In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

119 On the twenty-seventh I had to fly with Double-deuce, my least favorite AC to fly with. I just never felt comfortable flying with him and we engaged in some heated words that day. I got back to the room and Kevin could tell I was pissed off. “Whoa! What the hell happened out there today?” he asked. “Nothing really,” I said. “I am just tired, and I fucking hate having to fly with that guy.” “I know what you mean,” Kevin said. At the meeting that night the crew assignments were given out for the next day’s flying. I was to fly with Double-deuce again. I was so pissed off I just got up and walked out without saying a word. Kevin came back to the room after the meeting had ended. I sat fuming. “Don’t worry Roomy, I sorted it out. You’re flying with Hubert tomorrow,” he told me. Without giving it any thought at all I just smiled at him and said, “Thanks Kev. You’re a star.” On the morning of July 28, I pre-flighted the aircraft and waited for Twoeight , Hubert Kuykendall. Hubert was one of the old guys and had a reputation . He used to produce these manifesto-type documents and stick them up on the walls in the hall of the hooch. We all thought that he was some kind of communist. Hubert was a bit older than the rest of us. With strawberry blond hair and a thick curly mustache it could be said that Hubert had an attitude. I still think he had a special recipe dinner that he ate every night to produce the world’s nastiest, raunchiest, foul-smelling farts in the entire world. The closed canopy of a Snake is not exactly conducive to foul body odors, and Hubert would take great pride every time he turned the air in the cockpit green. While I, in the front seat, would gag, Hubert just sat back and laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks. The monsoons were particularly heavy toward the end of July, so the weather remained unworkable over our AO. I went out and did a weather check and Hubert went back to bed. Chapter 14 Kevin Goes Home We didn’t get airborne until late morning. We headed out toward the eastern boundary of our AO along the Dong Nai. Kevin, along with Double-deuce and their little bird, One-six, were working closer in toward Rang Rang. I hadn’t realized the previous night that Kevin had actually traded ACs with me so I wouldn’t have to fly with Zeke. Our mission was to make contact with Ranger Team Seventy-two. A LRRP had spotted some NVA on a trail that they were observing and wanted us to check it out. Our little bird ran the trail. It showed heavy recent use, and then he came upon what appeared to be some camouflaged crates. The jungle canopy was too thick to get a good visual ID on what exactly we had so Hubert called ops and requested the Blues. The lift birds arrived on station at 1:30, and at 1:35 P.M., after they had been briefed, one-by-one they spiraled down and dropped off the Blues. They would link up with the ranger team and together they would exploit the find. At 3:05 P.M. I heard Kevin call in with a spot report. “Grid Yankee Tango two four five five seven zero. We spotted one individual and engaged him with organics. One KBH.” The Blues moved into the area and started to uncover several crates that were hidden in hooches along the trail. It proved to be a significant find. A small weapons cache. The Blues posted a security force while the remainder of them started to open crates. The cache contained three 12.7 mm heavy machine guns in their cradles along with three spare barrels, three SKS Chicom-type 56 rifles, 127 SKS M-1944 (Chinese Type 53) carbines, nine Soviet Moisin-Nagent 1891/30 7.62 mm rifles, twelve cases of .30-caliber magazines, three tripods for 12.7 mm machine guns, twenty-four AK-47s, eight sub-machine guns of assorted make, thirteen Ross sub-machine guns PPS-43, four 60 mm mortars, four 107 mm rocket launchers, and two duffel bags of web gear. During the exploitation no contact was made with...

Share