"Take it, take it, I have Vertigo"

One night that was filled with bad weather, Terry Femmer and I took off from Fire Support Base Mace and attempted to make the flight back to Long Binh. The weather wasn't rainy or anything like that but typically, after an unusually heavy rain from the monsoons, with the temperature reaching over 100 degrees during the day, we would suffer from the fog that always comes after a weather condition like that.

If there ever was a day when Diable's repeated "Attention to Detail" mantra hit home, this was it.

I don't remember who the gunner was but I most clearly remember that the crew chief was Spec 4 Moses Richardson from Indianapolis. Mose use to say that he was the Black Mose from Nap Town and he was one cool crew chief that made his value to us known on many occasions. I'll have to get into that later but suffice it to say he considered us to be his Blue Eyed Soul Brothers. I've lost contact with him and even the net hasn't  helped find him.

In any event, if I haven't explained it before, FSB Mace was located at the foot of a mountain that was just east of Xuan Loc, an area that has it's place in history as one of the most hotly contested areas in our Area of Operations. The FSB had a helipad area there that even had lights for us to see during inclement weather conditions. They were seldom on but when we needed them, there they were helping us find our way through the weather to a safe landing after a night mission.

When Femmer took off, we were heading east. Almost immediately after take off, he made a right hand climbing turn to gain the altitude we needed to clear the mountain. It seems that no sooner than we picked up a westerly heading, Femmer came on the intercom and said: "Take it, take it, I have vertigo".

Having made a couple of  IFR flights with Wollman, I was pretty comfortable in that environment and had already settled down to the instrument scans that any decent co pilot would do for his Aircraft Commander. At the time Femmer told me to take the controls, I still had, through my peripheral vision, a good sight picture of the helipad with it's landing lights on.

Almost immediately after Femmer's comment for me to take it, I heard Mose over the intercom. He said: "Please, one of you guys do some of that pilot stuff". I had already grabbed the controls of the Huey and began a shallow bank to the right away from the mountain and, at the same time I said: "Guys, I have the helipad still in sight and I'm making a right base to final approach back to the pad, don't worry, I've got it in sight". 

I told Femmer to put his feet on the floor and shake it off and not to worry that I was VFR which was our term for visual flight rules that allowed me to see exactly where I intended to land and the attitude of the helicopter. I just wanted everybody to know that the aircraft was under control and we would be back on the ground in about one minute.

That may not seem like much of a war story for you but I assure you that the monsoon season brought on some really tough flying conditions and I'm sure that we lost many aircraft due to those incredibly difficult flying situations.

More to come later. I'm feeling a little better now. I have another Wollman story coming so please stand by. I'm still a bit fatigued from all the meltdowns and the lower back pain that always comes from the kidneys when dye is injected into your body during a Catscan.

Rest in Peace, Terry Femmer. A great Aircraft Commander and true patriot.