Rule #1, Do Not Screw With My Crew

I'm not sure if it was Terry Femmer or Craig Wollman that invented Rule #1 but the sounds of this one has Craig Wollman written all over it. I say that because of the previous notes I made about OAT, EGT and TORQUE readings. For the McInnis girls that are reading this, let me say that it stands for Outside Air Temperature, Exhaust Gas Temperature and, in a sense, the power it takes to hover.

Early one morning we were advised that we had an Ash and Trash mission to fly from Long Binh to Xuan Loc. I was glad to hear it because Ash and Trash typically meant we were to haul mail, ammunition, documents from Headquarters and any number of things that weren't directly indicative of a combat mission.

About the time I showed up and did the co-pilot thing of pre-flighting the helicopter, I noticed that the crew had already loaded the Huey with a huge shipment of things that was secured with a net that was attached to the D rings in the floor of the ship. That was done to insure that there would be no way possible for anything to be blown out of the cargo area and end up in the tail rotor. Having accomplished that, we began to check our side arms, put on our bullet proof vests and climb into the cockpit.

Before I was able to mount up, there were voices on the left rear side of the helicopter that were filled with tension so I decided to go there and see what was going on. It appeared that a spit polished, geek looking O1, Second Lt., showed up and had commenced to chew Little O out for not having his hair properly trimmed and his boots spit polished. I heard something to the effect that "This is a GD combat zone, not the Stateside Army". Even though I had only been in Vietnam for 7 or 8 weeks at that time, I knew that the shit was about to hit the fan.

An Aircraft Commander is an almighty and powerful position that takes precedence over all other officers, regardless of rank, during flight. Whoever was AC that day, he managed to get things calmed down and all of us climbed aboard and took our stations.

I remember that the helicopter was beginning to "get light on the skids" which is a phrase we used to describe that part of the take off where we were almost airborne but not quite. When we lifted up to a hover, the collective was immediately lowered and the helicopter was put back on the ground in a manner that was a bit rough instead of the usual soft landing. "We appear to be a bit heavy", came through the intercom. He did the same maneuver again and shook his head, looking at the instrument panel as if something was wrong.

Once again, but to better effect this time, the helicopter was light on the skids and the AC managed to skid the helicopter along the asphalt taxi way before he brought it to a hover. He checked the OAT, EGT and torque and promptly put it back on the ground with the unusual rough landing.

He turned around and, with raised voice to overcome the engine and rotor blade noise, told the Lt that we were dangerously overloaded and that he would have to get out and wait a minute for another ride that the AC would call for by radio.

The Lt, somewhat shaken by the rough experience from the helicopter jumping up and down and skidding around the tarmac, gladly left the helicopter and began walking toward the Fireball Aviation hanger. At that time, he was totally without the slightest idea that "another ride" was going to be in our jeep and that a jeep ride to Xuan Loc, with the craziest jeep driver in the entire Army, could be a scary thing for those who had no combat experience and didn't know the area.

I could visualize the ass chewing that West would take regarding the condition of his boots and the horror filled ride the Lt would take as a result of that.

We flew the short flight to Mace and a squad of infantrymen unloaded the helicopter and took the entire contents inside the burm. I still don't know what it was but I know that with full fuel and cargo we were heavy but we weren't THAT heavy.

We waited around the Fire Base for orders and before the Lt. arrived, we were given orders to retrieve a long range patrol that had been in the jungle for days. I was pretty comfortable with that as we had inserted them for their mission and nothing at all had happened to us during the insertion.

The Aircraft Commander told me to fly the mission, locate the men, make the approach, the pick up and extraction. I was excited about that as most of my actual flight time had been acting as a co-pilot who only flew to and from places. Since I had the radio frequency to contact the patrol and an estimated location for them, I got on the radio and made the call so our Automatic Direction Finder would locate the signal and give us a heading to fly to their location.

I dialed in the frequency and made the call: "Ground 6, Ground 6, this is Fireball 28". After two attempts at locating them, a very whispered answer came across the head set. "Fireball 28, this is Ground 6, I have you 5 x 5, all clear". If it was "all clear, I wondered why in the hell he was whispering. Despite that, I asked him to give me a 5 count so my radio could lock in on his location. When he responded with "1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1", we locked into his signal, made a small course correction and continued heading toward the position of the signal. I told him that we had a good fix on him and were getting close to his location.

In just a matter of minutes he called. "Fireball this is Ground 6, we hear and will call when you are in sight". In the distance, we could see the large opening in the jungle where we'd dropped them at the beginning of their mission and noticed that the ADF needle was pointing directly at that area. "Fireball, Ground 6, we see you and will pop smoke". He was still whispering and I was still wondering why in the world he had to whisper if it was all clear.

The AC let me make the approach to the smoke and almost instantly, 5 men, who had been sweating every day for 5 days in the jungle without benefit of showers, jumped aboard the Huey. The last man was yelling, "Go, go, go". Amidst the fragrance of a football locker room, I took off and headed back to Mace and the Lt. jeep rider who we had not yet seen.

I'll stop now as the second meeting with the smart ass Lt will need a bit more room than I have left here.
Stand by for another punishment episode for those who break Rule #1.