Dates

Event

Constructed as an AH-1S.

Circa 1966

Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Army with s/n 66-15297.

12 February 1971

Transcription from an incident report by Larry Copeland: CPT James G. Siddons was the gun platoon (Rat Pack) leader, my roommate, and my front seat that day. The AH-1G that we went down in Cambodia was 66-297. I was the assigned aircraft commander for this cobra. SP5 William J. Johnson was the crew chief of the CC Huey and was killed by the rotor blades of my cobra (66-297) while attempting to retrieve Siddons body. Unfortunately, I do not have the tail number of the Huey. The Siddons family mentioned that the records showed us getting shot down in Laos. We were 10 miles southeast of the Cambodian capitol on the east side of the Mekong shooting up a NVA/VC supply area along a tributary. Tail rotor was shot out during my second gun run. After briefly flying inverted, which the cobra was not designed to do I successfully auto-rotated. All the problems ensued once on the ground. Some full-bird colonel at 1st AVN Brigade sent me a thank-you note regarding me getting the cobra down were it could be pipe-smoked and used another day. The Brigade also came up with a SOP that required flight crews to sit in their downed aircraft until the rotors stopped turning. As on the 12th of Feb 71 when you are taking ground fire, once on the ground, waiting for the rotors to stop was obviously not thought about by two of the flight that day. Rodney K. Woods Rat 31/The Tattooed Rat (May 70 - May 71) E-mail: cobrarat31@aol.com.

To Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Aberdeen, MD.
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