Oh, hey, guys! All you gotta do is clear the ROTOR blades! And they PUSH the tree tops down!

Lumpy, if you'd flown with me or Ghostrider 25 or any of several others who were routinely working Dak Seang in April '70 when it was surrounded by those two or three regiments, you'd a-gotten a real lesson in low-level.

Mostly, the only ways to get in were the "high overhead" or real low and real fast. But there aren't very many landmarks you can use there when you're that low. So, we'd come up the river (to the east) very fast and just clearing the water on the turns (all of which were 90 degrees and high g's) until we came to one tight S-turn. There were trees on the west (outside of the curve) and a tall thick stand of bamboo on the inside. There was a small "hole" between the trees, and it just happened that this spot was due east of the Dak Seang Special Forces compound. So, you'd be northbound, snappin' that river left and right and hit that turn, and be in a real hard left turn when the river would cut to the right and you'd be lookin' at that gap between those trees. If you're lined up right, you just go between 'em with the rotor disk vertical, and just clear the skids on the other tree. If you're not lined up right, well --- you get lots of foliage stuck in the skid mounts. Then you line up on 270 degrees and go like crazy for fifteen counts, which gets you just over the wire, pull hard on the cyclic and slam the collective down and rotate nose-high and tail-down and pull all that pitch to kill the airspeed without 'ballooning' up (that's why that stinger is back there: tail rotors and concertina wire don't mix together very well!); when she starts to die, you roll nose down and cushion for a 3 count; and then pull every bit of pitch you got and GET THE HELL OUT!! If you count fast enough, you'll be out before the mortars get in!!

I never seemed to have any problem with counting fast enough; and I could always count on getting 20-30 extra knots with rear-end pucker alone!

Alligator 25