The Unofficial U.S. Air Force HH-43B/F "PEDRO" Crash Rescue - Air Rescue Web Site

Name: Technical Sergeant Harry Cohen
Pararescueman

Date of Birth: February 8, 1933

Home of Record: Chicago, Illinois

Date of Casualty: July 19, 1969

Age at Loss: 35 years old

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial
Wall Panel 2E - Row 20

Detachment #12, 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron
Utapao Air Base, Thailand

Aircraft Model: HH-43B

Aircraft Tail Number: 59-1562

Call Sign: Pedro 70

INCIDENT SUMMARY

Technical Sergeant Cohen and his crew scrambled in response to a B-52 which had aborted take-off. The B-52's nose gear collapsed, and the aircraft crashed and began to burn. There was a question of whether the tail-gunner had evacuated the burning aircraft. The Aircraft Commander, A/C Major Davis, flew the helicopter by the burning aircraft while the crew attempted to locate the tail-gunner. The ordinance on the B-52 to exploded. The helicopter was struck by shrapnel and debris and crashed. Major Davis and TSgt. Cohen were killed. A third crew member crew member was  very seriously injured but survived.

The following background information was provided by Thomas M. Sanders, Lt. Col. (Retired). Thank you Sir for your contribution.

"I was the navigator on the last of 3 B-52's in the first of two cells (composing a 6-ship "wave") departing from UTapao for a bomb run in summer 1969.  The weather was terrible--heavy tropical rain.  We had taken off and were on our departure, monitoring the progress of the wave, when we realized that the second cell never came up on frequency.  We then heard several transmissions of "Pedro seven-zero this is UTapao tower on guard. Do you copy?"

When we returned from the bomb run, we discovered that the second cell lead B52, accelerating in the heavy rain, noticed an out-of-limit difference between the pilot's and copilot's airspeed indicators and aborted the take-off.  They slowed down quickly but, in an attempt to clear the runway for the remaining two B52s, they pushed up the thrust levers to get to the end of the runway sooner.

The crew sped up too rapidly, however, and the aircraft--carrying about 300,000 lbs of fuel and 108 500-pound bombs--skidded off the runway into a ditch. The tail gunner popped his turret, slid down a rope, and was picked up by a maintenance crew who drove to the safety of a revetment. The remaining crewmembers escaped through overhead escape hatches at the front of the plane and were picked up by rescue personnel.  By this time, the HH-43 rescue helicopter Pedro 70 was overhead.

When the ground rescue personnel only counted five of the six-man crew (they were unaware that the gunner had been rescued), they told everyone including Pedro that there was a man still in the B52.  Pedro apparently decided to stay on station until the missing crewmember was located.

This was a fatal decision--the B52 exploded (the largest piece saw at the crash scene later was about the size of a Volkswagon bus) and Pedro was slammed into the ground, ultimately killing two of its crew.  These were the only fatalities in the incident."

Sergeant Jose Gene Abara    Staff Sergeant Milard Luther E. Bledsoe    2nd Lieutenant George H. Bonnell, II

Technical Sergeant Harry Cohen    Major Warren K. Davis    Captain Von Miles Liebernecht

Staff Sergeant Angel Luna    Airman First Class William H. Pitsenbarger    Major David Hunter Pittard

Airman Second Class Francis D. Rice

If you have any additional information regarding Harry or this incident, please contact me.

This Web Page Was Updated March 26, 2008  

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