I was a B52 Tail gunner, with 113 mission over S.E.A. I am in touch with our crew's navigator and together we remembered this horror story from 1968!
When we heard the first radio transmission over "guard" we were still just north of the Phillipines. This epic went on until well after "bombs away" and we went back to being "feetwet" ourselves on our way back to Guam, safety, etc.
A helo was in trouble. He was trying to get a ground station, any ground station, to help him find out his location. He was over water, without any wet survival gear, and had six souls on board. His transponder was out, most of the rest of his instruments were out and it was getting later and darker. We would hear their communications in bits and pieces as they happened. Everyone with a radio on "Guard" in S.E.A. must have heard them, and listened, holding their collective breaths. He tried to swing the copter back and forth to slosh some fuel up from his nearly dry tanks. One of the last transmissions from the helo was something about the co-pilot holding the spot light straight down so they could estimate their altitude. I believe the last time I heard it they said they were around fifteen feet from the waves. The rest of the transmissions were from ground radio repeating the call sign of that doomed Helo over, and over, and over, and over-and NOT getting any answer....SIGH. The whole thing must have lasted well over an hour. I don't need to tell you that our usually quiet flight back to Guam was even quieter that night as all six of us thought and prayed for the six souls that were lost.
Austin, TX
