Thanks to the Fighter Pilots

I recently read an article that referred to the Thanksgiving holiday we spent in 1970 when we were in Vietnam. Most of my friends at that time were helicopter pilots. We were flying the UH 1 Huey , the OH 6 Loach and the AH 1 Cobra.

November and December of 1970 was a very tough time for us. I almost bought the farm in November in a hot LZ near Xuan Loc. Not long after that, in December, Lt. Dan Coombs and Specialist Joe Blickenstaff were killed in action while flying the OH 6, the same aircraft type that I was flying at the time.

Thanksgiving has always been a time for being thankful for my family. Back then we were simply wondering if we would have turkey on that day. As it turned out, I only remember having shrimp in a Styrofoam cup and being very happy about that. We were always on call to respond to any attack at any time and Thanksgiving didn't mean anything to the NVA or the Viet Cong. Despite that, I don't recall flying on that day.

In any event, as I think about those times I think that I'm way overdue in thanking the fighter pilots of the USAF and the USN for keeping the skies clear of enemy fighters.

The anti aircraft fire was bad enough. There were many of us who were shot to pieces by small arms fire. The lucky ones like me, ended up flying our helicopters back to base even though it looked like Swiss cheese when we landed. Bullet holes everywhere. There were others that made it back to base but didn't return in the same helicopter they left in. Those were so badly shot up it was a miracle that they weren't killed in the crash.

There were others who survived but never made it back to base because they were so badly burned they had to be medically evacuated to Japan and then to the burn center in Denver. Others were hit but survived their bullet wounds and were also evacuated back to the United States. Some of those (Ted) still suffer from those wounds today.

There was only one circumstance where I was involved in air to air combat. That happened at the Chup Rubber Plantation in Cambodia when a VNAF (South Vietnamese Air Force) pilot was strafing civilians in a field near the Chup. I was ordered to shoot him down but he spoke English, heard the order and as I was making a right hand turn to bring my mini gun sights to his cockpit, he bugged out and flew back to Vietnam. I may be the only pilot in Vietnam that was ever ordered to shoot down a fighter bomber that was supposed to be on our side.

With the luxury afforded us by time, I think the only way we could have survived air attacks by the North Vietnamese would have been through tactics that allowed us to split our formations and attack by concentrating our mini guns on him as he dove in to attack. Many of them carried heat seeking missiles and machine gun fire from Migs weren't typical.

Regardless of how you look at it, I never saw a single Mig roll in to shoot me down and I am ever thankful to the many fighter pilots that made that happen. Thanks to all you fast movers.