What happened to capt David h Holmes in Laos 1966?

Answer 1

On March 15th, 1966, he was shot down north of Tcephone, Laos. I was in the backseat of Hound Dog 50 when we found his Birddog in the trees near a Montagnard village. Dave was slumped over and didn't move or answer his radios. We were in the area for over 3 hours trying to get a rescue helicopter on station. There was high level discussions because of our Top Secret missions over Laos. When we departed the area low on fuel, Dave was still in the cockpit not moving.
The next day, a rescue helicopter finally arrived on scene. Daves radio beeped several times from inside a Montagnard longhouse but he never came up on voice. The rescue crew figured it was an ambush.
We were nearly hit by a nearby 4-barrel heavy machine gun, which apparently got Dave. I seriously doubt that he survived.
See my book, "Tiger Hound," available from Amazon.com and most book stores.

Addendum: A Joint Recovery Team entered the village around 2008. They were told by Montagnards that they found CPT Holmes unconcious and took him to their village. He died 3 days later. The radio beeped because they thought it was a transitor radio and "were trying to get music on it." They hid because the planes scared them.