Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 02 - 05/07/01 to 02/28/03

More Snakes ... :D

All this talk about Cobras reminds me of a LRRP insert/extract we did in Death Valley one time; musta been Feb or early Mar 70; 'cuz I was still in the right seat.

We snuck up on this really tight LZ and dropped in the team and then boogeyed out, low and fast and way, way, off from their location before popping up to altitude. We're heading back to Pleiku, maybe 10, maybe 15 minutes later when they call us back on the radio. They're yelling for us to come back and get them out, and there's the sound of massive rifle fire super-imposed over the radio.

So the Crocs roar back and set up, and we drop down into the LZ ... and wait. After a couple of minutes, one of them comes sauntering out of the jungle with a big grin and waves. What the hell, they're in heavy contact, we're in a tight LZ and they're acting like it's a lark. Dang LRRPs anyway; must be only a couple dozen VC.

Then out of the jungle comes the rest of the team ... half carrying and half dragging this big, huge, snake --- the dang thing musta been 17, maybe 18 feet long; and musta weighed several hundred pounds. It took all five of them to drag the thing out into the LZ --- fortunately, it was dead by this time!

Seems the point looked off to one side and when he looked forward again, this dang big ole snake looped down out of a tree in front of him and startled him, so he shot it. Which triggered everybody else to dive into the jungle and start blasting away: they thought they'd walked into an ambush.

So they had compromised their position, and had to abort the mission; but they wanted to take the snake back to show they weren't gold-brickin'. I forget who the A/C was, but he wasn't having any part of it; I think they may have taken the head back, tho. It was big as a basketball, too!

Gives me the willies just thinkin' about it.

Pickett

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More Snakes ... :D
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