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

Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam
In Response To: Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam ()

Bob,
Had the pleasure of taking a flight from Dak To to Kontum with Kingbee #6, Cowboy was in the lead. I was Dave Mason's PETER P and he wanted to let one of the Kingbee pilots fly a Huey, so I was swapped. WHAT A THRILL???

I took that long climb up the right side of that aircraft to sit in the seat, all was quiet as I got into the seat and extended the belts to fit me. I heard a rumble in the distance, and suddenly the 18 cylinter radial in the old 34 started thundering and the aircraft shook my ass real bad. The throttle went to full open before I could get my helment snapped and the old 34 JUMPED straight up about 100 feet. We were slightly above the rest of the aircraft. Somewhere enroute the 100 foot mark, I heard "Dak To - Cowboy - We Go Now. At about 50 Kts I heard "right turn now" as I looked across the pilot I could see the belly of the C130 that was in a hard right turn (we were crossing the approach end in front of him)(He was on SHORT FINAL).

When my heart stopped beating on my brain and my eyes caged, we were airborne, flying in a tight trail formation and climbing at about 80 KTS and 800 ft per minute. We stopped climbing and things calmed down for a couple of minutes. I was alive, I think. The flight to FOB II was uneventful until I heard the words, "WE GO DOWN NOW", the entire flight went into what I assumed was an autorotation from altitude to the base. We were landing over the perimeter burm to the East on the West side of the Compound. I got worried (scared shitless) when I saw the pilot turn the mags to OFF and the silence of the engine and the wind noise was deafening. He then turned off the electrical switches, radios first then the master switch. At that time, I saw the altitude passing through 5,000 feet, full autorotation in formation into the West side of the compound and I was in the #6 aircraft. Cowboy started his deceleration at about 200' AGL and everyone else followed suit. I knew that I was gonna die. I lost sight of the five aircraft in front of us in the deceleration and I knew that he was going to stick that tail boom into the ground vertically because we were falling fast and all I could see was out one of the sides. I felt the pilot jerk the collective, I knew that the tail boom was going to hit the burm and the perimeter wires when the aircraft leveled. We were within 10 feet of the aircraft in front of us, Cowboy's aircraft was bouncing onto the ground to the South of the Metal Hooches, and the blades were real close to the burm on the right of his aircraft. We were still decending. I felt another jerk of the the collective and the wheels squatted when the aircraft hit the ground. I was watching out the right side, the crewchief was jumping to the ground as we were setteling, and he was walking up toward the front of the aircraft. I turned to say something to the pilot, and he was gone - out of the aircraft, already climbing down the side. Blades still turning and me sitting all alone in that H34 feeling real insignificant. I unbuckled and when the blades stopped, I got out of the aircraft. I was the only one left anywhere near the aircraft. All of the crews had gone into one of the buildings, and I didn't see them for the rest of the day.

NEVER AGAIN, I would ride in the back of the Huey and let them fly back without a PETER P before I would ever do that again. My heart still races when I think of that flight.

Huey

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Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam
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Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam
Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam
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Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam
Re: Seven Firefight In Vietnam