Thirty-Five Years Later,
A Tribute to the Memory of Hugh McNeil "Mac" Byrd, Jr.
by Charles Finch

HUGH McNEIL "MAC" BYRD JR., Last seen 9 January 1969

"On Friday, January 9, 2004, it will have been 35 years since Mac went down serving his country. At the time he was CATKILLER 15. Most of you will never forget Mac or the details of his last mission but I felt I had to remind you just in case.

Mac Byrd was a flight school classmate (OFWAC 68-4 BLUE HATS) of mine and Don Long. He was from Berea, Kentucky and was married to one of the most beautiful women in the world, Elaine. He struggled somewhat in flight school but it was probably due to having a new daughter Scott and that gorgeous wife. Mac and Elaine were the epitome of what marriage and love are intended to be. They both had such a crush on one another and this was AFTER they were married.

This picture of Mac is when he and I came up to sign in at the 212th at the end of July 1968. We were on our way to the 220th Catkillers where Mac is pointing. Notice that Major Pedersen was in command then but would be relieved on August 6. The night Mac and I spent in DaNang, we were talking to Gene Frey about the 220th mission at Phu Bai. He went on and on about the danger of the First Platoon mythmakers. About this time, Roger Bounds came in the club and he looked like he did a lot of times--just worn out and tired--and Gene said there is one of the mythmakers now. Roger told Mac more than he wanted to hear and he left saying "Finch you can go fly with the first platoon, I have too much to live for--their names are Elaine and Scott". Will never forget it. Mac was not in VietNam for fame or medals, but in simple obedience to duty. My wife and I were in a trailer with Mac and his family at Fort Rucker the night President Johnson said he would not run again. Mac knew we were still going to VietNam and was happy he had his WINGS to wear on his chest while serving his country.

Mac loved the 220th and became friends with everyone. He loved the BEAR, John Kovachs. Those two always teamed up on the volleyball court, playing "Jungle Rules" I might add to win a lot. Mac always palmed the ball and I constantly yelled at him about it and it did no good. Mac was a first lieutenant, who really did not care about rank once the duty day was done. He never considered himself a new guy. He gave Glenn Strange and Doc as much grief as they gave him about being "new".

Sarge, BEAR, Andy, Grayson, Hudson and so on have all the stories about Mac. How big he was trying to fit in that small cockpit. How he wrote Elaine every day, how he never missed a meal, how much he felt the war was going in the wrong direction. He and I talked about coming up to the First Platoon but he was not impressed at all with the war stories and did not feel that being a mythmaker was that big a deal. He would say to me "little man" (he called me that in flight school), you are going to get yourself DEAD up there and no one back home will care.

How Mac Byrd and his back-seat Kevin O'Brien got tasked for the mission is not important anymore. Combat is too unpredictable to discuss the issue anymore. When I landed at Dong Ha and was told where they were headed, out south of Khe Sahn I was shocked. First of all it was getting DARK and Mac had been gone too long. I called him from the ramp but lost commo and had to go up to Dong Ha tower. There Mac and I had a few short conversations. I thought they were much longer but when the transcripts came out, they were either edited or the tapes were difficult to transcribe what was said.

Mac clearly did not have enough fuel to get back from his current position (as he best described it), nor did he exactly know where he was due to the weather and darkness closing in. I kept telling him to climb and head east towards FEET WET. We had an Air Force Basketball trying to get a fix on his position as well as another aircraft who was trying to plot his transmissions. It seemed like forever trying to communicate with Mac. I was trying to recalculate his max endurance knowing well that even if he topped off his 42 gallons of which 41 were usable, he would have to ditch in the trees somewhere. Mac did not panic on the radio. His last transmissions were to tell me he had to get below the clouds to find his bearings. My last transmission was "Mac, you have to climb". His last transmission was at 8:02 PM.

So 72 days after the Catkillers went looking for Lee Harrison, we began a search for another brother. The missing pilot and back-seat were in aircraft tail number 51-5059.

The next morning I flew front seat while Sarge was in my back seat. Jack Bentley and everyone else who could breathe flew 8 hours a day for three days to no avail.

Here is a quote from Jack Bentley's letter home.

'This one is going to be sad and I have reservations as to whether I should write it. After all of the good you've heard about VietNam, I'm afraid I'll shatter it a bit today. One of our pilots went down last night and we've heard no word from him since. Today we searched a 500 square mile area where he is presumed to be down. I flew 7 hours and tomorrow we plan to be up for 8. He went down trying to help some troops in close contact with the enemy. It was heroic but he was low on fuel and the weather was closing in. Part to the Catkiller heroism. It's like losing a brother and I've only known him a month. Phu Bai is a gloomy place and it will take a while before we get over it. (MY NOTE-no one has ever gotten over it Jack). Mac had a wife and 9 month old son.'

I know most of you have your own special memory of Mac. Sarge, Grayson, Andy, BEAR, Bud, Bounds, Hudson, Doc, Hooper, Don Long, Pepe, Scruggs, Cortner, Major Wisby could probably all write something better than this.

The bond of the Catkillers endures for a lifetime. The vision of Mac, walking in his flight suit with the legs that barely covered the tops of his boots (he never could get one long enough for him) will never go away. What haunts me even more is sitting in the tower at Dong Ha and not being able to help him.

Quiet, unaffected heroism like Mac's has never been recognized in this country like Brokaw's Greatest Generation. It is up to those of us who served together to constantly remind those who are ignorant to this oversight of what happened in VietNam. Tell them we were losing 242 lives a WEEK in 1969 and that was an improvement over 1968. Compare that to IRAQ.

The willingness to risk one's life to save another soldier in peril is what Mac did in my opinion. That is how I honor him in my thoughts. He was a wonderful person whose flame went out way too early. I say we toast him on Friday, January 9.

Thanks for your time and service. God Bless America!

Charles Finch
Catkiller 19"

The following photo shows several bricks placed on an Honor Ground Brick Project by Sam Givhan, in honor of 1LT Hugh Byrd and CPT Robert Bronson, at Marion Military Institute, 1101 Washington Street, Marion, Alabama. Bob Bronson was a USAF OV-10 FAC lost over Laos:

COMMENTS: Remembering January 9:

SUBJECT: 9 Jan 1969-Mac Byrd Missing

Catkillers:

Hard not to think of Mac Byrd when 9 January rolls around every year. You can see the wall data by clicking on the link below. Make sure you click on the FULL PROFILE once you go to the site. I remember arguing with the DOD Missing Personnel Office how unfair it was to list Mac's casualty type as Non-Hostile, died while missing. I asked them could they disprove that he was not shot down. Anyway, I was going down a rabbit hole and gave up.

I have the letter that I wrote Nancy on 10 January 1969. In it I said the following:

Mac and I were scheduled to layover at Dong Ha that night. I landed at 6:30 not knowing that Mac was still airborne. It got dark at 7:15 pm. The crew chiefs verified that Mac had taken off after I did. Waterboy, the 505th Tactical Control Group that had radar, got a onetime fix on Mac on the 208 degree radial off of [TACAN] Channel 109 about 35 DME. Last voice of Mac's was at 8:02 that night. Investigation said he was airborne in excess of 4 hours, which I did not agree with in that terrain. He was at 3000 feet when I talked to him, and there were tops higher than that where he was flying.

I know that I helped put a lock on Mac's room the next day as he lived right across the hall. I never went into the room again. I think our unit had about 156 personnel when Mac went down. I think every single person was affected deeply. In just 6 months with the Catkillers, Mac was known by everyone. His large frame was one reason but also because of his kindness, his sarcasm, his humor, his dominance on the volleyball court and walking around the compound with no shirt. The old guys like Bear Kovach, Mulvaney, Pepe, Hudson and Sharkey warmed to Mac as a new guy so quickly. Mac was special in so many ways.

It was amazing how many KNEW his wife´s name (Elaine) and daughter´s (Scott) as Mac was always mentioning them in conversation. So Monday just remember Mac and how much joy he brought to the Catkillers and for those Marines he probably saved by his heroics that evening of 9 January 1969. Picture of Mac was taken in flight school. Mac, Don Long and I were in the same blue hat flight class that graduated in June 1968.

Charles Finch
Catkiller 19

Charles,

Thanks for the memories. I knew Mac all through flight school at both Fort Stewart and Fort Rucker, and then him being next door in the Catkillers at Phu Bai. We were in the same section and same small group (don't remember if they called them flights -- but was something like three or four groups of stick buddies all together); so I got to know him pretty well. In Phu Bai, I was flying Mohawks while he was next door flying Birddogs in the Catkillers with other flight school classmates Charles Finch, Roger Cerne, and Don Long. I remember the shock at hearing of his loss, and then spending some hours in the backseat of a Birddog flown by my old friend Roger Cerne while we scoured the jungle for any sign of him; and then our own Spud vigil on every Mohawk flight that went out every day afterwards. Thanks for remembering this day and bringing these warm thoughts back to mind.

Bill [William Weeder]

Spud "Lightfoot", 131st Surveillance Airplane Company

Dear Charlie, I do not believe I related to you or anyone in your unit that while teaching ROTC at FSU from 1970-1973 we had the responsibility for KIA notifications as well as survivors assistance support for Missing In Action (MIA) for the Tallahassee, Florida, and surrounding area. As improbable as it might seem I was assigned to Elaine Byrd, Macs wife who was also living in Tallahassee without my awareness up to that time. We became close friends during the period of extreme stress for her while the powers to be were attempting a classification of Mac. After my reassignment to Europe, we lost track of Elaine after a few years of Christmas cards. Monique and I do remember very well the beautiful little girl that Mac and Elaine had.

In flight school I remember an occasion while night flying where there were a number of us in the pattern and Mac was confused for the moment on his call sign and was using mine. Well while in the pattern I call out Blue 24 for landing. Mac behind me calls out, "the other Blue 24 for landing."

Gene Kobes
Headhunter 26

Letter to Scotti Byrd, Mac's son:

Always hard to talk about your father for so many reasons. I will try over the next few days to write several things that you may appreciate as you may have see some of Mac's behavior in others.

These will be random so bear with me.

Mac was the slowest officer in the Catkillers. He and I would walk to the showers and I would be in a hurry and he would lolly gag the 2 minute walk into 5 minutes. I would have my shower almost done and here he was just getting his soap out of its container. He never got in a hurry about anything.

We would walk to breakfast and I would literally have to push him into the mess hall. We would sit down, I would finish and here he would be just starting. And you could not get him to go any faster. He had this long gait in these worn out flip flops that made a sound that was easily recognized wherever he went.

He would be reading a letter from your mother and we would all be curious about what she was writing. He told us to hang on as he read and reread every word and it would drive us crazy as we wanted to know some news about you and your mother. He was not teasing us, but was letting the words sink in and then when he did talk, he had to mention how lucky he was to have you and Elaine.

I did not have a child at the time and never knew the love of a child until I had my first when I returned from Viet Nam. Mac was smitten with you more than any father in the Catkillers. He did notbrag about you or try to impress us with his devotion, he was just Mac. So serious about so many things and so more mature than most of us.

Mac never tried to be funny or popular. Many felt intimidated by him as he never had a ready smile on his face. He was extremely serious in the morning hours and when he would come out of his room, many times I would ask him if he was OK. Sometimes he would snap at me which I responded in my mature way by cussing him. Normally he would smile, knowing he had hit my hot button, and put me in a headlock of some kind. Mac and I had many disagreements mainly due to what he considered risky flying and because I did not treat my wife as well as he thought I should.

He never felt the war was worth the loss of lives we were experiencing in those years. He was way out in front of us in knowing the US was not prosecuting the war to win. Those nights when he went off on the war, well it shocked everyone. He was like a big teddy bear, kind to one and all, total respect for every soldier, never pulling rank--- but when he got pushed about why we were in Viet Nam, man he got hot. And he would always stand up to make his argument, towering above everyone, and make his case stronger than anyone in the room. That always made me respect him even though I disagreed.

When we lost another pilot in October 1968, Mac was devastated. He hated to see the loss and we could not bomb Hanoi or go after the harbors, airfields, etc. up north. Mac was very troubled and withdrew from many conversations for a long time. He was determined to survive the war and he told me in no uncertain terms that I would not. I wrote letters home expressing this more than once.

Mac was so well liked by everyone because he was down to earth. He was so honest, so consistent in his behavior, so appealing when he smiled and laughed and so encouraging to everyone. He was not a cheerleader but recognized good people, good service, good food, good haircuts and good leadership. If I did something good on the DMZ or in North Viet Nam, he would say I was doing my job or did I risk my back seat's life again. He was tough on me all the time as he knew it kept me off balance which he liked.

If Mac gave you a compliment, it was very much appreciated. When he would walk back to the kitchen to compliment the mess sergeant, it was sincere. On the other hand if the food was bad, he would not complain out loud but quietly tell one of the cooks that they were disappointing the troops.

Mac was so special to all of us and it just rocked our world when we lost him. I have never got over it, cannot talk for very long without breaking up. Lost many friends, relatives, pets in my lifetime, but have never come to grips with Mac going down.

Sincerely,
Charles Finch