Fingerprint 11

"Fingerprint One One" was the radio call sign of a pair of Marine CH-34 helicopters. The CH-34 was an older airplane, from the late 50s, and it used engines originally designed for the B-17 four-engined bomber of World War II. So the CH-34 made a very deep-throated roar as it flew, unlike the lighter whine and "whop-whop-whop" of the more modern turbine helicopters.

If you've seen the various pictures of capsule recovery at sea during NASA's Mercury program, including the famous ones of Gus Grissom's sinking Liberty Bell 7, those helicopters were Marine CH-34s.

When I first saw Fingerprint One One it was flying directly toward me, one behind the other, about a mile away, at an altitude of maybe 500-700 feet. The lead helicopter was about 100 feet higher than the trailing helicopter. Then, as I watched, tracers began to float up toward the second, lower chopper and the door gunner began to shoot back with his .50 caliber machinegun. The pilot, evidently tried to climb to avoid the ground fire, flew his rotor right into the tail of the higher lead airplane. This chopped off the tail of the leader, and destroyed the rotors of the climbing helicopter, which, its rotating wings gone, immediately rolled over and dove into the ground, and exploded in a huge fireball, about 1/4 mile from where I was standing.

The other helicopter began to spin around its engine because its stabilizing tail rotor was gone. It spun into the ground and blew up violently.

This was hostile countryside, so a dozen or so of us grabbed our weapons and ran to the crash site in case we could help. But there was nothing anyone could do.