Robert L. Pruhs
Name: Robert L. Pruhs
Rank/Grade: WO - W1 - Army - Reserve
Age: 21
Marital Status: Single
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: Apr 15, 1945
From: Norfolk, Virginia
Length of Service: {Service}
Tour Began: Oct 07, 1966
Casualty Date: October 14, 1966
Location: SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile/Non-Hostile: HOSTILE
Classification: HELICOPTER - PILOT AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body Recovered: Yes
Religion: Methodist
Vietnam Memorial: Panel 11E - - Line 74
Bob Pruhs was taking his in-country check ride with 1LT Dennis Hand when they were ordered to report to the race track in Saigon for a hastly formed combat assault. The mission was not supposed to be especially hot. Lt. Hand was ordered to fly lead on the mission. It was normal procedure for the lead aircraft to have two qualified aircraft commanders on board. Not only was there only one for this mission, the other guy had never flew a combat mission in his life. The powers that be knew that the Rattlers had NO BETTER PILOT alive than Dennis Hand, so he was it. To read the rest of this story, go to our “Stories” page, and scroll down to “The Last Check Ride” by Dennis Hand.
On 13 Oct 1966, as the senior Captain in the first platoon, I was scheduling pilots for the next day’s missions. I had been in country just a month, but had 140 hours flight time. I placed my name on the aircraft that Dennis Hand was to be the AC as the pilot. A short time later the platoon leader asked why my name was on this flight. I responded that I felt I needed to be on the mission, since it needed someone with some in country experience. He directed me to remove my name due to my excessive flight time to date, and substitute another pilot.(Policy required pilots to be down for 3 days after reaching 140 hours flight time).
I put WO Pruhs name on the flight. The next day around 10AM I received a call to “secure WO Pruh’s room and effects.” I knew right away what had happened. That night @ our bar, I was a nervous wreck-knowing I was supposed to have been in that aircraft. Maj “Ace” Morris, the CO provided the necessary compassion to me that was sorely needed at that time.
I saw the above articles by accident on the internet the other day. Robert Pruhs was my younger brother. We offend wondered what exactly had happened to him since we didn’t receive any details from the army. I would love to talk to someone in his unit that knew him even though he was only there a short time.