1966

Major Joseph (Gentleman Joe) Pfluger, a former marine and long-time helicopter pilot who had flown H-19's in the Korean War, was the first commanding officer. He joined the unit in September 1965 and took the company through deployment and the first few months in Vietnam. He relinquished command to Major Albert (Rip) Roughen in June who held the position until December when Major (later LTC) Gerald (the Red Baron) Kirklighter assumed command. Major Kirklighter was a big man with noticeably red hair even when cut very short.

Major Pfluger was one of 10 Majors in the company up for promotion to LTC. He later found himself in a rather awkward position when the other 9 Majors made the LTC list and he did not. Despite this, he was a good leader and excellent company commander.

After the Christmas holidays in '65 passed, the company completed last minute preparations for departure from Fort Benning. Late one night in early January, the company departed Benning by bus to the Muscogee County Airport in Columbus, GA to load on to Lockheed Electra aircraft for the flight to Alameda Naval Air Station, CA. Although the aircraft were in standard airline configuration, all of the company personnel were in full combat gear with steel pots and weapons. After takeoff and climb to cruise altitude, more than a few on board commented on the really shallow rate of climb after takeoff and the extensive time spent looking out the windows at the ground below at a very low altitude. The suspicion was that the flight crew might have underestimated the takeoff weight of the plane due to the weight of the full combat gear worn by all on board except them. Despite this slight problem, the flight went well and the company off-loaded from the Electras at "oh dark early" the next morning at Alameda.

Major Pfluger flew to Vietnam with a small advance party while Major Ed Brown, the XO, took the main body of men over on the USMTS Pope.

In typical "hurry up and wait" manner, the company proceeded to dockside at Oakland and boarded the USMTS John Pope for what was expected to be a departure shortly thereafter and deployment to Vietnam by ship. Then two days were spent on board while other units and personnel were boarding, and the company personnel stood at the rail looking across the harbor at the San Francisco skyline - so close and yet unreachable! In addition, the anticipation of a quick departure on the voyage was related to the fact well known by all on board that their Vietnam tour of duty began when the ship departed - not when it arrived in RVN. (The 25 aircraft had been picked up at the factory, flown to Oakland and loaded onto the carrier Iwo Jima along with an advance party in December).

Some were a bit disappointed with the sendoff from the Oakland pier. Rather than cheering crowds, marching bands and speeches as in the old war movies, the pier was deserted except for a small, lonely-looking Army band. However, the view of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way out of the harbor was a spectacular sight, one still imprinted in the memory of the men who were on the troopship that day.

The trip to Vietnam via Hawaii took 22 days with one stop in Hawaii to disembark troops for the 25th Infantry Division stationed there at the time. It was incredibly boring and there was literally nothing to do but eat, sleep, read and play cards. "Doc" Crown, the flight surgeon, managed to get himself into more trouble on the ship. During the stopover in Hawaii almost everyone went into Honolulu for eight hours of shore leave with instructions to be back at the ship by midnight. Everyone, that is, but "Doc" Crown. He had brought his pump action shotgun along and went back to the fantail and began shooting sea gulls. The ship's Captain asked "Doc" Crown to stop shooting birds while the ship was docked. Another incident occurred later while enroute to Vietnam. "Doc" Crown, Cpt Ronald Miller and several others decided to have a little target practice off the fantail one day. They started by shooting tin cans thrown up in the air but then began picking off the albatrosses that flew nearby. The ships' officers had a fit over this and chewed the group out-something about bringing bad luck if you kill an albatross. (Remember "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" from high school and why the sailor was cursed?)

Many remember the unscheduled stop near Guam to transfer a man with appendicitis to a small tug boat and the show the troops put on a few days before arrival. The USMTS Pope stopped at Cam Ranh Bay to unload some of the smaller units that had embarked with the company and then on to Vung Tau, arriving on 6 February 1966, where the company offloaded onto LSM's for the trip to the beach. The unit was then flown into Phouc Vinh on three C-130's, a hot, dusty and desolate spot that had been a former French, then ARVN, compound that was now the HQ of the First Brigade, First Infantry Division. Phouc Vinh had been a Japanese airfield called Bung Bung in World War II and then a French airfield in the early 1950's.

The arrival of the main party of the company at Phouc Vinh was interesting to say the least. When loaded on the C-130s at Vung Tau, all on board were sure it would be a flight of some time before arriving at their destination. However, in approximately 15 to 20 minutes of flying time, the C-130 descended and made an assault landing. When looking out the small windows of the plane, all that could be seen was a cloud of red (laterite) dust swirled up by the reversed props. It gave the impression of landing on Mars instead of Phouc Vinh. After recovering from the effects of the landing, the company personnel picked up their combat gear and personal gear and disembarked down the rear ramp of the C-130 at their new base camp. As the troops deplaned, they noticed one of the company advance party officers waiting on the ramp for them. When all had deplaned, he formed them up in a column of twos, sort of, and led them over the ramp where the company UH-1's would soon be sitting.

As they proceeded the short distance to the gate of a compound, all of the newly arrived men had experienced the climate of Vietnam for the first time after waiting for an hour or so at the Vung Tau airfield and now in the mid-day heat at Phouc Vinh, and were really feeling the heat and humidity. The cumulative effect of lugging their combat and personal gear off the ship, on and off the planes, and covering the length of the ramp had not only worn them out physically but had put them in a mental frame of mind that was not a happy one. When they arrived at the crudely constructed front gate of their new home, they saw the CO, Major Pfluger, 350 Magnum on his hip, sitting on a jeep with a 1/4 ton trailer behind it. They were glad to see him-until he started laughing at them-more than a few started feeling otherwise about him and a few choice derogatory words were muttered under their breath. Having no other choice, they walked up to him. As they approached, he continued laughing and then, pointing to the trailer, said "The first one's on me!" When they got close enough to the trailer, they saw that it was filled with iced down beer. With that first, ice cold beer still going down, they all experienced a great attitude adjustment and gained a greater appreciation for their CO. Some were heard to say that that first beer in Vietnam was the best they ever had.

The aircraft had not yet arrived but the air crews were farmed out to the 116th and 128th AHC's (the Hornets and Tomahawks) at Phu Loi for a couple of weeks of in-country training. The rest of the company was kept busy constructing facilities and sandbagging hooches. There were a few old French buildings but most facilities had to be built from scratch. Initially most people, including the pilots, spent some of their time filling sand bags and pulling guard duty on the perimeter. Someone built a sand bag loading contraption out of a 55 gallon barrel which made filling the bags a little easier but it was still tough work. Everything got off to a good start but some folks weren't too happy when a Chinook dropped a conex full of footlockers being sling-loaded in. Major Darwin Schuett brought some jet wing tanks ups from Saigon for use as holding tanks for the showers. It was a bit tricky flying since he couldn't go faster than 45 knots without causing severe bouncing (due to the aerodynamics of the wing tanks protruding from each side of the cargo area).

The senior pilots, CO, XO and company staff lived in "Majors' Manor", a refurbished original French building, and some of the junior ones made their home in "Vultures Gulch", a converted pig barn that resembled an old west building with a covered wooden walk in front of a dusty/muddy street. Most others lived in GP Medium tents.

The aircraft soon arrived in Vung Tau via aircraft carrier and the crews were ferried over to pick them up. This first complement of aircraft consisted of 17 brand new UH-1D models and 8 UH-1C models. (It is interesting to note that the 162nd had the distinction of being both the first and the last assault helicopter unit in Vietnam to use C model gunships.) On the way back to Phouc Vinh, the entire company was diverted to the Snake Pit (home of the 71st AHC Rattlers), picked up troops and carried out a Combat Assault (CA) at An Loc. What a way to go operational!

The Copperheads had brand new C models with quad 60's and one 40mm "Chunker". The C models were the envy of the company's sister units which still had B model gunships and no chunkers. However, there was a shortage of M-60's and on the first few CA's the slick CE's and gunners used M-14's fired on automatic. After a few weeks, more M-60's were available but they were primarily used free-hand, attached to a bungee cord, since the X-23 gun mounts didn't arrive for a couple more months.

Initially, both the aircraft commander (AC) and crew chief (CE) were assigned to specific aircraft while the pilot (peter pilot, or PP) and door gunner usually rotated from ship to ship. However, in later years only the CE was assigned to a ship although the AC and gunner often tended to fly with the same CE. A peter pilot normally flew with every AC in the company on a rotating basis. A PP flew almost every day for 4-5 months before he was ready for AC. When he was put up for AC, all AC's in the company voted on whether to grant him that honor.

The Vultures were assigned as direct support for the 1st Brigade of the First Infantry Division. The First Brigade units operating out of Phouc Vinh were the 1st Battalion of the 26th Infantry, 1st of the 28th , and 1st of the 1st. The 162nd worked very closely with these units both at Phouc Vinh and in the field. In addition to the First Infantry Division the Vultures worked with almost any unit operating in III Corps. They worked not only in III Corps but also throughout the area known as War Zone D and the northern Delta.

The grizzled veteran of the group was Major Robert DesJardins who had previously served a tour at Pleiku in the very early stages of the war. He was the resident advisor on how to survive in Vietnam and his pointers probably saved many a pilot and crew.

When the 162nd arrived at Phouc Vinh, it provided the 1st Brigade with a significant air mobility capability -- in more ways than one! At that time, Phouc Vinh was an enclave in Viet Cong held territory to the extent that it was accessible by outside friendly forces only once a month. The rest of the month, it was encircled by VC forces. This was alleviated on a once-a-month basis by a road clearing operation, conducted by the 1st Brigade and supporting forces to open and keep open the road from Phu Loi to allow large (100+) truck convoys to resupply the brigade's isolated location. Included in the mission essential items brought in was a supply of a variety of liquid refreshments for the troops-beer included (on a space available basis of course). Unfortunately, the supply of beer did not always sustain the troops until the next month's delivery by ground. Prior to the arrival of the 162nd and their aircraft, it got more than a little dry towards the end of the month. However, once the Vultures were in place and flying daily combat support (ash and trash) missions to and from down South (Phu Loi, Saigon, etc.), the term airmobile took on a whole new meaning. Seldom, if ever, did an aircraft return from down South without a partial, or even full, load of mission essential liquid refreshments, Budweiser being one of primary importance! The ability of the Vultures to bring in significant quantities all during the month not only boosted troop morale, but also made them very popular - and made "horse trading" for things needed by the company a lot easier.

The first shelling by VC 75 mm pack howitzers in early 1966 was an event not to be forgotten by those who were there. This first attack took place shortly after the arrival of all of the aircraft. Surprisingly, it was predicted by a Special Forces grunt who passed through while catching a ride to go back up North. He told Operations personnel they could expect Charlie to hit within ten days - the attack occurred on the night of the ninth day. The CO's jeep took a direct hit from a 75 mm round and another hit the porch of his hooch but failed to explode. A round also made a direct hit on a conex of washing machines shipped over with the equipment, completely destroying them. Another round severely wounded a very nice paper mache Vulture hanging in front of Vulture's Gulch. Fortunately, it was patched up like new.

The attack set back an early attempt at mosquito control in Majors Manor, a never ending task. A few days before, two residents (Majors Atsushi "Archie" Miyamoto and Sam Patellos) made a significant contribution to this effort by scrounging some screening material that was very hard to come by. First priority was given to the mess hall that had walls that went from the ground up about four feet and a roof supported by poles - otherwise an open air hooch. After being able to screen in the mess hall, they took advantage of having enough left over to put screening in the door and the rear window openings (no window or door, just openings) of their room. When the attack occurred, one of the other occupants of the room forgot about the screening in the excitement of the moment, and made a flying exit out through the rear window opening taking the precious screening with him. Despite the seriousness of the attack, the Vultures were fortunate in that they did not lose any personnel. Charlies' accuracy was such that he bracketed the aircraft ramp by hitting the POL dump at one end and the company compound at the other end - no aircraft were lost or damaged. As a result of the first attack, the filling of sandbags took on number one priority for all of the company. The next day saw the building of many bunkers with what was reported to be thousands of sandbags.

Sometime around mid April, Lt Ed Brock had the dubious distinction of earning the first of many Purple Hearts awarded to the men of 162nd. He was firing the quad-60's on a Copperhead gunship and was hit in the face by shell fragments. Luckily, it was relatively minor and he was back flying within a week or so.

Many of the Majors who came over on the ship with the unit were reassigned during the May-June '66 time frame. These departures were caused primarily by two significant events. The first was the publication of the LTC promotion list in June. At that time, there were 10 Majors in the company that were in the zone for selection. When the list was published, nine of the 10 made the list for promotion. Shortly after this occurrence, all of those selected were reassigned to other duties, mostly to staffs at USARV, MACV, and other higher HQs. Their replacements in the company were largely company grade officers and WO's arriving from stateside. The second event contributing to the change in the company rank structure was the infusion of members of the 1st Cavalry Division from up North. This was done to avoid a rotation problem when the Cav's first year in country ended since they all came over at the same time in '65. By this action, the Cav personnel sent to units like the 162nd would rotate out before the rest of that unit. Later in the year, the company received another large influx of Majors as assigned pilots were transferred or DEROS'd.

The first combat casualty also occurred in April. Major Darwin Schuett and WO J. D. Tucker were lead ship on a 4 ship CA on April 9th to insert a recon team from the First Infantry in the Courtney Rubber Plantation area south of Xuan Loc. On takeoff from Xuan Loc, Major Schuett's ship (64-13857) had an engine failure, crashed and burned just outside the airfield perimeter. The two pilots received only slight injuries but the CE and gunner, as well as several troops on board, had very serious burns from which some later died. PFC Ronnie R. Lovett, the gunner, died from his injuries two days later. God rest his soul.

Everyone seems to have heard the story about a couple of 162nd crew chiefs (apparently flight school dropouts) going to Saigon, stealing a B model and bringing it back to Phouc Vinh. They gave it a new log book and tail number, painted a red dog on the nose and presented it to the 407th TC Detachment CO. Who the CE's were remains a mystery-but they should have continued on in flight school!

The Vultures were supporting a battalion of the First Infantry Division on a CA around midyear when a bizarre event occurred. After inserting the troops and resupplying them the slicks were ordered to land in the LZ by the ground commander and were stationed around the battalion's perimeter to use the aircraft's M-60's for perimeter defense. They stayed there all night and part of the next day until higher level commanders found out about it. Luckily they were not attacked during the night. The battalion commander on the ground got into big trouble over that one!

Some folks may remember the DECCA navigation system installed on some of the first aircraft of the 162nd. DECCA worked by triangulating off three ground transmitters. Using DECCA, the pilot could pinpoint his position down to within a few meters in very rough terrain and even at night. However, the DECCA map came in a long strip and the width represented only a few thousand yards. If a ship was flying along the map's vertical axis there was no problem but if it turned to the horizontal axis the aircraft quickly ran off the map and it took some time to load and register the adjoining map into the DECCA system. Despite its limitations, DECCA was used frequently for Long Range Recon Patrol (LRRP) insertions, particularly those involving multiple fake LZ's to confuse the enemy. It was also very handy in helping LRRP teams pinpoint their exact position on the ground.

Major "Rip" Roughen, a "lead magnet" in the air and a hard drinking Irishman at the O Club, was the CO during the last half of 1966. Major Michael Royse, the Operations Officer, recalls flying with him one day to pick up some POWs and being hit by a 50 caliber round in the fuel tank. The round ripped a hole in the bladder and JP-4 was pouring out when they landed. That's when they learned the fuel cell was self-sealing only on the bottom, not the sides. Of course it wasn't very funny to him but the Vultures joked about it for days when Major Roughen later broke an ankle falling off a bar stool at the O Club.

The Vultures supported the First and 25th Infantry Divisions as well as the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Operation Attleboro in the fall of 1966, leading many of the large initial lifts. By this time, the Vultures had established their reputation as one of the most proficient units conducting combat assaults. Four regiments of NVA regulars had planned to wipe out a Special Forces camp and Mobile Strike Force at Sui Da but were foiled by the aggressive tactics and rapid airmobile deployment of the US units involved. Over 1,100 enemy were killed in a 4-week period.

Being designated to lead large lifts to kick off Operation Attleboro was just one example. In an earlier similar size operation, Major Ray Holleran led a flight of 90 slicks with supporting gunships and Chinooks. In this operation the Vultures supported the 1st Division in establishing and operating from a forward CP on the Michelin Plantation at the Dau Tieng airfield for the duration of the operation.

Another interesting event occurred in Sept '66. A Copperhead fire team under Lt Ed Brock was supporting the 5th ARVN Division near Phu Loi and managed to single-handedly capture 2 VC. They had spotted 3 VC who were shooting at them from a tree line next to some rice paddies. The VC then ran along some dikes and disappeared in into a rice paddy. Lt Brock landed both ships of his fire team on a nearby dike and he along with both CE's(SP5 Carl Feuchter and SP4 Gene Boselle) and both gunners (SP4 Ronald Willis and Sgt. Robert Schaber) jumped out and formed a line to search the rice paddy for the three VC who were hiding under the muddy, chest-deep water. They soon located 2 of the VC by actually stepping on them. Lt Brock waved his 45 in one VC's face hoping to scare him into revealing the location of the 3rd VC. However, he lost his balance in the muck and fell backwards. He thought he was "done for" at that point but, surprisingly, the VC did not even move. They tied them up and put one VC onto each gunship then took off and unloaded their rockets on the suspected location of the 3rd VC they could not locate. They turned the 2 VC captives over to the 5th ARVN Division and the division commander later presented the entire fire team with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

On October 4th the Vultures, covered by one Copperhead gunship, on a mission near Ben Luc flew into the hottest LZ they had been in to date. The lead ship, 64-13854, under AC Major Atsushi "Archie" Miyamoto with Major Carl Busdiecker, CE SP4 William DuBois and Gunner SP4 Boynton Goldston, landed in the LZ when suddenly a number of VC came out of rice paddies firing BAR's, Carbines and machine guns. The ship took heavy fire-one round hitting Major Miyamoto square in the abdomen. Luckily he was wearing his chicken plate (chest protector) and it stopped the 30 caliber round.

Another round came up through the bottom of the ship as they landed, entering the bottom of SP4 "Goldfoot" Goldston's foot but did not exit the top. While the lead ship was being shot up, another Vulture ship was also in trouble. AC Lt Roy Dowdy, Pilot WO Robert Edgertan, CE SP4 Charles Buckner, and Gunner SP4 Lester Stevens, in ship 64-13862 were hit many times and forced down in the LZ. After dropping its troops off the ship behind them picked up the downed crew.

The slicks cleared the LZ with a tally of 5 VC confirmed kills while the Copperheads stayed to provide fire support for the infantry. AC Captain John McQuestion, WO Arthur Cline, CE SP4 Gene Boselle and Gunner Corporal Rivera-Aviles reported 10 VC confirmed kills and 5 VC wounded. WO Cline made a direct hit on 2 VC with a rocket.

Major Miyamoto
Many people remember the adventures of Major Miyamoto who became known as "Kamikaze 6". No one remembers how many times he was wounded but it was quite a few. On the above occasion where he was hit in the chicken plate by a round that splattered shrapnel into his throat, chin and upper legs he was medivac'd to the MASH at Bien Hoa. However, the wounds were not as serious as they appeared and he returned to duty after a week or so. As Major Schuett recalled "I can still see him with that big grin sitting up in his bed at Bien Hoa". Major Miyamoto's chicken plate, with the large depression where the slug impacted, was ceremoniously hung in the Operation's Hooch as a reminder for everyone to wear their chest protector. His luck also held one day when he returned from a mission and the transmission locked up on his ship just as they shut down.

On another occasion, the Vultures and Copperheads were standing by on an airstrip waiting to begin a large CA with the 1st Infantry Division when the strip was shelled by the VC . Major Miyamoto was hit by shrapnel in the back just under his flak vest. He was medivac'd by Major Joe Estores and left blood all over the inside of his ship. He was scheduled to go on R & R the next day and was to meet his wife in Japan. Instead, he was evacuated to Japan for an operation and got a long R & R there with his wife. Major Miyamoto later returned to the company. He finally managed to make it out of Vietnam alive, but it was a pretty close thing!

Sound Sleepers
In late 1966, an incident occurred that illustrates how some guys were incredibly sound sleepers. During a mortar and rocket attack, WO Jim Christiansen was startled awake but not sure if the noise was incoming fire. A few seconds later the mess hall just across from his hooch was blown up by a rocket, quickly confirming his suspicions. He ran toward the bunker outside his back door but hesitated to go in because of his fear of spiders! Just then a large fireball (from a rocket) erupted nearby and he decided to take his chances with the spiders. Once inside it dawned on him that his roommate, WO Bob Truckenmiller, was missing. He ran back to his hooch to find his roommate still fast asleep and the mess hall next door burning furiously. WO Truckenmiller kept 3 large "Big Ben" alarm clocks in a pie tin next to his bed to keep him from oversleeping but, of course, they were no help in this case. He said he thought it was just a thunderstorm-until it started "raining" shrapnel on his tin roof.

Magnet Ass
Many remember Cpt Chuck DeShields, otherwise known as "Magnet Ass", for his uncanny ability to draw enemy fire. He seemed to be invariably shot at on every CA. Cpt DeShields was a big man, well over 6 feet and 240 lbs. or so, who had turned down a Pro Football draft to stay in the Army. He always seemed to be a little lower, or slower, than the rest of the pack and thus probably attracted fire like a wounded duck. The other pilots joked that "if he wasn't so damn big, he wouldn't be over gross and could climb faster".

Cpt DeShields was easily recognizable approaching his aircraft on the flight line by his gear. In addition to flight equipment, he wore both a flak vest and a chicken plate over it and carried both a .45 pistol and an M-16 that he had scrounged from some Infantryman. Not too many others in the company were strong enough to carry all that.

On November 15, 1966 WO James W. Bruhn, copilot in 64-13855,was killed by small arm fire while on an ARVN CA near Tay Ninh. As WO Christiansen recalls, he was flying lead ship with Cpt DeShields and WO Bruhn was copilot with WO Chuck Tanner on their left in a 5 ship staggered trail formation. As the ships flared to land, a machine gun opened up on them from a bunker to their left front, close to WO Bruhn's ship. One of the rounds went behind Bruhn's chicken plate, killing him instantly. No one else was hit but the ship was too damaged to fly and the crew scrambled out and took cover with the ARVNs.

Another ship in the flight picked up the three survivors. On hearing that WO Bruhn was dead, Cpt DeShields began crying and beating on the instrument panel, blaming himself for Bruhn's death.

On the 2nd lift into the LZ, WO Christiansen recalls they landed in the same spot (in a flooded rice paddy) and the ship was rocking in an unsteady manner. The gunner then came on the intercom saying "Mr. Christiansen, you're on a slope!" Christiansen responded "No S---, the ship is rocking all over the place". The gunner then said "No, you're on a real slope." At that point WO Christiansen looked out his window and noticed 2 ARVN troops squirming under the weight of the skids, right where there were previously dropped off.

One of the well-known landmarks in the area was Nui Ba Dien (Black Virgin Mountain) just north of Tay Ninh. It was a perfect cone shape, rising 2500 to 3000 feet. There was a Special Forces A Team with a company of Cambodian mercenaries on the summit who operated a radio relay station but the rest of the mountain was controlled by the VC. The A Team was more or less adopted by the Vultures and anyone in the area always checked in with them to see if they needed supplies or people hauled up or down the mountain (the only way on or off was by air). Landings at the top were no problem since they were steep pinnacle approaches. However, during takeoffs the ships dove down the side of the mountain hugging the treetops and almost always took fire. Luckily, the VC had lousy aim and this came to be something of a game.

One of the missions in direct support of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division was the employment of a Copperhead light fire team to a battalion forward CP during a battalion size operation. The SOP for this mission was to locate in close proximity to the battalion CP and be ready to scramble if the battalion came under mortar attack-the purpose being to get airborne, spot muzzle flashes from the mortars, and fire rockets, machine gun, or 40mm rounds into the location of the mortars. A different starting procedure was used to expedite getting airborne ASAP. When shutting down at the CP, all switches were left on except for the master power switch so that when it was time to scramble the pilot flipped on one switch to start up the aircraft and all systems at once. The Copperheads handled this mission very well. That fact, and the location of the company north of the other units in the 11th CAB, resulted in a call from the Battalion Operations Center (BOC) one night to scramble gunships and go up to Loc Ninh to support the friendlies there who were under attack by the VC.

As the Copperhead Platoon Leader (Major Ray Holleran) recalls, a couple of fire teams got airborne in a hurry and headed North. Navigation was difficult over the territory between Phouc Vinh and Loc Ninh and the only things visible on the ground were what appeared to be widely scattered campfires. After flying a general heading and computing some rough time and distance, and having some luck, the teams arrived at Loc Ninh. The attack had ceased shortly before their arrival, but they were ordered to land and RON at that location. Although this put the teams in a situation where they could come under fire if a second attack occurred, the crews agreed that it was a better alternative than trying to get back to home base over the territory just flown over. The teams stayed on station at Loc Ninh on standby for several days in the same role they played in support of the battalion CPs but did not get engaged. One event that added interest to their time at Loc Ninh was a chance to see General Westmoreland up close. Because of the attack, he flew up to check out the situation and his chopper was parked near those of the fire teams.

A popular event during the Phouc Vinh era was the fairly frequent burning of the latrines, more popularly known as "S---Houses". The latrines were originally built as 3 to 6 "holers" over a trench 6 feet or so deep. Every week a couple of gallons of diesel was supposed to be dumped into the trench and set on fire. If only a couple of gallons of diesel was added, the flames would not get high enough to ignite the latrine itself. However, the problem was that the people on the burning detail tended to add far too much diesel, causing the flames to engulf the latrine house itself. When the latrines caught fire everyone seemed to enjoy running around yelling "Fire, the S---House is on fire". Many then ran not to get water buckets or hoses but to get their cameras. This was probably the most photographed event in Vietnam. Every S---House that caught fire always burned completely to the ground.

An interesting incident happened around the end of the year. WO Christiansen was flying ash and trash missions north of Tay Ninh and was sent to a PZ to pick up some equipment. On landing an officer came over and asked them to take the equipment to a certain set of coordinates. Included in the load was a 55-gallon drum of CS gas crystals, and a gasoline powered CS pump. Seems they had found some tunnels and had pumped CS gas into them. Now they wanted to send the equipment back to their base camp.

WO Christiansen protested that an open 55-gallon drum of CS, with a poncho liner held on by a bungee cord as a lid was not the most desirable cargo in a helicopter with no rear doors. However, the officer assured him that the "lid" was tight and he accepted the cargo.

That decision soon proved to be a mistake. Suddenly, the "secure" lid of the 55-gallon drum was flapping in the breeze, and there were CS crystals filling the air. In no time, both pilots and the crew were virtually blinded. As the pilots struggled to open their eyes and maintain control of the ship, the crew chief and gunner struggled to push the 55 gallon drum out. They finally got the drum out the door (at around 2000 feet) and flew in a big orbit watching it head for the jungle below while trying to regain ability to control the aircraft. Sometimes you wonder how many stupid occurrences like this ended up with tragic results in Vietnam, perhaps with "unknown" reasons listed for the loss of an aircraft and crew.

An Officers' Club was built in the Vulture compound at Phuoc Vinh around mid year in an interesting series of steps. The obvious first step was to acquire building materials - but the way the Vultures did it was unique. As a lot of units did in the early days of '66, a Liaison Officer was kept on duty in Saigon with primary area of interest being the docks of Saigon. Prerequisite qualification for this assignment was the ability to scrounge at a high level of efficiency. All incoming ships and their cargo were his targets. Among his major accomplishments was the continuing acquisition of pallets of the beer for Phuoc Vinh referred to earlier. But he surpassed all previous accomplishments when he got the word that materials to build a Vulture O' Club were needed. Shortly thereafter, materials started arriving by air primarily and some by ground. As the piles of material kept accumulating, some wondered why the CO was waiting to give the word to start building. After a period of time, the word was put out that the club construction would now start. It was then that the company learned that the materials on hand were, in fact, a complete corrugated metal building that had been scrounged by our man in Saigon. The second step was to construct the club - no easy task because it was a good size building. Although some outside help was used, the large majority of the work was done by the officers and men of the company. Because the construction could not detract from operational responsibilities, the labor was done when they could find some time-and by a special group of in-house laborers known as "short timers."

To qualify for the "short timers" group, a guy had to have less than 30 days left before his DEROS which meant he was eased out of being fully committed every day to operational flights, especially combat assaults. So, after a lot of hard work done primarily by the short timers, the O' Club came into being and plans were made for the long awaited grand opening. As it turned out, it was all that was expected of it - but with an unexpected twist. As mentioned previously, some 1st Cav pilots joined the Vultures in June '66. By coincidence, they all hit the less than 30 day mark about the time the club was under construction. Consequently, their operational commitments decreased and their time working on the club increased. They did a great job that was appreciated by all until the day of the opening. It was on the morning of the big day when the first radio calls started coming in to the company Ops about the club building, and particularly the roof and painting thereon. These calls came from inbound aircraft from the 1st Division HQs at Phu Loi and other locations as they approached to land to the West, which meant the crews and passengers had a great view of the Vulture compound. What they were seeing was a painting large enough to cover most of the roof, and presenting a very good rendition of the yellow and black 1st Calvary Division shoulder patch - the famous "horse blanket!" It was later learned that our hard working group of infused pilots from that division had put in some overtime and had gone up on the roof late on the night before and done the deed. Needless to say, one of the first, if not the first, phone call came from the compound right next door - HQs, 1st Brigade,1st Infantry Division. They were a little less than thrilled about the horse blanket patch painted on a building in the center of their base camp. The appropriate action was taken to paint over the patch, but the guilty parties were never shot at dawn - they just DEROS'd ASAP! After that, the O' Club was a great place and a big morale booster.

As most people will recall there was a road that crossed the runway at Phouc Vinh to access the First Infantry area on the other side. There was a stop sign at the runway and vehicles were supposed to make sure there was no aircraft nearby when crossing the runway. However, one day a ¾ ton truck with 5-6 infantry troopers crossed the runway just as a Vulture slick was taking off. The right skid went through the vehicle's windshield and ripped the windshield frame off the truck. The slick veered sharply to the right, narrowly avoiding crashing into the ground and made a force landing right in the middle of the maintenance area.

Other memorable incidents during 1966 include:
· When the troopship stopped in Hawaii on the trip to Vietnam, the men were allowed to go into town for a few hours. Five men, all from other units on board, decided they didn't want to go to Vietnam and did not report back to the ship in time for sailing.

· Major Schuett used his ship's DECCA navigation system to give some Air Force C-130's a makeshift GCA when they were attempting to resupply the First Infantry at the Minh Than air strip and ran into a thick haze and IFR conditions.

· SP4 Dennis Hickman, a Copperhead gunner, recalls his fire team escorting a convoy of mechanized 155 mm howitzers and them taking fire from a small patch of trees near the road. The gunships set up for a gun run but the 155 crews turned around and lowered their tubes to fire point blank at the patch of trees. When they fired, trees and limbs were blasted up higher in the air than the gunships and almost knocked them out of the sky. They decided the artillery could take care of themselves.

· A quick thinking Vietnamese POL driver put out a fire caused by static electricity on an aircraft at a refueling point. He stuck his fire extinguisher into the fuel port and the CE of a nearby ship, SP4 Bill Rettenmund, extinguished a fire underneath the aircraft. After it was over SP4 Rettenmund was so shook up he walked away and lit a smoke and was promptly chewed out for smoking on the flight line by an officer running toward the scene. The Vietnamese driver was awarded a well-deserved Bronze Star.

· A memorable company personality for a while was ' Agnes' who was TDY (sort of) from her home station in the jungle. Agnes was a medium sized baboon who was bought by one of the Vultures from a Vietnamese. She was a frequent visitor to the porch of Majors Manor which was the location of what could be loosely called Happy Hour for those who were available to partake of a cool one while rehashing the day's operations. On the porch was a scrounged old fashioned soft drink cooler that was used to hold the beer - hopefully with some ice. Over time, Agnes' owner started bringing her to the porch for the get together. While there, she perched on the cooler and was often given some beer-wrong thing to do but it provided some great entertainment. She put on quite an act when she had a few swigs.

· There was also another monkey, a 3-legged one named Henry. He roamed the compound mooching chow, c-rations and anything he could find. Henry was also a horny little devil. He noticed there was an abundance of cats around (some of them "baby leopards"). Henry would lay in ambush from any suitable concealment. When a cat came by he would pounce and rape the cat (with great vigor). The cat would scream, spit, hiss and claw to no avail. Henry was not choosey (male or female cat) but he WAS thorough. When he finally let the cat go you wouldn't see that one around for a long time. A short time later he would ambush another cat, then another, then another....etc. etc.....

· The first pilot wounded in the face received both a Purple Heart and a reprimand for not having his helmet shield down during a CA.