WO Stephen Andrew Young US Army
Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star
Stephen Andrew Young was born April 12, 1948 in Alpine TX to James and Mary Young. His father was a career army officer. In the early 60’s his father was stationed as the Army ROTC PMS. He graduated from Las Cruces HS in 1966. He enrolled at NMSU the next fall to study Business Administration leaving after the fall 1967 semester.
Joining the US Army, he was accepted to flight training and advanced to gain his wings as a helicopter pilot. By May 1969 he was in country assigned to “A” Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Air Cavalry Division then operating in III Corps north of Saigon.
The following is taken from http://bullwhipsquadron.org/
On the morning of 9 August 1969 an Apache Troop, Pink Team comprised of an OH-6A Scout helicopter (call sign Apache 12) and an AH-1G Cobra gunship (call sign Apache 27) departed the Apache Troop strip on west Tay Ninh for an armed visual reconnaissance and air strike BDA (bomb damage assessment) mission near the Cambodian border. The Apache 12 aircrew was comprised of WO1 Steven Young (Pilot), SP4 Michael Seibert (Gunner) and SP5 James Dine (Crew Chief and normally Gunner but serving as Observer). Apache 12 was enroute from a preplanned airstrike that was late and he radioed to his high bird, Apache 27 that he wanted to head back to the west for a few minutes to an area where he had seen something "not quite right". The Cobra was flying in the same direction and approximately 1,000 feet above and behind Apache 12 so that if the “Little Bird” took fire the Cobra could put down immediate suppressive fire.
Apache 12 was flying around 70 knots back to the area he wanted to get another look at when the entire tree line he was flying over exploded in a massive enfilade of enemy automatic weapons fire. Steve’s OH-6A was in approximately the middle of the weapons fire when he radioed “taking fire!...taking fire! The aircraft then exploded and crashed into the trees among the westernmost elements of the enemy unit.
Apache 27 immediately dove down firing the gunship’s 2.75 inch flechette and white phosphorous rockets as the enemy troops were now moving out into the open to shift their fires to try and shoot down the Cobra. WO1 Olson began engaging the enemy with his turreted 7.62mm minigun around where Apache 12 had crashed while 1LT Bowen got off a brief May Day radio call to the Troop Operations Center.
The Apache 12 crew was not recovered until several weeks after they were shot down due to extremely strong enemy forces. The NVA regiment forced the withdrawal of the aerorifle platoon and ready reaction company that was inserted at the nearest LZ some distance from the crash site later that day. Steve, Michael and James are buried together in the Fort Bliss National Cemetery, Fort Bliss, Texas.
WO Stephen Andrew Young was 21 years of age at the time of his death in service to his nation.