Wrong Turn in III Corp - 1971
also see the video story by Harlan Gray Sparrow III
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“Birdman” and I were very new in country and were assigned to pick up a village chief or some such dignitary and take him somewhere to meet someone. The area was north of Lai Khe, it might have been close to II Corps. I know we ended up flying close to some hills (seemed like mountains back then). Of course we did our due diligence of extensive planning by glancing at a map and off we went. No weather briefing, no real planning, hell, we were scout pilots, we couldn’t get lost!
Everything went well, until the road we were following kept being obscured by pesky clouds and we were forced to go lower and lower. As we got closer to the ground, 20’ to 30’, we decided that this would be a perfect time to test our newly issued CAR-15s. After eliminating numerous dangerous bushes and small trees, we decided to concentrate on the mission.
It was at this point that we reached two conclusions: 1. If we kept following this road, we would become part of it, or we would be in the clouds and then crash. 2. We were lost. We made a 180 turn, climbed to 5000’ and headed south. Surely, God would smile on us and present us with a landmark that would peek through the now dissipating clouds. Nope.
Plan B, call the frequency that all Vietnam listened to and ask for directions. I think we tried the ADF for Lai Khe. Either there wasn’t one or it wasn’t working.
At some point Big Red 1 (1st Infantry Division) had carved their famous patch into the jungle just north of Lai Khe. The controller suggested that we look down to see if anything looked familiar. There it was; much thanks controller.
End of story, oh no. As we exulted in our “Lima Lima”(Low Level Flight) prowess along the road to nowhere, our radios had not picked up that our mission had been cancelled. To add insult to injury, Harlan and I were forced to wear magnetic compasses around our necks when we were in the “O” Club and locate each other with said instruments for a week.
As I said earlier, I was never lost, just temporarily disoriented. Sparrow might have been lost, but I can’t speak for him!