On Rob’s aircraft, Franson asked, “Sir, did I just hear this right? Yellow One says we got shot out of the LZ and goes down, and now the CO is taking us back in there?”
“You heard it right. Not sure why the CO is pressing this, but we just do as we’re told. Guns up and be on your toes. Ben, I’ll take the aircraft.”
“You have the controls. This is going to get hairy, isn’t it?” Ben asked with some trepidation in his voice.
“About as hairy as it gets. You get through this one and everything else will be a piece of cake. You married?”
“No, why?”
“Just wanted to know if I was going to have to write your wife a letter after today,” Rob said, looking over at Ben’s pale face at this point. Their conversation was interrupted by Chicken-man Six.
“Flight two minutes, guns go.” And the Cobra gunships rolled into their attack again. As they had seen where the fire was coming from on the first attempt, they concentrated their fire on that location this time. At H minus one, small-arms fire opened up from both the ground and the air. Door gunners and crew chiefs were exchanging lead with NVA soldiers both in trench lines and in the open. Those in the open weren’t doing well as the gunships were using some flechette rockets. The aircraft on short final weren’t doing so well either as the enemy in bunkers shot at the larger targets. ARVN soldiers were exiting the aircraft even before the skids touched the ground, which didn’t hurt the aircrew’s feelings one bit. The less time in the landing zone, the better. As Chalk Two was lifting off, he noticed Flight Lead, Chicken-man Six, was not. In fact, that crew was getting out of their aircraft. The smoking engine told everyone that the aircraft wasn’t flying out.
“Chalk Twelve, Chicken-man Six is down, pick him up if you can,” Yellow Two orders.
“Roger, Chalk Twelve is going long left side.” No one wanted to sit in the LZ and wait for the crew from Chalk One to get out of the aircraft. Chalk Twelve was still on his approach as Chalk One was getting out, so from an aviation standpoint, it was best for Chalk Twelve to go long and land behind Chalk One and pick that crew up rather than for the entire flight to wait and draw the enemy’s fire.
Rather than land behind and to the right of Chalk Eleven, Rob continued to fly his aircraft down the left side of the formation, landing to the left of and behind Chicken-man Six’s aircraft. This gave Rob some cover from the enemy fire along the right side of the landing zone and allowed him to maintain some speed until he had to touch down. By picking up the downed crew, Rob would enable the rest of the flight to get out quick without sitting at a hover and taking fire.
As the ARVNs exited the aircraft, Major Adams and his crew just as quickly climbed aboard Rob’s aircraft. Rob didn’t even get his skids on the ground before Franson was telling him to go. As they lifted off, Ben saw that they were even ahead of Chalk Eleven and had to drop back to join the flight.
“Okay, Ben, you have the controls. Get us back into the formation.”
“Roger, I have the controls.”
Tapping Rob on the shoulder, Major Adams said, “Tell Chalk Two to take us back to Dak To to refuel, and I’ll get with the senior advisor to see if they want another lift in there, which I’m going to discourage. What’s the damage report on the other aircraft?”
“Wait one, sir. I’ll get the status.” Switching from intercom to VHF, Rob made the call. “Yellow Two, Chalk Twelve, over.”
“Chalk Twelve, Yellow Two.”
“Yellow Two, Chicken-man Six says for you to take us to refuel at Dak To and then shut down while he talks to the senior advisor. I need a damage report. Ready to copy.”
“Understood, Chalk Twelve, flight report. Chalk Eleven, break formation and proceed to pick up Yellow One. Over.”
“Roger, Chalk Eleven is breaking formation.” And he peeled off from the formation and headed for the downed aircraft on the road. Meanwhile, each aircraft in turn reported their known damage. Everyone knew that there was some unknown damage as well at this point that would be discovered on the ground. Of the twelve aircraft, no one was left unscathed. Turning to the CO, Rob reported the damage. Maintenance would be working overtime for the next couple of days.
Reaching Dak To, the aircraft refueled and then repositioned to shut down and a more detailed inspection of the aircraft began.
“Hey, Mr. Poggi, you have got to see Lieutenant Gore’s aircraft,” Franson called to him.
“Why, is it bad?” Rob asked as he and Ben started walking up the flight line, looking at the damage to everyone’s aircraft. All had the common puncture marks created by a bullet passing through sheet metal. Rob noticed several people gathered around Gore’s aircraft. The cover over the tail rotor drive shaft was open.
“Hey, Alston, where did you take one?” Ben asked as he approached the group.
“Can you believe this shit?” Alston asked as he pointed at the drive shaft, a four-inch aluminum pipe. Dead center in it was a bullet hole, perfectly centered and perfectly round, straight through the drive shaft.
“Alston, I’ll fly with you any day—you have a very powerful guardian angel,” Ben said.
“Lieutenant Gore, if I didn’t know better, I would say someone shot that tail rotor drive shaft while the aircraft was sitting on the ground and the shaft wasn’t turning. I’ve never seen anything like this,” the maintenance warrant officer said as he stepped back from inspecting the damage. “You can fly it back and we’ll replace the shaft tonight,” he added.
The senior advisor for the ARVNs came by, and Major Adams had a brief discussion with him. The advisor understood that with just ten combat aircraft, the second insertion would have fewer troops but insisted that they had to get in to reinforce those already inserted. Major Adams reluctantly gathered the aircraft commanders together.
“Gentlemen, we have to take a second lift in or they probably won’t be able to hold the landing zone or retake the firebase,” he said. Enthusiasm for a second lift was not registered on anyone’s face. “I don’t like it, but I’ll take the flight lead position. Bob, you sit this one out,” he said to Bob Zuccardi, who was the aircraft commander on Yellow Two. “Let’s crank and get it done.”
With that, everyone started given the arm signal to crank the aircraft, and crews reluctantly donned their chicken plates. Murmured comments could be heard, along with a “Hail Mary” or two.
Once the ARVN soldiers were loaded, Major Adams led the flight back to landing zone. The second insertion was a repeat of the first, but no aircraft were lost and no one was injured. Everyone had additional holes, however. On their return to Dak To, the condition of each aircraft was assessed. Only four aircraft were considered combat-effective, with the remaining six flyable but not combat-effective, and all returned to Camp Holloway for repairs and maintenance. The CO’s aircraft would probably be destroyed in place, and Lieutenant Zuccardi’s aircraft would have to be slung back to Camp Holloway under a CH-47. At least no one had been killed or wounded. Chicken-man was beginning to realize that this wasn’t like flying in the Lai Khe area anymore.