Diable's Attention to Detail applied in war

If you remember the story about the old first sgt that came in the barracks and caught everybody sleeping and the most recent one about Diable catching the candidate with his cash exposed in the barracks, you may enjoy the brief note I am about to make about my application of his "Attention to Detail" rules. I will be brief as I do not want to mess up a story I will write about the invasion of Cambodia later on in this article.

If you will remember from my post about the first day we met Diable, I outlined my first impression of his impeccably squared away uniform and his overall demeanor. The last note I made concerned his memorization of the rule book that was given to incoming candidates at Ft. Wolters and how impressive it was to hear him recite the rules from memory. Putting those impressions into actions while in combat, literally saved me from going to jail and I will make a brief note about that here before I get to the next post about training at Ft. Rucker.

When we invaded Cambodia, I had just experienced my immediate Commanding Officer's departure from the Scout Platoon and witnessed the God Awful conduct of his replacement. Let's use the comic book character and call him Captain "Dilbert". He certainly was a Dilbert kinda guy and was easily the sorriest human being I'd ever met during the entire time I was in the Army.

Upon his arrival, I was pretty much the old, experienced combat pilot and it was left up to me to give him his "In Country Orientation Flight". This was a requirement that had to take place before anyone was allowed to venture out and fly to the AO or Area of Operations.

I had mixed emotions about that. I was glad that I had been pointed out as the "Go To Guy" as it made me quite proud to be described that way by the Major who was commanding the entire Air Cav Troop. On the other hand, I had already pegged Captain Dilbert as one of those "short guy complex" kinda guys and wasn't all that excited about flying him around the AO.

Despite that, I found myself preparing for take off and explaining to Dilbert that we would be going throughout the AO and identifying land marks that he could use as way points for navigation. As soon as I took off and cleared the concertina wire that marked the perimeter of the base, I reached down to the mini gun arming switch and flipped it to the "on" position. I didn't say anything about that, I just did it and continued with my explanations of landmarks and flew directly to Phu Loi which was an area that was easy to identify and use as a navigation point to begin missions from.

He really didn't have much to say during the entire flight. I found that to be a little strange but didn't get on him or pressure him about anything. I returned to base, made my radio calls and landed at the heli pad where the scout pilots began all operations. When I did that and began the procedures to shut down the turbine and end the flight, he took off his seat belt and shoulder harness and began to exit the aircraft. Before he unplugged his patch chord that connected him to all the radios and intercom, he said: "Meet me in the TOC (Tactical Operations Center" and I will "critique" your flight.

I was amazed that this "know nothing, first day in the unit idiot" would say anything other than Thank You, Mr. Butler. Having heard his comment, I replied with: "Captain Dilbert, I am the aircraft commander and as soon as I finish with my post flight and log book, I will critique you in the TOC". Suffice it to say that day one was the beginning of the war between us.

Shortly after that, we began Hunter Killer operations in Cambodia. I was already over the hump in my tour of duty and had less than six months remaining before I would go back home. Having been around that long, following the lessons Diable had taught me, I had already memorized the Rules of Engagement (ROE) booklet and was ready to do my part in accordance with the procedures I'd learned and the experiences that had kept me alive to that point. Dilbert, on the other hand, was just beginning his learning curve and was more than willing to let pilots and gunners pay the price for his inexperience and what later proved to be, his total unsuitability for command.

One day, Dilbert ordered one of the scouts into a tree top level recon mission at the Chup Rubber Plantation. This was a day to day typical order but on this particular one, a gunner ended up taking an AK 47 round in the left arm. When the pilots got together to explain the details, I discovered that the gunner was hit on the 4th mission of the morning and worst of all, the first 3 missions had taken fire prior to Dilbert ordering the 4th mission in.

I knew that this order was improper as the Macv ROE booklet was clear in it's directive that mandated the 4th mission commander to order air strikes, artillery fire or other available ground support before the 4th mission would enter the area. If Dilbert had known that, we would have pulverized the area with 155 howitzer fire and began the 4th mission to access the effects of the barrage. Unfortunately for the gunner, Dilbert didn't have a clue.

The scout pilots were a very close knit group of individuals. We pretty much kept to ourselves and met in our ready room to discuss the specifics of what had happened when Dilbert screwed up and ordered the 4th mission in without doing anything according to the ROE. On that day, Dilbert lost the respect of every pilot in the scout section and he would never regain it. I elected not to inform the gunners and crew chiefs at that time as I feared one of them would blow him up with a frag or concussion grenade, a move that happened more than once in Vietnam when an unfit commander kept killing his troops through ignorance or dereliction of duty.

Soon after that, I drew the slot of 4th mission and was scheduled to go back to the Chup exactly where Bustin and I had already been hit and the gunner lost his arm. We were all on edge that day as one of our Cobra pilots had been hit by a 51 caliber anti aircraft position even though he was flying at 5,000 feet instead of tree top level like the scouts did. Oddly enough, he took one in the arm and was lucky that it didn't take off his entire arm and shoot down the Cobra. Teddy survived it and was shipped back to the United States to try and save his arm.

As I arrived at the Chup, 3rd mission was already doing his recon and received fire. When he pulled out of the recon and attempted to fly back to Vietnam, hoping that his helicopter would make it without crashing, Dilbert gave me the order to "Go In". Needless to say, I refused to do it and did not give him any reason for doing so. I knew that Macv directives were law and order and basically, his ass belonged to me.

He screamed, yelled and raised hell on the radio and ordered me back to Thien Ngnon, which was a small airstrip in the middle of the jungle that was located right on the Cambodian border. Poor Bustin was quite concerned about an ass chewing coming over the radio but I calmed him down by reading him the ROE that identified Dilbert's order as unlawful if not derelict in duty.
Loren and I had flown alot of combat missions together and deep down inside he knew that Dilbert and I were going to lock horns and when that hit him, a smile came across his face.

When we landed at Thien Ngnon, Dilbert was no where to be found. He'd left orders there directing me to fly back to Dian instead of Tay Ninh which was our forward operating base.
Dian, pronounced Zee Awn, was our Regimental Headquarters and in Dilbert's mind, he thought I deserved to be court marshaled for cowardice in the face of the enemy and that there would be no better place for me to be than Regimental Headquarters when he hung me out to dry. I had mixed emotions. I was furious that he would accuse me of such a thing because I had already been recognized for my combat performance and had been given excellent Officer Efficiency Reports from every Commander I ever had including the Major he was obviously intending to report me to.

Despite the "hype" that was going on at the moment, I felt that it was a great place to meet because I knew I had his ass and I was so furious I was prepared to hand it to him and in effect, file charges against him at the Regimental level. I was ready to go see the Commander of the entire Regiment, not just our troop commander.

As I was making my final approach to the helipad at Troop Headquarters I could see Dilbert's helicopter as well as a large number of people standing around it. There were enlisted door gunners and crew chiefs, non commissioned officers that knew me well and credited me with saving their bacon on more than one occasion, as well as some Warrant Officers and a commissioned officer from the Aero Rifle Platoon. The word had spread that Dilbert and I had a run in and it was obvious that the "fans" were standing by waiting to see which trick I would pull out of my hat.

When I shut the engine down, Dilbert was already screaming at me and doing so in front of all mentioned above. When I climbed out of the helicopter and the noise of the turbine engine was gone, he seemed to be come louder and louder. I infuriated him when I smiled back at him almost as if I were laughing in his face. That really set him off. He began a verbal attack on me and called me a chicken shit coward. When he did that, I looked around the area at all the men witnessing this mess and saw a look of shock on their faces because each and every one there had already experienced my performance in combat and they didn't know what was going on. Despite that, they knew that I didn't play and later on, many told me that the knew I was going to jump his ass worse than he'd jumped mine.

As Dilbert continued to rant and rave, I walked up to him, grabbed the front of his flight suit, pulled out my 38, and screamed as loud as I could. I said: " I was flying combat missions in Cambodia when you were sucking your primary flight instructor's Di**." For those of you who know me, you may well imagine how loud I was when I used the last word in that sentence.

As things heated up and I pulled the hammer back on that 38, he asked if I had lost my mind, I told him that the Butler family was full time certified crazy and that there was nothing "temporary" about it. At that, he stomped his foot and announced that he was going to see the Major. As he walked away, he could hear the enlisted men and many others in the crowd, laughing. That only further infuriated him but he knew he was in a hostile crowd and never said another thing as he continued toward the Major's office.

I further infuriated the situation by immediately showing up at the Major's office thereby, removing him from the opportunity to "Order Mr. Butler here NOW". Little did he know the magnitude of the ass whipping, career killing conversation he was about to take.

As I stood at attention and requested permission to speak, Major Wulff told me to stand at ease which I did. He said that Captain Dip Shit, I mean Dilbert, had made some very serious comments about me and he wanted to know my side of the story. I loved it because I already knew the Macv directive was going to place a turd in Dilbert's punch bowl and ruin him through out the troop.

I described the enemy fire taken by the first, second and third mission and then, without turning the page to the ROE booklet that was still hanging around my neck, I began to quote chapter and verse of the Macv directive that ordered me to call in air strikes, artillery or other ground support assets before the 4th mission could commence the recon. Dilbert was becoming uneasy and Major Wulff was becoming more and more interested in the report I was giving him about his new Scout Platoon Commander.

As I was finishing, I opened the ROE booklet and pointed to the Macv directive and began to hand it to Major Wulff. As I was doing that, I mentioned that "If Captain Dilbert had read his ROE booklet, we wouldn't be here today and we would not have lost our gunner who was shot in the arm during the last episode where he violated the ROE. I finished my statement by saying two things.

I told the Major that I considered Captain Dilbert as the "Puke" of the officer corp and that he had done more damage to us than the NVA or the Vietcong. Dilbert became fire engine red but said nothing as there was nothing he could say about the Macv directives without putting himself into further trouble.

At the end of the conversation, the Major said we were suffering from a shortage of scout pilots as we had one killed and two more wounded. He said that he wanted to know if I could fly with Dilbert again and I said: "I can do, sir but I will say that if he's shot down and I know his gunner is dead when I get there, I will kill him.

The Major, in an example of true command leadership said that he knew I had flown more combat hours that I was supposed to, that I may be suffering from combat fatigue and that since I had refused R&R before, he wanted me to go to R&R in Hong Kong and get some rest. I took that as a signal that he knew he was going to have to deal with Dilbert and it would be wise for me not to be around as a target of harassment for Dilbert. Hong Kong was great.

Despite hanging Dilbert's ass out to dry, I have more to report from the dirty deeds division shortly. Gotta run for now but felt it important to connect the Attention to Detail Mantra that Mr. Diable hammered into us and apply it during my war time experience. I will finish this later but need to get back on track with the move to Ft. Rucker. Thanks for allowing me the latitude of getting off topic and the opportunity to apply the rationale of listening to those who are your teachers and never forget what they were trying to teach. Thanks again and again to Mr. Diable for being a wonderful tac officer who taught us many things that would save our asses in Vietnam. I have more stories about these teachings but I can't get too far ahead. Tim.