July 4, 1970, Me and Wollman

I was scheduled to fly as co pilot for Craig Wollman on July 4, 1970. I didn't know it at the time but it would be a day that would live in my head forever and totally change my thoughts of July 4th. We would be flying the Command and Control ship for the Commanding Officer of the 199th that day, a mission that was always referred to as C&C.

The Colonel's Huey had a huge radio in the back that we referred to as "a scrambler". It was so heavy that we normally didn't carry much in the way of weapon systems. It was too big and took up so much room we simply didn't have the room for anything else.

We had the standard M 60's that were crew served by the gunner and crew chief but for the most part, that was it. No mini guns, no 50 caliber machine guns, just a pair of 60's plus 38's and 45's that were personal fire arms typically carried by all pilots.

As we were hanging around, waiting for orders to fly, I remembered hearing the order to "scramble".
We ran to the Huey, took off the air inlet covers, the rotor blade tie down strap, pitot tube cover and, as we were putting on our helmets and bullet proof vests, I saw the Colonel coming out of the TOC and running toward the Huey.

Wollman always had the ship preflighted and had the cockpit start up procedures already partially completed so we only had to hit the battery switch and start the engine. There was no long list of checking things such as "circuit breakers IN, radios OFF, anti collision light OFF and a number of other steps such as altimeter settings and Non Essential Buss in the Normal On position.

He'd already done all that and getting up and on the way was something he could do in a very short amount of time. This would be one of those days that Wollman's experience and Diable's attention to detail lessons proved to be worth their weight in gold when a large battle was underway and men's lives depended on us getting there asap.  

One of our convoys had been ambushed and there was a huge ground battle going on between the NVA/VC and our guys. The ambush site wasn't far from Xuan Loc where we were on stand by. It only took a few minutes to reach the battle as it had occurred on the road that went by Fire Support Base "Mace" and wasn't far from our duty station.  

Wollman would do all the flying that day and I would do none at all. As a result of that, I had more opportunities to observe the battle than usual. I was doing the cross checks of the instrument panel and reporting to Wollman that everything was in the green.

Both of us were given orders by the Colonel to stay on the west side of the road and told that there were gunships already in the area and already supporting the ground troops. In a matter of minutes, we saw other helicopters in the area and new that the battle was really close to our base.

We weren't going to be airborne very long but we had no way of knowing that. Generally, as I've written before, Wollman would follow the Colonel's orders to take up station at a specific point above and to the side of the battle so he could direct air support or artillery fire while keeping us from being hit by any of the incoming artillery shells.

As was typical for the Colonel, once we arrived at the scene of the ambush and he'd checked the map to determined the artillery lines of fire, he ordered Wollman to take up a holding position west of the road making north to south passes.

This put me in a position where, on the first pass we made over the fire fight, I could look out the cockpit window on the right side of the Huey, see the convoy stopped on the road, the tracers from out guys going into the area where the enemy was and the green tracers coming back toward them from the NVA. It also put me in a position to see a Cobra gunship preparing to make a rocket run on the target area where all the fire was coming from.

Wollman made a turn south but stayed on the west side of the road. I was now on the opposite side of the Huey and couldn't see as well as I could when we made northward passes. When we reached the southern end of our holding pattern, Wollman put us in a 180 degree turn and, as we passed through 090 degrees magnetic, he began to roll out and fly another northward pass.

When we were leveled out and heading north, I saw the Cobra begin it's rocket run. You have to remember that we were on the west side of the road just above and to the side of the ambush and the Cobra was on the east side of the road just beginning to dive on the target. He was right outside my window and I could clearly see the whole thing unfold.

To help illustrate that, try to picture yourself being on one side of an Interstate Highway watching a firefight on the other side of the Interstate. When you do that, try to picture yourself being 1,500' to 2,500 feet above that looking downward. That should give you an idea of the position I was in at the time.

I still had my co pilot duties and couldn't simply keep my eyes out of the cockpit and not pay attention to the instrument panel. A cross check of exhaust gas temperature, torque meter readings, turbine speed (N1), fuel gauge, altimeter and other checks didn't take long but it did take some time away from the direct eye contact I was having on the battle. It only took a second to miss the direct hit on the Cobra but I missed the exact instant the AA hit the gunship.

You can do the math and figure out how much distance a Cobra gunship can cover when they are flying at max speed in a dive. I recall it as being 190 knots which is roughly 16,000 feet per minute or 300' per second. I'm sure that's close or at least somewhat in the ball park. In any event, taking your eyes off the Cobra and making a cross check of the instrument panel will allow the Cobra to lose 1,600' feet of altitude in the blink of an eye.

As I finished my instrument check and re-established my vision of the firefight and the Cobra's gun run, I saw the largest fireball I had ever seen as the Cobra hit the ground and exploded. It was huge.

I had no idea how many of the rockets were still in their tubes when the ship hit the ground. It could have been as many as 38 high explosive warheads going off simultaneously. I also didn't know how much fuel was on board but it could have easily been 1,000 pounds of JP 4 jet fuel.

The fireball was very similar to the pictures most of us have seen when the magazine blew up on one of the ships that was hit during the attack on Pearl Harbor. IF you stop a second and think about all the shots you've seen from documentaries presented about December 7th, 1941, try to imagine what it's like when it's not in black and white but in color.

Try also to picture what it might be like if you can hear it, see the red and yellow column of fire rising hundreds of feet in the air and all that happening while you watch the trees move with the incredible force of concussion that's moving at roughly 700' per second.

Add to that, the noise of the blast that hits your helicopter roughly 2 or 3 seconds after the ship crashed. It's a most frightful site and one that would forever be etched in your mind and impossible to erase.

I saw other crashes during my tour of duty but nothing would ever come close to this one. I've tried to explain the effects of things like this before and can only say that "Shock, fear, rage, adrenaline and vengeance" is the most powerful group of emotions that a human can simultaneously experience and that's why I still have these memories.

Wollman and I were both shocked to hear the order that came from the Colonel that said: "Let's get out of here". Even though we later knew that he was right when he gave the order, we were young warriors and automatically wanted to go on the attack. I had only been in Vietnam six weeks when that battle unfolded but I already had the heart of a gunship pilot and simply wanted to roll in and deliver the pay back.

Had we been in Wollman's Nighthawk ship, you can bet your ass that we would have been putting bullet holes in every square inch of the target area unless they'd managed to kill us, too. Despite that, our job was clear and the most important thing of all was supporting the ground troops, something we could not have done if we'd been shot down.

I don't know if Colonel Collins already knew that the other Commanding Officer from the 3rd of the 17th was on station but I do know that the Cobra wasn't from our unit and since we were the closest to the battle when it started, it's reasonable to conclude that it wasn't his primary job as the Commanding Officer of the ground troops and that he was only there to command the operation until the unit's commander arrived.

In any event, every year for 43 years, I go through this on July 4th and wanted ya'll to know that July 4th has different meanings to different people. These are part of mine. Thanks again to Craig Wollman.

Tim