174th Assault
Helicopter Company
DOLPHINS & SHARKS


Pink Panther Down on Hill 4-11
Early 1970

Flight, Charlie Wood was a grunt on FSB Hill 4-11 and is now webmaster for a Hill 4-11 home page. He recently sent us the below Shark photos with the following information: Bill Cowling was the crewchief of Shark 590 (UH-1C 66-00590), but if anyone has details, please let me know and I'll forward to Charlie. Note the stress-bends on the metal of the right cargo door. Hard landing? Also note the right minigun is facing 90 degrees (straight down.)
Jim McDaniel (webmaster)

In January 2016, Steve Ratcliff provided the following additional information: When I came to the 174th I was the door gunner on Shark 590, Pink Panther. When this picture was taken, Bill Cowling was still the crewchief. At this time I was crewchief on Shark 646. On this day both of our aircraft were on a mission out near the horseshoe. Shark 590 had lost part of the engine cowling near the river. We flew around trying to find it, to no avail. They sat down on hill 411 to look over the Aircraft. It must have done some additional damage (note condition of the cargo door) as they had it hooked back to Duc Pho.


"Jim,

Here are two shots of the Pink Panther shark on FSB Hill 4-11 in early 1970. It had to land on the firebase because of mechanical problems. Can anyone on your web team add any more information about these pictures? Terry Copt with D Battery artillery took both shots. The second photo is of the Pink Panther getting rigged up for a Chinook ride back to LZ Bronco. I'm just passing them on to you for historical purposes.

You can visit the FSB Hill 4-11 website at: http://www.hill4-11.org/

Charlie Wood"
(Photo property of Charlie Wood)