June 8th, 1966
| Kenneth Neil Mac Beth | Crew | |
| Summary: Pilot was Joe Vignere. His log indicates a/c was 148783. A/C departed Ky Ha late afternoon and was gone only a few minutes when Joel saw an elderly man step out of a hooch and fire a couple of rounds. As he was telling the pilot what he saw, the c/c reported that Mc Beth had been hit. They returned immediately, logged time being .4 hrs. Joel indicated Ken was shot through the zipper, Burt Palmer indicated under the armpit, neither really excluding the other. | ||
| Regarding your request for information. I was the co-pilot on the “routine” medevac on which Mac Beth was killed. I do not remember any of the other crew member names. It was a twilight launch and not far from Ky Ha I looked out the window as we were passing over this small village and saw what appeared to be an older man step out of a hut and could see several muzzle flashes from his weapon. I had just informed the HAC when the crew chief called on the intercom and said Mac Beth had been hit. We returned to Ky Ha immediately but he had probably died almost at once as the bullet had penetrated the zipper on his older style flak vest in the upper chest area. Joel Vignere 12-27-00 I remember Macbeth very vividly and often in my thoughts, because the night in question he tried to get me to take his med-evac mission due to the fact that he only had a week to go before his deros, however other factors prevailed and I could not entertain his request. Sorry I can’t recall the ship number.At times his face and name appears in my silent thoughts, especially when I get into the suds. However, me being a positive type, I just tuck it in and keep pushing forward. I’ll never forget when I arrived at Ky Ha in April 66 I was assigned to the same tent in which Mac was billeted, he was a sandy/red head, ruddy complexion guy and very helpful to me breaking in as a crew chief. The tent area at that time was out on the point by the beach, no floors, just wood pallets for our piece of shit racks/cots. He also had a pretty good friend that was from Guam, his last name was Cruz. Terry Mann 12-28-00 |