Reporting to Fireball Aviation. First combat.

In somewhat of a similar situation to the reception station at Ft. Polk, we found ourselves checking in at the first stop before we were assigned to our unit. Once that was completed, we began hanging around and looking for other pilots we knew.

It was like a meeting of Who's Who from the 5th WOC. Bill Reinhardt was there as were many others but Bill was a magnetic personality to say the least and alot of the 5th WOC guys gathered around him as he and another pilot were quite familiar with Vietnam and had somewhat of a back ground as to where "not to go".

They gave us a single sheet of paper filled with the names of helicopter units all over Vietnam. Since I didn't have a clue, I guess I simply took the luck of the draw and hit a home run. I was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade that was headquartered very close to the Replacement Battalion barracks and on day one, a jeep drive picked me up to take me to the 199th and the famous Fireball Aviation section.

The driver dropped me off at a large green hanger that had a "Fireball Aviation" sign above the doors. I thanked him, got out of the jeep with my bag and began looking around. There wasn't a single soul on the airfield, in the hanger or the barracks. It appeared that all of the helicopters were gone except one, that nobody was home and I was dropped off to a large facility filled with nothing. I began to wonder where headquarters was located so I could begin my in processing. About that time, a Spec 4 Ron West pulled up in a jeep. He was the Aviation Sections Jeep Driver and I was real glad to see him.

After a brief introduction, he pointed to the D model Huey on the field, the only helicopter there, and said that I needed to fly it to Xuan Loc immediately. I was pretty much staggered by the request as I knew I was required to have an aircraft commander check me out first, a Area of Operations Orientation Flight had to be completed and a fit and proper check in at the company was needed before I did anything. To add insult to injury, the D model wasn't anything like I'd flown before. We had A and B models in flight school and compared to them, this helicopter looked like a monster.

Word spread that the replacement pilot had arrived and before long some of the guys came back from the forward area and I was taken to Xuan Loc for introductions. When I reported, I noticed that Major Lewis had a ring on his finger that indicated he was a fraternity man in college and belonged to Kappa Alpha, the same one I did. After a short discussion regarding college and some recollections of our mutual experiences, he called someone in and told them to find me a bunk and introduce me to the pilots.

I don't want to claim that my association with the KA gave me an edge up on any new guys coming into the Aviation Section, but Major Lewis made sure that I met the most experienced pilots first. I can't remember if it was Terry Femmer, Craig Wollman or Dudley Young but those were the 3 I flew with more than any others. There was one other character named Nelson Kat Ballew but I only flew with him on a few occasions even though he was one of the older guys.

Femmer, Young and Wollman were alot like Diable in that they took me under their wing and were real glad to see that a new guy was reporting and that I would be assigned to fly Hueys for Nighthawk missions instead of Loaches that did the tree top scout work that had taken the life of Bob Gorske, the pilot I was replacing.

Since it was late in the day and all of the schedules were already in place, I was taken to an underground bunker where several bunks were located. I found it strange that there were slit holes in the bunker through which we could fire our M 16's during ground attacks. That's when the "holy shit" part of my perception began.

One of the crew members told me that we would be moving to Fire Support Base Mace for operations and that almost all of the time, the pilots slept in the rear area in Long Binh where I initially reported for duty. He told me not to worry because Long Binh wasn't nearly as dangerous a place to be than Xuan Loc and FSB Mace. For some reason, that wasn't all that comforting but I continued to take in everything I could so I could fit in.

Not long after sunset, we were awakened by the loudest noise I had ever heard in my life. The men jumped out of the barracks screaming "Incoming, Incoming" as they headed toward the slit holes. At that time a huge 155 Howitzer began to return fire and it was louder than whatever the VC or the NVA was shooting at us. The concussion from both incoming and outgoing fire was a real awakening for a guy who had not yet been in the unit 12 hours. I recall thinking that "IF this is what day one is like, how in God's name will I ever survive this war".

Apparently, it was a single aggrevation round that the VC or NVA shot at us as often as they could, as the attack never included additional incoming rounds that night. Early the next morning, I was picked up by a Huey, flown to FSB Mace which was only two or three minutes flying time from Xuan Loc, and was introduced to the Commanding Officer of the 199th. He immediately made me feel very welcome to the unit. He didn't say anything about General Bond being killed nearby by a sniper nor did he mention anything about the loss of Bob Gorske, the pilot I was replacing.

Before long, I was given my initial Area of Operations Orientation Flight which pointed out a couple of Fire Support Bases in the jungle as well as a rail road track and some roads that we could use to navigate by if our navigation equipment was shot away.

It was a very short flight as I recall because I was somewhat surprised with the thoughts I had surrounding the appearance that all we had to do was cover two or three FSBs that weren't really that far away from Mace.

When that flight was at it's eastern most limit, I was given the controls and told to fly back to Mace. To me, it was pretty much of a no brainer because I knew that the east west road to Phan Thiet would be my southern boundry and the rail road track would be my northern boundry. All I had to do was fly west and look for the Mountain we referred to as Signal Mountain.

That's where, at the base of the mountain, FSB Mace was located. I'm pretty sure that flight was commanded by Dudley Young as Dudley was a maniac as it related to navigation. He had the best of the best map information and all of the co-pilots in the unit, as I recall, had one of the maps to carry with them at all times.

I have a really cool story to tell about that but it will have to wait till later. I just wanted to set up the story of my first 24 hours with the 199th and the fact that the Army reports that unit to be the one that had more combat hours per pilot than any other unit in Vietnam. Since that statistic is a published statistic from the Army, we are all very proud to have served with them at that time.

I'll continue this later tonight or tomorrow but I have a doctor's appointment and a funeral that I have to attend today and I don't want to be late for either one. Stand by as I have some incredible stories about a pilot that I consider to be the best Night Combat Operations pilot that I ever knew, flew with or even heard about. That would be Craig Wollman and I have some whoppers to tell about him.

We had some great pilots in the unit but I spent a lot of time with Wollman and during those times, HE established some things that would end up with me being considered good enough at Nighthawk Operations to go to Macv in Saigon to interview for the position as Standardization Pilot for Nighthawk Operations for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Pretty neat deal for me. More later. Thanks. Tim



















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