Welcome to flying stories of my time in Viet Nam



These stories are dedicated to James G. Zeimet who I refer to in a number of them. Jimmy was a good friend and class mate in flight school, a "hootchmate" in Vietnam and he frequently talked about his desire to fly Medivac. After about seven months in Vietnam, he finally got his wish and was transferred to the 283rd "Dustoff" Medivac unit at Camp Holloway, Pleiku. On September 4th, 1968, he lost his life flying the mission he dreamed about while trying to save the life of a fellow soldier. His name appears on panel 45W - Line 37 at the Wall in Washington, DC.

When I got out of the Army in 1972, I had this idea of writing a book about my experiences in Vietnam where I flew helicopters. While a noble goal, I didn't get started on it for about 35 years. As time passes, you tend to push bad experiences into some seldom visited spot in your brain where they don't bother you much. But I still remember Vietnam like it was just yesterday and wish I could plug my mind into a PC and play it! It would be an interesting video. I won't post everything I've written all at once because I intend to scan old slides, (I have hundreds!) to add to the stories which should provide a little interest. So here they are and I hope you enjoy them.

In the stories, I describe any enemy combatant as a “gook”. This term has no racial connotation nor is it a slur. We used it as freely as one would say, “bad guy”. I can relate it to WW2 radio terminology for German enemy as “Krauts" or "Gerry’s”. Nothing personal or racially motivated, just a convenient way of alerting your fellow war-fighters about your foe. I also refer to anyone fighting the war on the ground as “Grunts”. This is a term I use with great respect for those that weren’t privileged to fight “their war” from the comfort of a helicopter or enjoy going back to “base camp” each evening to a cold Budweiser and a relatively clean bed. The Infantrymen I spoke with unanimously opined that we were the ones that were at much greater risk than them and they would much rather spend their “tour” safely on the ground and exchanging bullets with the NVA. I guess it’s all in your perspective.



2/23/08

Shot down!


Original artwork by Joe Cline

Having an engine failure will point out how well you learned your emergency procedures in flight school and if you practiced them, mentally anyway.

Jimmy and I were on a C/A, (combat assault) one day and the third or fourth ship into the LZ. We had six grunts on board, were on short final at about 60 – 70 knots airspeed and simultaneously the low RPM beeper started it’s “teeeeep, teeeeep” and the master caution illuminated. Engine failure!

I had control of the aircraft at the time and Jimmy called the N-1 (or compressor turbine) RPM as “decaying” and that the engine / rotor tachometer had “split” which meant the engine had declutched automatically at the sprag clutch in the transmission. I had the collective pitch on the bottom, (but never remembered doing this consciously). Jimmy called the rotor RPM, airspeed and when we were clear of the trees at the edge of the LZ.

I pulled the nose up to bleed off the little airspeed we had left and applied the collective pitch to stop the descent. We settled on gently and slid about one aircraft length and the grunts exited. They didn’t even realize we had had an engine failure. The C and C, (command and control) aircraft called for us to clear the LZ and Jimmy responded that we couldn’t since we had lost our engine on final.

We tied down the blade and with the help of a couple grunts, established a defensive perimeter around the Huey. When the next bird unloaded their troops, we hopped on and returned to base camp with them.

It was all pure text book stuff with Jimmy and I reacting automatically and doing all the right things at the right time. The undamaged Huey was sling loaded back to Hensel by a Chinook; the engine changed and was back flying a couple days later. Maintenance told us the engine failure was caused by FOD, “foreign object damage” to the compressor section. The FOD was determined later to be several rounds, probably from an AK-47. This time, the maintenance officer and our CO got us drunk!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)