Mike Bush, (MSgt, USAF Security Police - Retired) :
Photo: A1C Michael Bush, Đà Nàng AB, firing range, 1965.
Now here is the part that nobody talks about: In traditional fashion, the OSI tried to play "HANG THE COP"!

The first "theory" that the OSI came up with was that Handy had "panicked" and shot SSgt Jensen by mistake! I am proud to say that I "shot holes" in that theory!

A couple of days later, OSI contacted me in the armory and showed me four pieces of 7.62 X39 brass, and asked me to ID them. I immediately I.D.ed the brass as the type used with the AK-47 assault rifle.  The OSI person then told me that was the brass they had picked up near SSgt Jensen's body, and then he related: "Well, I guess that gets Handy off the hook."

The OSI agent then coldly tossed SSgt Jensen's .38 cal. revolver on the armory work bench, and said: "Here -- you might want to clean that up!" It was completely caked with SSgt Jensen's blood.

After the OSI agent left, I picked up Terry's .38, and opened the cylinder to check it -- it was still loaded -- three rounds had been fired. I detailed stripped the weapon, and cleaned it thoroughly then I put it aside in the armory.

Later that same day, I asked the Operations Sergeant, TSgt Herbert Steer, if there was any way that we could send Terry's weapon to his family as a keep-sake. I was told to "forget it." The weapon was returned to the inventory, and reissued as far as I know.

ACCOUNT OF 1st LT. Fred Reiling (LTC, Ret. USAF):

The picture of the young Lt and the full Colonel is yours truly and the base commander, a Colonel Eisenbrown.

When the sappers had expended their grenades they left the base the same way they had entered.

Due to the heavy smoke, fires and exploding ammunition we set up a perimeter around the area and waited for daylight.

Sometime during the night, SSgt Jensen's body was brought out of the area.  Best I can remember an SSgt Oates (SAT team leader) and an Army officer had found him and brought him out. He apparently had been killed where he was found, at the back of the truck.

The attached pictures are of the area the morning after the raid. The one of the tents with the water tower visible in the background and the two lockers is the approximate area where Sgt Jensen was killed. The aircraft were all in the immediate area.

Mike Bush, (MSgt, USAF Security Police - Retired) : I will never forget the sight of an Air Force Major, dressed in a flight suit and hatless, sitting on the hood of a jeep with an M16 rifle in his right hand, barrel pointed upward, with the butt anchored against his right hip --tear filled eyes staring unwaveringly straight ahead.

SSgt Jensen's body was draped across the Major's lap, and his head gently cradled and supported by the Major's left arm as the jeep moved slowly down the taxiway toward the Air Force compound. No fallen warrior could have had a more solemn, profound, and appropriate escort.

You said that you sent a picture of a Major receiving a medal ... that was probably our "commander" at the time, and Major Howard, I believe his name was.* I don't know if it was him that brought Terry's body in. I know that it was a Major in a flying suit, and Major Howard was a pilot that wound up being our commander -- and I never saw him wear anything but a flying suit!

It was dark that night, and nobody was about to turn on a light of any kind... there was still plenty of action going on, and a whole bunch of very trigger-happy GI's.

* Photo: Major Arthur B. Rupert directed Base Defense during the attack that Airman Jones was killed in (Jan 1966), and is decorated by the new base commander, Colonel Eisenbrown, a full bird.

Mike Bush, (MSgt, USAF Security Police - Retired) :
Photo: A1C Michael Bush, Đà Nàng AB, Firing Range, 1965.
As to what happened to Airman Handy -- well, when he was brought in for interrogation by the OSI, he reportedly looked down at some point, and saw blood and brain tissue all over the front of his fatigues, and upon seeing the gore, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he went "catatonic." He was air-evaced out the next day (don't know where to).

I heard a few days later that they had put him in for the Bronze Star w/V, but I don't know if he ever got it. Many of us were put in for decorations, but most of the paperwork ended up in the trash can. I remember pulling mine out of the trash and reading it! I was so numb about the whole event that I didn't even care! I guess that even then, it was not "politically expedient" for lower ranking Cops to get medals. As we used to say: "That's okay - It don't mean Nuthin' -- Never did -- Never Will!"

ACCOUNT OF A2C Tom Winn:
… I do know [Al Handy] he never returned to duty and was immediately returned to his regular PCS duty station stateside. I believe the Airman was TDY from George AFB, CA.