WALTER E DEMSEY
Hometown:
GLENDORA
County:
Camden
Status:
Missing In Action
Rank:
SP4
Branch of Service:
Army
Country of Incident:
LAOS
Date of Casualty:
February 18, 1971
Date of Birth:
September 17, 1949
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Walter E.
Demsey, Jr. was born on September 17, 1949. His home of record is
Glendora, NJ.
Walter entered the US Army where he attained the rank of Specialist
4(SP4).
Walter remains listed as missing in action since February 18, 1971.
The story begins on February 18, 1971. The crew was stationed at Camp
Eagle with the 101st Airborne Comencheros. The crew that day was pilot
George Berg, co-pilot Gerald Woods, crew chief Walter Demsey, and door
gunner Gary Johnson flying a UH-1H helicopter. On that day, the crew
was flying out of Phu Bai, the mission was to extract a Special Forces
team located just over the Vietnamese border in Laos. The Special
Forces team was on an information-gathering mission on the Ho Chi Minh
Trail. The team was monitoring the trail, when an enemy soldier was
spotted with a bike, carrying documents. Shots were fired, the soldier
was killed, and the documents were recovered.
The shots alerted the enemy in the area and a fire-fight broke out.
The team called for an emergency extraction. Four choppers were sent
in and all four made a pickup and returned safely to Phu Bai. Three
Special Forces team members still remained to be picked up, my
brother’s crew elected to return and make the final pickup.
Daylight was beginning to fade and the weather in the pickup zone was
closing in. The chopper proceeded down the ridgeline of the west wall
of the Ashau Valley in the clouds moving to the west to the pickup
site just inside of Laos. The three remaining Special Forces personnel
(Ronald Watson, Allen Lloyd, and Sam Hernandez) were picked up with
the enemy firing at the chopper the whole time. The chopper headed to
the east towards the Ashau Valley at tree top level, dragging the
Special Forces team who were on ropes through the trees. The chopper
crossed over the west wall ridgeline and Sam Hernandez’s rope broke,
dropping him 40 feet to the jungle floor. The chopper continued to
head east into the Ashau Valley for 600 feet when the chopper made a
U-turn, crashing into the west wall and bursting into a ball of
flames. Sam survived the fall and was shaken up but was not injured,
he didn’t see or hear the chopper go down and started an E&E for the
night.
Written by David Demsey, Brother
Synopsis (from the POW Network) as to the circumstances behind being
listed as MIA:
WO Gerald E. Woods, pilot; WO George P. Berg, aircraft commander; SP4
Gary L. Johnson, door gunner; SP4 Walter Demsey, crew chief; were
assigned to Company A, 101st Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne
Division. On February 18, 1971, their UH1H was dispatched as part of a
flight of four on an emergency patrol extraction mission on the West
Side of the A Shau Valley in Thua Tin Province, South Vietnam. The
patrol to be rescued included Sgt. Allen R. Lloyd, Capt. Ronald L.
Watson and SFC Samuel Hernandez, part of Special Operations
Augmentation, Command & Control North, 5th Special Forces Group.
The team was assigned to MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command,
Vietnam Studies and Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service
high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly
classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special
Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (although it was not a
Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA),
which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG.
The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic
reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the
time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.
On Feb. 19, 1971, a Special Forces team was inserted close to the
crash site in an attempt to rescue or recover any crew members. The
team spotted Sam Hernandez on the ground and picked him up. Sam had
the documents that were captured the day before with him. Sam was
flown back to base. The team located the crash site 600 ft. down from
the top of the ridgeline, the copperhead had been almost totally
destroyed. Berg and Woods were found still strapped in their seats,
Johnson was found in a tree 30 ft. from the site, and Demsey’s leg was
found very close to the cargo compartment. It is believed that Demsey
was thrown from the chopper when it crashed and it rolled over on him
cutting the leg off and trapping the rest of his body under the
wreckage.
The team placed the remains into body bags on top of the wreckage. The
weather was closing in, the daylight was fading, and the decision was
made to leave the remains at the crash site and to stay over night
near the crash site. The team headed Northwest on the top of the
ridgeline and passed a cliff, the ropes were spotted hanging over the
cliff with Watson and Lloyd still attached to their ropes at the
bottom. The team continued heading Northwest for hill 1528 where they
spent the night. The following morning the team was preparing to
return to the crash site when they were attacked. The team suffered
two wounded and a convey pilot, Larry Hull, crashed and was killed.
The team was extracted without the remains and the decision was made
not to return to the area because it was so “hot”. Some of the team
members on that mission were Charles Westley, Cliff Newman, and
Charles Danzer, all with the 5th Special Forces Group out of DaNang.
During the attempt to recover the patrol, Woods’ helicopter came under
heavy fire and had to leave the pick-up zone with Lloyd, Watson and
Hernandez attached to the three-staple rig. While in flight, the rope
broke, and Hernandez fell 30 to 40 feet, landing in double canopy
jungle. He was rescued the following day. The helicopter continued a
short distance, and was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, crashed and
burned.
Sources: David Dempsey (brother), POW Network and NJVVMF.
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