An Assault Helicopter Unit in Vietnam (Undaunted Valor 1)

p for by Blue Max releasing all their rockets with pinpoint accuracy. For the first time, our smoke aircraft proceeded us and laid a smokescreen over the tree line once the Cobras had laid in their rockets. Before we even touched the ground, the Vietnamese grunts were out of the aircraft and pushing to the tree line.

“Owner Yellow One is on the go” was heard probably before the last aircraft was over the LZ, but there was no need for empty aircraft to be sitting. As we came out, Grandpa took the controls. There were no calls of anyone taking fire.

“Lovelace, how’s it look back there?” I asked as we cleared the LZ and I could see that Chalk Three and Four were with us.

“Sir, they’re all coming out as fast as they’re going in. I will bet this is the least amount of time in an LZ. Everything looks good. The grunts are really close together and moving out already.”

“Okay, heads up back there. We’ve got gooks on that road and we have to cross that thing again. They’ll be waiting for us.” Evidently someone had thought about this already, as Lobo moved out ahead of the flight slightly and began hitting the edges of the road at the appropriate time. As we rolled over, we could see the effect of Lobo’s work. Besides broken bodies lying in the road, a hornet’s nest of fire came up and greeted us. Without saying a word, Lovelace and Peters opened fire. Just as fast as we came upon the road, we were gone and breathing easy. No one reported any hits. Refueling before the next lift took some time, and as an aircraft would complete refueling, it would move off and shut down until all aircraft were refueled. We then proceeded to a new PZ and repeated the process again, with equal results, into a new LZ. There would be a third lift for the day as briefed.

On the way back to the Chicken Pen that evening, the CO, flying Yellow One, took us over Lai Khe in formation at five hundred feet. As we reached the end of the runway, we changed formation and came up trail, circling back into a downwind leg, base to final leg, and finally turning onto final. Our transition from staggered right to trail was as sharp as any flying in a precision performance. We were showing off. The formation reflected the pride of the unit. The runway was lined with ground crews watching the demonstration. As we pulled into individual revetments, someone from maintenance guided us in, waiting to see what work needed to be done. The maintenance platoon was ready to work all night to get the aircraft back in the air, fully expecting to find multiple bullet holes in each aircraft. There were none! The operation had been a complete surprise from our standpoint. As crews finished post-flight inspections on the aircraft and began walking back to Flight Ops, high fives were exchanged. We felt like, for once, we had really taken the fight to the NVA.

Chapter 40

Things Heat Up

Surprise may have been achieved on day one of the Cambodia campaign, but the NVA recovered quickly and May 2 was the day it started.

“Mayday, mayday, Dragon Breath Two-Three is bailing out and going down, vicinity.” He gave his coordinates.

“Chicken-man One-Seven, Bulldog Six, over.” Bulldog Six was a ground company commander, and Chicken-man One-Seven was flown by Captain Beauchamp, who was working for Bulldog Six flying resupply.

“Bulldog Six, Chicken-man One-Seven.”

“Chicken-man, the forward air controller is going down. Do you have him?” At about this moment, the crew chief, Specialist West, spoke up.

“Hey, Captain, I have a parachute at four o’clock and about a mile away. Also a black cloud of smoke not far from the chute.” Turning the aircraft to the right, the captain spotted the chute as well.

“Bulldog Six, I have him in sight and going for him.”

“Okay, crew, be on your toes. There’s an antiaircraft gun around here, and we need to get that pilot before the gooks do.” Captain Beauchamp continued to fly to the chute, which was just entering the trees. “We’re going in low and fast until we can pinpoint his location.” He dropped to treetop level, heading for the location of the chute, which he could no longer see.

Flying at ninety knots and treetop level, West called out, “Got him! He’s in the trees. Three o’clock.”

Rene lowered his collective rapidly while raising the nose, resulting in no loss of altitude but rapid deceleration of the aircraft while executing a tight turn to the right. As he came around, he could see the chute tangled in the treetops. He approached slowly, very much aware that there was an antiaircraft gun somewhere around here. Small-arms fire was beginning to place green tracers in the aircraft’s vicinity with no hits, yet. Rene also didn’t want to create a lot of wind and have the chute reinflate into the rotors. Crew chief and door gunner had guns up and were scanning the jungle. The door gunner was picking his targets and engaging.

As Captain Beauchamp slid the aircraft over the pilot, West informed him, “Sir, the pilot appears to be out cold. He’s just hanging in the tree there.”

“Okay, we have to get him quick,” Captain Beauchamp said, surveying the ground for a place to land. There wasn’t one, as the vegetation wasn’t dense but the trees were thirty feet high and close enough together that they didn’t offer a clearing big enough to land in.

West had already climbed into the cabin area and was preparing a two-hundred-foot rappelling rope that was maintained in the aircraft.

“Sir, I can get him.” And with that, he dropped the rope and was preparing to go down.

“Okay but…” And West was gone. He’d forgotten to put on gloves, and his hands were paying for that mistake.

“How am I going to get him out?” he said, more to himself than anyone in particular.

“Jamison, you keep an eye on him and keep him covered,” Captain Beauchamp said to the door gunner.

Dropping the seventy or so feet, West sprinted to the pilot, who was still unconscious and hanging in the tree only a few feet off the ground. Small tufts of grass and dirt were being kicked up around West as small-arms fire was directed in his direction.

Damn parachute release won’t release. Son of a bitch. “Damn it, come on!” West screamed, hoping the pilot would wake and give some assistance. He did not. Got to get a knife. Pausing at a low crouch, West waited a moment before he sprinted back to the aircraft, which was still at a hover, engaging the NVA position. As he ran, West made a cutting motion, hoping the gunner or copilot would recognize the signal and drop a knife. They did.

Picking the knife up, West didn’t hesitate to sprint back to the hanging pilot, cut him free and throw him over his shoulder. Just then, an RPG round slammed into the tree the pilot had been hanging in. With the pilot over his shoulder in a fireman carry position, West ran for the aircraft and the dangling rope. Grabbing the rope, he wrapped it around the pilot and himself and motioned for the aircraft to take off. West didn’t have time to tie a knot but only had the rope wrapped around himself and the pilot. Because of his rope-burned hands, West couldn’t climb the rope but prayed he could hold on long enough to get safely back to the ground.

As the aircraft climbed out and built up some speed, the small-arms fire continued. Captain Beauchamp couldn’t fly with any speed as the drag on West and the pilot would be too great and pull them off the rope. West was dangling about seventy feet below the aircraft, which was flying over the jungle at two to three hundred feet. Helicopter crews did not have parachutes. As West cleared the trees, Captain Beauchamp nosed the aircraft over and began picking up speed, all the while praying West didn’t fall. Everyone was well aware that if they had an engine failure or any other emergency, West and the pilot wouldn’t survive.

Arriving over a clearing, Captain Beauchamp lowered the aircraft to place West and the pilot on the ground and then the aircraft. This was an unsecured clearing only about fifteen hundred meters from where they’d picked up the pilot. Detaching the rope, West and Jamison quickly loaded the pilot into the aircraft and departed for LZ Center, where the unconscious pilot was quickly transferred to a medivac aircraft that had been requested. West resumed his duties as a crew chief.12