To the Limit: An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam

10 Battle of Tam Quan

1 5 3 Battle of Tam Quan 10 November 28, 1967 For two weeks now the 1st Cav high command has been aware of an increasing incidence of Viet Cong probes of perimeters all over the Bong Son plain and around LZ English. In fact, LZ Laramie, which is high on a ridgeline along the mountains that form the eastern side of the An Lao valley, has come under a night attack in which four Americans were killed and several wounded. Asizable enemy force has been probing LZ Geronimo’s perimeter. Even LZ English’s defenses have been tried two nights in a row; when the flares and claymores went off, the enemy retreated in great haste. Everyone knows something is going on, but we have no idea what. The 1/9th1 scout pilots are working overtime sniffing around in every hamlet and village with their Bell H-13 helicopters in an attempt to find out the strength and location of the enemy. The pilots and crews of the 1/9th are members of an elite family of either the craziest or the bravest people I have ever known. They are the only unit in Vietnam consistently programmed at 100 percent strength. Due to the high attrition rate in the war, rarely does the programmed strength of a unit equal the authorized strength. Except for the 1/9th, most units generally function with 80 percent of the troops authorized for them. It is a normal occurrence for scout pilots to hover up and down 1. The movie Apocalypse Now was based on some of their exploits and is highly accurate in its detail of how the 1/9th conducted its own private war. 1 5 4 TO THE LIMIT trails looking for footprints or other signs of Charlie. Once, I witnessed a pilot put the bubble nose of his H-13 helicopter right into the doorway of a village hooch just so he could get a better look. All the 1/9th aircraft have the old Cavalry “cross sabers” insignia painted on them in bright 1st Cav yellow. I think all those guys get nosebleeds if they ever fly above 50 feet. Debonair does not come close to describing these guys. Membership on this team is open to volunteers only. They are the only folks in the Army who wear western style black hats with gold braid tassels as a part of their official uniform. The hats are often worn in “Aussie” style, with one side held up with a crossed sabers pin. They wear these with great pride. They play just as hard as they work—rough and tumble leisure time is the only thing that can distance them from the savage Russian roulette they play in their daily routines. In 1967, there is a greater than 50 percent chance that any given member of the 1/ 9th will depart Vietnam in a casket. There is a 70 percent chance that if he survives, he will return with at least one Purple Heart. The 1/9th is in fact a “Mini Cav” that includes its own support personnel, scout helicopters, and air assault troops. Almost every battle the 1st Air Cavalry gets into is a result of the 1/9th getting into some type of brawl. When it is too big for them to handle on their own, the rest of us get a call to assist.2 The 1/9th Cavalry helicopter crews maintain the highest one-onone kill ratio of any units in the war. This is not “push button warfare .” They repeatedly meet their enemy eyeball to eyeball on his terms—in his backyard—and terminate him with a vengeance. The organization of the 1/9th consists of three troops, labeledAlpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Each troop consists of ten Huey gunships (Red Platoon), Ten OH-13 Bell “Bubble Job” Scout helicopters (White Platoon), and four troop-carrying Huey helicopters (Blue Platoon). When Charlie is finally found, it will be the 1/9th Cavalry that finds them. My long awaited R&R has arrived—December 1, 1967. I have been in country for six months and have managed to schedule it dur2 . Two good sources of information on the 1/9th are Matthew Brennan’s Headhunters (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987) and Brennan’s War (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1985). 1 5 5 BATTLE OF TAM QUAN ing the week of Pat’s and my fifth wedding anniversary...