Monday, April 3, 1972
Helo From Viet Airlifts Stricken Spanish Sailor
SAIGON (UPI) --A U.S. Air Force helicopter took time out from the Communist offensive to pick up an ailing Spanish sailor from the deck of a four-masted sailing ship and airlift him to a military hospital, the Air Force said Friday in a belated report.The Juan Sebastian Elcano, a Spanish Naval Academy training ship on a round-the-world cruise, was 110 miles off the coast of South Vietnam in the South China Sea when sailor Emilio Ganza was stricken with severe stomach pains last week.An HH3 "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter from the 3rd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group, based at Tan Son Nhut AB near Saigon, was dispatched on April 20 to the ship which is fully rigged and has no room for the chopper to land.Because of the masts, Maj. Alfred W. Adcox, of Fayetteville, N.C., had to hover his chopper 150 feet above the deck and lower a crewman in a special "jungle penetrator," a torpedo-shaped sling used for rescue in dense jungle.M. Sgt. Rodney D. Ohman, of Ludington, Mich., a pararescue specialist, rode the penetrator to the deck and strapped the ailing sailor into it.Ganza was then hoisted into the aircraft and taken to Saigon for treatment in a military hospital. He was later released, a spokesman said."Helo From Viet Airlifts Stricken Spanish Sailor," by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Sunday, April 30, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.