A Bit Too Close - 1969
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
When I arrived in D Troop in January 69, I was assigned a cot in Hooch 6 – which at that time was the only “open-bay” pilot’s hooch. Most of the guys living in hooch 6 were Scout pilots, so my first “family” in D Troop was the Scouts (even though I was a Cobra pilot).
During my first few weeks in country, we were still transitioning from C Models to Cobras – and many of the more senior C Model guys had just transitioned to Cobras so they were filling up the seats to get them up to AC status – leaving a poor FNG with little opportunity too fly. Not wanting to sit around and do nothing, I started flying with the Scouts as an observer learning the VR (visual reconnaissance) ropes (from the ground up so to speak). Mostly flew with Tom Smith and Tom Grossi, but a few times with Terry Talley. So I was sort of an honorary Scout.
Time moved on and a bunch of the Cobra pilots DEROS’d, so I got my chance. I became an AC after several weeks and one of my first VR missions was with Terry as a Scout. Luck of the draw, I was flying one of the Cobra Hogs (four M159 pods – 76 rockets – heaven to a new Cobra AC). We were working near Trang Bang and Terry started taking fire from a hedgerow. He marked the position and I rolled in and put down a few pairs. Terry came back in to check and we had flushed a couple of VC and they ran to a clump of bushes 50 meters away. I rolled in and blew up that bush, but as I pulled out over the top of them, there went the two VC headed for another clump of bushes. Instead of circling around for another run, I did a quick pull-up and return to target – and just after I punched off a couple of pair of rockets, I notice Terry charging into the area to look for the VC. Needless to say, there were no direct hits with the rockets on the Loach, but there may have been ‘a little’ battle damage from friendly fire.
Terry and I regrouped – him giving me a mild scolding about knowing where the Scout is before shooting rockets (a lesson I took to heart), and we continued the mission. As embarrassing as it is to admit, it took me 76 rockets to kill two VC – they were tough little buggers – I’ll give them that. Blow up one bush – up they jump and head to another – on and on.
Got back home and Terry was explaining to maintenance guys how the VC had been throwing hand grenades at him – much eye rolling on the maintenance guys parts – I just kept my mouth shut.
Had a pretty good laugh back at the hooch – and Terry gave me a great complement in front of the other Scouts in the hooch – he was thrilled that a new Cobra AC was so aggressive and willing to mix it up with the bad guys up close and personal.