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Warrant Officer Donald Bruce McCoig |
Sketch by Cliff Wheeler
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Donald Bruce McCoig was born on January 21, 1946 in Van Nuys, California. His parents were Donald Bruce McCoig, who died in October 1966, and Phyllis McCoig, who died in May 1982. Donald, known as "Bruce" to his family, attended Thousand Oaks High School in Thousand Oaks California, and graduated in 1964. Following high school, Donald signed on a lumber freighter and sailed as a deck hand to and from Australia. Upon return from his sailing adventure, Donald attended Venture College for a year, but left to join the US Army. Donald married his wife Margaret (Margaret remarried and her new name is unknown.) in May 1966, and left for the Army in June 1966. Prior to joining the Army Donald enjoyed driving his "Cobra" sports car and spent considerable time rebuilding it. His physical appearance and looks resembled that of Steve McQueen, and he was often harassed about the similarities. His surviving family remembers him as an easy going individual who was a friend to all, and one who was always ready and willing to lend a hand to anyone in need.
Donald is survived by his
widowed aunt by marriage, Clara May McCoig, of 2422 La Estrella Street,
Henderson, NV. Mrs. McCoig also served as an Army nurse in World War II.
Donald has two cousins, Dava McCoig Lambert of 6 Veeder Avenue, Barre, VT,
and Russell McCoig of 2940 McCoig Avenue, Las Vegas, NV. Both of his cousins
are the children of his late uncle, David Clarke McCoig and his aunt, Clara
May McCoig. (Note: I served with Donald McCoig until 2/68 and knew him to be a superior aviator and an all around outstanding individual. At the time of his death The 281st was under the command of my friend Don Ruskauff, whose comments are below.) LTC. Donald (Don) Ruskauff, USA (Ret) "Intruder 6" 2/68-7/68 Those following personal recollections along with a summary of the combat mission after action report, covering the operation in which Donald Bruce McCoig gave his life, are recorded here. Of note are the statements by Norm Kauffman, Robin Hicks and Kenneth Embrey, al of whom had a major role in this mission. Fom: Norman Kauffman
"Bandit 24" 1/68-1/69 From: Robin K. Hicks, Aircraft
Commander UH1-D 227 I do not know what I could say about McCoig that couldn't be said by every other pilot involved in that operation. McCoig was flying and on take off we got hit hard. He took a round right above his left eyebrow and his head swung around and looked straight at me. Blood was "gushing" out so badly that I thought that his jugular vein had been hit. He went stiff on the controls pushing in right angle and the ship was shaking violently and going towards a tree in a nose high attitude. I was on the controls but could hardly go over them and when I told the gunner to come forward and pull him off the controls the gunner responded that he couldn't because he was hit. There were still either 6 or 7 people aboard, including the crew of one of the marine aircraft. I kept after it and McCoig finally went limp and I could move the controls and tried to keep from hitting the tree or crashing. I was told to get the aircraft back into the LZ, like I actually had a chance of doing that, but tried and actually pulled it off. Every emergency light on the instrument panel was lit and I found out later that the ship was smoking from somewhere. I shut it down and things went to hell after that." HAPPY
VALLEY I was the Crew Chief on 227, when it was shot down on March 29,1968, killing CWO McCoig at an LZ in the Ashau Valley. I had only been in country a couple of months when we were called up to Phu Bai to replace the Rat Pack in support of Project Delta. I don’t remember being there more than 2 or 3 day before we were shot down. One afternoon right after we got there, while working on my aircraft, I saw rockets being walked in toward us. Not knowing exactly what was going on, Sergeant Seaton, who had a whole lot more experience in the country, informed me that it was not friendly fire and led the way to the bunker. I do remember flying a recon mission the day prior to the incident whereby the LZ’s to be used that day were determined and saw the area where the Air Force had blown the canopy off the top of a trail used by Charlie and there was a convoy of trucks down there that had quad 50’s on them and green tracers the size, to me, of basketballs were being fired at the aircraft. The day of the incident was hot and sunny. We left the FOB around mid day after the officers got a briefing. We were assigned Recovery (Medical) and would fly behind the Command and Control Ship. Our job was to pick up wounded or downed members when C&C told us to. The mission for the flight that day as I remember it was to insert a company of ARVN Rangers and some Nungs along with their American advisors in a combat assault in reaction to intelligence gathered by Delta in previous days. This was not a typical Delta mission and was my first hot combat assault. WO Robin Hicks was the Aircraft Commander, a maintenance warrant officer, Wendell Allen was the co-pilot and Lionel Wesley was the Gunner. We also had an SF medic called “Doc” with us. In addition to our normal equipment, we had a McGuire Rig and a wench with litter basket. The combat assault got underway with 3 slicks from the 281st pulling the initial insertion. For some reason, aircraft 135 went down in the LZ amidst heavy enemy small arms fire. The other two came out and a Marine CH46 came in smoking from around the pylon. It was able to make it out of the LZ but I understand, didn’t make it back to safety. The 2nd Marine 46 came in and made a hard landing. We were at altitude and fairly far away and sometimes I was on the wrong side of the ship so I am not able to describe everything that went on in the LZ up to that time, but did know that two ships were down in the LZ, aircraft 135 and the Marine 47. I remember lots of discussion over the radios and I think that aircraft 127 went down and picked up the crew from 135. Any way, we were all about out of fuel and flew back to the FOB. McCoig who along with Norm Kaufman were the pilots on 135 were at the FOB before we took off again after refueling. Kaufman was wounded in the foot and went to the hospital. There had been some discussion on whether or not there was the possibility of flying 135 out so McCoig volunteered to take the maintenance officer’s place on 227 and for some reason flew left seat while Robin Hicks moved over to the right seat. We also took on 6 to 8-5 gallon canisters of smoke in the aircraft. We returned to the LZ.
When
we got back to the AO, the guns set up a pattern and we went in with C&C and
kicked off the smoke. By that time the remainder of the flight caught up
with us, went into the LZ to drop off the recovery and maintenance people
for both 135 and the Marine 46 and to pick up wounded from the ground
element. All aircraft including the guns were reporting ground fire. About
that time someone decided that the LZ wasn’t secure enough to conduct
recovery operations on the downed aircraft, so the hole ships were ordered
to start picking up the recovery and maintenance crews. Aircraft 127 made it
out but Aircraft 228 apparently received fire and returned to the LZ and
shut it down. 113 and 129 recovered the crews of 228 and maintenance
personnel and some wounded. Then another Marine 46 crashed hard in the LZ.
We were then directed to move into the LZ to pick up the crew of the 46. I
was on the left side and McCoig had me go hot with my M60 real early in that
that was where all the ground fire was coming from. Wesley on the other side
of the ship couldn’t fire because that was where the friendlies were. I
think McCoig flew into the LZ and we quickly loaded the downed crewmembers
from the 46, which with Doc who was already on board made 7 or 8 passengers,
a full load. I think the crew chief from 46 had made it into the perimeter
of the ground element. Upon departure from the LZ we received ground fire
and McCoig was hit with the first bullet directly in the forehead. Then all
hell broke loose. I was out of M60 ammo by this time and grabbed my M14 and
was trying to get a clip into it. Fuel was flying all over my face. In the
meanwhile, Hicks jumped on the controls as the aircraft went into a nose
high attitude and with a tremendous yaw to the right. He kept screaming for
me to come up and get McCoig off the controls but centrifugal force was
trying to throw me out and I was holding on to anything I could grab just to
stay in the aircraft and could not make it forward no matter how hard I
tried. Finally McCoig relaxed enough to allow Hicks to regain control and
somehow, got us back into the LZ. Real early the next morning we were told that a large NVA force was headed our way, and that we needed to find an LZ which could be used to recover our dead and wounded. We headed out with first me and Wesley and then Hicks and a Marine LT carrying McCoig’s body. There were several dead and wounded in our group. One Ranger had taken a direct hit from a mortar and didn’t take a very big poncho to carry his remains. The gunner from the 46 was real unlucky. He had been hit in the left side when we loaded him, then he took another round in his lower gut when we came back in the LZ. He died after we got him in the perimeter. One Special Forces guy had two bullets in the chest and was white as a sheet from the loss of blood but walked out of that mess. We moved toward the river and with all that water around us, we had nothing to drink. Man I was thirsty. At the time, I was carrying a wounded Special Forces Captain web gear. It had a canteen with some purifying tablets taped to it so I filled it with that nasty river water, threw in a handful of tablets, shook it a couple times and drank it down. We walked all morning, then all afternoon. The terrain, once we got out of the river, was real dense bush. I can remember seeing aircraft of all makes and services in the air and the artillery from Firebase Bastogne was pounding the mountains surrounding us. The weather had lifted and it was hot and muggy in the jungle and my mouth was dry as a bone. The SF guy with the two holes in his chest gave me some hard candy but I couldn’t develop enough spit to swallow it. Sometime in the late afternoon of that day, we located a clearing that could be used as a pickup point. We watched the guns work over the sides of the PZ and between the napalm and other work, the PZ was secure. Just before dusk, we got out of that place. Marine 46’s picked up the dead and wounded first and even 281st aircraft were there. Some people were sent to Bastogne (where I heard they got attacked that night) in order to get a shorter turn around time but I was one of the last out and got a ride all the way back to the FOB. I don’t remember how many days we stayed at the FOB before we went back to Nha Trang but it wasn’t long. Once back, I was assigned another ship but got real deep in to the bottle and eventually asked to be reassigned to Maintenance Platoon where I stayed the remainder of my tour. Most everything after that day is blurred in my memory due either to the alcohol or my mind giving me some relief from the guilt fear, and other emotions I felt at the time. K.E. John Galkiewicz "Bandit" 11/67-8/68 Mike Cook donated these sample 281st AHC patches that he has been carrying around for over 30 years. Mike's story was that way back when, the 281st leadership was trying to come up with the unit patch, Don McCoig had these designs made up as examples of possible patches. Obviously, none of these was adopted, but McCoig kept these designs and apparently Mike ended up with them. From: Bob "Mop" Mitchell, 281st AHC Historian"Bandit 24" 5/69-5/70 617 Diamond Grove Rd. Pinson, TN 38366 Tel: 901-424-7276 E-mail:bob.mitchell@mitchellsbodyshop-inc.com (NOTE: Bob kindly researched the operations
reports that covered the mission for
which Don and Robin Hicks were flying support.)
Codename: Samurai IV DTG [date time group]: 030468-040468 The following excerpt is from Annex C,
281st AHC Aviation Support, to AAR 68-2 Operation Samurai IV written by
(unsigned, but probably a joint effort between 1LT Carney, S3 Air for
Project Delta, and the 281st AHC Commander): Just prior to departing the area to regroup and organize another extraction attempt of the downed crews and ground force casualties I received word that Warrant Officer McCoig had been killed, the other Intruder crewmembers were OK and that one Space 1-6 crewmember was seriously wounded. .... A recovery flight was organized to attempt extraction of the wounded and dead, however before it could be launched the Delta FAC reported that low ceilings had sealed off the area. He stated that it would be impossible to maintain visual flight into the area. The decision was rendered to delay further recovery attempts until the weather improved. Reports received during the night revealed that the enemy maintained continual pressure on the ground elements; engaged in frequent probing attacks around their perimeter and gradually reduced their combat effectiveness as reflected by the casualty figures. .... The morning of 30 March arrived with low ceilings and low visibility prevailing. Extraction of the ground force with its mounting casualties could not be attempted until the weather broke. Throughout the morning and early afternoon the enemy force maintained continual pressure on the ground elements. An NVA prisoner was captured by the ground force during the day and his interrogation revealed that an NVA Battalion was moving toward the friendly position from the northeast. It appeared as though total annihilation of the ground forces was a possibility to be considered.... At approximately mid-afternoon the weather broke sufficiently for TAC air to strike around the perimeter of the friendly elements. .... All available aviation support was requested to extract the unit, however by 1700 that afternoon all that had arrived on station were 3 Dust OFF helicopters from the 571st Medical Co (Air Amb), and two MAG-36 CH-46 helicopters. .... It was decided that complete extraction of all elements would be attempted with resources then available. With this limited support the lift began at 1820 hours: An hour and three minutes later the landing zone was cleared. .... Space 1-1 with full knowledge that gunship support was no longer available, reported he would attempt to extract all remaining personnel if I could vector him through the smoke to the landing zone. This was successfully accomplished and the extraction from this area was completed. .... Although it is difficult to
distinguish and separate the degrees of heroism displayed by personnel
involved in this action I feel four aviators deserve consideration for award
of the Distinguished Service Cross or its equivalency. These being first of
all Warrant Officer Donald B. McCoig., as Aircraft Commander of Intruder
227, when he, at complete disregard for his own safety, piloted his aircraft
back into a landing zone in which he had previously been downed in an
attempt to recover fellow aircrew members. With full knowledge Secondly, Warrant Officer Robin K. Hicks who regained control of the mortally stricken helicopter after Warrant Officer McCoig had been hit and returned it to the landing zone through a withering hail of gunfire. This action allowed the crewmen on board to link up with friendly elements. …
Major, Infantry Executive Officer
From: Robert J. "Mo" Moberg, Delta
Operations Commander and 281st AHC Executive Officer
The schedule of events for the
May, 2000 ceremonies was: COL (Ret) Jack Mayhew
represented the 281st AHC, and spoke of A MAN IS NOT DEAD UNTIL HE IS FORGOTTEN |
Following the footsteps of his father, who served as a Chief Warrant Officer
in World War II, and his Grandmother, who also served in World War II as a
member of the Women’s Army Corps, Donald entered the Army, completed basic
training and graduated from helicopter pilot training in 1967. He arrived in
Vietnam and was assigned to the 281st Assault Helicopter Company, Nha Trang,
RVN on June 17, 1967. His death came as a result of hostel fire on March 29,
1968. His body was recovered and returned to his family who, after
cremation, scattered his ashes at sea. For his service with the 281st AHC
and to his country, Warrant Officer Donald Bruce McCoig was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal
for Valor, and numerous other awards and service medals. 
that at least
four additional helicopters had met a similar fate, he landed, loaded the
crew on board and received fatal wounds while exiting the landing zone. 
This tribute to WO Donald
"Mac" McCoig was prepared in connection with 10th Combat Aviation Battalion
Memorial & Dedications by the 10th Aviation Brigade at Ft. Drum, NY. The
10th AVN BGD dedicated five Aviation Brigade buildings (Avn Bde HQ, 2-10 Avn HQ,
2-10 Avn hangar, 1-10 Avn hangar, and 3/17 Cav hangar) to 10th CAB
individuals. The individual from the 281st AHC which they selected was WO
Donald B. McCoig.
ONCE AN
INTRUDER....ALWAYS AN INTRUDER
