Vietnam A-1 Skyraider Pilot Rich Hall Recalls Rescue Missions

From 1968 to 1969, Captain Richard (Rich) M. Hall, an A-1 Skyraider pilot with the 602nd SOS, served in Vietnam. Being the Lead in the Rescue of Forrest Fenn (Litter-81) was a Search and Rescue (SAR) mission that took place in late 1968 and was headed by CPT Richard (Rich) Hall. This was one of his career highlights. Rich served as the Sandy Lead on (Litter-81) and describes how he and other SAR crew members helped save Forrest Fenn, who went on to invent one of the 21st century's most well-known treasure hunts.

The Fenn Treasure, a cache of gold and gems that Forrest B. Fenn secreted in the Rocky Mountains of the United States, is what made him most famous. The location of the wealth was a secret, according to Santa Fe, New Mexico-based author and art dealer Fenn. But in 2020, some ten years later, a mystery treasure hunter discovered it in Wyoming. A treasure chest auction in December 2022 brought in $1.3 million in revenue. Rich Hall and all SAR personnel who risk their lives to save the lives of others deserve our respect. The course of a person's life is impossible to predict.

Second, Rich goes into considerable detail about his first mission, which left him with the immediate feeling that, if every operation was as bad as the first, he was going to die.


Rich continues by talking about Rescues Troops in contact before concluding the discussion by talking about his involvement with Lima Site 36. CPT Richard M. Hall of the 602nd Firefly oversaw the air defense on the opening day of the strikes against Lima Site-36. He regrets not knowing that there were extra enemy forces in the region, though. He thinks that his resources—people and weapons—could have stopped the collapse of Lima Site-36 if he had known.