An Assault Helicopter Unit in Vietnam (Undaunted Valor 1)

“You all know that Mr. Cory, Dan, has been with us for the past—what, sixteen months?”

I mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

“In that time, he has flown with everyone in this room and done all that has been asked of him and a lot more. Well, it’s time for him to move on. Dan, you will be missed.” And with that, he shook my hand and motioned for me to take my seat.

A couple of guys patted me on the back as I dragged my sorry ass back to my stool, where another fresh beer was waiting for me. I was at a low point in my life.

“Now for some good news. We’re starting to see the replacement pool pick up as we have a new pilot in today. He’s a bit unique as he has about seventeen hundred hours of combat flight time already and has been in-country for some time. Join me in welcoming First Lieutenant Cory.” As I hunkered over my beer, I was thinking, This poor bastard has the same last name as me. Wonder where he’s from. I turned to see him, and everyone was looking at me with shit-eating grins and started clapping.

“Come up here, Lieutenant Cory,” the CO said and pointed at me. I got off my ass, not sure what was going on. All I could say was, “Sir?”

“Attention to Orders,” bellowed Captain Wehr, and everyone stood at attention. “By order of the President of the United States, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Cory is promoted to First Lieutenant, Infantry, United States Army. Signed…”

Without my knowledge, someone had put me in for a commission and it had been approved. That was an expensive night as I had to buy the beer for everyone. Later, I was informed by some of the warrant officers that I had to move out of the warrant officer hooch and into the RLO hooch, but I managed to negotiate into staying, with a promise that I wouldn’t pull rank on anyone.

Chapter 41

Rise to the Occasion

The next morning, the missions were passed out regardless of rank, and just like the day before, I was handed a resupply mission. As we pulled out of the revetment and started down the runway before the sun came up, I began briefing the crew.

“We have a log mission working out of LZ Snuffy. They found a bunker complex up there that they’re emptying, and will be for some time I understand. Forty-two bunkers, and it’s taking an infantry company a day to inventory and remove stuff from just one bunker. We’ll be backhauling a lot today, so get comfortable. We will refuel at Song Be and then push up to Snuffy. There’s supposed to be a refuel point being set up at LZ Jamie. You have the aircraft, Rick.”

“I have the aircraft,” Rick responded.

It was a quiet morning on the radios as it was too early for aircraft to be in the thick of things, yet. Most aircraft were calling for artillery clearances up to Song Be, Bu Gia Map and Bu Dop with almost everyone stopping off at Quan Loi or Song Be for fuel before pressing on. The sun was just beginning to come up in the east, so we had no turbulence and cloud cover was well above the twenty-five hundred feet we were cruising at. The aircraft was sounding normal and the instruments were all in the green. I enjoyed this time, as no decisions had to be made and I could just enjoy the ride.

I started to realize that now I was a commissioned officer, and an infantry officer at that. What did the future hold?

Warrant Officer Branch was willing to send me back to college: I wondered if Infantry Branch would offer the same. And my next assignment, I was sure, would be the Infantry Officers Basic Course, which might have a couple of aviators like me, but the rest would be recent ROTC graduates. As a first lieutenant, I’d probably get stuck with some leadership position as all the others would be second lieutenants. I needed to think about an assignment when I got out of school. I wondered if they’d send me back here as a grunt. I knew I would be required to maintain flying proficiency even in a ground assignment, and I would need to balance my career between aviation assignments and infantry assignments. One thing I needed to do was get an infantry company commander assignment, as I might already be behind my contemporaries, who would all have been platoon leaders over here. A thousand questions were creeping through my mind, and I had no answers at this point.

Rick had been in the unit for over six months now and hadn’t made aircraft commander. At the monthly AC meetings, Rick had never received one positive vote. About two months ago, he had gone to the CO, wanting to know why he hadn’t made AC. He felt that the ACs had something in for him. The CO had come to me as the unit IP.

“Dan, I want you to fly with Rick tomorrow and give him an AC check ride.”

“Sir, no one has voted for him becoming an AC. He’s just not ready. He doesn’t think. He makes the same mistakes every time with every AC. Sir, if I tell Rick to fly at three thousand feet, ninety knots on a three-sixty heading, he does it perfectly regardless of what gets in his way—artillery, another aircraft, Song Be Mountain. Unless you tell him to avoid those things, he’ll fly right into them.”

“I know, but I want an impartial honest check ride tomorrow. I want every mistake documented and every good point as well. I want you to give him a through critique afterwards and then come to me. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. I would like a log mission with an assault if possible. Those are our bread and butter, and he’s got to be able to handle them.”

“I’ll talk to Ops and see that you have that.” With that, he left. Great, just the guy I wanted to fly with. Okay, this should be fun. Best go tell Rick the good news.

I found him in his room, doing what we all did when sitting in our rooms, writing a letter. “Hey, Rick. How you doing?”

Looking up, he said, “Good, what’s up?” I was still a warrant officer at the time, and while technically I did outrank him as I was a W2 and he was a W1, rank between warrant officers is like virtue between whores.

“What’s up is you’re taking an AC check ride tomorrow with me. We’ll have a log mission followed by an assault. We’ll use my aircraft, but you’re left seat. From the time we wake up until we’re back in the Chicken Coop, shut down and back in Flight Ops, you are the AC, unless you really blow it. Understood?”

His facial expression didn’t change. He held that blank stare as always, which made you wonder if anyone was home. “Okay,” he finally said, and he went back to writing his letter. I just walked off, knowing it was going to be a long day tomorrow.

“Wake up, Mr. Cory. You have a zero six hundred launch,” said the ops clerk.

“What kind of mission?” I asked through the haze of sleep.

“Log and assault, out of Camp Gorvad,” he answered. Hmm, I thought as I dragged my ass out to take a piss. The terrain around Gorvad was fairly flat and had low vegetation, mostly tall brush and few big trees. PZ and LZs were plentiful. No hover holes, though, and I wished we were going to have at least one of those. Did I really want one of those with Big Rick? Who was I kidding? I headed back to get dressed and grab my gear. I walked over to Flight Ops, and Rick came out of his hooch and walked with me.

“Morning, Rick,” I said. I might as well be civil to the guy. Maybe he would surprise me.