W3 Company - Family/Whanau Stories

Detective Howell discovers Creativity - NZ Police

This press release from the NZ Police about one of their own also concerns one of our own.  Laurie Howell is the eldest son of Neville Howell 2Pl.

"No winter flu bug was going to drag down Palmerston North Detective Laurie Howell.  When he found himself off sick for two weeks in May he wrote a children's book, and on Friday (31 July 09) he shared his creativity with a group of children at Central Normal School as part of their Book Week.  Laurie's inspiration came from the Blue Light Trolley Derby held in the city for the first time this year. He was one of the organisers who joined crowds of people to race their home-made mean machines down Pork Chop Hill.  It was shortly after that event that Laurie fell ill and The Great Manawatu Trolley Derby book was born, bringing the event to life and capturing the thrill of the day in pages of rhyme and photos.  "I've always liked reading Lynley Dodd books to my kids," said Laurie, "and have always found it quite easy to make rhyme.  The first paragraph came to me and the whole thing flowed from there."  Laurie has two sons aged 12 and 7 and a 9-year-old daughter and when they arrived home from school they were 'blown away' that dad had written a book.  He is now hoping to find sponsors to have the book published and raise some money for St John and the Square Trust rescue helicopter.
"I got so much support when I was organising the derby from local groups and businesses," said Laurie. "I don't want to make any money out of the book I would just like to see it published to help recognise the event and the hard work that people put into it.  If the book did profit it would be only fitting that the money was given back to some of the emergency service volunteers who helped make the day such a success."

Laurie has been well and truly bitten by the writing bug.  He is part of a huge extended family who originate from the UK, and had already begun work on a historical novel tracing their roots.  Writing the children's book has reinvigorated him, and the historical project has gained new momentum.  It is a much larger task however, so don't expect to see that project finished any time soon."

Anyone interested in helping Laurie to get his children's book published can contact him at Palmerston North Police Station on 06 351 3600.

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Sgt Dave Heywood Remembered - Bruce Young & Wayne Holah [NZSAS Association]

Sgt Dave Heywood served with 2Pl as Pl Sgt for the first 6-months of the W3 Company deployment before being recalled to Malaysia to be a jungle warfare instructor at the British Jungle Warfare School, Pulada, Johore State.  He later rejoined the NZSAS in Papakura, was promoted to WO2 and died under largely unexplained circumstances while with the NZSAS in 1981.  The detail of his death was researched by the NZSAS Association historian Wayne Holah and is declassified.  Further information is in "The Praetorian STARShip: the untold story of the Combat Talon" pages 248 and 249.

In February 1981 NZSAS sent a contingent to the Philippines for three weeks to participate in SPECWAREX 81, in the contingent were WO2 Dave Heywood and SSgt Dennis Terry.  Exercise ground forces comprised Special Forces soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines and the United States.  The US Air Force provided two MC130E 'Combat Talon 1' aircraft from 1st Special Ops Sqn who were to finish the exercise by extracting the ground forces from the Cubi Point Naval Air Station early morning 26 February.  The Combat Talon aircraft were fitted with analogue terrain-following and terrain-avoidance radars for flights at low level at night or in adverse weather and the crew members were using night vision equipment [NVG], having taped over the flight instruments to avoid ambient light interfering with the NVG.  The aircrew were very experienced and had flown the exercise route previously.  The plan required the aircraft to perform a landing without lights, stop momentarily for the ground forces to board, and then take-off [exfiltrate] to circle out to sea toward Capones Island before making a routine landing back at the Naval Air Station.  SSgt Terry and Dave Heywood were assigned to the second MC130E [No 64-0564, callsign S-59] which landed at 0506 AM and took off at 0508 AM.  Aircrew on board 64-0564 spoke to the exercise control cell at 0514 and again at 0521 AM, at neither time giving any indication that they were experiencing problems.  The leading aircraft landed safely back at Cubi Point.  Local fishermen observed 64-0564 several times between Capones Island and the crash site, saying that the aircraft was seen drifting down toward the surface of the water until at 0523 AM it impacted into the water, and sank after floating for about 10-minutes.  23-people were killed on impact with only six bodies being recovered from the site (including both New Zealanders).  The aircraft electronic warfare officer [a member of the flight crew] survived the crash and was rescued by the fishermen.  He stated to the official USAF investigation that other crew intercom conversations did not hint of trouble with the aircraft and he did not know what caused the aircraft to descend into the water.  Given the location, the absence of aircraft lights & eyewitness reports it is unlikely that the aircraft was hit by ground fire.  The depth of water at the crash site [240 feet] prevented recovery of the wreckage, so the official investigation did not make a finding as to the cause of the accident.  It was thought that the aircraft terrain-following radar had malfunctioned by not switching automatically to a radar over-ride condition [as radar does not receive returns from the sea surface] causing the aircraft to gently descend, with the covered flight deck instrumentation preventing the crew from noticing the altitude changes.  [crew fatigue was also considered but apparently discounted].

The 23 men who died in the crash were a cross-section of the participating nationalities; American aircrew and exercise controllers, US Army soldiers; Philippines Navy sailors, Australians and the two New Zealanders.

Both New Zealanders received full military funerals on 5 March 1981.  SSgt Dennis (Bro) Terry's funeral service was held at St Mary's Catholic Church in Papakura and his ashes were later spread at sea off the Mahia peninsular.  [His widow Pam Miley­Terry is herself a Vietnam veteran having served as a nursing sister with 1AFH at Vung Tau].  Dave Heywood's funeral service was at Christ Church, Papakura and his ashes are buried in the military section of Papakura Cemetery. 

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