A helicopter crew down near Hue, South Vietnam, CWO2 Frederick Ferguson quickly organizes an impromptu rescue force of three Bell UH-1 “Huey” gunships and his “slick’ UH-1H. At Hue, the helicopters come under intense fire. Flying so low that the North Vietnamese are actually shooting down at him, Ferguson lands in an area with only a couple of feet clearance for his rotor blades. Four wounded Americans and a South Vietnamese soldier are loaded. Retracing his inbound flight, Ferguson finally lands at Hue Phu Bai, his helicopter so damaged it had to be airlifted out. Ferguson is awarded the Medal of Honor.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
