Lt. General Albert P. Clark, Superintendent. USAF Academy

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STOVALL,'67
Lt. General Albert P. Clark, Superintendent. USAF
Academy, presented the sixth annual Jabara Award for
'67,
at the HomeAirmanship to Captain Dale E. Stovall,
SelectionCom1973
The
6
October.
on
coming'73 banquet
mittee, made up of seven graduates and chaired by Major
'64, recommended Capt. Stovall to the
Edwin L. Harvey,
Superintendent for this year's award for his achievement in
rescuing a downed USAF airman, Capt. Roger C' Locher,
cleep in North Vietnam on 2 June 1972. Capt' Locher
participated in the Jabara Award presentation ceremony'
The rescue of Capt. Locher was one of twelve rescues
Capt. Stovall macle during his tour of duty in Southeast
Asia. Capt. Locher had evaded the North Vietnamese for
22 days while attempting to contact friendly aircraft with
his survival radio. On 1 June after receiving his approximate position, Capt. Stovall led a formation of two Jolly
Green HH-53 rescue helicopters into North Vietnam' Unescorted, completely exposed to enemy MIG aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, radar controlled antiaircraft artillery,
and automatic weapons, he flew at low level for over 100
miles. Locher's position was about five miles northeast of
Yen Bai Airfielcl. Yen Bai, 60 miles northeast of Hanoi,
is one of the most active MIG airfields in the North and is
located in the Red River Valley, one of the most heavily
defended areas in the world.
Arriving at a low ridgeline four miles south of the Red
River, the helicopters held as A-1Hs (Sandys) crossed the
river to attempt to pinpoint the survivor's position' The
Sandys had preceded the helicopter to the hold point As the
Sandys crosied the River, a massive barrage of antiaircraft
artillery was directed at them' While the search and rescue
(SAR) forces were in the area of Yen Bai, 16 SAMs were
fired at the F-4 aircraft flying overhead and at the Sandys
After the SAM
as they crossed the Red River Valley.
firings a MIG-21 from Yen Bai made a high speed pass at
the Super Jolly Green formation. Captain Stovall immediately began evasive maneuvers and successfully evaded the
A few minutes later the MIG again engaged the
MIG.
helicopters. Displaying superior pilot ability, Captain Stovall
again successfully evaded the MIG.
The Sandys, unable to locate Locher, rejoined the
helicopters. With no offensive weapons or support aircraft to adequately defend their extremely vulnerable aircraft from MIGs and running critically low on fuel, the
SAR forces departed the area' After two hours of low
level ftying over the hostile area, Captain Stovall exited
North Vietnam. Arriving at their home base, the SAR forces
were assembled for debriefing and the intensive flight planning required for another rescue attempt on the morning
of 2 J:une19'72.
Debriefings by the rescue forces concluded that a second
attempt to rescue Locher would be extremely hazarclous
anrl only volunteers would be selected for the mission.
Captain Stovall immediately volunteered and was selected
to command the second attemPt.
The second rescue attempt on 2 June was to coincide
with a strike by F-4s on Yen Bai to attempt to eliminate the
MIG threat. Captain Stovall led his rescue team unescorted
into North Vietnam, flying at treetop level. After crossing
the Black River. the formation was faced with the decision
to hold at their predesignated point and await escort or
continue to the final holding point near the Red River.
I
Capt. DaIe Stovall is shown beside the permanent dis'
play trophy lor the Jabara Award For Airmanship'
With the need for exact tirning. Captain Stovall decided to
the formation unescorted for 125 miles into North Vietnam
in orcler to arrive at the final holding point as the strike
on Yen Bai was in progress.
Captain Stovall reached the final holding point, which
was within'thesight of Yen Bai. The position was extremely
SAM sites and raciar controlled antiaircraft
close to
artillery in the Red River Valley. The Sandys were under
fire by 37 and 57 mm antiaircraft artillery and SAMs as
they tried to locate Captain Locher's position. His position
was finally located but it was impossible for the rescue
helicopters to fly directly to him because of the antiaircraft fire and SAMs. Finding that the only possibility of
'level
reaching Captain Locher would require flying at low
for 50 miles over the densely inhabited area of North Viet-
nam, Captain Stovall Ceparted the holding point as the
Sandys reioined with the helicopters. Utilizi;g ierrain n.rask_
ing by flying at treetop level, the SAR aircraft arrived at
the point the Sandys had selectedfor crossing the Red River
Valley. The SAR force found that to crosJ the Red River
they would have to overfly numerous villages, military instal_
lations, and a heavily defended route structure.
Approaching the Red River Valley, Captain Stovall,s
aircraft began receiving small arms fire from military installations on the south bank.
With his gunners directing
suppression fire, he evaded the threat and crossed th. R.d
River. Again, ground fire was directed at his vulnerable
helicopter from numerous villages on the north bank. Stovall
was continually evading ground fire until reaching the rug_
ged terrain on the north side of the valley. Aft;
crossin-g
the Red River seventeen miles northwest of yen Bai, thi
rescue forces were faced-with the crossing of Song Chay
River and. its densely populated valley. With Captain Stovail
maneuvering his helicopter to avoid the ground fire from the
numerous villages and the gunners firing their miniguns,
the formation successfully crossed the open valley. Wfrit"
traversing the two level valleys and unable to utilize terrain
masking, Captain Stovall's aircraft was extremely exposed to
^crossing
the enemy SAMs and MIGs at yen Bai. Aiter
the valley, Captain Stovall turned southeast following thE
ridgeline to the survivor's position. With the Sandys lead_
ing the way, he crossed the last ridgeline to the survivor,s
position.
Unable to locate Locher's flare, Captain Stovall overflew
his position.
He turned the aircraff around, and began
hover taxiing back up the very steep slope. At this time
Stovall's ship was completely exposed to tfre hostile gun
p.ositions and enemy troops in the Valley. Spotting Lochir,s
signal mirror, Captain Stovall brought it
t
into a
" "licopter
hover over him. The helicopter was receiving
ground fire
while Locher was lifted into the aircraft. With the survivor
aboard, Captain Stovall applied maximum power to climb
over the near vertical ridge.
Captain Stovall led the formation back across the Song
Chay River and the Red River while receiving ground
-exiting fire
flor-n
many villages in the valleys. Finally
the
_tfe
Red River Valley after one and a half hours of low
level
flying, Captain Stovall began the 100 mile flight out
of
North Vietnam, utilizing terrain masking until rJaching
the
Black River.
Capt. Roger C. Locher, rescued by Capt. Stovall, par_
ticipated in the presentation ceremony,
of the many graduates attending the Homecoming
.__9n,
'73
banquet was Mr. Wayne l4tarner, ,63. Wayne was
th"e
1970 recipient ol the labara Award. He is at the extreme
lelt in the above photo, shown talking with Capt.
Stovall.
In a team effort Captain Stovall voluntarily penetrated
the heavily defended Red River Valley of North Vietnam
to
lescue a fellow airman. At great risk to his own life,
he
repeatedly braved North Vietnamese MIGs, SAMs, antiaircraft artillery fire, and ground forces to successfully recover
Captain Locher from deep in North Vietnam.
Capt. Stovall was awarded the Air Force Cross for his
actions on 2 June L972.
Thirty-eight graduates were nominated for the lg73
Jabara Award. I
GONE -
(Continued from p. 6)
Lt. Cmdr. Flaye M
H a m m o n dC
, tais oi
1959,died on 9 August 1973 at the Naval
Station.Mayport. Florida. He is survivedby
his wife, Jamie, and
two children: and bv
his parents, Mr. uni
Mrs. Flaye M. Hammond, of l4l3 Sunset
Ave.. Rocky Mount,
NC 27801. The last
known
a d d r e s sf o r
LT. CMDR. FLAYE M.
Mrs. Hammond is 701
HAMMOND
N. Palafox St- Pensacola, FL 32501.
Cmdr. Hammond graduatedfrom UpT at Laredo AFB
rn 1960. Following an assignmentwith the 346 Troop
Carrier Squadron at Pope AFB, he resigned from the Aii
Force to enter the U.S. Navy in 1962. His first tour in
the Navy was as an instructor pilot at pensacola, after
wn!9h h9 servedas a pilot on the USS Saratoga from 19621965. From 1965-1968he was assignedto the Naval Air
Station at Patuxent River, MD, as a Test pilot and project
officer.
Cmdr. Hammond was the first USAF Academy grad_
uate to graduate from the U.S. Navy Test pilot Sclool.
Follow-on tours of duty were at Cecil Field, FL. and on
tl"
_UqqTiconderoga. In l97l he was assignedduty on
the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt as the NucLar Weapons
Officer. Cmdr. Hammond's decorationsincluded the Air
Medal with four oak leaf clusters. I
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