~~Larry Dreyer’s Distinguished Dusty Cross “E & E Award”~~

This award came as a result of SSgt. Larry Dreyer’s skill, resourcefulness and cunning in avoiding capture by a superior hostile force (i.e. Air Police town patrol) one evening in the town of Nakhon Phnom, Thailand (NKP) sometime in the late 1969 to early 1970 time frame. Sgt. Dreyer’s training in E & E as a Fight Engineer in the 21st Special Operations Squadron paid off in a surprising (or maybe not) way late one night as he fought to avoid capture and arrest by the Air Police assigned to town patrol in NKP.

It seems that Larry had a girlfriend (Te’loc){sp} who lived in NKP. Larry would often spend his off duty time and on occasions (as many as possible) would spend the night in town with her. As it would happen, the night of the incident for which Larry received the “E & E Award”, he had departed the base, after he got off duty, headed to town to spend the evening with his Te’loc. Later that evening there was a recall to the squadron (or a base recall, can’t remember which) and all personnel were to report to their duty stations. This recall created a tremendous problem for Larry … he was in town … after curfew’... and someone had told the APs … and they were looking for him! In short order the Te’loc ‘underground network’ got word to Larry about the recall.

With his knowledge of his perilous situation, Larry’s training and skills kicked in (along with his strong desire to avoid capture) and he went into action. Using the Te’loc’s underground network, he got word back to the squadron of his situation. Since he was a squadron mate, an since we couldn’t be wasting any time processing a Article 15 or other disciplinary paperwork (after all we were fighting a war … oops! … that’s a secret!), a plan was devised to attempt to pluck Sgt. Dreyer from the tightening net of APs, who were searching for and closing in on him.

The 21st SOS had a regular mission called night recce. …. where we would fly around the NKP area in our H-3 helicopters, carrying Air Police who used ‘starlight scopes’ to see if we could spot and/or stop any infiltration or unauthorized activity around the base. We also searched for the ‘phantom helicopters’ (bad guys) that were occasionally reported to be in the area. Using the knowledge that we had a helicopter airborne and boring holes around the base and town ... someone in the squadron (I don’t know who) devised a plan to attempt a rescue of our squadron mate.

The radio call went out to the night recce bird … “divert to NKP East Airport to pick up one individual, this will be a radio silence ‘lights out’ pick up and the individual to be picked up will signal by flashlight his location on the field.

Sgt. Dreyer, again with the support of the Te’loc underground, stealthly made his way from his hiding place at his Te’loc’s bungalow to the NKP East Airport where he hid until he could hear the sounds of the approaching H-3 helicopter overhead. Once he heard the bird he signaled his location with his survival flashlight ...the chopper spotted his signal and swooped down to make a ‘black out’ landing near by. On the way down the cabin entrance ladder was attached and as soon as the bird was on the ground the ladder was lowered. Within seconds Sgt. Dreyer came bounding across the airfield and climbed on board. Away went the bird, with Sgt. Dreyer safely secured from almost certain capture by the encircling net of AP’s.

The rest of the mission was flown with out any more excitement and we all landed safely back at NKP, RTAFB. Either I don’t remember or never knew, how this whole incident was explained to the APs on board the chopper. Could be they just thought it was one of the strange secret things that we did on a regular basis and never asked. I just don’t know.

Needless to say, this action was one that was supposed to be one of those “we weren’t there …we didn’t do that” kind of missions.

However, within the squadron it was just too good to pass up. So Sgt. Dreyer was ‘set up’ to have an award ceremony where the “E & E Award” was to be presented by the Squadron Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. Silva. Larry went into the ceremony thinking it was for an Air Medal or DFC or something. Once the citation was read and Larry realized that the C.O. knew about his miss-adventure … and after his shock wore off ...we all had a great laugh about it.

This just reinforces the fact that it is always nice to have friends with helicopters and the skills to use a “friendly” ‘underground network’!!!

That’s the story of SSgt. Larry Dreyer’s “E & E Award” as best I can remember it.

P.S. I don’t remember who the pilots were on this mission, or the date, but after some discussions with Jim Moore, I think we both agree that we were the Flight Engineers on board that night.

SSgt Larry Dreyer, former member of the US Army (had the CIB and Thai Jump Wings), joined the 21st Helicopter Squadron at Shaw AFB, SC when the unit was reactivated, as a Flight Engineer. He moved with the unit when they deployed to Nakhon Phenom RTAFB Thailand where he extended and remained with the unit until late ’69 or early ’70.

Note: Bill Crawford was involved in the creation of the Cross, Jim Burns wrote up the citation.

(Jim Burns) (Photo Courtesy of Bill Crawford)