BAT 21 is something Im quite familiar with Jaco....
It is based on the true story of Bat 21B, the call sign of an EB-66 navigator, Iceal "Gene" Hambleton, who is slammed by an SA-2 just south of the (DMZ) in 1972... When on the ground Col Hambleton found himself in the midst of an invasion force of over 30,000 North Vietnamese troops.... Lieutenant Colonel Hambleton had served with the Strategic Air Command.... He carried, in his memory, intimate details of American missile forces and targets that dared not fall into enemy hands....
An immediate (SAR) effort was mounted to recover the downed airman.... Two Army helicopters rushing to his rescue were quickly shot down.... The entire 4-man crew of Blueghost 39 was lost, the second limped to an area of safety before making a controlled-crash-landing.... That crew was rescued by a "Jolly Green" helicopter and flown to safety...
As morning dawned on April 3rd, position had been marked within 30 feet by onboard LORAN... The Air Force knew where the injured survivor the the EB-66 was, but couldn't reach him because of the massive enemy force that surrounded him.... Fellow pilots began dropping mines around him...
Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Jay Crowe descended towards the area where Lieutenant Colonel Hambleton waited.... He was met by an immediate curtain of enemy fire.... Enemy rounds literally shredded "Jolly Green 65", and it was only the courage and flying skill of the Coast Guard pilot that enabled the chopper to stay airborne long enough to return to base.... "Jolly Green 66" then followed, facing ten enemy tanks and a withering fire.... Lieutenant Colonel Bill Harris fought the controls to bring his rescue helicopter within one hundred yards of Hambleton, his gunners engaging the enemy on all sides.....
Harris' aircraft shuddered as bullets riddled his helicopter and shattered the cockpit.... Somehow Harris managed to get his badly damaged aircraft to gain altitude, then limp back to safety....
Before darkness fell on Monday another aircraft would take direct fire... Captain William Henderson was piloting an OV-10 FAC in support of the rescue effort.... In the cockpit behind him sat Lieutenant Mark Clark... Both managed to eject when a SAM destroyed their aircraft, landing in the same general vicinity as Hambleton.... A "triple-play" rescue for all three fliers followed....
All 3 downed airmen watched in frustration as enemy fire shattered three more helocopters, forcing them to pull back with severe damage... During the night of April 3rd, Captain William Henderson was captured by the NVA.... In just over twenty-four hours of the rescue attempt, three aircraft had gone done, five more had been severely damaged, three American rescuers had died, and a fourth had been captured.....
On April 4th the Air Force began launching a series of air strikes in and around the Cam Lo Bridge.... On the ground, LTC Hambleton directed the fire.... So thorough was the enemy penetration in the area, of the ten A-1s that engaged the enemy from the skies over the downed airman that day, eight received battle damage.... One aircraft was totally destroyed.... It became quickly apparent that the North Vietnamese were using Hambleton and Clark as bait, drawing in the rescue forces, then systematically destroying them.....
On April 6th a total of 52 sets of American fighters and four B-52 bombers began pounding the area around Cam Lo.... Back at Da Nang, Captain Peter Chapman in Jolly Green 67 had volunteered to pilot the next rescue, despite the fact he was "short".... Amid a smoke screen and intense rocket and machine-gun fire deployed by accompanying American aircraft, Captain Chapman began to drop his rescue helicopter near Hambleton.... Enemy fire raked the chopper, smoke billowed, and Captain Chapman began to pull away, as flames started to appear... Pieces of the helo began to fall off, the aircraft floundering in its attempts to flee the area... It rolled to its side, hitting the ground in an explosion of fire that instantly sealed the fate of six brave Americans...
On April 7th an OV-10 flying in support of the continued rescue effort was shot down..... Aboard was Air Force First Lieutenant Bruce Walker and Marine Corps First Lieutenant Larry Potts.... Walker managed an initial radio contact before he began his escape, but was never heard from again..... There were later reports that Lieutenant Potts died in captivity.... His remains were never recovered and he remains one of the Vietnam War's Missing in Action....
By April 9th the 7th Air Force was in dire straits with far too many battle-damaged aircraft.... Five aircraft had been destroyed, nine Americans were dead, two had been captured, the fate of Potts and Walker was uncertain.....
On April 10th, Nail-38 (Clark) and Bat 21 (Hambleton) were advised of the NEW plan to get them out...
The true events surrounding this story were still classified at the time of the movie production... Ltc Hambleton and Lieutenant Mark Clark were rescued by Navy SEAL LT Tom Norris, Walker on the 10th, and then Hambleton on the 11th.... Norris and Vietnamese SEAL Petty Officer Nguyen Van Kiet, using a sampan to infiltrate to Hambleton's position, rescued him....
LT Norris was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.... Nguyen Van Kiet, the brave South Vietnamese SEAL, was subsequently awarded our Nation's second highest military award, the Navy Cross.... It was and is the highest honor that could be presented to a member of a foreign military force... He was the only South Vietnamese warrior of the 14-year war to receive so high an honor...
Lieutenant (j.g.) Thomas Norris was one of the greatest Navy SEALs ever deployed, and remains one of the most respected men in the SPEC-OPS community...