The "O" Club

The Officers Club, “The O Club” was the main focal point of off duty and some on duty activities. Although common military protocol prevailed, rank became less significant at the club. This was especially true during parties- planned and unplanned, and it seemed like the more alcohol that was consumed the more the playing field was leveled. All decorated for Christmas so this is right at the end of my tour in 68.

Off duty attire was pretty well left up to the individual and ranged from standard jungle fatigues, flight suits and any variation of civilian clothes you could imagine. Foam rubber “flip-flops” and “Ho Chi Minh’ sandals, (made from worn out tires) were popular foot wear. After a day of flying we would go to the mess hall for a meal, get a quick shower and usually migrate to the club. We recounted the day’s missions and embellished openly. Tactics and lessons learned were exchanged and informal critiques of pilots that had not yet been promoted to aircraft commander were discussed discretely, one on one. (Pilots not yet promoted to aircraft commander were referred to as a “Peter Pilot”.) Here, Pat Teague makes a point!

There always seemed to be an improvement project of some sort going on at our club. Bare incandescent bulbs were replaced by fluorescents, spotlights controlled by rheostats to light the stage were installed and the bare concrete slab floor was tiled with linoleum. Nearly all officers’ clubs had a bell hung above the bar and ringing it signified all sorts of tradition inspired activities or that the person doing the ringing wanted everyone’s attention to make an announcement. Ultimately, the bell ringing resulted in more of whatever you were drinking, being placed in front of you. Some of the “traditions” I can recall included: “Hat on the bar, buys the bar.” (We had hat racks by the doors of the club.) “First Air Medal buys the bar.” (The requirement for award of the Air Medal was actually based on accumulation of combat flight time but I can’t remember the specifics involved.) All of us went home with the Air Medal covered with a row of “Oak Leaf Clusters” that signified multiple awards of the same medal. If you belched or broke wind loudly and noxiously, you bought the bar. Boasting about your flying heroics caused you to buy the bar. Being promoted to A/C, (Aircraft Commander) caused you to buy the bar. The list went on and was modified according to the level of festivity and the proximity to pay day. (Pay Call.) Of course, being promoted in grade, (rank) called for a huge celebration and usually resulted in the promoted individual low crawling or getting carried back to his “hooch”. I think the price of a 1-1/2 ounce mixed drink was 30 cents and beer was 15 or 20 cents a can or bottle. The beer of choice was “San Miguel” from the Philippines. American beer was available most of the time but the supply and variety seemed to vary. There was a Vietnamese beer called “Ba Moui Ba" we drank when really desperate and was rumored to have been made with formaldehyde. As you can see from the pictures of the bar supplied by Dennis Ragan, we didn’t lack hard liquor a bit. We even had an ice making machine. All girl band,probably from Tailand. This is Col. Mierswa's going away celebration.

I’m not certain who was responsible for contracting entertainment, (probably the USO) but we had “shows” from time to time. They came from the Philippines, Australia, Japan and even a few from the United States. All girl bands were popular and several pictures below show one such group. The Asian groups did a pretty good job of doing current music, all things considered, but it was a culture shock to see an oriental band all dressed up in cowboy regalia performing country music for us. Prior to my arrival in the Nam, strip shows were popular but were strictly forbidden at some point. During my entire tour, I never saw one.

The officers club took you out of the Nam briefly and provided an outlet for the frustrations and tensions we all felt. We “bonded” there and saw another aspect of our fellow aviators.

Snoopy

My first mission in Vietnam was Kilo-2, affectionately known as “Snoopy” or “Sniffer”. Prior to mission launch, a detector was installed in the helicopter with a probe attached to one of the skid tubes. The detector would sample the air drawn in through the probe and would measure the presence of ammonia in the air. Ammonia is a by-product of human perspiration and urine. Where ammonia was detected, humans were present.

We would be assigned a particular grid area to cover, usually about two square miles. After arriving at the grid coordinates we would drop down to just above the tops of the trees and fly a zigzag pattern until the entire area was covered. One pilot would fly the pattern; the other pilot would keep our location identified on the tactical map and call the turns to the pilot. The machine operator would monitor the gages and call over the intercom whether the contact was a “mark”, “heavy mark or “needle pegged” indicating the strength of the signal. The pilot responsible for the map would mark the locations of the marks according to their strength. The door gunner and crew chief would be on their guns ready to suppress fire as well as observe activity through the jungle canopy when possible.

This mission would be flown for up to a week to build intelligence as to troop movement and strength which would be followed by combat assaults, artillery, air strikes or all three.

The NVA and VC learned quickly the significance of what was being done and were not the least bit hesitant about exposing their position to fire on us. We received more ground fire flying Snoopy than any other mission except hot patrol or LRRP extraction. Eventually we had a fire team of UH-1C gun ships and later, AH-1G Cobra’s that would orbit above us while we flew and would engage the positions foolish enough to shoot at us. The crew chief and gunner would drop smoke grenades when this happened to mark the location and the gun ships would roll in and hose the area down with rockets and machine gun fire.

Snoopy was a popular mission for the more adventuresome, aggressive pilots and especially with the gun ship guys because they almost always got to shoot. We flew this mission off and on for the entire year of 1968 so it must have had plenty of intelligence value. I know that many combat assaults were the result of the mission. I don’t recall the loss of any pilots or helicopters when flying Snoopy but we did take plenty of fire that resulted in battle damage of our Huey’s.

Combat assaults or C/A's

Dawn C/A just after engine start
C/A’s usually consisted of a flight of two or more Huey’s and sometimes involved our entire company. This is how we did it:

The make-up of a C/A consisted of the C and C (command and control) aircraft and was usually flown by our company commander or experienced platoon leader. Rank was not really a consideration due to the fact that a Major, newly arrived in country with little combat experience might be assigned to the C and C aircraft but the actual function of directing the C/A would revert to the other pilot while the higher ranking officer observed, shared flying duties and learned. Sometimes the C and C duties went to a WO-1 with considerable combat flight experience and proven leadership. C and C would orbit above the C/A and direct the flight path headings, altitude, airspeed and anything else requiring our attention.

Flight lead, or the first aircraft in the C/A was always assigned to an experienced pilot regardless of rank and the main consideration was that he be a “smooth stick”. Flight leads had to fly fluid, gentle flight paths because his control inputs and resulting attitude changes were amplified the further back in the formation you were flying. A flight lead that was rough on the controls, or would not hold constant altitude or headings made it miserable for the rest of the flight to remain in formation.

Tail end Charlie or the last bird in the C/A also had to be an experienced pilot. This pilot was always an aggressive stick that could adjust constantly to the whip effect the further back in the formation you were. Tail end Charlie also needed to have proven leadership abilities as he was in a position to observe the entire flight in front of him and advise the flight lead as to when formation changes were complete. He also had the responsibility to pick up the crews of any aircraft shot down during the C/A

The rest of the aircraft assignments mixed an experienced A/C, “aircraft commander” with a new or less experienced pilot.

A C/A would normally begin for us well before dawn so we could get some breakfast, attend the pilots meeting for final details of the C/A, pre-flight and move the aircraft from the revetments to the correct position on the staging area to the side of the runway. The grunts would arrive by truck and wait for the command to load up. We’d then man the aircraft and wait for the signal to start engines. We normally cranked when the C and C aircraft launched as this was normally the pre-arranged signal. This was when the grunts boarded up. We maintained radio silence and waited for C and C to call for the check in. We’d start with flight lead and work our way back to "Tail end Charlie." If a bird went down at this point for whatever reason, the standby aircraft, (if one was available) would load the downed aircraft grunts and join the flight just in front of tail end charlie when we launched.

C and C would then call for lead to launch the flight. Lead would call the tower for takeoff clearance. By now we were all light on the skids, (flight RPM and enough collective pitch to almost hover) and lead would initiate the launch. We’d launch as a flight and start the climb to the prearranged mission altitude. At this point, C and C would call for the flight to go to “V’s of three”, “staggered trail”. (right or left) or whatever formation suited the LZ. C and C would guide the flight to the IP, (initial point) call the turn to the LZ and change the formation if necessary.

At this point, the gun ships joined us and went ahead of the flight to “prep” the LZ. The UH-1C Hueys or AH-1G Cobras would make their runs down either side of the LZ and hose it down with mini-gun, 40 mm grenade launcher and 2.75 inch rockets.

By this time the flight was on short final to the LZ and the most dangerous part of the C/A as we were low, slow and not changing direction. We were a stationary, ever increasing size target for the gooks that shot at us. The Hueys would land and unload the grunts who would take up a defensive perimeter, then quickly clear the LZ for the next aircraft to land. We took the most fire when landing and departing the LZ and lost a number of aircraft in or close to the LZ.

At times, we would do a “false insertion” and fly the entire C/A as described above to a bogus LZ but not unload the grunts. This supposedly would fool the gooks and maybe it did. What it did for certain was increase our workload and use up a lot of fuel and ordinance for the gun ships.

We’d form up in a tactical formation and return to base camp to re-fuel, re-arm and assume regular mission assignments. Several birds would fly re-supply to the unit we inserted to deliver C’s and ammo or whatever they needed.

C/A’s took a lot of planning and practice to execute well. Timing was critical and flight discipline a must. A well executed C/A got the aircraft in and out, the grunts unloaded and the LZ secured without loss of life or aircraft.