Designer's Diary Part 7: Historical Scenario 1 Background

In my game, That Others May Live, the first historical scenario is called “Cauldron of Fire” on page 9 of the TOML rulebook. Here's the description:

It is June 1968. While bombing enemy supply trucks at the north end of the A Shau valley, an A-4 Skyhawk is shot down by surprisingly heavy and accurate anti-aircraft fire.

The pilot ejects, but is seriously injured. His wingman and a “Nail” FAC are already on the scene when the Combat Search and Rescue team arrives. High winds prevent the use of some special weapons in the rescue operation.

Historically, the mission was a failure. It was abandoned after one of the rescue helicopters was destroyed by enemy fire. There were no survivors. A ground team was later inserted to find the pilot, but failed to locate him.

This scenario is loosely based on the events of June 9 and 10^th, 1968 when US Marine Captain Walter Schmidt callsign Hellborne 215 was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire while on a bombing mission over the A Shau Valley.

Captain Walter Roy Schmidt

The whole area was a major NVA stronghold at the time and missions conducted here were extremely hazardous. Despite facing a tremendous amount of enemy firepower, the rescue teams went in and attempted to rescue Schmidt. Unfortunately, this ended in tragedy for both Schmidt and the crew of Jolly Green 23. More than fifty years later, there are still questions that surround the incident and the fate of those involved.

A Shau Valley, Thua Thien Province

Below are the salient details of Schmidt’s final mission as recounted by the Department of Defense POW/MIA Agency.

On June 9, 1968, 1stLt Schmidt piloted an A-4E Skyhawk (call sign "Hellborne 215") on a ground attack mission over the A Shau Valley, Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam.

While pulling up from an attack run, the Skyhawk was hit by enemy ground fire and 1stLt Schmidt ejected from the aircraft. Witnesses in other aircraft saw his parachute land in a grove of trees. They established radio contact with 1stLt Schmidt who stated that his hand was badly injured and he thought his leg was broken. Search and rescue (SAR) teams saw 1stLt Schmidt on the ground, but were unable to reach him.

1stLT Schmidt was apparently unable to move from the area where he landed, and radio contact was lost with him between 1430 and 1700.  His last radio transmission occurred around 1715.  Just before dark, enemy forces were seen within 20 meters of his last known location.  SAR efforts resumed at first light the following morning, but there was no trace of 1stLT Schmidt or his parachute. 

One search and rescue helicopter was shot down by the enemy and five others were badly damaged before SAR efforts were abandoned. 1stLt Schmidt was not recovered and remains unaccounted for.

Let's look a bit further into the attempted rescue and the loss of Jolly Green 23. This information is excerpted from the website of the USAF Helicopter Pilot Association.

When word was received of the downed pilot at the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron in Da Nang, two HH-3Es were scrambled. Jolly Green 22 piloted by Major Arthur J. Anderson took off five minutes later. Jolly Green 23, was delayed and took off 15 minutes later. 

At the controls of Jolly Green 23 was Coast Guard LT Jack C. Rittichier along with a USAF crew consisting of Captain Richard C. Yeend, Jr, co-pilot; SSGT Elmer L. Holden, flight engineer; and SGT James D. Locker, pararescueman.

Soon the Jolly Greens met up with their escorts, Spad 01 and Spad 02 (A-1E). Also enroute were Scarface 6-1 and Scarface 6-2 (Marine Huey gunships) , FACs Trail 35, Trail 33 and Trail 36 (0-1). They were all headed for the A Shau Valley. The first FAC to arrive in the area spotted Schmidt under his parachute. Through voice contact, Schmidt reported that he had a broken right leg and a left arm and that he would need help.

Trail 35 reported that there was ground fire in the area as well as bunkers and trucks.

It was determined that it was too dangerous for the Jollies and Spads to enter the area unit it was made safe. In the meantime, they would hold their positions to the northwest.

Hellborne 522, Ringneck 528, Gunfighter 7 and Gunfighter 8 (Navy F-4) hit the area several times under the direction of the FAC. By 11:40 the Jollies and Spads were brought into the area for the first pick-up attempt. Around noon, Jolly Green 22 located Schmidt a few yards from a road. With Jolly Green 23 flying high, Jolly Green 22 descended in to the area in a spiraling right turn, jettisoning its tip tanks and dumping fuel in preparation for a high altitude rescue.

The two Scarface gunships covered the Jolly as is descended. Soon, Jolly Green 22 received heavy enemy ground fire from the valley floor and surrounding ridges. The pilot felt his Jolly Green had been hit and pulled up in a steep left turn.

 After determining that his aircraft was OK, the pilot again attempted the rescue, this time with a straight in approach from the northwest, trying to avoid the enemy ground fire area.

As the pilot pulled Jolly Green 22 into a hover, extremely heavy ground fire erupted, most of it coming from the ridge to the left of the helicopter. The door gunners from the Jolly Green returned the fire as the pilot pulled out of the area.

Jolly Green 22 returned to an orbit position as the FAC called in additional ground strikes.

After about 20 minutes of intense fire suppression activity, Jolly Green 22 once again joined the two Scarface gunships and Spads, 01 and 02 for another rescue attempt.

Once again as Jolly Green 22 slowed to a hover, ground fire erupted, but this time it was coming from literally every direction, from the hillside above to the ravine below and from the front and back of Jolly Green 22. Once again the pilot pulled the craft up and out of harms way, returning to obit a safe distance away.

Despite the intense enemy fire, the men in the rescue team went in for another try. The next attempt, however, ended in tragedy for Jolly Green 23 and ultimately doomed the mission.

More suppression strikes were ordered in, however, now Jolly Green 22 was low on fuel. Trail 36 asked Rittichier, at the controls of Jolly Green 23 if he would be able to make the rescue attempt. Rittichier replied that he would and that he would use the Scarface gunships as his high cover. Jolly Green 22 remained in the area until it was critically low on fuel and was forced to depart. As Jolly Green 22 headed back to refuel, he heard the radio calls of Rittichier reporting heavy gunfire and relaying the directions of the incoming fire to the Spads and gunships.

Rittichier continued his approach under fire until initiating a hover over the survivor at which time he decided the attempt was futile.

Jolly Green 23 came around for a second try. What happened next was witnessed by Lt. Col Robert C. Dubois, USAF (Ret.) who was Trail 33 (FAC): (As published on Tom Pilsch's Web site "The Search for Jolly Green 23".)

I remember it [Hellborne 215 parachute] being on the north side of the east west section of road that ran into Laos and it was hung up in a tree. I never actually saw the A-4 pilot but understood he was in the bushes next to the chute and was injured and could not move.

After the fighters had put down suppression ordinance Jolly Green 23 said he was going in for an attempted pick up. Jolly Green 23 went into a hover over the A-4 pilot and turned to face the west. The PJ was on the wire being lowered when Jolly Green 23 reported that he was taking fire. I saw fire coming out of the left side near the engine and told Jolly Green 23 that he had a fire on the left side.

He started pulling out and I advised him that there was a clearing 1,000 meters North if he had to set down. He said he was going for the clearing.

The fire appeared to extinguish and I advised Jolly Green 23 of that. He said he was going to set it down as he reached the clearing. He was in a descent but still above the height of the trees along the edge of the clearing when the main rotor stopped turning. The Jolly Green 23 hit the ground and burst into flames that consumed anything that looked like an aircraft.

Further attempts were made to pick up the crewmen and Schmidt but the mission was called off even after CBU-19, a tear gas agent, was dropped in the area and a final attempt at a rescue came under heavy fire. At 6:30 p.m., Crown 2 ordered the SAR team to return to base. At dawn the next morning, a ground team was inserted into the area, but found no trace of Schmidt.

In November 2002, the wreckage of Jolly Green 23 was found and the remains of the crew were returned home in February of 2003. Captain Schmidt’s fate is still a mystery and his remains have not been returned home.

I tried to model this situation by having the main rescue force show up on turn 3 while the immediate first responders are on scene on Turn 1. The truncated game length of 9 turns represents the short daylight time available to the rescue team. Captain Schmidt is represented by the injured survivor in the middle of the map. Hellborne 522 is the fast mover counter.

Unfortunately, there was no easy way to represent the numerous gunships that were operating in the area for support that day although the starting hand is supposed to give the players the initial ability to find and suppress targets much like the gunships were used that day. You could also try to model this by additional Suppression ability by reshuffling Suppress cards into the Action Deck rather than placing them in the Action Deck discard pile. I have not tested this, however, so if you try it out then please get back to me.

Since CS Gas was used without success that day, I removed this card and the High Winds event card from the scenario. Schmidt’s seriously injured state ruled out the possibility of him moving to a safer location for the pickup, so the Move Survivor card was also removed from the deck. 

The initial placement of the M38 in the center zone is meant to give players a taste of the danger of rushing into a pickup without proper suppression. The heavy enemy presence is modeled by the removal of all "0" enemy markers. There's nothing but bad guys down there, so this scenario is much tougher than the likes of "Caged Tiger". There were villages in the vicinity of Captain Schmidt's location and although this might have placed some restrictions or rules of engagements on the ordnance that could be used, there is no mention of this in any of the mission reports. I have included the villages on the map anyway and assume they were off-limits for special weapons release.

I wanted to be sensitive to the men involved in this mission and their loved ones, so I was reluctant to include identifying details in the rulebook. Since then, I’ve learned enough about the need for public awareness surrounding the POW/MIA issue that I have decided to go into further details about the people and events that I attempted to depict in the game.

I also hope that by including these historical scenarios in the game that it might honor those who perform and support the combat search and rescue mission. Finally, I hope you hold these people in your thoughts as you go through the scenario yourself. 

I would like to extend a special thank you to both the USAF Helicopter Pilots Association and the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, from whose website I have quoted extensively in this post.