“Masher One-Five, splash.” The entire tree line erupted in flame with rising columns of dirt as five high-explosive rounds dug deep into the ground before detonating. Masher One-Five and the flare aircraft remained on station and continued to adjust artillery fire for another thirty minutes until low fuel forced them to depart the area. Upon leaving, Masher One-Five contacted Sabre Six.
“Sabre Six, Masher One-Five, over.”
“Masher One-Five, go ahead.”
“Masher One-Five is end of mission for fuel. We’ve been hitting the area with one-seven-fives. Numerous secondary explosions. Would recommend someone look over this area once the sun comes up and continue artillery fires. Over.”
“Masher One-Five, roger. End of mission. Thanks for tonight. Sabre Six out.”
Chapter 12
Follow the Leader
Based on the intelligence gathered from multiple sources and the results of the Night Hawk mission, the infantry battalion commander decided to insert a force consisting of two rifle companies into the valley. Bravo Company received the mission at 0700 and received three aircraft from Company A to round out the flight with sufficient aircraft.
“Flight, this is White One. Is everyone up?” asked Flight Leader, who was the Bravo Company commander. Each aircraft responded in order according to their position in the flight. The first eleven aircraft responded with a White call sign; the last three used a Yellow call sign as they were from a different company within the battalion. White aircraft were from Bravo Company, Yellow from Alpha Company. No one from Alpha wanted to fly with the Bravo Company commander. They had in the past, and the results had not been good, from flying through an artillery strike to getting seven aircraft shot to pieces because he had inserted into a landing zone with no artillery support and minimal gun support. Alpha had lost a couple of pilots that day—none killed, thankfully. In the opinion of most, the Bravo Company commander was more interested in impressing the higher-ups and grabbing medals than keeping crews safe while accomplishing the mission. Once everyone responded, White One began his mission brief.
“This is a thirty-sortie mission, so two turns of fifteen aircraft each. Passenger load will be seven grunts per aircraft initially. Last turn may be lighter but will have mortars and ammo as well. We’ll approach from the south to the north. Landing zone is large enough to accommodate all aircraft in staggered right formation. Lift will be preceded by a four-minute prep of one-oh-fives and one-five-fives.” Everyone liked the sound of that amount of artillery.
“We’ll be escorted by two Lobo aircraft and four Blue Max aircraft.” Blue Max was aerial rocket artillery and was armed similar to Lobo aircraft except Blue Max carried four
2.75-inch air-to-ground rocket pods with nineteen rockets in each pod.
Continuing with the mission brief, White One said, “Flight time to the initial point is ten minutes, IP to H minus six checkpoint, four minutes. Enemy situation as of early this morning, Night Hawk made contact with several enemy positions and took heavy fire. His aircraft had twenty-seven hits from small-arms fire. He did experience some heavy automatic fire but took no hits from them. He destroyed one truck with secondary explosions. Expect a hot LZ. Yellow Three, give me an up when all aircraft are loaded.”
“Roger, White One,” Yellow Three responded. Infantry soldiers going in on the initial assault were in the process of loading the aircraft with the last fifteen sorties, standing back and waiting their turn. Sharp barbs and words of encouragement were exchanged between the soldiers on the first lift and those on the second, but the aircraft noise was so loud, most couldn’t be heard.
“White One, Yellow Three, all aircraft appear loaded.”
“Roger, White One is on the go.” As White One began to lift, so did each aircraft behind him. No one wanted to be caught in rotor wash from the aircraft in front and be forced to use more power than necessary or have to struggle to get back in formation. Initially, White One maintained a slow airspeed until Yellow Three gave him an up that all aircraft were in formation, at which time White One increased airspeed to ninety knots. The flight climbed to fifteen hundred feet in a staggered right formation. White Two was to the right and behind White One. White Three was directly behind and slightly above White One as well as being forty-five degrees to the left and back from White Two. Each following aircraft was positioned accordingly. Door gunners and crew chiefs scanned the ground with weapons up and ready.
“Flight, White One, IP,” he reported. The flight now knew they had four minutes before they would see artillery impacting and could expect the flight to start a descent out of fifteen hundred to one thousand. A few minutes later, smoke and explosions could be seen in the distance as two batteries of artillery began firing on the objective area.
“Flight, H minus six,” White One put out on the radio as the flight continued to fly towards the impacting artillery, which was concentrated on the valley floor. The flight initiated a descent from one thousand feet to five hundred. Lobo gunships and Blue Max remained at one thousand feet and slightly behind the flight of fifteen assault helicopters.
Just as a white phosphorous artillery round impacted in the LZ, White One called, “Flight, H minus two.” All door gunners immediately opened fire on the tree line around the LZ. On the left side of the valley, a UH-1H helicopter that was not part of the formation continued to maintain his ninety-knot airspeed but was at treetop level halfway up the ridge overlooking the LZ. Suddenly, thick white smoke billowed out from his exhaust, covering the ground and obscuring the LZ from anyone on that ridge-line. At the same time, two Blue Max aircraft entered into one-thousand-foot-per-minute dives as they punched off 2.75-inch air-to-ground rockets into the tree lines around the LZ. The assault helicopters were now at two hundred feet and had slowed to sixty knots airspeed as White One was picking his landing spot. Two more Blue Max aircraft entered their dives as the first two cleared the area and began delivering their ordnance. The assault helicopters were engaging the tree line with their M60 machine guns as they began to touch down, and troops disembarked, throwing themselves on the ground immediately.
As White One began to depart, the tree line opened up with a beehive of green tracers directed at the assault aircraft. Almost immediately, every aircraft reported taking hits. Lobo was entering his dive and began placing rockets on the tree line, but it was almost ineffective as the enemy was in underground bunkers with overhead cover. Only a direct hit would do serious damage, and the rockets weren’t designed for accuracy. They were what was referred to as an area weapon and not a precision guided weapon. The flight followed White One out to pick up the second lift.
Once cleared of the valley, White One called for a damage report. Most aircraft reported some hits, but none indicated they had serious damage that would preclude their continuation with the mission. No one had been injured, which was always a welcome announcement.
“Blue Max Two-Five, White One, over.”
“White One, Blue Max Two-Five, go ahead.”
“Blue Max, will you accompany us on the next turn?” White One asked.
“That’s a negative, White One. We expended everything on that turn. Returning to Song Be for rearming and another mission. Good Luck. Blue Max out.”
White One now realized that he would have limited gun cover at best. Switching frequencies, he said, “Lobo Six, White One, over.” Lobo Six was the Lobo company commander. When he discovered that Masher Six was leading this mission, he decided that he would participate and make sure his crews didn’t get placed in a precarious position.
“White One, Lobo Six, over.”
“Lobo Six, White One, what’s your status?”
“White One, we are fifty percent, over.”
“Roger, understand you will cover us on this turn?” White One asked.