Military Memories Gallery jet crash page, Monkey Mountain, Vietnam, 1968

Military Memories Photo Gallery - Jet Crash - Monkey Mountain Vietnam - 1968

This jet crashed on Monkey Mountain sometime in 67
or early 68. It was off the aricraft carrier USS. Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31).

UPDATED 8/13/05
MILITARY MEMORIES GUESTBOOK ENTRY

Thursday 08/04/2005 0:34:07am
Name:	Steven A. Vaughn USMC MAG-11 Da Nang
E-Mail:	stevendiane1458@sbcglobal.net
Homepage Title:	Photo Gallery Jet Plane Crash Mky. Mtn.
Homepage URL:
Referred By:	Just Surfed In
Location:	Monkey Mountain - Da Nang RVN
Comments:	Date unknown. As a young Marine at MAG-11 H&MS-11 I watched a F8 Crusader make an emergency landing at the Da Nang air strip. It had a small tree hanging off the stabilator (tail section). The tree was about 15-20 feet in length. This plane was one of two that had got in trouble at Monkey Mountain that day. We were told the other plane had nosed in just below the crest of the mountain. The pilot had ejected safely and had landed on the beach about 1200 feet below the crash site. I was one of those Marines who were sent to the site the next day to salvage as much as we could. I was out of the Hydraulic Shop at H&MS-11 there with people from Avionics,Airframes and Safety and Survival. I recall 4 of us in the back of the 6x6 the driver and a Gunnery Sergeant in the cab. We departed the compound,drove through Da Nang and up the winding road passed the AFRTS broadcasting site to just about 100 yards below a Marine SAM site. This crash was caused by low visibility through the clouds surrounding Monkey Mountain that morning.The clouds had cleared around the mountain giving about a quarter mile visibility. The surviving plane had gone into afterburner and just cleared the crest taking with it a little vegetation.The crashed plane pilot had ejected and survived. Now that's the rest of the story.

UPDATE 7/21/98
I JUST RECIEVED THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL ...

Hey! This was great. I was stationed there my first tour from August 1966 to Oct. 1967. Boom Boom rock was all brown...the Marine Corps green was a nice new touch since I was there. As for the plane crash it was 1967...I was there. It sounded like a 500 pound bomb when it hit. The pilot we were told was killed. He wasn't shot down, just didn't have correct altitude to make it over the top. Also, there was live ammo alright...but by the next morning when our Marines got there to recover the pilots body,
all the goodies were gone. (electronics, ammo (I think it was carrying rockets or
a couple of bombs). The innocent wood cutters and charcoal makers weren't
so innocent after all...the plane had been stripped like it had sat too long on the
streets of New York. We had plenty of rock apes up there throwing rocks and at night
we thought they were grenades. And there was the occasional tiger that
showed up at night to scare the day lights out of us more than the gooks.
Keith Burd

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