Nighthawk with CPT Osmo - 1971
see other Nighthawk Stories: Minigun 69, Twin 60's 70-71, Sniper, Aug 71, Allen Video, Bored Crew, Avn Digest Article, Marcinkowski Video,
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
My story is when we were on a Night Hawk mission. We had been scrambled to support the U.S. Army liaison to the local militia. His name was Captain Osmo. They had reports of a “drafting” party going to a small village southeast of Lai Khe.
After picking up the Captain, we flew to the village and were circling the perimeter with the Xenon light looking for activity. The militia said they had made contact but the enemy had broken off so they were not sure exactly where they were.
There was a sand berm around the village and a cleared area completely around the village. As we were looking there were about a dozen large black stumps in the cleared area. Nothing else. I asked Captain Osmo why there would be large stumps there. He said there shouldn’t be.
Bud Wyatt was manning the M60 on my side and CPT Osmo was operating the Xenon light. I had the minigun. Captain Osmo said put a few rounds down there to see what happens. Just as I started to fire, Captain Yenser says not with the minigun, just the sixty because it was close to the village.
As soon as Bud started firing with his M60, the stumps began to move. Some went away from the village, one group of four went along the berm to the north but one group of three started moving directly towards the village. Bud got two of the three right away but the third one was close to getting over the berm. Bud put the tracers right in his back but the VC was still trying to crawl over the berm.
Mind you, our ICS (Intercom System) was on FM transmit because Captain Osmo was reporting our activity. As the VC was crawling, Bud was letting him have it and suddenly Bud says “die you mother fucker, die”. So, it was broadcast over the company Fox Mike radio.
I got the four that went along the berm with the minigun; and got yelled at by Captain Yenser for using it so close to the village.
Bud was really embarrassed when we got back to Lai Khe and the guys in the TOC were laughing and talking about his broadcast. We kidded him about that for quite a while asking him if he wanted to be the next Curt Gowdy (a famous Sports Broadcaster).