Retired Army Lt. Col. Dan Maslowski piloted a helicopter shot down in Cambodia on May 2, 1970 during the Vietnam War. He never met young Staff Sgt. Bunyan Durant Price Jr., of Belmont, who went by the name “Junior,” but he may have shared Price’s last minutes. Price was listed as missing in action for decades. His remains were recently discovered in a shallow grave near where Maslowski landed the burning helicopter almost 45 years ago. The Belmont man’s remains will return to the U.S. next month. Maslowski, who now lives in Charleston, S.C., was captured after landing the burning helicopter, but not everyone survived the attack by enemy fire, he said. “That was the last time I saw most of the guys,” he said. Fiery landing: Maslowski, another pilot and six men loaded into the helicopter that day. Their mission was to fly supplies into Cambodia. They were derailed when the enemy shot at the helicopter and it caught fire. “That thing looked like it was firing red basketballs at us. I had been fired on many times, but nothing like this,” he said. The men in the back gasped for air as the chopper burned. Maslowski and the other pilot landed the helicopter in a rice paddy, and everyone scattered, several of them jumping out before the helicopter was on the ground. All of the men made it out alive, but they split up from there. Maslowski said he never saw Price again. Trusty .38: Maslowski saw one man dive into a ditch to hide.
POW recounts Operation Linebacker II (Peter Giroux)
It was December 26, 1972. The vibration from bombs exploding in the distance resonated through the walls of the North Vietnamese prison. In his cell, an American pilot peered through the barred windows where he saw the silhouette of a B-52 Stratofortress in flames. He could only watch as the
