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C H A P T E R 6 GOODBYE FRIEND After the completion of the Kham Duc Campaign, we returned to flying in our old area of operations. We had several LZs located in our AO, with names like LZ West, LZ East, Mary Ann, and Hawk Hill. Hawk Hill was a fire-support base situated north of Chu Lai, a few clicks (kilometers) off Highway 1, halfway between Chu Lai and Da Nang. Because our AO was located directly west of Hawk Hill, we used the hill as our refueling point for the missions that we flew in our AO. An aircraft control tower managed the large volume of aircraft flying into Hawk Hill. In Nam, we always refueled hot, which meant that we kept the bird running while we refueled. Frequent refuelings and the quick turnaround times required to get back in the air necessitated this procedure. Rather than take the time to shut down the bird, we hovered up to the POL, set her down, then rolled the throttle back to idle. A Huey’s fuel load was good for approximately two hours and twenty minutes of flight. With this short duration of flight, we would have to refuel several times during the day, so hot refueling saved considerable time. When we refueled hot, all personnel except one pilot would climb out and get clear of the aircraft in case it caught fire. The crew chief would first ground the aircraft with a wire to the ground, then ground the fuel nozzle to the aircraft, and finally start refueling. If the aircraft or the nozzle was not grounded properly, one spark could cause a fire or explosion, hence caution was always taken. It was September 1970, and it had been four months since my arrival in Vietnam. The weather was changing rapidly as the monsoon season approached. The bright sun and clear skies suddenly were hidden from view by low-layered stratus clouds, and the hot temperatures 67 had cooled. The rains had begun and would last for days. I had never seen so much rain in my whole life. We were still trying to fly resupply out in our AO, when the weather permitted; otherwise we did a lot of sitting. I found the down time from flying and the sitting around which accompanied it very boring and hard to handle. With nothing to keep our minds occupied, the time slowly dragged by. The hours seemed to turn into days. There was a lot of card playing and storytelling going on to help pass these dreadful days. You can imagine the homesickness and the daydreaming that took place. September 14, 1970 Dear Larry, Well, how are you? I’m feeling real good. My toe is still sore, but I can’t do much about that. Today, I’m one third done with my tour. I sure still have a long ways to go. I just hope it goes fast. Tell mother that she can send me some uncooked popcorn and some Nut Goodies and sardines and some beef-jerky. I would really appreciate it. Nothing really new has happened over here. You just get real bored. It’s hard to remember what it was like back in the States, but the time keeps ticking away and pretty soon I’ll be out of here. Well, I better close for now. Have fun at school. One day toward the end of September I was sitting in our hootch, talking to Garrett, when Little Mac walked in. He told me that I needed to report to the Officers Club. There I found all the other ACs gathered, and they told me I had been chosen as an aircraft commander ! They all congratulated and welcomed me aboard as an AC. I had been looking forward to this moment since I had arrived in Vietnam. I was no longer a newbie. I received my new call sign, “Rattler OneSeven ,” for me to be in charge of my own aircraft and have my own crew. This was the first time since I had arrived in Vietnam that I actually felt happy. To me, making AC was like graduating from high school. I would no longer have to change my flying technique for each AC that I flew with, trying to please him. I could finally be my own man. From that day on, I knew that I would have more control over 68 R A T T L E R O...

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