Combat
Leaders
Lt. Col. Robert Johnston, 23rd
TASS Commander, shakes hands with an NKP visitor while Lt. Col. Albert Howarth
looks on. Col. Howarth commanded
the A-26 detachment. The claim
that NKP’s Commanders were combat leaders is probably best exemplified by
the fact that both these men were downed on combat missions over Laos.
Col. Johnston’s rescue had been less than a month before this picture
was taken. Col. Howarth, and his A-26 crew, were saved in one of the first
night rescues of the war in December 1966.
*
* * * * * * * *
Memorable Flight of Nimrod 31
The successes of the Nimrods were not without costs. In the early evening of December 14th, Nimrod 31 was
attacking a target near Tchepone when automatic weapons fire from a ZPU-2
struck the aircraft. Although his
aircraft was hit in the right wing and the left engine, Lieutenant Colonel
Albert Howarth rolled the A-26 back in and dropped CBU-14 across the gun
position. Pulling up off the
target, the crew jettisoned the rest of the ordnance and headed for NKP.
The left engine, however, had developed an uncontrollable fire.
A few miles west of FOXTROT, Colonel Howarth ordered the crew to
abandon the A-26. Captain Harold
Cooper, flying his first combat mission as an A-26 navigator, had no trouble
getting out of the aircraft from his position in the copilot's seat.
The other navigator, First Lieutenant Jackie Bell, was instructing
Captain Cooper from the area between and behind the two seats.
As Lieutenant Bell tried to move his large frame from the cramped
position, his parachute harness tangled on some of the aircraft equipment.
A newspaper article on the mission described Colonel Howarth's heroism
in the following way.
Despite the critical situation and diminishing chances of his own
survival, Colonel Howarth, while maintaining firm control of the aircraft,
physically assisted the remaining navigator in getting disentangled, and only
after insuring his safe egression did he parachute to safety. [1]
All three crewmen landed near the southern end of the jungle-covered
ridgeline known to NKP's crews as the Big Rooster Tail.
Another Nimrod responded to the Mayday call. Well after dark, that A-26 was joined by a search and rescue
team consisting of an HH-3E Jolly Green, two UH-1Fs Hueys, and four A-1Es
Skywriters. The area was
essentially undefended, and the ridge line was relatively smooth with no
jagged peaks, so the SAR commander decided to attempt a night rescue. Jolly Green 55, piloted by Captain Oliver O'Mara, picked up
two of the downed Nimrods, while Captain Frederick Yontek's Huey (UH-1F)
rescued the third crewman. This
rescue mission was credited as one of the first, if not the first, night
combat saves of the war. [1]
The courageous actions during the ill-fated flight of Nimrod 31 were
judged by a review board as the most meritorious flight of 1966. For his "exemplary courage and airmanship" during
that dark night over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Colonel Howarth earned the highly
coveted, Mackay Trophy for 1966. [1]
