Vietnam and my first lessons in dealing with Illegal Immigration.

Major Lewis had a very unique way of running Fireball Aviation. He not only made sure that the new pilots were introduced to the game plan by the very best pilots in the unit, he made sure that they began flying Nighthawk missions as soon as their orientation flights were complete.

My first mission was flown with Terry Femmer. He was a great pilot. We were on standby duty for Nighthawks and were staying at FSB Mace, playing cards in the bunker and waiting for any call for help that might come in. Things were pretty quiet that night but we received a call from a FSB asking if we could bring some ammo and pick up a soldier that was in need of medical attention. He wasn't wounded, just sick.

We left Mace and began flying north- northeast. It was the darkest night I had ever experienced during my entire tour of duty. It was like flying in a room with no windows. There were no visible land marks to see. Nothing but jungle, no car lights, cities, towns or any visible clues at all. We were actually flying IFR because there was no moon and much overcast cloud cover. Almost immediately, I asked Femmer how in the hell we would find anything in those conditions.

Femmer tuned in one of our radios and made a call to the FSB. When they responded, the ADF needle pointed in the direction of the signal and we simply picked up that course and continued to fly. Before long, we saw the lights of the Firebase and made another call to announce our approach. It was one of the so called "milk runs" that didn't involve any shooting at all.

Despite that, it was one of the best navigation exercises I'd ever had. I watched the clock, kept track of the minutes, remembered Yankee Tango 106601 and was prepared to announce our position at any second should we have an engine failure or get shot down. We returned to Mace, dropped off the sick guy and made it back to the bunker to try and get some sleep. I want to ask Eddie if he remembers that FSB. It wasn't the one just above Phan Thiet. In any event, that was my first experience flying Nighthawks and I'm glad that I had the time to take everything in without being under fire.

Not long after that, we had to return to that Firebase to help repulse an attack they were under. The weather was fine, plenty of moon light and no problems in finding our way. Long before we arrived on site, we could see the tracers coming from the firebase as well as the ones coming from the jungle into the firebase. Femmer was talking to the ground commander, was told where the fire was coming from and was given permission to open fire on the enemy positions by using a magnetic course from the center of the base to the area he wanted suppressed. He asked for a marking round to be shot and Femmer confirmed the request and told "Ochadleus" or Little O, to prepare for a marking round with the mini gun.

When we reached the Firebase, Femmer told Little O where to shoot and ordered a "One Second Burst". Little O made his opening shot and with that, the radio came alive from the ground commander and he told us to "Pour it on".

O'Chadleus raked the minigun all along the area that was designated as the target. We were flying eastward and Little O was shooting west to east and east to west almost as if he was using a water hose back and forth along the line the ground commander wanted covered.

As I recall, we had a 4,000 round per minute rate of fire from the mini and within seconds of opening fire, the bad guys quit shooting. Little O kept firing until Femmer announced a cease fire. We continued to orbit the target area and with no more fire coming from the enemy, we were given clearance to leave a short time later. We returned to Mace, refueled, rearmed, and went back to bed but there would be no sleep for us as the adrenal glands pumped for the rest of that night.

More later. It's brain swelling time and I don't want to be late. Thanks for listening. Just remember, there's a lesson here relating to immigration.