13/03/2025
The Battle of Xa Cam My was fought over two days from April 11–12, 1966. Operation Abilene was a U.S. search and destroy mission with the US Army 1st Infantry Division, subsequently planned to lure out the VC by using Charlie Company, 2/16th Infantry as a bait. Charlie Company would be surrounded by Viet Cong troops and begin to take casualties. On April 11, 1966, the Joint Rescue Center dispatched two Huskies from Detachment 6 to extract a half-dozen or more Army casualties of Charlie Company. Onboard one of the Huskie helicopters was Pararescue William Hart Pitsenbarger. Upon reaching the site of the ambush, Pitsenbarger was lowered through the trees to the ground where he attended to the wounded before having them lifted to the helicopter that was hovering above the jungle canopy. After six wounded men had been flown to an aid station, the two U.S. Air Force helicopters returned for their second load.
As one of the helicopters lowered its litter basket to Pitsenbarger, who was administering aid to the wounded, it was hit by a burst of enemy fire. The pilot realized he had to get the helicopter away from the area as soon as possible or risked crashing. Pitsenbarger elected to remain with the Army troops under enemy attack and he gave a "wave-off" to the helicopter which flew away to safety. With heavy mortar and small-arms fire, the helicopters could not return to rescue Pitsenbarger.
Pitsenbarger tended to the wounded soldiers, hacking splints out of snarled vines and building improvised stretchers out of saplings. When the others began running low on ammunition, he gathered ammunition from the dead and distributed it to those still alive. Then, he joined the others with a rifle to hold off the Viet Cong. Pitsenbarger was killed by Viet Cong snipers later that night. Although Pitsenbarger did not escape alive, the other 60 men did.
Pitsenbarger was awarded the Air Force Cross for his actions in 1966. After a review of his actions nearly 35 years later his original award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. On December 8, 2000, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the airman's father, William F. Pitsenbarger, and his mother, Alice, accepted the Medal of Honor. The 2019 film The Last Full Measure depicting Pitsenbarger's actions and life. (Photos from display at The National Museum of the United States Air Force)
