BAT 21 Bravo: When Combat SAR Was Put to the Ultimate Test

New Plan: Golf Courses and an Insertion Team Led by a Navy SEAL

One of the heroic men was Navy SEAL Lieutenant Thomas Norris. As one of only three SEAL officers and nine SEAL enlisted men left in Vietnam, Norris was between assignments when the ground rescue of Hambleton was conceived. Norris recruited five of the South Vietnamese commandos with whom he been working as the rest of his small insertion team. The North Vietnamese were still listening in on radio comms, so Clark and Hambleton were given directions in code only they would understand. Clark, who hailed from the great state of Idaho, was told to “Get to the Snake, make like Esther Williams, and float to Boston.” Which of course meant get to the river and swim east.

Eighteen Very Arduous Holes

It would not be quite that simple for Bat 21 Bravo. He would have to sneak past NVA villages, gun emplacements, dug-in tanks, SAMs, and groups of troops beating the bushes trying to find him. Hambleton did have one ace up his sleeve. He was one of the finest golfers in the Air Force. He had played courses all over the world and remembered every golf hole he had ever played. When his rescuers learned of this they overlaid the layouts of golf holes Hambleton had played on top of a map of the area and devised a coded way to direct Hambleton around the enemy using the distances and directions of the golf holes. Bat 21 Bravo had to get to the Song Meiu Giang river in order to be extracted. When Hambleton was told “You’re going to play 18 holes and then you’re going to get in the Suwanee and make like Esther Williams and Charlie the Tuna. The round starts on the first hole at Tucson National,” Hambleton was incredulous. But once he deduced the meaning of the code, Hambleton teed off on the most important round of golf he would ever play.

The Old Man Kept Pushing Himself Hard

Hambleton’s round was not all birdies and bogies. He was forced to kill an NVA soldier who confronted him and he fell off a cliff at one point and broke his arm. But he finished his round of golf. He had made it to the river. On April 9^th, Hambleton’s eighth day on the ground surrounded by NVA troops, he was so weakened he could not climb a short distance uphill to retrieve a survival pack dropped to him by a Sandy. The pack would have provided Hambleton with badly needed food along with water, ammunition, and extra radios. Fearing that Hambleton was reaching the end of his considerable endurance, and having indeed lost nearly 40 pounds already during his ordeal, it was time to get Bat 21 Bravo out of there.

Clark Returned to American Control

Meanwhile, Navy SEAL Norris and his team of South Vietnamese commandos staged as close to the area as possible and prepared to move behind enemy lines. They made contact with Clark first, although they nearly missed him as he floated downriver. Interrupted by NVA patrols and narrowly averting discovery several times, Clark was picked up and retuned to American control on April 10^th 1972. By April 11^th Hambleton was done in. He could not go any farther. Norris would have to go in and get him. Norris and his team tried to reach Hambleton on the night of the 11^th, but two of the South Vietnamese were wounded before the rescue attempt even started. Dissention among the ranks of the South Vietnamese left Norris with one man (Petty Officer Third Class Nguyen Van Kiet of the South Vietnamese Navy) to help him. But that one man was all he would need.

Down to Two Men, But the Right Men Get the Job Done

On the night of April 12^th Norris and Van Kiet were slowly working their way upriver when they came upon a bombed out village. They used found clothing and a sampan to disguise themselves as fishermen. Even though the night was dark and foggy the two men could see NVA troops and tanks along the shore of the river. The two men passed Hambleton’s position in the dark and fog and were forced to double back downriver through the gauntlet of NVA personnel. When they finally found Hambleton it was nearly light, but Norris did not want to wait to extricate Hambleton. Although fired on by some of the NVA troops they passed along the way downriver, they kept Bat 21 Bravo covered up in the bottom of the sampan and paddled for all they were worth. Two separate times the fire from the NVA became intense enough that Norris called in close air support from Navy A-4F Skyhawks flying from the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19). Finally reaching friendly territory, Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton was returned to American control on April 13^th 1972.

Norris Was as Tough as They Came

On arrival back at the American base at Dong Ha, a reporter said to Norris, “It must have been tough out there. I bet you wouldn’t do that again.” Norris, a SEAL to the core, replied, “An American was down in enemy territory. Of course I’d do it again.” Lieutenant Thomas Norris was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his rescue of Bat 21 Bravo and First Lieutenant Mark Clark. Petty Officer Third Class Nguyen Van Kiet of the South Vietnamese Navy was awarded the only Navy Cross awarded to South Vietnamese Navy personnel for his role in the rescues. Hambleton received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (United States) and a Purple Heart. In all, 234 individual medals were awarded to participants in the effort to rescue Bat 21 Bravo. Search and rescue forces saved 3,883 lives at the cost of 71 rescuers and 45 aircraft during the Vietnam War.

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