by: Author Unknown,
Incoming in Saigon, my sleepy brain never really sleeps. My bed is on the first floor, I am instantly awake, I can tell the difference between incoming and outgoing in my sleep. That was definitely incoming.
I had just transferred to the 120th Assault Helicopter Company, flying out of Hotel-3 in Saigon from a serious kick ass line outfit, the Blackhawks or 187th Assault Helicopter Company in Tay Ninh, we got rocketed all the time there. I knew the drill. Get as many of the helicopters in the air as you can, and if you can scrounge a crew take a gunship. Warrant Officer helicopter pilots can and will fly just about anything that has rotor blades on it and I was running full speed through the confusion to the heliport to get at least one helicopter out of harms way.
Captain Payne is waving both arms over his head standing in front of his Razorback C model gunship, she was running and I dove in and strapped the chopper to my ass and we pulled pitch off the Hog pad. We are into the inky dark in seconds looking for mortar tube flashes, but what we see is a sea of little lights showing thousands of NVA and Viet Cong heading for the airfield, the lights stretched out into the night. I don't scare easy. This sight was unnerving.
We can see a huge volume of fire concentrated on one of the gates and open fire on the human wave attack. We are expended in seconds. Flying low over the bunkers dropping hot brass on the MP's, cutting swaths in the wall of NVA. I finally get the MP's on the radio. They are pinned down fighting for their lives, we tell them we will be right back and make the two-second trip to rearm just across the runway.
We rearm as fast as the crew and the armors can lay the linked ammo in the trays. The rockets all have to be seated and extra M-60 barrels for the Crew Chief and Gunner, we are off.
We fight hard and the volume of fire from the NVA never lets up one bit. I am worried about the MP's, but I can see the tracers coming out of their positions. We covered a jeep full of ammo, so they could keep fighting.
As day was starting to make the sky pink in the East, we finally took so many hits to that helicopter that we could no longer keep oil in the engine and she started to burn on short final to Hotel-3. Now I am out of the
Gunship business, but still in the fight.
The 120th AHC flew most of the generals and dignitaries around Saigon and the South part of Vietnam, and so had some beautiful new UH-1 H Model C & C ships with center radio consoles and leather seats. So when the company ran out of Gunships, with the help of the Crew I took the center console out of
the C&C helicopter and made a ammo hauling monster out of that clean new ship. Now I needed a copilot, so I flew the helicopter down to the Long Binh area to look for Doc Warden. Doc was the Flight Surgeon for our aviation group, and had flown 500 plus hours with me at the 187th Assault. I hated to admit it but he was as good as any line pilot in Vietnam, and better than most, Doc had never been to flight school. Major David Royal Warden Jr. MC was sitting in his ambulance on the Black Jack Pad, I had him strapped in and on the intercom in seconds. Doc, we are out of pilots again. Can you fly today? Doc looks over and smiles, when the chips are down, Airborne Ranger Doc will pull you through, I was already pulling pitch.
I knew the men in the BOQ were almost surrounded and trapped inside with no weapons, (a ruling coming from drunken fights in the back area) I could hear them on the radio, so we loaded cases of pistols, clips, rifles, and ammo. We had to hover over the roof and drop the heavy boxes, right through the roof to the trapped men below, while a Playboy Cobra gunship team flies cover for our exposed hovering helicopter. The NVA open up with a .51 cal and hit one of the cobras killing the pilot, one of my roommates from Flight
School Class 67-3, Roger Cameron. It is starting to be a long day.
The MP's have fought hard and are still holding the perimeter, there are bodies everywhere. We finally get a chance to pull the wounded back from the outer bunkers and move some larger machine guns out. Our usually spitshined MP's look like grunts in the field, and fight like grunts in the field. They made us proud. The NVA threw everything they had at the MP's and could not budge them. The fight was not over by far, but we knew we could handle anything they could throw at us and hold.
With the aid of Doc Warden, I flew 26 straight hours in a helicopter, got 4 hours of sleep on the floor of the helicopter and cranked it up for another 20 hours. I am sure I could have never survived with out the help of Doc Warden at the controls. We took hits on one helicopter until something vital was hit, then we would find a replacement and keep on flying. I knew from flying for the Blackhawks, the most important thing in a fire fight, is to keep the ammo coming to the men in contact.
I never looked at an MP the same the rest of the time I was in the military. The ones I knew held against impossible odds and a volume of fire unknown before the Tet offensive. If they had not have held, we would have been overrun no doubt about it. When you have seen a MP standing on a bunker radio in hand directing fire, like I have, not caring about his own safety, you know why they held.
Wayne R. "Crash" Coe
The C & C Helicopter was General Abrams bird, and he never complained.
Bunker mate's M16's bolt locks up,so he panicks give him a box of grenades,after along toss it goes off in front of the bunker,he threw it straight up in the air.No one was hurt was quite funny later.
Dale Fritts 25th Avn
Flying into Hotel 3, while 51 mm tracers are following you into down wind - gettin' closer.
Spending the night at Hotel 3, in a UH-1D, with two nurses, needing to go to Cu Chi. Tower won't clear us for departure due to excess ground fire.
Rob Amiot 25th avn
Returning from Hong Kong R&R 1700 hours 30JAN68
Planning to stay that night in Saigon with Jim Weeg at U-8 company BOQ,but saw Little Bear courier bird landing at Hotel 3 and decided to catch a ride to Cu Chi instead
Mortars and rockets every 45 minutes after midnight
After first couple of attacks, sleep in bunker
Flying 14 hours A/C time one day
Shut down at infantry bn CP one day; 5 days to DEROS. Sniper in tree starts firing at us; Carl Muckle and I unassed the ship in record time; paddy dike for Carl, nothing for me; new sprint record to nearest foxhole, rounds hitting dirt beside my feet, jumped in on top of the grunt; called in Diamondhead guns,they shot sniper out of tree
Zippo track hit by RPG near Trang Bang, exploded, top panel of track body up to our 1500 ft altitude
Jim Jaap lowering M-16s to people on roof of U-8 company BOQ in Saigon during night 31JAN68 because Victor Charlie occupied lower floor; glad I changed my mind about RON in Saigon
If I had been coming back from R&R one day later, I would have been stuck in Hong Kong another week (tough duty) before charter flights were allowed into Tan Son Nhut
Riding with the Old Man in his jeep from flight line to ops; C-130 landed and offloaded fuel blivets, the rockets came in to try to get the130; Old Man , driver and I lying in the ditch by the road 'til counterbattery fire started
Hugh Bell
We were refueling at DakTo right across the runway (a 9-iron shot) from the Ammo Dump when the NVA mortared two C-130's off-loading ammo. Both Herky Birds were hit in the process, stored ammo was cooking off and all Hell broke loose in a matter of seconds. I was monitoring both the IC and the FM tower freq.
We'd come in "dry" but had taken on about 1/2 a "tank" when the festivities began. I saw it and yelled at the CE and Gunner that we had "incoming, drop the hoses and cap it off, didi, didi", got them on board and called forward that the ramp was up ready for flight. We exited poste haste!
Meanwhile, from the the DakTo Tower, a Conex box on some telephone posts just to our west came:
"All fixed-wing aircraft cleared to the active. All rotary-winged aircraft cleared for flight. DakTo Tower is off the F**kin' air!" Followed by a blur leaping out the side of the Conex to the ground about 15-feet below. And, to the ATC's credit, he never broke stride betwixt the "tower" and a nearby bunker.
Point being: if MY pilots hadn't gotten out of there I'd have left them in the LZ:-))
Mac
Taking off from Tan Son Nute lying on a strecther on a C-141 and watching F-4's wag their wings as we left VN airspace and headed out over the South China Sea toward Japan.
Brian D Piggott x]:-})
C Trp 3/17 ACR
Scouts Charliehorse 16&17
Tay Ninh 67-68
I had just transferred to the 120th Assault Helicopter Company, flying out of Hotel-3 in Saigon from a serious kick ass line outfit, the Blackhawks or 187th Assault Helicopter Company in Tay Ninh, we got rocketed all the time there. I knew the drill. Get as many of the helicopters in the air as you can, and if you can scrounge a crew take a gunship. Warrant Officer helicopter pilots can and will fly just about anything that has rotor blades on it and I was running full speed through the confusion to the heliport to get at least one helicopter out of harms way.
Captain Payne is waving both arms over his head standing in front of his Razorback C model gunship, she was running and I dove in and strapped the chopper to my ass and we pulled pitch off the Hog pad. We are into the inky dark in seconds looking for mortar tube flashes, but what we see is a sea of little lights showing thousands of NVA and Viet Cong heading for the airfield, the lights stretched out into the night. I don't scare easy. This sight was unnerving.
We can see a huge volume of fire concentrated on one of the gates and open fire on the human wave attack. We are expended in seconds. Flying low over the bunkers dropping hot brass on the MP's, cutting swaths in the wall of NVA. I finally get the MP's on the radio. They are pinned down fighting for their lives, we tell them we will be right back and make the two-second trip to rearm just across the runway.
We rearm as fast as the crew and the armors can lay the linked ammo in the trays. The rockets all have to be seated and extra M-60 barrels for the Crew Chief and Gunner, we are off.
We fight hard and the volume of fire from the NVA never lets up one bit. I am worried about the MP's, but I can see the tracers coming out of their positions. We covered a jeep full of ammo, so they could keep fighting.
As day was starting to make the sky pink in the East, we finally took so many hits to that helicopter that we could no longer keep oil in the engine and she started to burn on short final to Hotel-3. Now I am out of the
Gunship business, but still in the fight.
The 120th AHC flew most of the generals and dignitaries around Saigon and the South part of Vietnam, and so had some beautiful new UH-1 H Model C & C ships with center radio consoles and leather seats. So when the company ran out of Gunships, with the help of the Crew I took the center console out of
the C&C helicopter and made a ammo hauling monster out of that clean new ship. Now I needed a copilot, so I flew the helicopter down to the Long Binh area to look for Doc Warden. Doc was the Flight Surgeon for our aviation group, and had flown 500 plus hours with me at the 187th Assault. I hated to admit it but he was as good as any line pilot in Vietnam, and better than most, Doc had never been to flight school. Major David Royal Warden Jr. MC was sitting in his ambulance on the Black Jack Pad, I had him strapped in and on the intercom in seconds. Doc, we are out of pilots again. Can you fly today? Doc looks over and smiles, when the chips are down, Airborne Ranger Doc will pull you through, I was already pulling pitch.
I knew the men in the BOQ were almost surrounded and trapped inside with no weapons, (a ruling coming from drunken fights in the back area) I could hear them on the radio, so we loaded cases of pistols, clips, rifles, and ammo. We had to hover over the roof and drop the heavy boxes, right through the roof to the trapped men below, while a Playboy Cobra gunship team flies cover for our exposed hovering helicopter. The NVA open up with a .51 cal and hit one of the cobras killing the pilot, one of my roommates from Flight
School Class 67-3, Roger Cameron. It is starting to be a long day.
The MP's have fought hard and are still holding the perimeter, there are bodies everywhere. We finally get a chance to pull the wounded back from the outer bunkers and move some larger machine guns out. Our usually spitshined MP's look like grunts in the field, and fight like grunts in the field. They made us proud. The NVA threw everything they had at the MP's and could not budge them. The fight was not over by far, but we knew we could handle anything they could throw at us and hold.
With the aid of Doc Warden, I flew 26 straight hours in a helicopter, got 4 hours of sleep on the floor of the helicopter and cranked it up for another 20 hours. I am sure I could have never survived with out the help of Doc Warden at the controls. We took hits on one helicopter until something vital was hit, then we would find a replacement and keep on flying. I knew from flying for the Blackhawks, the most important thing in a fire fight, is to keep the ammo coming to the men in contact.
I never looked at an MP the same the rest of the time I was in the military. The ones I knew held against impossible odds and a volume of fire unknown before the Tet offensive. If they had not have held, we would have been overrun no doubt about it. When you have seen a MP standing on a bunker radio in hand directing fire, like I have, not caring about his own safety, you know why they held.
Wayne R. "Crash" Coe
The C & C Helicopter was General Abrams bird, and he never complained.
Bunker mate's M16's bolt locks up,so he panicks give him a box of grenades,after along toss it goes off in front of the bunker,he threw it straight up in the air.No one was hurt was quite funny later.
Dale Fritts 25th Avn
Flying into Hotel 3, while 51 mm tracers are following you into down wind - gettin' closer.
Spending the night at Hotel 3, in a UH-1D, with two nurses, needing to go to Cu Chi. Tower won't clear us for departure due to excess ground fire.
Rob Amiot 25th avn
Returning from Hong Kong R&R 1700 hours 30JAN68
Planning to stay that night in Saigon with Jim Weeg at U-8 company BOQ,but saw Little Bear courier bird landing at Hotel 3 and decided to catch a ride to Cu Chi instead
Mortars and rockets every 45 minutes after midnight
After first couple of attacks, sleep in bunker
Flying 14 hours A/C time one day
Shut down at infantry bn CP one day; 5 days to DEROS. Sniper in tree starts firing at us; Carl Muckle and I unassed the ship in record time; paddy dike for Carl, nothing for me; new sprint record to nearest foxhole, rounds hitting dirt beside my feet, jumped in on top of the grunt; called in Diamondhead guns,they shot sniper out of tree
Zippo track hit by RPG near Trang Bang, exploded, top panel of track body up to our 1500 ft altitude
Jim Jaap lowering M-16s to people on roof of U-8 company BOQ in Saigon during night 31JAN68 because Victor Charlie occupied lower floor; glad I changed my mind about RON in Saigon
If I had been coming back from R&R one day later, I would have been stuck in Hong Kong another week (tough duty) before charter flights were allowed into Tan Son Nhut
Riding with the Old Man in his jeep from flight line to ops; C-130 landed and offloaded fuel blivets, the rockets came in to try to get the130; Old Man , driver and I lying in the ditch by the road 'til counterbattery fire started
Hugh Bell
We were refueling at DakTo right across the runway (a 9-iron shot) from the Ammo Dump when the NVA mortared two C-130's off-loading ammo. Both Herky Birds were hit in the process, stored ammo was cooking off and all Hell broke loose in a matter of seconds. I was monitoring both the IC and the FM tower freq.
We'd come in "dry" but had taken on about 1/2 a "tank" when the festivities began. I saw it and yelled at the CE and Gunner that we had "incoming, drop the hoses and cap it off, didi, didi", got them on board and called forward that the ramp was up ready for flight. We exited poste haste!
Meanwhile, from the the DakTo Tower, a Conex box on some telephone posts just to our west came:
"All fixed-wing aircraft cleared to the active. All rotary-winged aircraft cleared for flight. DakTo Tower is off the F**kin' air!" Followed by a blur leaping out the side of the Conex to the ground about 15-feet below. And, to the ATC's credit, he never broke stride betwixt the "tower" and a nearby bunker.
Point being: if MY pilots hadn't gotten out of there I'd have left them in the LZ:-))
Mac
Taking off from Tan Son Nute lying on a strecther on a C-141 and watching F-4's wag their wings as we left VN airspace and headed out over the South China Sea toward Japan.
Brian D Piggott x]:-})
C Trp 3/17 ACR
Scouts Charliehorse 16&17
Tay Ninh 67-68
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