Major Gerry Dwyer and Captain Phil Maywald, May 21, 1968
On the first day of operations of Nail FACs deployed to fly out of Ubon RTAFB, Thailand, detachment commander Gerry Dwyer was shot down near the A Shau Valley in South Vietnam. For the second time in less than two months, Nail 55 was suspended beneath a parachute (In March he had brought a battle-damaged O-2 back from Khe Sanh, finally bailing out near the Mekong River south of Thakhek.) This time enemy soldiers were shooting at him as he descended. After being involved in a shootout on the ground, Gerry was pulled from the jungles as the result of some daring flying by Phil Maywald and continued rescue attempts by Jolly Green Giants taking heavy groundfire throughout.This picture was taken in the dispensary at Ubon (or maybe NKP) later in the day. For that mission Gerry earned the Silver Star and a ticket home. Phil was submitted for the Medal of Honor and was awarded the Air Force Cross.
