My War - Installment 21

"This afternoon I want you to fly Command and Control for me."

"Yes Sir!!"

"The Scouts have uncovered a camp of, what I believe to be, division size. No contact has been made as yet, but I want to be there all afternoon- just in case contact is made. We'll leave here at 1215 hours. We will be using the new '540' model Huey." (The 540 was actually a rotor system that was different from the other Huey models which gave it more lift and speed.)

"Fine Colonel, I'll eat quickly and preflight the ship. I'll wait for you there, Sir."

"Good. I'll see you then."

Ah!! This was great. The old man could evaluate my flying and it just might help me get into the Scout section sooner, if my flying pleased him. We could have had better weather, but I was not about to let it get in the way. The mountains had been almost completely socked in when we left the "506 a short time before. I'd just have to wait and see how it went.

I knew that the Command and Control ship never really did much of anything. The Scouts were the ones that were actively in charge of the operations, because they were so much more intimately involved and accustomed to looking for the enemy and signs of his presence. But, flying with the new "Old Man" would be a chance to prove myself.

The Colonel met me a few minutes before 1215 hours; we took off immediately and headed for the 506 Valley. The clouds east of LZ Hammond base had dropped in the past hour and it looked as though we would have to either fly by instruments or low level contour flight. The Colonel told me he didn't want to fly low level in route because we were not being escorted. I think he was afraid of being shot down. I can't say that I blamed him. The Colonel pushed the intercom button again suggested we go IFR (Instrument Flight Rules).

It had not been all that long since I had my tactical instrument training so it was fine with me. We gained altitude and within a few seconds had disappeared into the thick clouds. There were no navigational aids there in the Central Highlands so the flight would require more thought than normal instrument conditions. Fortunately I was very familiar with the terrain in the area we were flying. I took up a heading which would keep us in the center of the valley which ran in an easterly direction. I kept the ship at five hundred feet just inside the clouds- in that way if the ceiling lifted at all we would immediately know. I could not drift off course because we were flying lower than the mountain tops on either side. I planned on dropping out of the clouds at the mouth of the 506 Valley and then, if necessary, flying contour the few miles up the valley. I had taken notice of our departure time and held my airspeed and course constant so that I would know when to bring her down.

We were within a few minutes of my calculated let down
I banked hard to the left and pushed the airspeed to one hundred and forty knots, (I just kinda' wanted to see what it would do.) and we zoomed into the opening of the valley. The 540 handled beautifully; I wished all the Hueys had this rotor system.

The terrain in the Central Highlands is very beautiful and in many ways unusual. Near the coast the mountains were scattered and didn't really seem to run in ranges like the mountains I was use to in the States. There could be valleys and groups of mountains or curving valley networks which snaked around every which way, they didn’t seem to be the result of plate tectonics, but what did I know? There could even be open flat valleys with small steep mountains singly or in groups- looking as if someone just stuck them there or formed by volcanic action. Further inland the mountains did run in ranges. The mountains were larger with many ridges and all covered with dense jungle - trees reaching well over one hundred feet or more high and with a very dense canopy of foliage on top.

We moved swiftly up the 506 then slowed as we approached LZ Pony, which was a few klicks to the north. The mountain tops to the west were shrouded in thick white clouds. A few low saddles could still be seen where we would be able to sneak over into the next valley where our unit was working, (a saddle is a low dip in a mountain ridge which resembles the curvature of a riding saddle).

The CO radioed to the Scouts that we were on station over the ridge. They came back with a message that no contact had been made, nobody hone, but there was more and more evidence of the camp being close to division size. The grunts had made it over the rim of the ridge and had already come across some small stores of weapons. There were 51 Caliber sniper rifles, mortars, AK-47's, machine guns, some hand guns and lots of ammunition. They had also found baskets of food and clothing, including black pajamas, Ho Chi Min sandals (these are sandals made from old tire tread), and various other hardware type items, like hammers and shovels. The message about the weapons reminded me of the fact, that the enemy weapons could use our ammunition, but we could not use theirs in our weapons - interesting.

The grunt platoon leader Lieutenant Wyjacowski was going to look for a possible LZ along the ridge, with the help of the Scouts. They were looking for an LZ that would accommodate one Huey, so that the caches of items could be hauled to the LZ and loaded onboard a Huey and then taken out. Weapons were not as easily destroyed in the field as were food stuffs.

I had turned the "540" west and started in toward the mountains, carefully moving at tree top level up and across the first saddle that had sufficient clearance for us to slip through. It was important that we stay in the clear, there was one Scout team working in the valley - two ships- plus gunships were in there cruising around, in the event that contact would be made; they could give some close in covering weapons fire. So, there would be quite a bit of traffic moving around in a relatively small valley, in lousy weather conditions. We all needed to be careful.

As I flew into the valley moving the ship very slowly so that I could mentally mark the positions and directions of flight, of each of the ships that were present there. My job would be to, basically, stay out of the way, but keep the CO close enough so that he could take note of everything that was taking place. We could also keep an eye out for a landing zone in the fringe area where we were going to do most of our flying.

I brought our airspeed down to fifteen knots to coincide with the average speed of the Scouts. We roamed along the eastern side of the ridge closest to the "506" Valley and started to look for a Landing Zone. The jungle below us was extremely dense. The tops of the trees seemed to be holding onto the layer of mist which covered them. The mist further limited our ability to see down into the jungle. The Scouts remained lower on the slope, hovering along, conversing with elements of the recon platoon that were located below them.

As we moved along in a southerly direction, I noticed a small clearing at the very top edge of the ridge right at the intersection with a smaller, perpendicularly running, ridge. The spot was halfway level; at least it looked level from where I sat. It did seem to slope slightly downward from its top most edge, not enough to matter though. I pointed it out to the CO as I remarked: If the grunts knock down just a few trees along the edge of the area, I believe a Huey, just, might be able to slip in for a landing.

"Good eye, Rollason."

"Thank you, Sir!"

The CO called one of the Scout ships over to our position and had them mark the proposed LZ with a smoke grenade. He thought that marking it would help the grunts to more easily locate the LZ. In my mind I thought that it was questionable in light of the low visibility conditions that prevailed. We continued to hover over the area to help direct the grunts in. It would take some time for them to work their way to our position, and still more time before they could transport all of the materials which had been seized. We would hover for a short time over the area and then make a run down the ridge to try and see what progress had been made in transporting the goods; plus it was not the wisest thing to hover in one place for too long.

Lieutenant Wyjocowski reported that he could see no evidence that the camp had been inhabited in the recent past, fire pits were stone cold and water logged. Huts were in slight disrepair from, he presumed, the winds of the previous day. We all speculated on why the weapons and ammunition and so forth had been left behind. A stupid thing for the NVA to do knowing we were working in the region. Perhaps it was just a ploy by the enemy, to distract us from doing reconnaissance in other areas. Nobody knew! We were committed at this point in time to gathering what had been found and destroying the camp. There certainly wasn't anything better to do that day. I was enjoying the flying and being involved in the operation. It certainly was more interesting than the waiting game that the Lift section played daily.

We continued our hovering and darting back-and-forth until the first elements of the ground unit, with some of their find reached the LZ. Some two hours had passed up to that point. The Scout team, that had been working the area when we had arrived, had been relieved on station by another team and we, like the first team, were ready to head out, refuel and immediately return.

It was normal procedure, for the Scout teams, when working a specific operation, to be relieved by another Scout team every two hours or so. In that way there would be a Scout team on station at all times. When they were out doing specific reconnaissance of an area a team would go to the nearest POL point and then return and continue their recon.

We radioed our intent to the Scouts on station before going north along the ridge and again slipped through a saddle into the 506 Valley. I remained at tree top level and accelerated down the slop of the mountain; within a few minutes we were at LZ Pony's POL. Our crew chief jumped out and refueled us while the turbine continued at idle. Not shutting down, I was told, was SOP for these small bases. There was very little room and pilots had to refuel their ships quickly to make room for the next in line. The fuel point was a small sloping area along the barbed wire perimeter of LZ Pony. I could easily see that not many ships would fit there at one time. Fuel was sling loaded into these areas in 500 gallon rubber bladders, which were similar in shape to a very wide and large floatation tire without tread. They had a center hole through which a cable could be run. CH-47 Chinook helicopters (large twin rotor helicopters made by Boeing Vertol helicopter, a division of the Boeing Co.) could sling load 3 to 4 of these bladders into an area at one time; and awfully heavy load even for a Chinook. When the crew chief finished filling the tank with JP-4 we immediately lifted off and headed west toward the mountains.

It took the grunts all afternoon to carry the captured items to the proposed LZ. Fortunately for us the clouds had lifted off of the mountain tops and visibility had become somewhat better for the incoming Lift ships. The CO had radioed base and two Lift ships were in route to pick up the cache of enemy goods and weapons that were going to be waiting in the LZ. It had not been determined whether one D-model would do for the load, so two had come just in case they were both needed.

The grunts were still felling a few small trees when the D-model Hueys arrived on site. The two ships flew around the LZ and surveyed their options for entering the tight spot. The only way into the LZ was to fly from the west across the valley we had worked in all afternoon and then sort of making a zigzag down, flare slightly above the trees and then proceed on in gently lowering into the LZ. One ship circled to the west. The other came across the LZ slowly, to make sure of their plans for an approach. After that last appraisal they turned and moved out into the valley and aligned themselves with the approach path they had chosen. They moved in cautiously and appeared to be doing all right when suddenly they pulled in pitch and rapidly climbed away.

The CO was on the horn immediately to see what was wrong. Both of the pilots felt that it was too dangerous a landing for either of them to successfully accomplish.

The CO did not want to risk them or the ship if they were that uncomfortable with the LZ. The second Lift ship had monitored the radio transmissions and called to tell the Colonel that they were moving in to give it a try. They too surveyed the LZ one more time and made an approach which was aborted. They climbed out and came around for a second attempt. This attempt was also unsuccessful and they expressed much the same feelings that the first lift ship had. The Colonel was perturbed to say the least, but he still could not afford the loss of men and machinery. He called Lieutenant Wyjocowski and had him estimate whether all of the items found would fit into one ship. They also discussed the possibility of trying to destroy everything there on the ground. I personally had the impression from listening to the transmissions during the day that there was one heck of a lot of stuff on the ground that needed to be flown out. During their conversation I decided to take a chance and live dangerously, so I interrupted the CO. I pressed the intercom button.

"Sir."

"Yes, Rollason." seemingly perturbed.

"Sir, I picked the LZ as one I felt I could get into. The '540' is not quite as long as a D-model and I'd like to give it a shot. We have more lift with this rotor system so I don't feel that the load would be too much."

"OK, let's give it a try."

This was my real chance to prove myself to the CO, to vindicate myself in his eyes. We had been viewing the LZ all afternoon, so I was familiar with it. What did we have to lose? Apparently the CO trusted me enough to give the go ahead for this attempted landing, trusting his life to my skill as a pilot.

I moved the aircraft around and started my approach toward the LZ. I could see the ground unit clustered around the edge of the small opening in the jungle, tiny forms hunched into the misty overgrowth. I glance over at the Colonel, he looked nervous as he stared at the clearing. I believe he had not thought much about it during the day because he figured he would not be trying to go into it. As we neared the tree tops the CO's hands froze at his sides, white knuckle time for the C.O., I would be doing this one alone, even though SOP called for both pilots in a Huey to have their hands on the controls during take off and landing. We came in and I gradually reduced airspeed, and then carefully slipped the fuselage into the clearing below the tree tops. I stopped my forward movement, quickly and ever so gently, lowered the helicopter down. As the rotor came to tree top level it trimmed away a few tiny branches and leaves. We continued to settle down for what seemed an eternity and then finally the skids smoothly touched the ground. We had made it.

The helicopter was sitting at a slightly cocked angle, with the tail down slope, but we were firmly on the ground. The grunts immediately started carrying the captured supplies toward the helicopter's open cargo doors.