Cry havoc, and unleash the dogs of war !

"Soulkitchen"
PISS AND VINEGAR

Being young, and full of piss and vinegar, hard drinking was the norm for the men of C trp. In the moring we {the loach paltoon} would all go to the mess hall, not for breakfast, but for a quart of milk to settle our hungover stomachs before we had to fly in our rollercoster type scout missions in the A O.

On this particular moring there was no white milk, only chocolate, and tomato juice. I seen one of our pilots grab some chocolate milk as I got some tomato juice, { should have know better}. I drank my juice on the way to the flight line, my stomach turning over and over from last nights partying.

As we readied the aircarft for flight I knew that I would soon lose my "breakfast" before taking off. That thought done the trick! With all the nonchalant arrogance that one can muster at such a time, I sauntered to the revetment wall, and stepped behind it. It was at this point in time that I "tossed my cookies" as I strolled the length of the wall.

The pilot {remember him} that had the chocolate milk, was also taking a stroll behind the wall at this time, and we met in the middle! He with his chocolate milk, me with my tomato juice. As we both finished feeding the ants, he looked up and asked was I "ready to go fly ?"

moon

Jim Shetz was his name.

We got a FNG in one time, a young lad of 18, fresh from the city. He seamed okay, so we decided to let him stay.

As the evenin's drinking progressed he made the statement that "he could drink us all under the table" wrong thing to say to a group of older guys, hell, we had a year or two on this young pup!

Soooo, we proceded to show him the error of his ways. Later in the night while "MOON" was in the latrine two of the guys took the springs out of his bunk, which happened to be the top bunk. When Jim returned, barely able to walk, he didn't say anything just dropped his pants on the floor and swung up onto the bunk. As Jim hit the mattress, it and he fell down onto the bottom bunk. Jim jumped up and ran out the front door of the hooch buck naked puking his guts up! He was quite a site out there in the moonlite, naked, bent over puking with his white ass shinin'! So thats how Moon became "MOON". Good show bro and have a drink on me!

Just another day

It was a day, just like all the other days. I woke up about an hour before dawn and went to the mess hall for my daily dose of milk {hangover cure} and then to the flight line to fly the days missions.

We arrived at Roc Soi, our base airstrip for the days A O. There were four loach's, four cobra's and the c&c {command & control} slick, I don't recall how many of our other slicks were with us that day,probably four also. We done are morning recons without finding to much action, broke for a hardy lunch of c rations, and then resumed or activates.

A recon flight consisted of two loach's, two corba's, and c&c and were about two hours in lenght, due mostly by the amount of fuel we could carry. As it happened, it wouldn't be my turn to go out again until late afternoon. Late in the afternoon it was my teams turn in the barrle so we cranked up the birds and headed to the A O.

Working low and slow, looking for chuck [V C], shooting up the place trying to find him, without much luck. We were ordered over to a different area after about an hour of this.

Having arrived in the new area the pilot [ Mr. Green ] lowered the collective and we dropped down on the deck and slipped in on chuck.

We surprised him, we surprised him good ! Only thing is, he surprised us too ! Here we were, in broad daylight, not a half mile from a ARVN firebase, and there are 5 NVA doing there laundry, or whatever ? I shot one to my front and another to my rightfront, our wingman was into the fray by now and c&c and the corba's were yelling over the radios to "get the hell out of there" !

As I looked to my rightrear {still shooting at the guy to my rightfront} I seen my wingman take one of them out at my 3 o'clock, there was one at my 4 o'clock and another at my 5, both with there riles up at there shoulders, aimed right at Mr. Green and myself and blazing away. Our wingman got at least one of them that I seen, before I noticed that there was something warm runing down my left cheek and neck. Oh hell! I thought as I noticed the two bullet holes in the aircraft {where my head would be if I hadn't been looking back at my six} I've been shot in the head !

Then I realized it was Transmission oil and I wasn't dead ! I informed the pilot of the hits to the tranny and he calmly said "I know" as he told the rest of the flight and headed for the ARVN firebase. It was only a short flight to the firebase and as we sat down inside their perimeter and chopped throttle the rotorblades stopped turning, alot faster than usual, as the transmission started to freeze up!

After a few mintues,the pilot and I were on the c&c headed back to Can Tho, our home base, with the rest of the flight, the cobra's having worked over the area good.

Shortly after landing at Can Tho I was warmed by my CO's gentle voice and touch from the rear, "Allee!, WHAT THE HELL YOU DOING HERE?, GO HOME! he said softly in my left ear {still don't hear to good on that side}. With a little push he guided me to another loach that was waiting. I noticed my bags in the back as I climbed into the left front seat. A few short hours later I was on the big bird home, wondering how bad my loach was shotup and if I'd ever see all my friends in C trp again ?

Electric Olive

The following was sent in by Mr. Standly

The 13th Combat Aviation Battalion was made up of a mix of Aviation units. It had a Cav unit, C/16 Cav, That I had the occasion to fly with on many occasions. It was also one of the favorites for the Commander to watch in action. They had the most enemy contact, lost the most personnel, lost the most aircraft and had a lot of accidents. They worked hard and played hard.

It was part of my job as a safety officer to observe the units in action and to watch for “Dangerous” trends. I also had the task of flying the commander when ever he needed to fly. He had to have a rated IP. As the aviation safety officer I was also a UH-1 IP and Flight evaluator. We would plan our day around C/16. Fly by their Area of Operations. Being polite Guardian 6 would call the working team and report us in the area. This would invariable cause the gunships to break higher if we were there.

The C.O and I called the heavy scout/Gun team working a patch of woods in the Delta. At the same time the scouts started to receive fire. The lead scout called the fire and broke to the right . All the fire hit the second OH6, and he went down through the trees. No one seen where the bird went in, except for us. I had the location where I last spotted the bird and called us in bound.

I should tell you about my “Slick”. Guardian 6’s UH-1H was new, under 340 hours. It was armed with a light weight .50 on the right side. We fired Armor piercing incendiaries, .50 cals with a bang. On the left side we had a door mount Mini-gun. We usually carried enough ammo to scare me at take-off with full fuel.

Needless to say we could hold our own . There was no place to set down. My door gunner rapidly located the two crewmembers and kept them covered while we looked for a place to set it down. No joy, the closest place was way to far with the volume of fire going up at the AH-1s and at our aircraft. My Crewchief said they were only 20 feet below us, go lower he asked, I got as low as I could but they were still to far. He then jumped to the end of his monkey strap and they both climbed aboard up and over the Crewchief. He had to stay there until we set down to let him in the aircraft. I took off and landed a mile away in a clear area and gathered my crew inside.

I put the crewchief in for a DFC. I believe he got a Bronze Star with a V device.
W.Robert Stanley Sr. Guardian 9 Oct 70-71 Killer Spade 13, Mar 68-69

Steve Hill's account [ Mr. standly's crewchief ]

It has been a long time since this event took place. There was a lot of stuff going on that day, so it was difficlut to keep track of everything. However, this is the way I remember 28 July 1971. We were working with the 16th Air Cav, their call sign... "Darkhorse".

Myself (flying as Crew Chief), my Door Gunner (George Stallings), the CO-Pilot Captain Dickson and the Pilot (Col. Tolfa, Battalion Commander of the 13th Combat Aviation Battalion), were flying with the 16th Air Cav. deep in the Mekong Delta.

The Cav was working a Search & Destroy mission in the U-Minh Forrest near Cambodia and the Red China Sea. This type of mission used helicopters, as a team, to search out the enemy and kill them. We called our team a "Hunter Kill Team". Two Loaches (OH-6A) would fly at tree top level moving forward by only making right hand orbits. (Sort of like the movement of a tornado.) Each Loach had one Pilot and one Door Gunner and they sat on the right side of the aircraft. The Door Gunner shot at anything and everything on the ground. Whenever they came across a houch (small hut) the pilot would fly directly up to the open doorway or window and flare the helicopter in a way that would assist the Door Gunner in throwing a small bomb into the opening. The Door Gunner would be firing his machine gun right up to the point of throwing out the bomb. The bomb was made by attaching two or three sticks of C-4 plastic explosive around a concussion grenade using good ol' Army Aviation "Duck Tape"!

At an altitude of almost five hundred feet above the two Loaches was the C&C ship (Communication Control). This was a UH-1H Huey flying in a left hand orbit just opposite of the rotation of the two Loaches below. The C&C ship helped guide the Loaches as well as coordinate all communication between all other aircraft in the "Hunter Kill Team". About five hundred feet about the C&C ship flying in a right hand orbit in sync with the Loaches was our ship. We were armed with a Browning Aviation 50 Caliber machine gun in the right doorway and a Mini-Gun in left doorway. The 50 Cal ammo was a repetitive combination of two rounds of armor piercing, two rounds incendiary and one round ball tracer. The Mini-Gun fired 6,000 rounds per minute (30 cal) with every fifth round as a tracer. When fired, it looked like a lazier beam coming out of the side of that helicopter. A thousand feet above us were two Snakes (UH-1G Huey Cobras). They flew in left hand orbits 180 degrees apart They were there to pound the enemy with Rockets & Nails, 40 Millimeter Grenades and Mini-Gun fire if called upon by the C&C ship.

Briefly this is what happened.
One of the Loaches started taking fire (being shot at by the enemy). They got their tail rotor shot out. The Loach started spinning through the air and crashed down into the trees. The C&C ship called for the Snakes to begin pounding the area around the crash site. The C&C ship hovered over the crash site and saw both Pilot and Door Gunner were alive and moving. As the Loach crashed down it opened up a small space in the heavily wooded area almost large enough for a helicopter to land in... almost but not quite. The C&C ship hovered into the open area and lowered a sling rope to the ground which was about 30 feet below the ship. The idea was for the downed crew to hold onto the sling rope as the C&C ship lifted them out, fly about two hundred meters to the beach and let them down there. It was a great idea, but the crew onboard the C&C ship dropped the sling rope out the door and the life line fell to the ground.

The C&C ship radioed to let us know they had dropped the life line and ask if we had one. We did not! Since we did not have a sling rope we decided to hook seat belts together to create a life line. As we hovered into the crash down area the C&C ship took up their normal position to get a better picture of enemy troop movement around us. The Cobra's continued to pound the area around us and the remaining Loach flew a tight circle around us, machine gunning everything. Our seat belt life line wasn't quit long enough to reach the downed crew and the opening in the trees wasn't quit big enough for us to hoover down and land.

It turned out we were right next to an entire Division of hard core NVA (North Vietnamese Army). solders They were running towards us and shooting at all the helicopters. The Cobra's were helping make it possible for us to continue trying to reach the downed crew by rocketing and machine gun the NVA. I fired my 50 cal machine gun everywhere.

Because we were about level with the tops of the trees I was having a difficult time seeing the advancing NVA solders. on the ground. I used my machine gun like a chain saw cutting down trees... and NVA solders. I spotted a houch in the distance and literally destroyed it with the power of the 50 cal. Directly outside my door a Viet Cong Solder jumped up from a tunnel opening. I hit him in the left shoulder. The power of the 50 cal severed his arm from his body and pushed his body back into the hole. As my Door Gunner (George Stallings) keep trying to reach the downed crew I keep shooting the enemy. Our helicopter had taken a number of hits and our main rotor and tail rotor blades were ripped from bullet holes and blade strikes from hitting the trees. My 50 cal machine gun jammed so I garbed a hand held M-60 (30 cal machine gun). I shot it until I ran out of bullets. I took hold of the charging handle of the 50 cal and pulled with all the might I could muster from my 144 pound body. I got it un-jammed and begin to fire.

The Loach that was circling us radioed saying the NVA where setting up a crew served weapon. That was bad news for all of us. The crew served weapon was a 51 cal anti-aircraft machine gun. The Loach said he would fly over their position and mark it with a red smoke grenade. The Cobra's were out of ammo and the replacement Cobras hadn't arrived on station so it was up to me to take out the 51 cal. Right after the Loach marked the 51 cal's position they started firing at us. They hit us once in the tail boom before I was able to kill all three of them.

Our life line was not long enough to reach the downed crew and we were running out of time, ammo and options. I removed my chest protector (bullet proof vest) and took hold of the life line. I secured myself to the floor, my Door Gunner helped hold onto me as I hung out the door making the life line long enough to reach the downed crew. At that time I heard my pilot say through the intercom, "Are they on the strap?... are they ON THE STRAP?... I've got full aft cyclic here folks... are they on the strap?. My Door Gunner and I could not reach around to press the intercom button to tell our pilot that they where on the strap. Luckily, the Loach which was circling us radioed to my pilot that the downed crew was on the strap

My Door Gunner and I knew we were in trouble when we heard our pilot say he had full aft cyclic. That meant we should have been flying at full speed backward, but at best we were holding a hoover. We knew if we didn't try to get out of there fast we would probably end up crashed down with the very Loach crew we were trying to rescue.

When our pilot heard the radio transmission of the Loach flying cover around us saying the crew was on the strap he began to life us up. As we began lifting up I was some how able to secure the life line to a D-Ring on the floor of the helicopter and return to my 50 cal. machine gun. I began shooting at the enemy (who where still shooting at us).. I was standing, leaning out the doorway as I shot the 50 cal. Something hit me in the right shoulder and knocked me back into my seat. I sort of shook my head back and forth much like a dog shacks himself after a swim or a bath. I jumped back up and begin firing.

We made it to the beach and we were able to lower the two downed crewmen onto the sand. However, because our tail rotor was damaged from bullets and tree strikes we couldn't come to a still hoover. We had to keep some forward air speed so we didn't go into a spin and crash. They drooped off rolling across the beach as we made the pass. The C&C ship came in behind us and picked them up.

I have never talked to the two guys we pulled out. I got some e-mail once from another guy that was in C/16 and he said he talked to them and they were still kick'n. I think he said the name of the Loach was the "Electric Olive". If you run across those two, tell them I send a "Hell-O".

Later

Steve Hill

Lt. Zeibert's Tail Rotor Failure

I was coming out of gun run [rather low level] and this  tree attacked me ! The impact dislodged a bolt up in the doghouse. That bolt then fell between the driveshaft and the housing. You can guess, the shaft lost. When it severed we were at about 100 feet over some really bad guys ! I flew it out of the spin and back to CaMau. Thought I was going to have it made, but when we got there, a bunch of VNAF slicks were parked along the strip next to the PSP runways !

We started to the other end of the strip and slowing back. At about 10 knots "ABOVE" running  landing touch down speed the damn thing started spinning on me ! Out of ideas, I chopped the throttle and dropped from about 10 feet or so.

The left skid caught a pile of rocks in the grass which  ripped the skid off ! It then dropped onto the minigun, the blades flexed down and chopped the tail boom off ! Don't remember who the gunner was, but I do remember he bailed out the second the skids hit and the last I saw of him, he was running along side me as I slid to a stop ! Fast sumbitch !

As told by Lt. Zeibert

If memory serves; I think the gunner was Tex Weddle ?
                                                                                      Allee

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