ch we know won’t get us off the ground to a hover, but it will get us light on the skids. Wiggle the tail, which will break any hold the ground has on the aircraft, and apply forward cyclic to get the aircraft sliding forward. This works best if you’re on grass, but dry dirt is okay, just dusty. Once the aircraft gets so much speed, it’s going to come off the ground but will settle back down. Just keep it moving forward and building airspeed. Eventually, if you don’t run out of runway, translational lift will kick in and you’ll start flying,” Mike explained.
The aircraft was still on the ground but moving forward slowly at first. He held his power steady, and the aircraft picked up speed, sliding along the dirt runway. The aircraft started to lift off the ground, only to lose some engine power and settle back on the runway but with increasing speed. Each time the aircraft settled back onto the runway, engine power returned to full power. Again the aircraft tried to fly but settled back on the ground with increased speed. On the third attempt, the aircraft hit translational lift and started to fly, increasing its speed and slowly climbing to altitude. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Mike circled around Bu Gia Map, watching the next two aircraft imitate his takeoff. As each aircraft became airborne, it slowly joined up with Mike until all three were in formation together.
“Crescent Six, Yellow One, off Bu Gia Map with a flight of three resupply inbound to your location, over.”
“Yellow One, contact Dog Breath Six on three nine five Fox Mike for the one-ship insertion and Doberman Six-One on three eight nine five Fox Mike for the two-ship insertion.”
“Roger, Crescent Six, QSY at this time,” Mike said, indicating he would be switching frequencies, and he switched to company push, which was on the UHF radio.
“Yellow Three, contact Dog Breath Six-One on three nine five for smoke and situation update.”
“Roger, One, three nine five.”
Switching to thirty eight nine five on his FM radio, Mike listened for Doberman Six-One but heard nothing. Finally Mike made the call. “Doberman Six-One, Yellow One, over.”
After a minute or so, the reply came. “Yellow One, Doberman Six-One, over.” In the background, Mike could hear machine-gun fire, but not the kind of noise made by the M60 machine gun. Small-arms fire also resounded in the background.
“Doberman Six-One, Yellow One is a flight of two aircraft with ammo and water. Where do you want it?” At the same time, Chalk Three was contacting Dog Breath Six-One with the same question.
“Yellow One, the LZ is hot, repeat, LZ is hot. Over.”
“Doberman Six-One, understood, LZ is hot. Where do you want these two loads? We’re coming in. Two minutes out. Over.” Switching to internal intercom, Mike briefed his crew.
“Smitty, Kelly, here’s the deal. They have a hot LZ, so if we take fire, return fire but be sure of your shots. If we’re not taking hits, start unloading this stuff as fast as you can.” He switched back to company push. “Yellow Two, did you monitor that?”
“Roger, One, I’m following you.”
“Three, this is One. Have you got contact with Dog Breath Six-One?” No response from Three. “Three, this is One.” Again no response, but Mike could see him approaching his LZ.
“Yellow One, Doberman Six-One. I have you in sight, smoke out.”
“Doberman Six-One, I have Mellow Yellow smoke.”
“Roger, but LZ is hot.”
Mike could see the exchange of gunfire, with the north end of the LZ exchanging green and red tracers. On the intercom, Mike told the crew to be ready. They were. Coming in with airspeed and rapidly decreasing altitude, Mike decelerated the aircraft, rapidly pulling back on the cyclic while dropping the collective until the last minute and then rapidly applying power and forward motion on the cyclic to level the aircraft. As the aircraft touched down, he noticed Yellow Two landing beside and slightly behind him. Immediately, the crews started tossing ammo and water off the aircraft and were assisted by grunts that were nearby. Without saying anything, wounded soldiers started loading the aircraft. The crew was back on their guns now and Mike looked to Yellow Two, who also had wounded on board and was coming up on his skids.
“Yellow One is on the go.”
Mike pulled in all the power he could and executed a combat takeoff, which was maximum speed with minimum altitude. To the untrained, it appeared that the aircraft was going to nose over into the ground, and then it was gone.
Climbing out, Mike called to Yellow Two, “Two, are you okay?”
“Roger, One, took some hits. Have you heard from Three?”
“Wait one and let me call him. Three, this is One, over.” Mike held his breath.
“Mr. George, I see him coming out. He’s off to the left and hauling ass over the trees,” Kelly indicated. Mike looked over, and sure enough, Three was at max airspeed and contouring the treetops.18
“Three, this is One off to your right at one thousand, over.” Still nothing from Three, but he did turn slightly to intercept Mike and began to climb.
“Flight, this is One. Let’s get the wounded to Bu Gia Map. I’ll call and let them know we’re inbound.” He switched back to Crescent Six’s frequency. “Crescent Six, Yellow One, over.”
“Yellow One, go ahead.”
“Crescent Six, Yellow One and Two have wounded on board and are heading to Bu Gia Map to unload. I have no contact with Yellow Three but suspect he may have wounded as well. Over.”
“Roger, Yellow One, Medical is standing by for you. What is your status? Over.”