The 3rd Platoon was located on the same compound with the An Tuc District Chief and the National Police Headquarters for the district. The District Chief’s offices were in an old French villa and the M.P. buildings were on the same compound, but were either concrete slabs with tenting over them or corrugated tin siding and roofs with sand bag walls up to eye level around all four sides. An Khe, the village, was the capital of An Tuc District with National Highway (QL) 19 running east-west through it. By turning north off QL 19 and going to the next road parallel to QL 19 you could find the District Chief’s HQS. The entire compound was surrounded with barbed wire fencing and further north about 500 meters was the perimeter of Camp Radcliffe, the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), also known as the 1st Cav or 1st Air Cav. Further beyond the perimeter fencing of Camp Radcliffe was the camp’s fixed wing air field, a total of about 1,000 meters from the compound of the District Chief and the 3rd Platoon.

One day I was at the back of our compound when there was a loud explosion and I looked to the north and saw a large fire ball caused by the explosion of a C-130 aircraft which had failed to take off and having reached the end of the runway, crashed between the end of the runway and the perimeter fencing. The burning aircraft was about 700-800 meters from our compound. I could see someone jump out of the airplane through the windows in the cockpit. I shouted for the men to get into whatever jeeps we had and try to reach the crash site. I jumped into my own jeep with one of my men driving and sped out of the compound and on to a dirt road that led to the perimeter fence of Camp Radcliffe.

When we reached the fence we found that there was a gateway through the several rows of barbed wire fencing. We were able to move the gates and drive onto the airfield. We couldn’t get too close to the airplane because the heat from the fire was very intense. I jumped out of the jeep and told the driver to go around the aircraft in the opposite direction and look for anyone who might have jumped clear. We ran around the aircraft and when we met after circling it we had not found anyone. By this time, fire control vehicles and ambulances began to arrive to try to put out the fire and help any survivors. There were 10-12 men from my platoon there and we tried to control the traffic of vehicles approaching and leaving the crash site. Except for the 1 or 2 crew members who jumped from the aircraft when it first exploded, no one survived. The plane had been loaded with soldiers beginning an R&R trip.

The accident happened about 1600 or 1700 in the afternoon and we were at the crash site until about midnight. An M.P. officer from the 1st Cav’s Provost Marshal office told me he wanted us to remain all night to secure the crash site. That did not make sense to me as we had been there for 7-8 hours and my men still had to pull their regular duty at dawn the next day. I also thought that the 1st Cav Division could find plenty of men to assign to guarding the site. I refused to assign my men to stay there all night and we returned to our compound.