19th August 1969
Missing in Action. Face didn't want to believe his best friend was MIA. It just couldn't be happening. It had been two days since Hannibal delivered the news. The team wanted to go and look for Murdock fearing he had gone down in a VC hot spot. But because a bad weather front had moved in all choppers and planes had been grounded. Morrison had been prepared for them to look for Murdock but General Zachary the CO for all flying personnel had personally given the grounding order, he told the team that he would have flown them himself if he could. It seemed Murdock was more popular around the other pilots and even Morrison and Zachary than the team thought.
"I wish this stupid weather front will disappear!" burst out Face. B.A. added "if it was one of us out there Murdock wouldn't care about the weather front, he would come for us and what are we doing we're sat here doing nothing!" The team hadn't felt right enjoying their rest while Murdock was lying injured somewhere. They all refused to believe that Murdock was dead or worse at the hands of the VC. They looked around when Major Powell came over to them. "if you want to find Murdock I am more than happy to fly you, the weather front has moved enough for us to go looking for the crash" the team jumped up and ran to Powell's chopper. They were up in record time. All on board were desperate to find Murdock. Powell had been briefed by Zachary where Murdock had been flying that night.
They were flying over the area scanning the ground, fortunately for them the fighting in this sector had calmed down. For now any way. "Major look there! Do you think that could be where he crashed?" Asked Face, praying they had found the site he just wanted to find Murdock. "Yep looks like that's where Murdock went down. I'll meet you guys at the Landing Zone at 15:00 hours" Powell brought them down not far up from the ground, the team jumped out of the chopper. When they looked at the crash site. They saw bits of chopper scattered everywhere, B.A. ran to the cockpit that had taken the brunt of the impact. He was scared of what he might find. He couldn't bear the thought of what life would be like without Murdock, sure he threatened to kill him a few times but he'd never do it, he would gladly take a bullet for Murdock. When he reached the cockpit he stood frozen. "HANNIBAL!" Hannibal and Face dashed to B.A. each step was agony; Face didn't want to see Murdock lying there dead. When Face and Hannibal reached the cockpit Face gasped, Murdock's helmet was on the pilot seat, but where was Murdock?