I missed the Plei Trap! However, I almost made it. I was contemplating going another 6 mo. after a 30 day leave. Then I woke up, slapped myself upside the head and yelled "snap out of it"!!! I really wanted to stay. I psyched myself into thinking I was a good luck charm for the 119th. So, I figured as long as I was still flying everybody was going to be alright. We took some good hits, but none of the crews took any serious hits, hence my psych job. Just before I arrived Jonny Shelton was shot down - Pat Kelly was awarded the Silver Star for that. I end up being the gunner for Shelton(Blue). He was sort of losing his sense of humor. I guess that happens to some guys after they get shot down. The most serious thing to happen injury wise was a splinter that came from a round off a gun mount and lodged in a gunners shin. He screemed bloody murder. When we got back someone pulled the piece out with their finger nails and put a bandaid on it. His name was Duke something. He never lived that down. So people were evading me like the plague because I was very "short" and I would not quit flying. They just knew that the round with my name on it was in the vacinity and they didn't want to get in the way. So it's about 1 Aug 68, and it's our turn in the barrel. We are flying north to Dak Pek to fly SOG missions for a month. I have 11 days left in country. You heard right! So the next day we go across the border into Laos to insert a team of Green Berets and Montagnard specials. That goes well and we are in the in the camp and we are sneaking up on the bar around 5 o'clock. If we can get past 5 we have it made, but no!! In comes the radio operator and tells us the team has been hit and they have 2 wounded and need extraction. In unison we hear " aw shit"!
So it's "kick the tires and lite the fires" On the the way we hear that they are going back to the same LZ that we inserted them into. Another "aw shit"!! We get there and I know we are going in first cause Blue always leads by example. At the last second Red slips under us and says "I'll take this one Blue". No time to argue. We get on top of them and piggy back in with them. As we settle in and belly up I sence the hair on my neck going up along with goose bumps all over my body. I hit the radio and yell " we're going to catch hel...!!! I never finished that line because the LZ lit up like the 4th of July, Red was taking so many rounds you could see stuff flying off the ship. The 409 was in the line of fire - I could hear shit zipping by and I could swear right through the doors. After he studdered once and I thought he was going in, Red got that ship out. It was a flying junk yard dog. We pulled up along side and I gave them a once over for Blue. All the glass was blown out and back on the pilots. I could see daylight through the ship in a couple of places and it looked like a flying sprinkler system with JP4 spraying all over Laos. I yelled at Blue and told him they better get that thing down before it runs out of fuel or just plain falls apart. I had 10 days and a wakeup left and you've only heard half of the story. The rest will come later. See ya!!