Guys,

Thank God for the 119th and pilots like Kinzel, Pussycat, Irish, Animal, Junior, JD and several others. Flight School taught me how to crank the aircraft (poorly) and how to fly straight and level (maybe). There was no training about how or why to use a Crewchief or a door-gunner, and the pilots in the 119th were the only people that I know of that ever used the eyes, ears and brains of all of the people assigned as crewmembers on the aircraft. Later I even saw the new UTTAS development discussions, and those people thought that they were gods in the front seat and they didn't need to have a crew confuse them. The new aircraft was designed to take impacts from trees and such. Yea, yea, yea, notice the CE and DG in the doors now with unmounted weapons.

I was flying with Junior the first time that I crossed the county line (my third flying day in country) and Junior was the AC who was going to pick up the SOG team on the ground. I remember Junior talking on the radios saying that he had the LZ in site, I couldn't see it anywhere, I was moving to look for it over, under and around the instrument panel, and when I said that I don't see it, Junior told me to shut up and watch the instruments. He said "If anything happens to me, take the aircraft and climb to altitude, otherwise sit still watch the instruments and be prepared to take the controls". I think that he told me to shut up once or twice more, because he had to listen to the crew.

As the aircraft continued the approach, the crew in the rear started calling out objects like trees and telling Junior to move the tail left or right. I was petrified. All of a sudden, Junior stopped the aircraft and started decending into the tallest grass that I had ever seen. A loud rasping noise blasted out behind me destroying what little concentration that I had, I STILL DIDN'T SEE ANY LZ. The noise was a strange weapon that was thrown into the aircraft, then suddenly the aircraft started rocking violently. Junior just sat there calmly while I panicked. The SOG team started climbing on board from the left side of the aircraft, that is what was causing the rocking, then someone pulled a big plastic looking bag into the aircraft and another American and a bunch of strange little people scrambled to get seated on the floor around the big bag. I heard "clear left" and "clear right" from the rear and Junior said "coming up". What was in that big bag? I later found out that it was a body that the SOG team had been sent out to recover.

I then heard "can I get him?" then the word "yea" and then the thunderous roar of the M-60's destroyed what was left of my mind. I had never heard a weapon that was being fired from inside an aircraft. Things were flying everywhere, things were bouncing off of my helment, the console and a number of other things. Junior was as calm as a cucumber, he looked at me and grinned. Suddenly, I felt a pain at the back of my neck and then all the way down my right side. I started screaming "I'm Hit" over and over again. Well the door gunner had an M-16 inverted and the Crewchief had released his weapon from the mount, both were blasting away at something. Well, I was hit by the brass that these clowns were showering me with, and one got inside my shirt and went all the way to my waist. I had burn marks from that damn brass for years. Everyone but ME was laughing. When I got calmed down, I too thought it was funny, but you know what "I NEVER SAW THAT DAMNED LZ"

I learned a lot from that.

Huey