OK.. I've got to get this over with. Cheez.. Pat Kelly would never believe I was so windy!! Where was I?? There we were hovering over the whole team by some miracle of navigation!! The good Lord was watching out for them - we could have crushed some of them if we hadn't got stuck on a stick. There was a lot of noise and they didn't know we were there. I yelled " Hey!, get the hell..." I never finished that sentence either. Bang! there they were, 6 guys includung the wounded sitting on my lap. I said lets haul ass!! But be careful not to rip us open getting off this stump!! Here come the Crocs on another pass. My gun barrel is glowing in the dark. I'm using armor piercing rounds on this trip. I figured if they were going to take me out, I was going to take a bunch with me. So I tell the guys that I could use a little help. They all start firing out the doors. Brass is flying everywhere. Another Gator goes in for the remainder of the team...might have been Marty. Blue has had enough for one day and takes us up to 5000 feet. We close the doors and cruise back to camp. You can imagine the reception back at camp. The Colonel is running up and down the runway shaking everybody's hand and telling us to put our money away, there's open bar tonight for the 119th!! He didn't have to tell us twice!! An hour and a half later I'm sitting back in a chair with 2 Chevas Regals lined up and I have a big shitty grin on my face. Here comes John Dick and says Spook you guys on 409 are being recommended for the Silver Star by the Colonel. Without changing expression I say, Tell the Colonel to put it in the mail... I'm hanging up my jock, Dickhead!! He lets it sink in for a couple of seconds and then he yells. The Spook is quiting!!! A big cheer goes up. They probably think this whole day was my fault. But I tell them they are going to miss me when I'm gone. Next morning I flew back to Hollaway and started processing out.... 9 days and a wakeup!!!