“Okay, you got it. Any questions?” Tony asked.
“I got it, and no questions.”
“Let’s shoot a low-level autorotation and then a combat takeoff as soon as you have power back up,” Tony said while pointing forward.
“Roger,” I answered.
I brought the aircraft around, and before Tony could say it, I cut the throttle and milked the aircraft back onto the runway. As soon as we stopped, I brought the engine rpm up and attempted to imitate his takeoff. Attempted to imitate.
“Not bad, and you’ll get the hang of it after a couple of missions. Most guys are timid about pushing the nose over the first couple of times. Let’s go play with the artillery now. I have the aircraft,” he said as he took the controls.
We continued on our way northwest as Tony became my tour guide. “This is what we call the Iron Triangle. Chu Chi is to the west, Lai Khe to the east and Quan Loi to the north. If you fly below twenty-five hundred feet, you stand a good chance of getting shot at. This entire area is a free-fire zone, which means we can call artillery on anything we see or want to shoot at. There are no friendlies in this area,” Tony pointed out. We were looking at an area of about one hundred square miles.
“How did you do on your artillery class in school?” Tony asked.
“Pretty good. I really enjoyed that one.”
“Okay, you see that road crossing over there?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s the grid coordinates for it?”
I hadn’t pulled the map out since this had started.
“Dan, don’t fly without a map, and know where you are at all times on that map. If you go down, you aren’t going to have a lot of time to figure that out. Take the controls.”
“I got it,” I said. As I took the controls, Tony opened his map and started giving me an orientation on where we were at. Once he got me situated, he showed me on the map where the artillery positions were located that could possibly fire the mission.
“Okay, you’re going to call either Lai Khe Artillery, Song Be Artillery, Phuoc Vinh Artillery or Quan Loi Artillery initially, depending on where you are. If you call one, after you send the fire mission, they may come back and tell you to contact someone else that will actually fire the mission. Have pencil ready to copy. Okay, what are you going to say?”
I thought about that for a minute and gave my fire mission to Tony.
“You’re good. Send it,” he said after I was done.
“Lai Khe Arty, Chicken-man Two-Seven, fire mission, over.”
“Chicken-man Two-Seven, Lai Khe Arty, over.”
“Lai Khe Arty, fire mission, road intersection grid eight-two-three-five-seven-eight-six-one, over.”
After a minute, Lai Khe Artillery came back. “Understood road intersection, grid eight-two-three-five-seven-eight-six-one.”
“Affirmative, Lai Khe.” A few minutes later: “Chicken-man Two-Seven, shot out.” The artillery battery had just fired six rounds.
“Understood, shot out.”
A few seconds later: “Chicken-man Two-Seven, splash.”
“Understood, splash,” I responded just as a small explosion hit about five hundred meters over the target, but along the gun target line.
“Lai Khe Artillery, drop eight hundred, over.”
“Roger, drop eight hundred.” A minute later: “Chicken-man Two-Seven, shot out.”
“Understood, shot out.”
Thirty seconds later: “Chicken-man Two-Seven, splash.”