An Assault Helicopter Unit in Vietnam (Undaunted Valor 1)

“What? Oh crap, we have a stand-down!” I replied with some surprise.

“Yes, sir. Battalion ordered us to stand down twenty-four hours because of the number of hours flown. It looks like Bravo Company will have one tomorrow, with us picking up the slack, but today it’s still us.”

“No wonder none of us got a wakeup call,” I said.

“The CO has a company formation scheduled for twelve hundred hours, and then the mess hall is cooking hamburgers, dogs and chicken on the grills for the afternoon. Sounds like party time,” he announced over his shoulder as he walked off.

Back in the hooch, a couple of other pilots were just getting up and I spread the word for the company formation and afternoon cookout. No one complained about a stand-down day. Knowing the maintenance folks, however, they were already on the flight line and would be working for the morning to make sure birds were ready the next day as we would be picking up the load for Bravo Company, but they would knock off in time for the CO’s 1200 formation.

At 1145 hours, my platoon leader was wandering through the hooch rounding us up. The CO didn’t ask for much as far as formations went, so we really didn’t mind attending. At 1200 hours, everyone was in formation when the first sergeant stepped to the front next to our company guidon.

“Company, attention!” he bellowed out, and we came to attention. Doing a smart about-face, he saluted the company commander. “Sir, all present and accounted for.”

Returning the first sergeant’s salute, he didn’t tell us to stand at ease as was normally done but instead stated, “Attention to Orders. General Orders Number 203, Valorous Unit Award. The following award is announced. By the direction of the Secretary of the Army, under the provisions of Paragraph 202.1g(2), AR 672-5-1, the Valorous Unit Award is awarded to the following named unit of the United States Army for extraordinary heroism while engaged in military operations during the period indicated. The 227th Aviation Assault Helicopter Battalion distinguished itself by extraordinary heroism while engaged in military operations on March sixth, 1969, in Bien Hoa Province, Republic of Vietnam…” And he continued to read the entire citation.

When he was done reading, the first sergeant announced, “The following personnel, front and center.” He called forward a couple of soldiers. The CO stepped up in front of the first soldier with the company clerk right next to him. The first sergeant continued, “Attention to Orders, Award of the Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded to Specialist Fourth Class Joseph W. Leonard for heroism while participating in aerial flight evidenced by voluntary action above and beyond the call of duty in the Republic of Vietnam on March sixth, 1969, while serving as a door gunner of a UH-1H helicopter with Company A, 227th Aviation Battalion (Assault Helicopter) during combat operations in Bien Hoa, Republic of Vietnam. After inserting a small combat party, the landing zone came under intense enemy fire. Realizing the need for reinforcements, Specialist Four Leonard’s aircraft returned to the base camp and picked up the needed infantrymen. Returning to the contact, his aircraft came under heavy enemy fire while landing. Specialist Four Leonard provided accurate suppressive fire although wounded in the initial barrage of enemy fire. His actions helped immeasurably in the successful completion of the mission. His outstanding ability and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army. Signed Robert M. Shoemaker, Chief of Staff.” The CO stepped up and, taking the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal from the company clerk, he pinned it on Leonard’s chest. He then moved down the line and, with each reading by the first sergeant, pinned a medal on each soldier.

When done, the CO said, “At ease. You have every right to be proud of this accomplishment, even if you were not on the lift that day. The extraordinary action of these soldiers was accomplished by the support of every man in this company. Maintenance, they could not have been there without your efforts before the mission was even started. Company support, they could not have done the mission if you were not here to get them fed, get them up, and see that they had the right equipment. And flight crews, you demonstrated what it takes to take care of the grunts. My compliments, gentlemen. My only regret is that I was not your commander at that time. Battalion recognizes the effort you all put forth every day and has given us a stand-down today. We will be back in the air tomorrow, but for today, let’s have a cookout. Company, attention!”

As we all executed the command, it was followed immediately by a second command. “Dismissed.” And we scattered towards the smell of hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken on the grills.

Chapter 32

Bad Days Ahead, March 1970

Commanding officers in Vietnam only served for six months and then were replaced. If you had a good commander, this was unfortunate. We had a great commander in my opinion, but he only had about another month left in the unit. He set high standards and exercised sound judgment and common sense. He never asked us to do what he wouldn’t do. We were flying our asses off, and he was right there with us. You could tell by looking at him, as he was tired too.

The major was a flight leader and flew many missions as Yellow One. Prior to his arrival, only commissioned officers, RLOs, had served as flight leader. Unfortunately we were getting so low on qualified commissioned officers that he had to fly most of the combat assault missions. The unit was down to the CO and the XO, the flight ops officer, and two platoon leaders, of which only one was experienced and flight leader qualified. We still had Lieutenant Dick Weed, who had been promoted to captain but hadn’t made flight leader as of yet and was due to rotate back to the States within a month. Something had to be done. And the CO did it one night at the club.

“Mr. Cory, the CO wants to see all the pilots in the club. Now, sir,” the flight ops clerk said, sticking his head in my room before moving down the hall to tell the other warrants the same thing. I was writing a letter, which I would finish up later. Along with the four or five others, I drifted to the club.

Once everyone was assembled, the major stepped to the front of the room.

“Sorry to get you all up, but we need to discuss something. Battalion says that we’re going to keep flying the six-two flights. We can expect to be putting up at least twelve aircraft a day to meet the needs, with at least an additional five for log missions and ash and trash.”

I could hear the maintenance officer moan and say under his breath, “Shit, that’s seventeen aircraft a day. I’m not sure we can do that.”

“Want to add something to the conversation?” the major asked, looking straight at the maintenance officer.

“No, sir,” the maintenance officer replied, a bit dejected.

“I know this is going to be tough on the maintenance crews, but Division is stepping up the game with more mini-caves to be conducted. You guys have got to help maintenance out and not break anything as well as stay on top of your own aircraft. Preventive maintenance practices will go a long ways.”

“Doc, how are the guys looking?”

“Well, sir, the stand-down did a pretty good job. Almost everyone got a good day’s sleep, and if they only got fourteen to sixteen hours, then that’s sufficient to revive them for a while. Looking at most of them, I believe a lot of them got around twenty-four hours in those two days’ time. Even the crew chiefs look a lot better,” Doc replied.

“Okay, then. The last issue we need to address, then, is flight leaders.”

A small murmur was heard from the warrant officers, and a few chairs shuffled. We all suspected he was going to announce a new flight leader from the RLO pool. In the opinion of the warrant officers and mostly the aircraft commanders, none of the commissioned officers were a good choice for flight leader. A lot of potential, but they were new for the most part, either in their experience level or their time as AC. A couple just did not have the common sense to be a good flight leader.

“Brigade instituted the policy of only the commissioned officers being flight leaders. They are the tactical officers, while you warrants are the technical officers. The commissioned officers should shoulder the responsibility of tactical decisions. However, we’re running out of commissioned officers and there are none inbound for a time. So I’m going to add two new flight leaders tonight. They’ll fly with me for a couple of missions until I can sign them off. Any questions, Mr. Cory, Mr. Roberts?”

We both responded, “No, sir, no questions.” Why would I have any questions?

“Good, then. Mr. Cory, you and I will have three lifts tomorrow and that should about do it. Mr. Roberts, you and I will fly together the day after tomorrow.”

“Sir?” Mr. Roberts responded, looking at me and I at him.