“It is my duty, as a member of the Air Rescue Service, to save life and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do that others may live.”

Pararescueman Killed in Action

On November 8, 1967, two Air Force HH-3E helicopters from the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron were scrambled from Da Nang Air Base. It was mid afternoon when Jolly’s 26 and 29 headed towards the A Shau Valley, a well known hotbed of heavy enemy activity. The mission was an emergency extraction of five surviving members of a Special Forces reconnaissance team which had suffered heavy casualties. The Jolly’s were advised by the on-scene FAC to hold while three Army UH1B gunships softened the area with rockets and machine gun fire. An Air Force C130 gunship, meanwhile, provided flare support for the mission. At 1630Z, Jolly Green 29 picked up three personnel before being driven off by hostile fire. Damaged, Jolly Green 29 left and made an emergency landing at Khe Sanh. Twenty minutes later, Jolly Green 26, flown by Captain Gerald O. Young, co-pilot Captain Ralph W. Brower, flight engineer Staff Sergeant Eugene L. Clay, and Pararescue specialist Sergeant Larry W. Maysey braved the ground fire for a rescue of the two survivors still on the ground. Jolly 26 was hit by intense automatic weapons fire, crashed and burst into flames. The only survivor of the crash was the pilot, Captain Young. The rest of his crew were deceased. Details of this mission and the loss of Jolly Green 26 can be read below at the link “The Story of Jolly 26.”

37th Unit History Excerpt Re: Loss of Jolly 26

The Story of Jolly Green 26

Air Force Cross Narrative for Larry Maysey