A Tardy Salute to Panther 27, Joseph “Woody” Woodard
We lost one of the great Pink Panthers and champion hell-raiser
Joseph “Woody” Woodard with his Air Force NCO son Michael at the SOAR reunion in Las Vegas, October 2024.
It is with great sadness that I share with you the news that Panther 27, Woody Woodard, passed away yesterday, May 9. Woody had recently had two surgeries to have his foot amputated due to his diabetes. He was recovering well from these when he was apparently hit with a heart attack.
Woody contributed more to the writing of It Was My Turn and stories on A Tardy Salute than anyone other than Terry Crump himself. I came across him by accident doing some research on the Pink Panthers and watched an interview with him on Bud Gibson’s Reconnaissance Cast YouTube channel. This was early in my research and I was amazed to hear Woody tell of Terry’s near shoot down. I called Terry and he connected me directly with Woody. He was always eager and willing to talk, providing absolutely the most colorful stories recalled with great humor and an excellent memory. Woody reviewed every chapter, caught a great many errors, and then listened to every chapter I read for the audio book, finding even more errors. He will not be here to help me complete the audio book as I have the very last chapter yet to record.
Meeting and getting to spend a few days with Woody at last October’s Special Operations Association Reunion was absolutely one of the highlights of this venture in Vietnam history. Just hanging around as Terry and Woody talked with Green Berets, fellow pilots like Mike Wilson of the 170th Bikinis, and chatting up the likes of John Plaster and Barry Pencek, gave me just a glimpse of life over fifty years ago in Kontum, Dak To and Pleiku. There were almost no times that we met Woody that he didn’t have a beer in his hand, an accomplishment he seemed quite proud of.
Woody, along with his closest buddy Lash Larue Wisener, were the ultimate hell raisers of the 361st Aerial Weapons Company. Even their outstanding abilities as air warriors didn’t match their wild and crazy shenanigans. Captain Bill Reeder perhaps expressed this best in Hal Manns’ history of the unit:
Woody & Lash. What can I say? Two of the greatest guys I know, and two who were heroes – nothing in combat they wouldn’t do. Nothing in life they wouldn’t do either. Absolute Hell raisers, and in being that, they added tremendously to the unit spirit and personality. We would not have been the Pink Panthers that I loved so much without the two of them. And Woody has become not only one of my very dear friends, but very special to my young daughter Chelsea as well. I must compliment her on the few she chooses to be her friends.
Woody greatly enjoyed the association meeting and was eager for the upcoming one in October. The Panthers have typically gathered at the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association reunion where they set up one hotel room as their “Stickit Inn,” their makeshift officers club at Pleiku. Mixing with the Green Berets they supported meant a lot to Woody so he was working on making the next SOAR meeting a reunion for the Panthers as well, talking to a number of them about coming to Las Vegas in October.
The stories of Woody and Lash are likely endless. Some he told me will remain untold, at least by me as not deemed suitable for publication even if the statute of limitations has expired. Every time Terry and I called him or I called him alone he was just so delighted to hear from us. “You made my day,” he would say in his cheery voice, even when he was in the hospital in great pain recovering from his amputation.
Being sidetracked with projects relating to building a new house and selling our current one has prevented me from keeping up with A Tardy Salute and tentative plans for compiling a history of the 361st AWC. Woody was going to be my primary source, along with Terry and a few others I’ve met along the way. The next Tardy Salute was going to be on the story of the rescue of John Cole, Terry’s good friend, who had a fiery crash in his Cobra due to mechanical problems. Woody told me a little as he was involved in the mission. The Huey pilot who got John out was called Steamer, who I had read or heard about, and who was an outstanding slick pilot. John was severely burned but sent to Japan to recover and then back home. His Panther days were done.
I didn’t have time when I talked to Woody about it but said I would call him and get my recorder going so I could get the details needed to tell the story right. I never got a chance to call him back. Another great story left out of history. I am sorry John, sorry Woody, sorry Steamer. You all deserve your stories told.
Woody’s commitment to his fellow Panthers, his incredible courage and flying skill, and his great luck were all on display in one story that I know a bit about, including some details from him. He told about it on the Reconnaissance Cast interview linked above. It was September 1971, three months after Terry’s tour ended. Chief Warrant Officer Alex Makintaya with Specialist 4th Class Michael Kilduff in his front seat, were making a maintenance flight from Vung Tau when they were lost in bad weather over the notoriously dangerous Mang Yang Pass. Makintaya was the Panther’s safety officer, on his second tour in Vietnam and had served as a commercial airline pilot between his two tours. Anyone would feel safe flying with him. He was also the hooch mate of Lash Larue Wisener.
Kilduff was the crew chief on Wisener’s 20mm equipped Cobra. This was the powerful cannon that added devastating power to the already powerful gunships. He was said to be one of the most educated men in the unit and told Lash after the war he was going to be a professor. He never got that chance.
Wisener was on Airfield Defense, with the five minute limit to get in the air, but when the Operations Center got the word from a ship that was flying with Makintaya that they had lost radio contact, Lash and Captain Debay took off in the bad weather to try and locate their two good friends. They got through 5000 feet flying in instrument conditions about half the time when they had mechanical problems and had to return to Pleiku. Woody was asked if he would make a search and, of course, accepted. It was now getting dark and spitting rain. Woody with David Smith, Smitty, as his co-pilot took off along with Dana Johndro and a Gladiator slick carrying flares.
Lash and Debay waited by the radio as Woody and Johndro searched for the lost Cobra in almost impossible conditions. Then in horror they heard Woody call that he was going into autorotation. That meant his engine was out. He had experienced compressor stalls which flung his Cobra around wildly. This required him to pull back on the throttle and that’s when he called he was going into autorotation. Pitch black, pouring rain, right in Mang Yang Pass. Going into autorotation in those conditions was about the worst thing imaginable. The compressor stalls stopped with the engine throttled back and Woody was able to slowly advance the throttle and limp toward An Khe. Dana Johndro had flown to An Khe, located a spot to land, and directed Woody and Smitty in with his landing lights. Miraculously, they made it back safely.
The search for Makintaya and Kilduff went on for three days in between missions serving the SOG teams in Laos. An O-1 Bird Dog spotter plane finally found the wreckage. Kilduff had been killed instantly. Makintaya had exited the Cobra and turned on his survival radio before he collapsed and died.
I am telling this story as best as I can from talking to Woody, from the Gibson interview, and from Hal Mann’s book where Lash provides his account. But, if Woody was still here I would send him this draft and he would with great grace and humor tell me what I got wrong.
Woody continued flying after his time with the Army was over and spent his life flying “Dustoff.” That’s the word for medevac helicopters and crews. In his case, his distinguished career flying medical helicopters resulted in a number of prestigious awards and honors.
Woody, on behalf of the many great friends you leave behind, I wish you clear skies and sunny days in the flight we trust you are on now. We miss you.
Terry Crump and Woody with SOG Green Beret Barry Krutina at the SOAR reunion.
Woody and Terry talk SOG missions with RT Montana’s Paul Boyd at the dinner for the 2024 SOAR reunion.
Terry and Woody talk with Don Persky, the CH-53 pilot in Operation Tailwind whose incredible flying saved the lives of the SOG team he was carrying when he was hit by enemy fire. With both engines out he cleared a ridge and crash-landed adjacent to a stream.
Woody and Terry with their former Executive Officer Captain Brian Sweet at the SOAR reunion. Terry, Woody, and Sweet were all involved in Operation Tailwind, with Sweet in Woody’s co-pilot/gunner seat when they were called in to destroy Don Persky’s downed CH-53.
Woody seated with a group who were involved in Operation Tailwind, the famous mission made infamous by malicious CNN reporting. Woody is seated on the far right. At the podium is SOG legend John Stryker Meyer. Mike Rose, who was awarded the Medal of Honor as a medic on this mission, is second from left. Barry Pencek, Marine Cobra pilot who wrote the definitive account of the mission and false reporting, is seated next to Rose. Don Persky, the pilot of the downed CH-53 carrying the team out, is one person to the left of Woody. Terry should have been up here with this group but remained in the audience, as did Brian Sweet whose head can be seen on the left side of the photo.
This would likely be Woody’s favorite photo. He and his hell-raising buddy, Lash Larue Wisener, are lifting small containers of a favorite beverage in the Stickitt Inn, sometime in 1971 or early 1972.