FallPaperturn - Flipbook - Page 31
The steep angle of the hill required incredible airmanship but
Jolly Green 26, piloted by Captain Gerald Young, rumbled in,
and hovered unflinchingly as Larry Maysey dropped down into
the maelstrom. Sgt. Maysey stabilized two of the wounded survivors and got them loaded onto Jolly Green 26 just as the helicopter was raked by machine gun fire. The dying copter rolled
over and burst into flames as it crashed to the ground. Captain
Young survived by leaping from a window, but Sgt. Larry Maysey
was dead, along with the two special forces operatives and two
crewman.
After a second rescue mission was called off, a Special Forces
Strike Team fought their way to their stranded comrades, and
seventeen hours after the downing of Jolly Green 26, the survivors were rescued. Gerald Young would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions. Larry Maysey would
become one of only 22 enlisted men to receive the Air Force
Cross.
Later that day the bodies from the crash site of Jolly Green
26 were identified and prepared for evacuation but bad weather
and the enemy prevented their recovery. After two days, the strike
force had to reluctantly abandon the crash site. The remains of
Larry Maysey and the men that died alongside him had to be left
behind.
In 2002, two of Larry Maysey9s friends and former classmates,
Marc Dean and Terry Arentowicsz were reminiscing about the
friend and classmate who never came back from Vietnam and
decided that whether his remains were recovered or not, they
were going to
