The Crash

   My tour was ending and I had orders to Fort Benning, Georgia, to become the provost Marshal. I scheduled a helicopter trip through southern Vietnam to inspect and say goodbye to each of the units that I commanded. I asked my Sergeant Major [SMG Kidd] and Larry [SGT Maggard was COL Payne's driver] if they would like to go on the trip with me. They both jumped at the chance. We scheduled out itinerary, went first to Saigon, then down through the delta and visited all the units.

   On our flight back over Saigon on the way to Bien Hoa, I was very tired and dozed off. I remember waking up startled when the pilot was giving a “Mayday” over the radio. We were between Saigon and Bien Hoa flying about 1,500 feet. I turned to check with the Sergeant Major and Sergeant Maggard who were in the back seat of the helicopter. I looked to see that they were awake, had their helmets on and were strapped in. At that point I really had no concern because many, many times at Fort Campbell we had turned the motor off in a helicopter and auto rotated in for a landing with no problems. For some reason, I became unconscious. The next thing I remember I was in the hospital in Saigon with someone with a garden hose washing off the rice paddy mud so they could check my injuries.

   I later learned that we had crashed in a rice paddy on the skid on my side of the chopper. The pilot and I were thrown clear of the aircraft but Sergeant Major Kidd and Sergeant Maggard were both killed when the helicopter motor came forward and crushed them.

   I was told that a doctor, CPT Frank J. Messana, B Company, 9th Medical Battalion, 9th Infantry Division was riding in a jeep was on a road about 400 meters away and saw the crash. He raced from his jeep, swam a rice paddy, got to the pilot and I, and was able to remove the mud from our air passages and help get us into the dust-off helicopter that had answered our pilot’s Mayday, and on our way to the hospital. He saved our lives.

   In the Saigon Hospital, they found I had a shattered right hip, a skull fracture, fractured ribs, and numerous lacerations. I was stabilized and put in a body cast, the same way I returned from World War II. A few days later I was evacuated to a Army hospital in Tokyo, Japan.

   Several months later after release from the Walter Reed hospital and our arrival at Fort Benning Georgia I was able to go to Martin Army Hospital in Georgia and personally thank CPT Frank J. Messana for his rescue and saving my life in Vietnam. CPT Messana was awarded the Soldiers Medal for his actions on 5 June 1968.

   In the fall of 1968 COL Payne met with SGT Maggard's family at a memorial service in their local church in Kentucky. At the service he presented SGT Maggard's parents with the Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal (meritorious service) and Bronze Star Medal (meritorious service).

   Edited from the Journal “Frank Payne ~ Been There Done That” by COL Francis E. “Frank” Payne and Mrs. Jo Anne Embree Payne.

Note: In my correspondence with COL Payne about this incident he stated that everything after the crash was a blank and what he knew about his rescue he was told weeks later by others who were not at the crash site.

Colonel Payne passed from our ranks at 1050 hours, Monday, 2 July 2001, at his home in Carson City, Nevada. I had the pleasure of corresponding with the Colonel throughout the year before his death. The burden of the deaths of SMG Kidd and SGT Maggard was still evident. The Colonel was extremely proud of his tour with the 720th MP Battalion and often described the men under his command in Vietnam as the best MP's he has ever had the pleasure of serving with.

Thomas T. Watson, History Project Manager