courtesy Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Remember...
Samuel Reed Summerfield
1949-1968
"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die."
Herbert Hoover
courtesy Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund |
Remember...Samuel Reed Summerfield
|
Samuel Reed Summerfield was born on January 9, 1949, in a one-doctor hospital. It was a chilly winter day in Bowden, Randolph County, West Virginia. His parents were John Robert Summerfield (1905-1971) and Lillian Lovenia Gabbert Summerfield (1910-1983). The couple had three other boys; Samuel was the youngest of his siblings. Samuel's siblings consisted of Garland Gordon Summerfield (1932-1933), Charles Robert Summerfield (1938-2001), and Roger Dale Summerfield (1944-2017). ("Lillian L Gabbert," Ancestry.com, accessed 2 March 2022, https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/lillian-l-gabbert-24-157rrnr.) Samuel grew up and attended grade school in the town of Bowden. He was raised in a Protestant household. His family would eventually move to Elkins due to his father working a minimum wage job and personal reasons. Samuel attended Elkins High School, living the life of an average student academically. He graduated in 1966.
When Samuel hit his teen-age years, America was commencing with one of the worst red scares in history. A "red scare" is the belief that communism will take over covertly in the USA. With this, there was often paranoia, fear, and false accusations in the households of many Americans. Along with the red scare, America was in another war unlike any other before Samuel's lifetime. It was a war fired without weapons, but waged with the fear of nuclear devastation. This was the Cold War between America and Russia (1946-1991).
The year 1968 was considered one of the most monumental and event-filled years in American history. That year saw the seizure of the USS Pueblo; the Tet Offensive; and assassination of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, whose brother, the president, had been assassinated himself five years earlier. (Matthew Twombley, "A Timeline of 1968: The Year That Shattered America," Smithsonian, January 2018, accessed 3 March 2022, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/timeline-seismic-180967503/.)
Samuel proceeded to graduate high school in the summer of 1966. After graduation, Samuel decided to embark on a military career as he was not able to attend college or further his education due to financial trouble and average grades. He decided to join the Army and went to basic training in 1967. His military occupation specialty (MOS) was 67A1F: Aircraft Maintenance Apprentice/Crew Chief and his service number was 11722281. Samuel was able to go home on leave after his training before being sent off to Vietnam. His friend, Clarence Arbogast, picked him up to give him a ride to the nearest base. Clarence tried comforting Samuel (as he recently arrived back from Vietnam himself) on the ride there in his truck. The last words Samuel said to his childhood friend was that he wouldn't be returning alive from Vietnam. He was subsequently sent and deployed to Bien Hoa, South Vietnam, starting his tour on June 19, 1968.
Samuel quickly achieved the rank of private first class and was assigned to the 68th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC), 145th Aviation Battalion, 12th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, U.S. Army Vietnam. The 68th AHC was more affectionately labeled "The Top Tigers." The 68th was stationed in Bien Hoa from the U.S. Army's arrival in 1966 through 1972. Among this company, there were a multitude of different jobs. The position Samuel would become was as an aircraft maintenance crewman/aircraft machine gunner. This assignment was a profound burden to Samuel and placed him in a very perilous spot. At the time, he was quite distressed as rumors of the life expectancy in this position were beginning to spread. Crewmen/gunners' jobs, including Samuel's, were to provide maintenance and repairs to helicopters during combat and use the machine guns to fend off enemies. This meant the dangers of being shot, falling out, or even being hit with a rocket were constantly looming.
Along with the chances of survival in a risky situation, monumental bravery was required for the position. It is generally considered that being placed on a helicopter during the Vietnam War was almost a death sentence with a 13-30 day life expectancy for door gunners. During the Vietnam War, the UH-1H Iroquois was the military's top utility helicopter in use. There were around 7,000 Iroquois deployed in Vietnam. Samuel was assigned to be on one of them.
The 68th was a well-grounded company with a good name by the time Samuel arrived. They were stationed in Bien Hoa since 1966, so they were in decent condition when Samuel deployed. By July, when Samuel arrived in Vietnam, it was the hottest weather of the year. The heat could exceed over 93 degrees, and the humidity would be nauseating. Many soldiers were killed just by heat strokes alone. Not only the heat, but also the rain was at its worst peaks during the months of July to September, generally considered the monsoon season in Vietnam. This led to flying conditions being extremely dangerous or not achievable at all. Alas, dangerous flights still went on. Samuel went through routines of patrolling the surrounding areas on an Iroquois and making sure hostile forces weren't nearby the base. After a few months of this duty, Samuel was given a new position on his Iroquois as a crew chief.
On September 16, 1968, near the city of Tay Ninh, the crew was flying an UH-1D Tail Number: 65-09841 when it was hit by enemy fire. They were conducting a combat assault into a hot landing zone 4KM south of Dau Tieng Base. The helicopter was shot down by enemy fire and crashed into a patch of trees in the distance bursting into flames. The only man who survived was the aircraft commander, Russell Bowers. It's believed by Bowers that the crew had already been killed by gunshot wounds before the helicopter hit the ground. (Additional information on the survivor, Bowers, can be found on the 68th Assault Helicopter Company website: "Russell R. Bowers II," accessed 3 March 2022, http://www.68thahc.com/Bio/U_Bio%20Bowers%20Russ.htm.) The crew consisted of the aircraft commander, Warrant Officer-1 Russell Bowers; the co-pilot, Warrant Officer-1 Norman Partridge; gunner, Specialist Brady Herring; and crew chief, Private First Class Samuel Summerfield. Pfc. Summerfield was three months into his tour and only 19 years old at the time of his death.
The narrative below, submitted by SP4 Pat Tompkins at the 2000 VHCMA Reunion, is an eyewitness account to the helicopter being shot up and crash landing:
I was flying the smoke ship this day and watched this Huey go down. WO Walt Fricke was the AC on my ship. We had a third gunner on the smoke ship. I don't know his real name but his nickname was "Whoop" because he was tall and thin like a whooping crane. We were conducting a CA for an ARVN unit near the Cambodian Border not far from Tay Ninh. It is a single ship LZ and many ships had reported taking fire coming in or going out. WO Bowers was the AC of the ship. WO Partridge had been in the unit just a few weeks. They dropped off their troops and as they lifted off we could see the fuel streaming out the bottom. We tried to call them on the radio but never got anything. At best they got a couple of hundred feet and flew a click when it looked as if Mr. Bowers was trying to settle it into the trees. The Huey hit the trees, sank down, and exploded. My ship sat down in a clearing. I and PFC Fred Jones, the gunner, went through a bunker complex (luckily no one was home) to get to the wreck. Mr. Bowers had been thrown to the front of the ship. He had been burned and gunshot wounds but was conscious. Mr. Partridge was still strapped in the aircraft and was burning. Mr. Bowers later told us that he believed the other three crew members had died from gun shots before they crashed. We only found part of one body from the two enlisted men--that part of the ship burned thoroughly. The ammo was cooking off. We left my M-60 there to help evac Mr. Bowers. Later they sent a team in to collect the bodies and they recovered my M-60. I didn't know Summerfield but I'd know[n] Herring for a long time. He was due to DEROS in [an]other week or so. The leaders had given him some sort of duty he didn't like, so he said he'd rather fly. ("Helicopter UH-1D 65-09841," posted on the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association website, 7 November 2004, accessed 3 March 2022, http://www.68thahc.com/Ships/65-09841.HTM.)
| Pfc. Samuel Summerfield's remains were recovered and returned to the U.S., where he was laid to rest at Mountain State Memorial Gardens in Elkins, Randolph County, West Virginia. He will always be remembered as he is memorialized at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Panel 43W, Line 10, located in Washington, D.C. He is also memorialized at the West Virginia Veterans Memorial located in Charleston, West Virginia. |  |
Pfc. Samuel Summerfield was eligible for the following commendations and awards: the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Army Presidential Unit Citation, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross, and the Army Good Conduct Medal. ("Samuel Reed Summerfield," HonorStates.org, accessed 3 March 2022, https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=300733.)
On March 5, 2015, the West Virginia legislature introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 53, wherein they requested that the West Virginia Division of Highways rename the Bowden Bridge as the "U. S. Army PFC Samuel Reed Summerfield Memorial Bridge." The bridge carries County Route 5/12 over Shavers Fork of Cheat River in Randolph County.
Article prepared by Ryan Bubernak, Sierra Koch, and MAJ (Ret) Brad McGee, George Washington High School JROTC
February 2022
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.