They belong Walking On or Planted In
AMERICAN SOIL--Nothing Less!®
Scot O'Grady, the pilot that was shot down over Bosnia, was rescued after a series of radio transmissions were received that automatically identified him as a downed US pilot. In order to make certain that our Search and Rescue teams were not being mislead, he was contacted by radio and asked to give his escape and evade code.
Every pilot is issued a unique code that corresponds to that particularr pilot. Even if the enemy was able to torture that code out of you, they would not use the code themselves, because they could never be sure that the code that they tortured from a pilot was the correct code.
In the spring of 1992, the National Security Agency began analyzing image intelligence (satellite photographs) of an image that began to form letters in a hillside just outside of Hanoi, next to the Dong Vai prison in Vietnam.
During the Vietnam War pilots were issued one-of-a-kind escape and evade authenticator codes. These codes were issued in order to prevent the enemy from tricking rescue teams into an ambush.
The image that NSA analysts were studying took shape on June 5, 1992. It was such an authenticator code and it corresponded to that of Henry Serex. Moreover, so that there would be no doubt of the identity of the person cutting this code into the hillside, "-SEREX".
The Department of Defense PoW/MIA Office determined that the code, although identified as that belonging to, or assigned to, Henry Serex, was, in fact, a natural phenomenon and they dismissed this matter without demanding any answers whatsoever from Hanoi. We were, after all, about to lift the embargo and American business could not let a simple matter of a human being stand in their way.
What follows is the biography of Henry Muir Serex:
CASE SYNOPSIS: SEREX, HENRY MUIR
Name: Henry Muir Serex
Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force
Unit: 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, Korat AB TH
Date of Birth: 09 May 1931
Home City of Record: New Orleans LA (family in CA)
Date of Loss: 02 April 1972
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 165000N 1070100E (YD146612)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: EB66E ("Bat 21")
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Personnel in Incident:
April 2:
Robin F. Gatwood;
Wayne L. Bolte;
Anthony Giannangeli;
Charles A. Levis;
Henry M. Serex; (all missing from the EB66).
LtCol. Iceal Hambleton (rescued after 12 days from EB66).
Ronald P. Paschall;
Byron K. Kulland;
John W. Frink (all missing from UH1H rescue helicopter),
Jose M. Astorga (captured and released in 1973 from UH1H).
April 3:
William J. Henderson (captured and released in 1973 from OV10A rescue craft);
Mark Clark (rescued after 12 days from OV10A rescue craft).
April 6:
James H. Alley;
Allen J. Avery;
Peter H. Chapman;
John H. Call;
William R. Pearson;
Roy D. Prater (all KIA/BNR from HH53C "Jolly 52" rescue chopper).
Also in very close proximity to "Bat 21" on April 3:
Allen D. Christensen;
Douglas L. O'Neil;
Edward W. Williams;
Larry A. Zich (all missing from UH1H).
April 7:
Bruce Charles Walker (evaded 11 days);
Larry F. Potts (captured & died in POW camp) (both missing from OV10A).
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Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 31 April 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On the afternoon of April 2, 1972, two Thailand-based EB66 aircraft (Bat 21 and Bat 22), from the 30th Air Division, were flying pathfinder escort for a cell of B52s bombing near the DMZ. Bat 21 took a direct SAM hit and the plane went down. The aircraft was observed by other flight members to break apart and crash. A single beeper signal was heard, that of navigator Col. Iceal Hambleton. At this time it was assumed the rest of the crew died in the crash. The crew included Maj. Wayne L. Bolte, pilot; 1Lt. Robin F. Gatwood, LtCol. Anthony R. Giannangeli, LtCol. Charles A. Levis, and Maj. Henry M. Serex, all crew members. It should be noted that the lowest ranking man aboard this plane was Gatwood, a First Lieutenant. This was not an ordinary crew, and its members, particularly Hambleton, would be a prize capture for the enemy because of military knowledge they possessed.
It became critical, therefore, that the U.S. locate Hambleton, and any other surviving crew members before the Vietnamese did - and the Vietnamese were trying hard to find them first.
An Army search and rescue team was nearby and dispatched two UH1H "slicks" and two UH1B "Cobras". When they approached Hambleton's position just before dark, at about 50 feet off the ground, with one of the AH1G Cobra gunships flying at 300 feet for cover, two of the helicopters were shot down. One, the Cobra (Blue Ghost 28) reached safety and the crew was picked up, without having seen the other downed helicopter. The other, a UH1H from F Troop, 8th Cavalry, 196th Brigade, had just flown over some huts into a clearing when they encountered ground fire, and the helicopter exploded. Jose Astorga, the gunner, was injured in the chest and knee by the gunfire. Astorga became unconscious, and when he recovered, the helicopter was on the ground. He found the pilot, 1Lt. Byron K. Kulland, lying outside the helicopter. WO John W. Frink, the co-pilot, was strapped in his seat and conscious. The crew chief, SP5 Ronald P. Paschall, was pinned by his leg in the helicopter, but alive. WO Franks urged Astorga to leave them, and Astorga was captured. He soon observed the aircraft to be hit by automatic weapons fire, and to explode with the rest of the crew inside. He never saw the rest of the crew again. Astorga was released by the North Vietnamese in 1973.
The following day, Nail 38, an OV10A equipped with electronic rescue gear enabling its crew to get a rapid "fix" on its rescue target entered Hambleton's area and was shot down. The crew, William J. Henderson and Mark Clark, both parachuted out safely. Henderson was captured and released in 1973. Clark evaded for 12 days and was subsequently rescued.
On April 3, the day Nail 38 was shot down, a UH1H "slick" went down in the same area carrying a crew of four enlisted Army personnel. They had no direct connection to the rescue of Bat 21, but were very probably shot down by the same SAM installations that downed Bat 21. The helicopter, from H/HQ, 37th Signal Battalion, 1st Signal Brigade, had left Marble Mountain Airfield, Da Nang, on a standard resupply mission to signal units in and around Quang Tri City. The crew, consisting of WO Douglas L. O'Neil, pilot; CW2 Larry A. Zich, co-pilot; SP5 Allen D. Christensen, crew chief; and SP4 Edward W. Williams, gunner; remain missing in action.
