** Why were door gunners recruited from infantry units? During stateside training did they also recruit the door gunners? One would assume a complete crew was trained together. Were door gunners trained "on the job" once they were recruited? **

Dave, they were still learning in those early days. Before the Shotgun program got going, the 119th had a LT flying as gunner KIA, and a PFC with a Supply MOS KIA also.

The 119th had 3 25th Infantry Div "Shotgun" gunners KIA that I know of, the last in July 66. Sometime soon after that the program ended.

By 1968, many of our gunners were grunts or (I don't know why) cooks who had extended or had volunteered to be gunners. Maybe they just wanted a chance to shoot back; I can understand that. Gunner training was mostly OJT, by the way.

Crew Chiefs went to school at either Eustis or Rucker for helicopter maintenance, but I don't know of a gunner's school. Come to think of it, based upon the number of "tough guys" walking around today who claim to be "Vietnam Door Gunners", it would have had to have beeen a school the size of the University of California.

We ran sort of loose. Some maintenance guys (like Shakey Curran) flew as gunners whenever they could, just because they wanted to. And there was no formal procedure for it. If he felt like flying, and if he could clear it with his boss, he'd ask and usually end up giving a gunner the day off. Or a gunner would ask him or another guy if he could fly for him that day; sick, hurt, hungover, whatever. Others did the same thing. There was always a shortage of pilots and crews, so when ships were in for maintenance the pilots and crews many times would all end up on other ships. Crew chiefs very often flew on the right side as gunners for other crew chiefs, and experienced gunners sometimes would be "crew chief for a day" on another ship. It was not uncommon for experienced gunners to move up to permanent crew chief spots, also, usually after extending.

I don't know if anybody noticed but in the "We Were Soldiers" movie, Bruce Crandall and Too-Tall Freeman were always shown in the right seat. I asked Crandall whether that was Cav procedure in the early days. He said, "Naw. Hollywood." So prepare for some expert to give you an argument based upon knowledge gained in a movie theater. I got it straight from Crandall; Cav ACs always flew left seat, just like ours.

Bob