Pedersen, William Alexander, LTJG

This Military Service Page was created/owned by Jeffrey Kaiser, AG3 to remember Pedersen, William Alexander, LTJG.

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Home Town La Canada, CA	Last Address La Canada, CA
Casualty Date Sep 15, 1970
Cause Hostile, Died	Reason Air Loss, Crash - Land
Location An Xugen (Vietnam)	Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Forrest Lawn Cemetery - Hollywood Hills, California	Wall/Plot Coordinates 07W 066

William "Bill" Pedersen was a Naval Aviator and served with HAL-3, Detachment 6 (DET-6) in Vietnam. HAL-3 was the only Navy helicopter gunship squadron to serve in Vietnam, and their primary mission was to lend support to our "Brown Water Navy", which consisted mostly of PBR's and Swift boats that patrolled the rivers in the delta. Secondary missions included supporting the Navy Seals from time to time. DET-6 was located at Song Ong Doc, a little fishing village on the Gulf of Thailand, and very near to the U Minh forest. On the day Bill gave his life unselflishly, he was scrambled to respond to some friendlies who were in a firefight near VC lake. Bill's helicopter was brought down by ground fire, and both he and Carlos Ramos were killed in the crash. Carlos was the crew chief and a door gunner. I believe the second helicopter in the flight was also brought down, but with the crew suffering no serious injuries. I recall that DET-1 was scrambled to support and extract the downed crew during this engagement. I will never forget you Bill as long as I live, because you may have saved my life. I was on duty that day and had flown an uneventful patrol in the morning. You had asked me for one last flight before you were to have been rotated back to Binh Thuy the next day on your way back home. As many times as we had been scrambled in the past, who would have known what would happen on your last mission? You will always be remembered my friend.
Robert Goddard
Seawolf 67
Posted by: Robert Goddard

Relationship: Served in same squadron.
Monday, May 31, 1999

Start Tour:      12/01/1969
Incident Date:   09/15/1970

Bill Pedersen was my element leader during the field week of my SERE training at Little Creek, Virginia. Bill's element ate lots of fish heads, navigated more clicks on compass marches and got ambushed more times than we really needed to. When we all got caught and taken to the POW camp Bill was extraordinary. In 1970 I spent some time at ATSB Song Ong Doc. So did Bill. I talked to him the day he took his crew to VC Lake. His family lost Bill and the United States lost a great pilot, a crew chief and many others that day. It's a day I'll never forget. 
Posted by: Al Stephenson
Relationship: We served together
Sunday, January 27, 2002