CHAPTER 6
UNIT: 134th AHC, Maintenance Platoon
SITUATION: Typical Mission Preparation
LOCATION: Phu Hiet Army Base, Vietnam.
TIME: Early 1970
As far as preparation for our mission, we had a process that we went through. We had regular missions that we flew, a few special missions, and the preparations were pretty much SOP. Unless something special occurred, typical mission preparation went like this: Usually, we would gather in the evenings for the mission briefings for the next day. We would talk to the crew chief, the gunner, and the copilot. Together, we would figure out how we were going to handle our assignment. And we were told which helicopter we would be using.
As it was, the helicopter belonged to the crew chief. He would tell us when the will aircraft was available for flight. It was his aircraft. If he said the helicopter could not go out, that was the end of the discussion. He owned the helicopter. There were about 30 helicopters, and we helicopter pilots flew about 100 hours a month. Maintenance controlled all of the helicopters. If they said a helicopter could not go out, that was it. Because of that, we routinely had 100-hour Inspection on all of those aircraft. It seemed that if a helicopter was within two or three hours of the gauge reading 100 hours, the aircraft would probably be grounded for a 100-hour inspection. If we were scheduled for a 10 hour mission, then that aircraft would not go out. We never knew which aircraft we would be flying. We always had 100 hour inspection, but we also had 50 hour inspections.
That was usually when the crew chief changed the oil, oil filters, and checked the injectors. We were a pretty tight unit. We didn’t argue about the inspection, or the oil changes.
Command wanted our unit to have 80% available helicopters. That is what maintenance aimed for. That was the goal. Because of the way maintenance handled the helicopters our unit, usually had 90% available.
Also, sometimes, however missions would change overnight. At those times, what we had been told the night before would change, and we would have a new approach to a mission. Things just changed. We adapted, and we flew the mission.
There was a point in my first tour where I was transferred to maintenance. I remember one time that I was sent down to cam Rahn Bay to pick up helicopter. There was an airbase. There. That is where civilian airplanes came into Vietnam. At another pilot and I went down there to inspect and to accept an incoming helicopter. We were supposed to fly it back to Phu Hiet. It was about an hour’s flight, about 100 miles. There was some kind of delay on the aircraft. We had to wait to pick it up. We had about three or four hours on our hands, so we walked around the base. Cam Rahn Bay was and in country R and R base. So, we saw the sites, went to the PX. There were many women around. You know how guys are in that type of situation. Usually, if you saw a female, she was usually an officer, a nurse. So, the female body just looks different in a set of jungle fatigues. Anyway, we were just walking along when I heard a female voice ask, “Mister, don’t you salute an officer when you see one?”
I looked up and saw that on the rank tab. She was a Major. Immediately, I said, “Sorry, ma’am, I didn’t get that far up your uniform to your rank.” She was in the Air Force, and usually when we were in the open like that, we didn’t salute officers. If we were indoors and reporting to an officer, we would salute. I guess she had not had her briefing on that subject, or maybe she was full of herself. I don’t know. We flew all over the place, and that was the only place we had had that type of problem.
On a typical day, we began the day with breakfast. We usually had four meals a day in that unit. We had the regular three meals, and then we had midnight meals for those in maintenance who worked late. We had what we called, “ash and trash” missions. Sometimes, we had to fly civilians down to another base for them to pick up their needs. It was like we served as flying taxicabs. Sometimes, we took MACV personnel to some strange places to do whatever it was that they did. Then we would fly them back to our base. We looked like a train wreck. We had to clean their trash out of our helicopter when we were through with those missions. When we had missions to fly supplies and people down to Trey Hoa, we would fly down the river to there. Sometimes the civilians would float their stuff down the river on boats and rafts to sell in Trey Hoa. It was a long walk back up the river, so we would have to pick the civilians up and fly them back to base. I didn’t much care for those missions. You know, you weren’t doing any soldiering as such. You were more like flying a dump truck. You felt worthless.
However, we flew GIs to places. We didn’t mind doing that. We liked it better than flying civilians. We flew GIs and the ARVN. The GIs did not much like flying with the ARVNs. The GIs couldn’t tell if the ARVNs were on our side or if they were really Viet Cong. They just couldn’t trust them. The ARVNs wore our uniforms, but they did not want to go on our missions with our troops. The ARVNs didn’t care about our concepts of freedom or democracy. About 90% of them were Buddhists. There were Christians, but they lived in the cities and not in the countryside. They could read and they could have philosophical discussions about those concepts we hold dear. That was just Greek to the rest of the population. Their deal was that they lived in villages, and the head man was the be all and the know all, and they went to him to have their issues settled. That was whose authority they respected. They didn’t care who was in Saigon. Their area of interest was there village.
Before we were there, they fought the French. Before that they fought against China, Japan, Laotians. For 2000 years. They had been fighting against take over by other countries, and as far as they were concerned, we were one of those countries. The ARVNs were not disciplined. When we landed to let them off, some of them would not get off. We would have to throw them off.
There were communication problems with the ARVNs. They did not speak English as well as the Koreans did. And usually we had Koreans on board to translate when we had to give instructions. But still we had communication problems. Also, it wasn’t much fun to pick up and 18 or 19-year-old soldier in the morning for a combat mission and bring him back home in a body bag in the evening. Usually, our combat missions were company wide. The problem with that was that Charlie knew if you were going on a mission against him, that you could not land in the trees. Charlie knew that if it was a large-scale mission, like a company mission, that you would have to land in a clear and open space. So, he knew where to set up his machine guns. He would dig spider holes, put a lid on them, and cover them up with grass and vegetation. When a helicopter landed nearby, he would pop up out of the hole and spray the area with machine gun fire. If we have an artillery available for us, they would barrage the area with shells to soften it up, and hopefully, to blow up the spider holes. Additionally, we had gunships alongside us to strafe the proposed landing zone to keep the VC’s heads down.
Later on, when I was in gunships, we would dust off the LZs for med EVAC crews and the mission transport crews. I remember that we had one mission where we had to go in and dust off an LZ. A four-man unit had gone out on a mission and had run into some heavy fire. One man was severely wounded. One man not wounded, and two were slightly wounded. In our gunship, we didn't know what the situation was on the ground regarding enemy troops. Usually, Artillery would fire into the location to soften of the enemy. Other ships would come in alongside of us and dust off the area around our troops to keep the enemy’s heads down. We were supposed to stay on station, but we really didn't know what was out there. So, we prepared to go in with guns ready. Usually, those four-man teams would go out in an area to recon it and see what was there. They could be gone up to a week completing the recon mission. They were supposed to perform reconnaissance only. They were not supposed to engage the enemy. They were supposed to remain unseen until they could get back to headquarters and be debriefed on what they had seen.
We went in there, and in front of us was kind of a prairie, no tree canopy, but we did not want to sit down in that area because we did not know what was beneath us. So, we went in and hovered. Another ship, maybe a Penetrator, came in and the not wounded man helped get the badly wounded man on board the Penetrator. They gave him first aid right away, but they could tell they had to get him back to Army medical. That ship immediately took the badly wounded man straight back to the Army medical Corps. On the other hand, we were supposed to stay on station and wait for the other ships return. We didn't have enough fuel on board to hover until that ship returned to assist us. I checked the fuel gauge, and it told me that I had about 30 minutes fuel left.
Leeds was beside me. I was his wing man. He had expended all of his ammunition keeping the VC pinned down. It was not possible for him to leave station, return to base, take up new ammunition, and return to the station. Then, he did something completely unpredictable and against regulation, and he landed. He picked up the other two men of the four-man unit. And he lifted off. We had been talking over the FM radio, and we decided to pop some smoke to obscure our position. At that point, however mission relationship had changed. I had to adapt. I had to take on another role of assisting him to get out of there. At Fort Rucker that was one of the things they had told us about. Be prepared for the unexpected, and be prepared to adapt to the situation.
When we returned to base, we really didn't want to talk about what he had done. His actions had saved the lives of two men, but he had broken regulations by landing to save them. If we told anyone about it and if they submitted our name for ribbons, an investigation would occur, and all four of us would have been court-martialed. So we played that down.
The situation changed somewhat. Wilson, the screamer, was still the head man. I had put up with him while I was there flying the missions, but because he was a screamer, he was driving me nuts. I didn't want to put up with him any longer, so, I looked around and discovered that they needed a test pilot back at camp. I looked into it and they said sure come on over, we will give you OJT. Well, On the Job Training was fine with me because I knew I could learn it. So, I applied for the transfer and it was approved.
I moved over to test piloting, and my happiness improved significantly. But the thing that had made really difficult for me was we would take the 19 to 20 year old soldier out to a hot LZ in the morning and bring him back in a body bag in the evening.