Hometown: Cornelia, GA
Branch: U.S. Air Force
Unit: 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron, Nha Trang Air Force Base, Republic of Vietnam
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters (20), Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: February 24, 1967 - KIA near Dalat, Lam Dong Province, South Vietnam
Age: 33
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Hilliard Almond Wilbanks grew up in the foothills of Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains in the small town of Cornelia, the oldest of four children. He graduated from Cornelia High School in 1950. At the time, the town’s population was under 2,500.

In August of that year, Wilbanks traveled to Atlanta to enlist in the United States Air Force. He was assigned as an air policeman with the Strategic Air Command for his first four years of service. He was then selected for the Air Cadet–Officer Candidate School in 1954 and finished the program as a Distinguished Graduate.

Wilbanks was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve and received his pilot wings on June 15, 1955. Now an officer, Wilbanks was sent to Greenville (Mississippi) Air Force Base, assigned as a flight instructor for the Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star training aircraft.

While stationed in Greenville in 1956, Hilliard Wilbanks married Rosemary Arnold. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on December 16 of that year.

As with many in the military, the Wilbanks family moved multiple times in the next ten years as Hilliard went through training, rose in rank, and received new assignments. Their travels took them to Chanute Air Force Base in central Illinois, where Lieutenant Wilbanks attended Maintenance Officer School. After completion, he was assigned as a maintenance test pilot for the F-86 Sabre and moved to Eielson Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

In 1961, Lieutenant Wilbanks was promoted to the rank of Captain. His next assignment moved the family to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he served as a maintenance officer for the F-105 Thunderchief fighter bomber.

Deployment to Vietnam

The family moved to Hurlburt Field in Florida in 1966, where Capt. Wilbanks attended the Forward Air Controller school. On March 31, he began his tour in Vietnam, assigned to the 21st Air Tactical Support Squadron at Nha Trang Air Force Base. There he used the call sign “Walt 51.”

In the Vietnam War (1959-1975), the U.S. Air Force encountered new challenges. There were no clear battle lines, and enemy Communist forces were often concealed by dense jungle cover—difficult to see from the air. To reduce any risk of hitting civilians or allied forces, the American rules of engagement required all attack strikes to be directed by Forward Air Controllers (FACs).

FACs—like Capt. Wilbanks in his Cessna O-1E Bird Dog—flew light, unarmed spotter planes at low altitudes, using small phosphorous smoke rockets to mark enemy positions for fighter bombers and ground forces. Early in the war, these spotter planes were extremely vulnerable to even small arms ground fire as they flew low, flew slowly, and were equipped with no protective armor. The light planes carried no bombs and had no mounted guns.

Preventing an Ambush

On February 24, 1967, Capt. Wilbanks was called by fellow FAC pilot Lt. Col. Norman Mueller to fly over an area tea plantation, where friendly a South Vietnamese Ranger company had recently gone missing. A second patrol was on the way to investigate. According to Mueller, “He [Wilbanks] knew the isolated communities, the trails, the streams, the formidable jungles, [the] Green Beret activities, the tea plantations, and the native travel and work patterns better than anyone.”

After 11 months of dangerous duty, including 487 combat missions, Capt. Wilbanks flew ahead of the 23rd Battalion Rangers on their way to the tea plantation about 100 miles north of Saigon. Scanning the familiar slopes for any signs of change, Wilbanks found Communist enemy forces camouflaged in the tea bushes, ready to ambush the approaching Rangers.

He radioed in, warning the Rangers that they were walking into an ambush. Typically, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and their Viet Cong allies didn’t shoot at American spotter planes, as it would give up their positions and give them no chance to spring their trap. Whether the enemy suspected they’d been discovered or were monitoring Wilbanks’ radio frequency, they opened fire on Wilbanks and another FAC plane scanning the area.

Wilbanks called in three nearby helicopter gunships, who succeeded in temporarily suppressing the enemy ground fire. When one of the helicopters took a hit to a hydraulic line, the pilot radioed that he didn’t think he’d make it back to base. Wilbanks radioed back, releasing the other two helicopters to follow the damaged chopper home.

When the enemy saw the gunships leave, they poured out of their foxholes and charged down the hill toward exposed elements of the Ranger company. Replacement fighter jets would not arrive in time to help the Rangers.

Sacrificing Himself

Within two months of completing his tour, Capt. Wilbanks realized that any cover from the air would have to come from him—in his unprotected, unarmed spotter plane. In steep dives, Wilbanks dropped his last phosphorous smoke rockets into the middle of the enemy’s forces.

He made three more low passes over the enemy, shooting out the side window with his M-16 rifle—which he carried for self-defense on the ground in case his Cessna was ever shot down. M-16s were by no means comparable to typical aircraft armaments, but on full automatic, the rifle could shoot 700 rounds per minute.

Drawing enemy attention to his plane and firing his M-16 slowed their advance enough to allow the Rangers to withdraw to a safer position. Wilbanks made himself an easy target, and witnesses on the ground said they could hear his plane being hit on each pass.

In a report after the encounter, Army Capt. Gary F. Vote described Wilbanks’ final moments: “On the last pass, I estimate he was only 100 feet off the ground and directly over his objective. He began making what appeared to be erratic moves, going first up, then down, then banking to the west. He then flew over my position. At this time, I felt he was wounded and looking for a friendly landing site, so I jumped up and waved my arms. However, as his plane banked again to the south, I could see that he was unconscious. His aircraft crashed 100 meters from my position.”

For his courage, Capt. Hilliard A. Wilbanks was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. His citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. As a forward air controller Capt. Wilbanks was pilot of an unarmed, light aircraft flying visual reconnaissance ahead of a South Vietnam Army Ranger Battalion. His intensive search revealed a well-concealed and numerically superior hostile force poised to ambush the advancing Rangers. The Viet Cong, realizing that Capt. Wilbanks’ discovery had compromised their position and ability to launch a surprise attack, immediately fired on the small aircraft with all available firepower. The enemy then began advancing against the exposed forward elements of the ranger force which were pinned down by devastating fire. Capt. Wilbanks recognized that close support aircraft could not arrive in time to enable the rangers to withstand the advancing enemy onslaught. With full knowledge of the limitations of his unarmed, unarmored light reconnaissance aircraft, and the great danger imposed by the enemy's vast firepower, he unhesitatingly assumed a covering, close support role. Flying through a hail of withering fire at treetop level, Capt. Wilbanks passed directly over the advancing enemy and inflicted many casualties by firing his rifle out of the side window of his aircraft. Despite increasingly intense antiaircraft fire, Capt. Wilbanks continued to completely disregard his own safety and made repeated low passes over the enemy to divert their fire away from the rangers. His daring tactics successfully interrupted the enemy advance, allowing the rangers to withdraw to safety from their perilous position. During his final courageous attack to protect the withdrawing forces, Capt. Wilbanks was mortally wounded and his bullet-riddled aircraft crashed between the opposing forces. Capt. Wilbanks' magnificent action saved numerous friendly personnel from certain injury or death. His unparalleled concern for his fellow man and his extraordinary heroism were in the highest traditions of the military service, and have reflected great credit upon himself and the U.S. Air Force.

Capt. Wilbanks left behind a wife and four children—including twins who were born two weeks after he left for Vietnam. He is honored at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington D.C., his name inscribed on Panel 15E, Line 88.

Hilliard Wilbanks Middle School in Demorest, Georgia was named in his honor.

Sources
Card photo: U.S. Air Force
U.S. Department of Defense: Air Force Heroes in Vietnam (p. 15)
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: Hilliard Almond Wilbanks
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Bird Dog’s Last Battle
This Day in Aviation: Medal of Honor, Captain Hilliard Almond Wilbanks, United States Air Force
Honor States: Hilliard Almond Wilbanks
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund—Wall of Faces: Hilliard Almond Wilbanks
Historical Marker Database: Hilliard Almond Wilbanks
Burial Site: Find a Grave