Valor Friday

Airman First Class William “Pits” Pitsenbarger

For today’s Valor Friday, Mason brings us the story of the incredibly courageous Airman First Class William “Pits” Pitsenbarger, and his acts of valor in Viet Nam. Sadly, he did not survive the conflict.

Mason

Last year a film came out called The Last Full Measure. The title is an allusion to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in which he honored the fallen soldiers as having given “the last full measure of devotion.” The subject of the film is an incredibly heroic young man who sadly perished in action in Vietnam. The film came out a couple weeks ago on home video. In honor of that, I will be discussing the film’s honoree, Airman First Class William Pitsenbarger.

Pitsenbarger was born in 1944. An only child, and very ambitious, he pressed his parents for permission to drop out of high school and enlist with the Army to become a Green Beret. They did not assent, so he finished high school and then enlisted with the Air Force.

After basic training, “Pits”, as he was known to his compatriots, volunteered for Pararescue training. Pararescuemen (commonly known as PJs due to the code used on a flight’s manifest to describe their position on the aircraft) serve a unique role in the special operations community. They operate behind enemy lines to rescue downed airmen. This is exceptionally dangerous since any enemy is going to head to the area of a downed enemy, hoping to capture a prisoner. That they jump out of a hovering helicopter (a great bullet magnet) to make the rescue doesn’t help lower the danger level.

PJs ride into the enemy contested territory on a helicopter, jump out (onto land or water), find their comrades (often seriously injured), medically stabilize them, and then hoist them back up. Their role is part physical security, part medic, and part recovery. Their motto is “These Things We Do, That Others May Live.” It’s not just words to them, they are willing to die to effect a rescue, as you’ll soon see.

The job is so dangerous that of the 24 Air Force Crosses ever awarded to enlisted men, 12 of them have been given to PJs. They deploy into every theater the US operates in and have been used during the recovery of NASA astronauts during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.

PJ training is understandably rigorous and can last up to two years. Up to 80% of those who attempt what they call “Superman School” never make it. Trainees have to go through US Army parachute training and freefall parachute training, survival courses, emergency and battlefield medicine, US Navy dive courses, rescue training, jungle survival, air crash rescue, and firefighting. After all his training, Pitsenbarger was assigned to Hamilton AFB, CA. Not long after that he was sent to Vietnam.

Pits’ first trip to Vietnam was a temporary duty (TDY) assignment, but he volunteered for a full assignment immediately. He’d eventually conduct more than 250 combat missions from August 1965 to April 1966.

The young, handsome airman was well liked. Nobody ever seemed to say a bad word about him, and his easy going, fun loving personality immediately ingratiated himself to his comrades. Back home his looks and charm had made him quite the ladies man. In Vietnam however, his commander remarked that he was “One of a special breed. Alert and always ready to go on any mission.” He even spent his off hours working in the emergency room of a nearby MASH unit, bettering his medical skills.

One such mission was March 7, 1966. Pits and his helicopter crew, assigned to the HH-43 Huskie (primarily used as a rescue and firefighting aircraft), received a call to assist in picking up a wounded South Vietnamese soldier.

“On the hook” with a Kaman HH-43 Huskey

The soldier had been wounded while walking through an old, undocumented mine field. The severely wounded man had already lost a foot and would have to be removed by air as he was too unstable to move. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, the minefield was also on fire.

The rescue crew couldn’t figure out how to get to the injured soldier without risking tripping the remaining mines. Pits’ answer was, “No problem, just lower me down.” He volunteered to go down directly on top of the injured man, straddle him, and then get hoisted back up. Which is what he did.

Airman’s Medal

He was awarded the Airman’s Medal, the highest award for non-combat bravery and considered the non-combat equivalent of the Air Force Cross. The South Vietnamese awarded him the Military Merit Medal(a combat valor award for enlisted men) and the Gallantry Cross with Bronze Palm (indicating he was cited for valor or heroic conduct at the highest level, that of the South Vietnamese Armed Forces).

Military Merit Medal

Gallantry Cross with Bronze Palm

On April 11, 1966 Pits and crew were called to assist with casualties from a company of troops from the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. The company’s 134 men had been attacked by a battalion of Viet Cong estimated to be 500 strong. As casualties on the American side mounted, the VC surrounded the American position.

Army helicopters couldn’t land in the dense jungle, they needed an open clearing. The area the soldiers were in, Cam My, 35 miles east of Saigon, was covered by trees up to 150ft tall. Two more layers of progressively smaller trees created a dense overlay that the Army choppers would be unable to penetrate. The USAF rescue helicopters employed a cable and winch system known as the “jungle penetrator” to lower PJs in and haul out the wounded.

Pits was aboard Pedro 73, one of two Huskie helicopters sent to assist the pinned down company. His small helicopter had been able to fly into a small break, barely large enough for the aircraft, in the tallest of the jungle canopy. Hovering above the 100ft tall trees with taller trees surrounding them, they lowered the jungle penetrator and litter.

The Huskies had planned to take turns loading wounded and ferrying them to a nearby airfield, but the crew of Pedro 73 could see that the soldiers needed assistance in loading the litter. Pitsenbarger volunteered to be lowered 100ft to the jungle floor, into the raging battle. His pilot agreed on the condition that when given the signal, he’d return to the helicopter.

As they readied to send Pitsenbarger down, the pilot said “Pits, it’s hotter than hell down there; do you still want to go down?” The young PJ gave an enthusiastic response of, “Yes sir, I know I can really help out.” He was sent down with his medical bag, a supply of splints, a rifle, and a pistol.

Johnny Libs, a first lieutenant on the ground saw the PJ coming down and remarked to one of his soldiers that the guy coming down in the Air Force uniform must be out of his mind. Leaving his “not-so-safe” helicopter to join the “inferno” on the ground baffled him. He said, “We were in the fight of our lives, and I just couldn’t understand why anybody would put themselves in this grave danger if he didn’t have to.”

On the ground, Pits took command of the loading of the wounded. Normally the PJ returns to the rescue aircraft, but Pits elected to stay on the ground. He helped load nine men aboard the Huskies, refusing to come aboard himself so that one more injured man could be evacuated instead.

The battle intensified on the ground as the helicopters returned for a second load. Pedro 73 was having engine trouble as they hovered over the battle. They’d been hit catastrophically by small arms fire and immediately left to conduct an emergency landing. Before leaving, the pilot of Pedro 73 gave Pits the sign to come back. Instead of taking the option of returning aboard that aircraft, Pitsenbarger gave the aircrew a “wave-off” and remained with the soldiers to tend to the wounded. The other Huskie in the flight was unable to remain on station due to the intense enemy fire. The ground fire of small arms and mortars became too intense for any friendly helicopters to return.

On the ground Pitsenbarger continued caring for the wounded, hacking splints and stretchers out of nearby vines and saplings. When the American soldiers started calling for ammo, Pits collected ammunition from the dead to redistribute to those still alive.

As night fell, Pitsenbarger ran from position to position dispensing ammunition to the beleaguered troops, under constant enemy fire as he did so. During the night he fought side by side with the infantrymen.

Pits repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to pull wounded men back from the line of fire, single handedly dragging wounded men by their collars or web gear. He’d put the men behind logs or trees for cover and go back out to find more, raising his rifle to fire into the enemy when he wasn’t busy saving lives.

One seriously wounded man, who survived the battle thanks to Pitsenbarger, said that the airman provided him cover by stacking the bodies of two dead soldiers on top of him. Over the course of the night Pits was wounded three times but remained in the fight and cared for the continually mounting casualties.

The soldiers and Pitsenbarger held off the VC long enough that they retreated before sunrise. American reinforcements were able to recover the company in the morning. The men had suffered 80% casualties during the battle. Among them was Airman Pitsenbarger, who had been mortally wounded by enemy fire during the night. When he was recovered the next morning he was clutching his rifle in one hand and his medical bag in the other.

For coordinating the successful rescues, caring for the wounded unable to be rescued, and for his brave conduct in fighting side-by-side with the soldiers, he was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross. “These things we do, that others may live” is the motto of USAF pararescue, and clearly embodied in Pitsenbarger. Lieutenant Johnny Libs said he’d never seen a soldier more deserving of the Medal of Honor.

Air Force Cross

One hundred thirty-four soldiers started the battle and only 60 made it out alive. The ones who did survive credit Pitsenbarger’s incredible bravery with getting them out alive. Despite being recommended for the Medal of Honor, he was the first enlisted recipient of the Air Force Cross.

Giving testimony on Pitsenbarger’s gallantry, Daniel Kirby, a rifleman with the besieged company, said “I was stunned that somebody was coming down to put themselves in that situation. It’s hard to believe that someone would voluntarily come into that battle and stay with it. He had to be the bravest person I’ve ever known.”

“He was the bravest man I’ve ever seen, and I saw it all,” said Martin L. Kroah, Jr who was a first lieutenant in the battle and who later served a second tour in Vietnam as a special forces officer. He described the harrowing battle; “At times, the small arms fire would be so intense that it was deafening, and all a person could do was get as close to the ground as possible and pray. It was on those occasions I saw Airman Pitsenbarger moving around and pulling wounded men out of the line of fire and then bandaging their wounds. My own platoon medic, who was later killed, was totally ineffective. He was frozen with fear, unable to move. The firing was so intense that a fire team leader in my platoon curled up in a fetal position and sobbed uncontrollably. He had been in combat in WWII and Korea.”

Many of the men Pits had served with, including several whose lives he had saved on that fateful day in April 1966, pressed for nearly 35 years to have his Air Force Cross upgraded. After significant lobbying, including by Sergeant John Levitow (USAF) who had received the Medal of Honor for his own actions during Vietnam, Pits’ medal was finally upgraded in 2000. The medal was presented to his parents. Looking on were dozens of men Pitsenbarger had served with or saved.

Air Force Medal of Honor

Levitow had been the first enlisted member of the US Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor (though Army Air Forces personnel pre-dating the USAF had). His MoH had been awarded for actions in 1969, and he believed that Pitsenbarger was to be the rightful “first” MoH recipient. Unfortunately Levitow passed away just a month before Pitsenbarger’s medal was presented to his family.

Going through Air Force basic training there were two names that were drilled into us on our enlisted heritage, John Levitow and William Pitsenbarger. I knew the rough overview of what Pitsenbarger had done to earn the Medal of Honor, but was still blown away while doing the research for this article.

Air Force PJs are in a class by themselves. Hand Salute. Ready, Two!

Thanks again, Mason.

Category: Guest Post, The Warrior Code, Valor