and he said that's still the pickup site you know it was a few miles in from the the Border but um getting to that place is very difficult we tried and tried but it kept on shooting at us and um eventually that Chopper was getting really beat up the blades were whistling you know because they had holes in them and um you could feel the vibration going on from getting hit and you try not to think about it because you know what can happen very easily so you keep your mind on a lot of things but um shooting was the only thing that made me feel better to shoot back you know and um we finally we got through an area and the pilot decided that's the uh the area he was going to land in and we landed really fast you know he flares the ship in and to slow it down then it lands in a toilet the um not the pilot but the my medic jumps out and I kind of hesitated for a while and I turned to get out of the chopper because I noticed the pilots doors are flying open which means they were jettising their doors you know to get out real fast and which is mean that I didn't have to help them you know by pulling the seat back and helping to get out they were doing it on their own we cut as many wounded on board as possible and we took off we started to take off anyway and when we were about maybe 10 feet off the ground the motor runs hit hit uh one hit you know front blew up in the blue apart the instrument panel in front of Pilots and one hit the tail boom and we just crashed to the ground so basically um we were shot down on the um the the pickup site the area that we were supposed to extract the wounded we ended up being shot down on the hill and we were stranded the chopper could not fly anymore and we were in a situation where we needed help to be evacuated as soon as we hit the ground uh I got hit um the two pilots basically got hit after we we crashed on our ground the aircraft Commander Mr ground Mr Brown he got really hit bad from uh mortifying more of us exploding around him he was a big guy about 200 pounds and um he had holes all over himself and he died at back in a field Hospital the other pilot he was just in country for about a week and he was from his I believe his chest down he was paralyzed for a few years and later on I heard that um he slowly regained movement of his legs and my medic he was shot up he was uh he had shrapnel wounds all in his back and I had tripped no wounds in my left shoulder and um I don't know who it was that called in uh there were other chap was flying around so they must have seen us go down and sent in one of the birds to come help us and if after that um basically it was every man trying to get his own uh place to hide because there was so much incoming you know you wanted to get out of the the way of all that incoming fire and that place we we didn't know that he it had already been surrounded and we're being over trying they were trying to overrun the place the whole crew accept myself were evacuated from that Hill the first day they were able to run to the chopper and uh the two pilots that were too badly injured you know they had to physically grab them and take them to the ship and finally you know as a job study taken off slowly and so I I watched it Chopper all the way and I thought to myself at any second I was I was thinking that that Chapel was going to get shut down and they slowly got further and further away and finally dawned on me that yeah I was I was left here alone but it wasn't their fault they couldn't get to me and then um soon it was afternoon and you got later and you know and then night fell so I'm trying to think you know what's going to happen next because this place is surrounded there's nowhere we can leave by foot we gotta be evacuated out and um they told us you know that no um evacuation would be done that day and um that night uh maybe what about eight o'clock we started getting getting a grown attack you know the shooting just kept on going all night long the mainly left everything up to me and it was night with a lot of overcast and uh you know what the C-130 is that they used to that that um aircraft was dropping flares and when he they have a Target called in or they have it line of sight or whatever they have they shoot you know like the spooky that's what they are and then they started shooting and um so I I I get on the horn and I you know I and I explained to the guys I said listen I'm a crew chief I'm just um and this man E5 and I said look like I'm left with the responsibility I mean I told him that we're getting overrun we're getting overrun in bed and you know they could help me out there and um next thing I know there was there was shooting barrier the miniguns and they get the 105s on there and uh they're they're doing a good job for us and um I survived that night and uh if you went until our second day same thing happened and uh about a 22nd we were getting hit so bad and we're getting overrun because in one area they were just getting ready to break through the lines and we had no way of bringing reinforcements in and uh so I just got enough the horn on which was the radio and I I called for help and I told him you know we're in a bad situation we're close to getting overrun and we need help as soon as possible so they told me just hold on help is coming and uh about 20 minutes later he always Burns coming in all this stuff was coming in to rescue us and their intention was to get the whole hill out uh that they started off with a battalion on that Hill maybe close to 500 man but about a 22nd they had maybe 180 a lot the restaurant all wounded or did you know whoever got um captured or they were I guess they were on their own there was no way we could help them and I bought a 22nd it was like every man foot himself to get on my my direct order was for me to get on the first bird that lands so you get your ass on that bird yes sir and that's what I did one of the first bird landed one of them I guess made a beeline for it but then again when the birds also touched down all the others are waiting to to get in it was a a really difficult time for them to take off again because they were so close to each other they had to pick up and then slowly Move Along away from the chapel next to them or in front of them and then slowly take off but by then the animator already broken through they were shooting they were shooting at the aircraft I mean I could just see them was so close I mean he had a slingshot man I could but um we all most of them get got away and as we started taking off the the enemy were already storming up the hill to get onto the hill that we're occupied and as we took off the chopper was exposed on the bottom and they started shooting on the bottom of the ship and what I didn't know was when I saw the guy sitting in that uh the compartment where the crew chief normally sits when a place is packed I seen a guy you know started moving out of that area I don't stop like I was yelling at him keep on shooting because the birds that picked us up doing that uh operation and that has sent help to us they had M60 machine guns on each side it's like don't keep on shooting keep on shooting and I'll sing to myself what the hell is this guy moving to us there's no room up here and um then I realized we were on fire he was trying to get away from the flame but he's by his feet yeah it was bad and a cup Chopper just kept on burning and um there's only the only thing we could do was standard bird and I hope that it land real soon or jump off the chopper but you know I was jumping and Free Falling and crashing to the ground you know you're going to be dead so we decided to just stay on board and the pilot was able to get a ship about um uh about two clicks from the hill that we got off of 2000 meters away there was a lot of Battalion that they're fighting for their lives he let he landed us on that hill just crashed boom and um this kid just got so much impact and it escapes just you know the skids I don't know he just came out in a chopper didn't explode he just slowly burnt to the ground and there was a just a big Ash and the tail boom just landed to one side and um at least there was more guys on that Hill so they could I thought that they could hold out for a longer time until the help came I was trying to think positive anyway and um no help came and on a second day on that Hill the enemy that had overrun us on that first seal Ranger North it was called Ranger North all of those bad guys turned around and started coming to that Hill that we had crashed on and um it was just one battalion after another Battalion that they wiped out they did a whole the same thing in laws one after another by by force you know because they had more manpower so um they kept they kept us from bringing more reinforcements while the their uh period of time they will annihilate that Battalion there and at the end of the two days that afternoon there was a lone helicopter why he was there where he came from at the time I I knew nothing they thought that I had been rescued after that first Hill everybody thought so and um the the pilots um didn't know that um I also supposed to have been rescued and flown out to the hospital so um it was entirely up to me to get myself out after I got rescued and flown to our 85th Evac from what I was told that hill was completely overrun and all those guys never had a chance to get evacuated by Chopper they basically ran out of Laos on their own after being in the hospital I I went back went back to my room checked out and uh it it was like I never left everything was basically the same of course the missions were still going on in Laos and um you know you just you try to pretend that um the thing the bad incident didn't happen because he think about it too long they have a hard time going back to Flying you get scared me to me one of my greatest heroes was Audie Murphy you know I always really respected that guy to think that what he went through and what he got decorated for I mean Jesus and to one day be especially when my um my DSC got upgraded I was really really honored and to have the president call me one day at home you know I thought I thought he was actually pulling my leg and I was getting ready to say something but I'm glad I didn't and um yeah but to be in that situation oh God it's the most I cannot even put into words to be honest with you

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 211,341

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

Id: 9-LdaXJI3Jg

Length: 26min 55sec (1615 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 31 2023