INFO ON HENDRICKS

Nancy;

I was a squadron pilot during this time and although I have bad CRS, I seem to remember the incident. However, before I give you some bad information, I will contact another old squadron mate to ensure that I know to what I'm speaking. I'm almost positive this is "Chuck" Hendricks that was killed during a med evac mission.

I would like to know a little about why you're interested in order to check out the validity of this request. We get a lot of insincere stuff fom people who do more harm than good. We Viet Vets have been through too much insincerity and don't want to contribute to more.

Have you tried contacting his family through school records?

If you correspond back to me, I will try and get some info for you.

Chuck Hendricks

I had the pleasure of serving in HMM 161 with Chuck from the summer of 1967 (MCAF New River) until I was med-evaced in Aug. 1968 (Quang Tri, RVN). Altho I wasn't there when he was killed, the man I knew was a quiet (but with a definite sense of humor and a wry grin), dedicated pilot, sharing the load in difficult situations. The only flight with him that I recall involved our having to make an emergency landing, while on a resupply mission, in the hills west of Quang Tri City due to a hydraulic problem. As we were walking around trying to determine and fix the problem, incoming mortar rounds convinced us that we could still fly the aircraft & we got the hell out of there, with no injuries to us or the crew, and back to base. Chuck was as calm as could be expected under the circumstances while he , as 1st pilot that day, looked after his crew.