SP5 Paul B. Lambertson was a 20 year old Single, Caucasian, Male From VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA . His tour of duty began on Jun 26, 1969 . Paul was flying as a member of the crew of UH-1H 66-16009 when the aircraft crashed near Binh Thuan killing Paul and Arthur G. Qualls. Paul was a skilled and highly respected power train mechanic, who had also cross trained in the 281st as a hydraulic and rotor specialist. Paul and Arthur, also a member of the maintenance platoon, volunteered to fly as the crew of 16609. Paul and Arthur were the last individuals lost by the 281st Assault Helicopter Company in the Vietnam war and they shall never be forgotten.

1 Jul 2004
Although it has been over 30 years, I still remember my roommate Paul very clearly. Paul was a good guy and a great leader. You could always count on Paul to pick up the slack in the unit and do any job that needed to be done. From one who will never forget.
From his roommate in Nha Trang,
Rick Voyles
richardvoyles@bellsouth.net

From: BEN GOWDY <ben398@prodigy.net>

Even today, after all these years I still have a real tough time talking about Paul. We got acquainted during AIT in Fort Eustis, Va, as we were in the same class, and we rapidly became best friends. I was from the mountain of Colorado and he was from the beaches of California. We did everything together even met in Oakland and shipped out together to Nam. We were separated at 90th Replacement. I met his dad in Oakland for just a brief few minutes but I think he was about 55 in age then and Paul was an only child. I have tried several times and different ways over the past ten years to find a family survivor and have not had any results. I was at one time put in touch with his Nam roommate and we stayed in touch for a long time, but when my old computer crashed, I lost his info. Paul was a school trained power train mechanic, but he cross trained at your company to be a hydraulic and rotor specialist also. I also went thru that training because the school training we had was for depot level, not company, so our hands were tied to do power train work cause we could not get parts at the company level. Paul was down in Long Binh about a month before his crash and we spent several days catching up, even snuck over to Bien Hoa to a depot company where 6 of our classmates were stationed and spent the day with them. A month later, even though I was a hanger jock, I was assigned to the maintenance ship as crew chief for one day to go on a recovery mission to An Loc to search for one of our ships that did not come the night before. We finally found it upside down mostly burned within a NVA bunker perimeter that had twin 51 cals set up etc. We went, recovered as many of the bodies of the 14 on board as we could and returned to Long Binh. As I approached the hanger that eve, I saw two officers that had Paul's unit patch on, they informed he had gone down two days prior. When I got to company headquarters, I had a letter from home that my high school basketball coach which was also my next door neighbor and great friend had died of liver cancer. The next few days were lost in many bottles of booze. I have not yet been able to find any pictures of Paul but I will not give up the search. I know that Paul's high school sweetheart and fiancé dumped him while he was home on leave just prior to Nam, she didn't want to wait for a Nam solider. He was pretty lonely when we shipped over. He was a very great guy and I still ask today, why Lord did I make it home and not him......BEN

Date: 05/20/1970
Information on U.S. Army helicopter UH-1D tail number 66-16009
The Army purchased this helicopter 0267
Total flight hours at this point: 00001743
Incident number: 700520221ACD Accident case number: 700520221 Total loss or fatality Accident
Unit: 281 AHC

The station for this helicopter was Nha Trang in South Vietnam
Number killed in accident = 5 . . Injured = 3 . . Passengers = 4
costing 344345

Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Army Aviation Safety Center database. Also: OPERA (Operations Report. )

Loss to Inventory

Crew Members:
P W1 DW HENRY, Pilot, 281^st AHC
CP O3 RT PRIDDY, Co-_Pilot, Field Forces Staff Officer
CE SP5 QUALLS ARTHUR GERALD, 281^st AHC, KIA
G SP5 LAMBERTSON PAUL BRUCE, 281^st AHC, KIA
Accident Summary:

THE AIRCRAFT HAD JUST BEEN RELEASED FORM A COMMAND AND CONTROL MISSION FOR THE 44TH ARVN REGIMENT AT SONG MAU, TINH BINH PROVINCE, RVN. THE AIRCRAFT HAD A CREW OF FOUR AND FOUR ARVN PASSENGERS ON BOARD AND HAD JUST DEPARTED POL AT SONG MAU WITH APPROXIMATELY 1235 LBS OF FUEL ON BOARD. THE PILOT IS COMMAND, WHO WAS FLYING THE RIGHT SEAT, WAS TEN MINUTES OUT OF SONG MAU, ENROUTE TO NHA TRANG, WHEN HE DECIDED TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE PILOT A METHOD OF LOSING ALTITUDE QUICKLY BY DIVING THE AIRCRAFT TOWARD THE GROUND. HE BEGAN THE MANEUVER AT 1000 FT. AGL BY REDUCING POWER AND SLOWING THE AIRCRAFT. HE THEN PLACED THE AIRCRAFT IN A NOSE LOW ATTITUDE AND PROCEED TOWARD THE GROUND. HE STATED THAT HE DOES NOT BELIEVE HE EXCEEDED 95 KNOTS DURING THE MANEUVER. WHEN THE PILOT IN COMMAND ATTEMPTED TO RECOVER FROM THIS ATTITUDE, AT BOUT 300 FT. AGL, HE PULLED IN POWER BUT THE AIRCRAFT FAILED TO RESPOND QUICKLY ENOUGH. HE REMEMBERED SEEING THE ENGINE RPM PASSING THROUGH 6400 RPM BUT HE DID NOT HEAR THE RPM AUDIO NOR DID HE SEE THE LO RPM WARNING LIGHT. AT THIS POINT THE PILOT IN COMMAND STATES THAT ALL HE HAD TIME TO DO WAS LEVEL THE AIRCRAFT AND HE CONTACTED THE GROUND AT APPROXIMATELY 80 KNOTS AND WITH CONSIDERABLE DOWN WARD FORCE. AT THE TIME IF IMPACT BOTH SKIDS TORE LOOSE AND THE TAIL ROTOR CONTACTED THE GROUND. THE AIRCRAFT THEN APPARENTLY CART WELLED FORWARD AND ONTO ITS LEFT SIDE, CAUSING THE MAIN ROTOR HEAD AND LEFT FRONT DOORS TO TEAR OFF. IT THEN CONTINUED TO ROLL COMPLETELY OVER, TEARING OFF THE SKID UNDERCARRIAGE BEFORE STRIKING A GULLEY, WHICH WAS THREE TO FOUR FT. DEEP AT THE POINT OF IMPACT, AND COMING TO A HALT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS THEN TOTALLY CONSUMED BY FIRE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE ONE ARVN SOLDIER, ALL PERSONS IN THE REAR OF THE HELICOPTER WERE FATALLY BURNED. THE ARVN WHO ESCAPED FATAL INJURY WAS SEVERELY BURNED, AS WERE THE PILOT IN COMMAND AND THE CO PILOT. BURNING WRECKAGE ALONG THE PATH AFTER IMPACT EVIDENCED THAT THE AIRCRAFT MAY HA VE STARTED TO BURN BEFORE FINAL IMPACT IN THE GULLEY.

This record was last updated on 09/20/1998

A MAN IS NOT DEAD UNTIL HE IS FORGOTTEN
ONCE AN INTRUDER....ALWAYS AN INTRUDER