Well most of you know me as a N3N freak here on WIX. Well if you have noticed that sometimes I show some passion for another topic that I know.............The Vietnam War. Born in 1971, I do not remember all of the things the country was going through. As a historian, I have become passionate about every aspect of that time, both in aircraft and infantry. I have a deep interest in preserving this history. Well she may not be much to look at anymore but I would like to introduce you to Commenchero 994.
She used to be involved with the Vermont National Guard. I first met her at a training range where she was just a deligated airframe for infantry training. A couple of years ago while I had attempts to save her, I later found out that she and another airframe was destined to head across the lake to a A&P school in NY. I finally got to see her again this week to say hi. I have applied for a job at this school as a instructor for when they get their certification. I hope in the future, her history will be a brigher one with my dedication.
Here is a E-mail of a day in Vietnam that she experienced. I like to contact some of the units that flew these aircraft that I find. I have found 2 pilots and one of her crewchiefs. Maybe one day, she will be reunited with them once again.
Jeff,
Did not mean to blow you off here. Please accept my apology. I don't even have a good excuse except that I just haven't taken the time to be attentive.
I have a number of pictures I took while we were waiting to get recovered. Haven't found anything that shows the copilot or DG. The CE was Dan Dotson. I'll make copies and get those to you since I'm thinking about this again now and its fresh on my mind.
I also have an 8mm movie reel with the actual recovery by CH-47 on it. I was taking the movies from the Huey that picked us up. I would like to get the 8mm stuff transferred to DVD and send it along to you.
I don't recall the exact dates when the transition from A/101 to F 2/17 began. But Paul Delazoppa and I were the two senior aircraft commanders in the organization and he was due to DEROS about a month before me. I believe he left in December and I would DEROS on 4 January 1970. Anyway, throughout the two month or so transition, I would be staying in slicks since I was "short" and I would not transition into Guns or Scouts. For a while they had us sitting in classes in the club with Cav slick pilots telling us how to insert and extract Rangers. Hell, we had been doing that for the past year with Rangers and SF teams all over Laos. So the fun of the training classes wore off pretty quick and there wasn't much else to do except get bored since we were not allowed to fly until the transition to F Troop was complete. I had just turned 20 years old, so you can imagine my level of interest at just sitting around after a year of much more interesting activity.
The Commander as Maj. Charlie James. He was one of those nice guy kind of folks, although I didn't realize that at the time. He was the commander and that was the only way I looked at it. Plus he was much older than I was. Probably mid thirties. Anyway, we got along very well, in fact he was the IP that gave me my aircraft commander checkride some months earlier. Well, he saw how bored I was and did me a favor. He got me a mission for 12 December to fly some resupply and log missions for the ARVNs. He called me into this hooch the evening of 11 December and told me he got me this mission from division just to get me off the ground and give me something to do. The caveat was "Don't let anything happen" We are not supposed to be flying and it will be his ass if division finds out I was flying. I assured him that nothing would go wrong, wouldn't get shot, and everything would be fine.
The next morning started off normal enough. We took off and went to some pad somewhere (can't recall where) and picked up some pax to take to Alpha 4 or 5, which were small outposts near the DMZ. They were also close enough that one could see the NVA outpost, with commie flag attached, just across the border in North Vietnam.
As we were getting close to Alpha 4 or 5, I called inbound and asked for smoke. They popped white smoke, and we all though "sugar" darn ARVN's! They should know that white smoke was reserved for targets and was not to be used for identification. But, we knew the area was secure and decided to land anyway. Just about the time we were landing and the rotor wash swirls inside and all around the aircraft, it became obvious that the darn white smoke was CS (tear gas). Well, my face started burning, eyes were stinging shut (nobody had any reason to think about putting on a gas mask, and even so it was now too late) and the same thing was happening to the crew and everybody on board. I don't think anybody even got a chance to get off because I pulled pitch so fast. We jumped up into the air and I kicked it out of trim to get some airflow through the cabin area. We climbed out for a ways, cussed every ARVN in the entire world and called to return for landing. It took a few minutes to get recovered from the gas. Face still stung, but at least we could see well enough to land. We landed discharged our pax and picked up a load to take down south to wherever it was we started.
We picked up our next load and headed back up north towards the DMZ. Had we known the day was not going to improve, we would have just gone home. We called for landing at the same pad where we got gassed. We made it real clear that we did not need smoke. Once was enough. The landing was fairly normal. Can't remember who was flying, but the degree of skill demonstrated was certainly exceptional. As we took off heading south to get another load and nosed the aircraft over to gain airspeed, I heard this dull thump - thump - thump. I couldn't imagine what was happening, and nobody on the crew either heard the noise or saw anything unusual. Out of my peripheral vision I caught a glimpse of a round green ball rolling past my feet into my chin bubble. Did not get a good look at it, but quickly ascertained it was a concussion grenade that had probably fallen off one of the previous ARVN pax. Since I did not know if the spoon was attached or not, my stomach immediately lodged in my throat and I didn't know what to say (nobody could do anything to help anyway). I think I just waited for it to explode down there about 10 inches in front of and below my feet. After the eternity passed it appeared that it was not going to explode. The CP was flying, I unstrapped and somehow found a way to reach this thing in the chin bubble. I don't like those darn grenades anyway and now I owned one. We climbed up to 1500 feet or so and I pulled the pin and threw it out the left side front door window. It fell about 100 or so feet and exploded. The mid air explosion was kinda cool and I commented to that effect. I was just glad it didn't explode between my legs.
By this time the crew was thinking this flight was doomed. But we had been through worse and it seemed that Anderson and Dotson were with me whenever we had some sort of emergency. They were great guys. I know where Dotson is today, I just haven't gotten off my ass to contact him. Guess you can relate.
This next sortie back up to the same location was going to be the last for that day - but we didn't know that.
Another normal pickup down south and headed back up north. This time the landing, besides be a demonstration of exceptional aviator skill was uneventful. Upon takeoff life was good and all was right with the world until another unexplained noise. The unexplained noise was the left jump door (small door open front of the main cargo door) flapping open and closed. Didn't know it right then, but one of the ARVNs had inadvertently held onto the door handle latch on the inside and left it undone when he departed. The door swung probably two or three times before it came off completely. Of course the door would not simply fall away clear of the aircraft. It had to go up into the main rotor system. The darn thing cut one blade near the root, bent the two main pitch change tubes on the head, and naturally destroyed the door.
Things were not looking good at this point. The cyclic was all over the cockpit and Anderson and I both had to be on the cyclic to keep control. We had a hydraulic failure together before, and this situation was much more pronounced and violent. The way the push/pull tubes were bent, it was only a matter of little time before they came unglued and then control would be impossible. Didn't know how bad the tubes were bent at this point. I'll send the pics.
We wrestled this thing to the ground from about 500 to 700 feet and it seemed like it took forever to get to the ground. Once again we harnessed the greatest of piloting skills all at one time and planted the aircraft in the sand. The engine shutdown was immediate. While waiting for the blades to stop turning, I thought "sugar" what else could wrong with this day?" Finally the blades stopped and Dotson was already outside and said something real profound like "darn Jim, You oughta see the head, its all do you kiss your mother with that mouth? up" Upon exiting the aircraft I surmised he was right and I agreed. So now what?
We had gotten off a MAYDAY call before landing and Shortly thereafter an AF OV-10 was overhead asking what he could do. We had a PRC 77 radio on board and I was talking with the OV-10 on that radio. I explained the situation and he asked if we could fly it out of there. I thought about how much exceptional flying skill we had between us and responded to the negative. He said he would call back to the rear (101 Division) and get a recovery effort under way.
About 20 minutes after we were on the ground, an ARVN M113 platoon rolled up with an Australian advisor and offered to provide security until we got recovered. The company was certainly welcome. Things stared calming down and I now had time to think, Maj James is going to be pissed. We removed all our equipment, guns, radios, etc. and sat awaiting the recovery bird.
Don't know how much time passed, but after a while we heard the Chinook and another Huey coming up from the south. While we were loading everything on the Huey and the maintenance guys were preparing 994 to sling out, one of the recovery crew guys told me that everybody at division headquarters knew about the incident and we weren't a secret anymore. We all climbed aboard the Huey, I started taking movies of the recovery and we headed home.
Major James was pretty cool about the whole thing. He told me that everyone knew we went down by the DMZ in an aircraft and on a mission that was not supposed to happen. I am not aware of any fallout over the incident. Probably some issues about disobeying orders, but I never heard anymore about it. Hell, I went back over there a year later and actually launched a pair of rockets from an AH-1G Cobra towards the NVA outpost across the border. That should have created some comment, but never heard anything about that either.
That's about it. I'll get more enthusiastic about getting pics to you and getting the 8mm converted.
Sorry for the long wait.
Jim
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Been doing this a while:)