Faces of Vietnam
This section of the website is dedicated to preserving the memories and stories of all of the US Service Personel who served in the 1960's during the Vietnam War. If you are a veteran and would like to contribute your photos or stories to this page, please feel free to email us. A special thank you to all those who have chosen to share their experiences with us. Your sacrifices will never be forgotten.
They really were young once! (Our Dads)
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Lt. Moore (USA), Lt. Morgan (USA), Airman Kile (USAF), PFC. Isacks
(USMCR), PFC. Carr (USA), PFC Bird (USA), 1st. Sgt. Hood (USA)
Flak "Diapers" Frank Mott- United States Marine Corps
"I have been trying to come up with
a "clean" story with a bit of levity so as not to make the War seem like Hell,
which it is."
One afternoon, just after noon chow, several crew members were sitting around the line shack. We had flown during the morning and were really just "kicking back". The squadron had two birds out on a re-supply and were back about 15:00. The normal procedure when the aircraft returned, was that the crews that were on the ground would go out and help secure the aircraft. The "squak box" sounded to alert us that the aircraft were inbound.
Both birds landed and taxied off the active runway and one aircraft continued to taxi to its assigned tie down spot. Several of us got up and were getting ready to go out and help the crews. The other aircraft had stopped just after leaving the active runway. Normal SOP was when the aircraft stopped for an extended period of time, the Crew Chief would deplane and walk forward with his helmet (ICS) on and converse with the HAC (Helicopter Aircraft Commander). The aircraft that was holding on the taxiway was there for probably 3 or 4 minutes without any activity. All of a sudden, we see a "cracker box" ambulance racing across the parking ramp.
Always when a vehicle approached the aircraft, the Crew Chief would deplane and talk to the vehicle occupants or escort the passengers to the aircraft. Anyway the ambulance pulls up alongside the aircraft, and several corpsmen jump out, two with a stretcher, and rush to the aircraft. All during this time, the Crew Chief has not deplaned, nor had we heard any conversations over the squadron net.
By now we had secured the first "bird" and the crew is relating that they had taken some ground fire while exiting the LZ. We immediately take off towards the second bird just as the corpsmen are taking the Crew Chief out on the stretcher. Off goes the ambulance and the aircraft taxies to its assigned tie down spot and is secured. The HAC would only say that the Crew Chief had been hit, but didn't know how bad. Several of us began to inspect the aircraft for "hits" and by this time the Maintenance Officer and probably half of the squadron was out on the line. We could only find three "hits", but no major damage.
By the time we arrived back at the "line shack", word had come down that the Crew Chief was alright. Just his "6 o'clock" hurt. Cpl. Johnson had taken a round (ricochet) in his left cheek. The round had impacted where he should have been wearing his "bunny pants". We hated those AP diapers that the Marine Corps issued, so normally we would just put them in the seat and sit on them. Johnson should have been wearing his that day. Anyway, Cpl. Johnson received his Purple Heart a few days later. The Group Commander could hardly keep a "straight face" as he read the citation.
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Jungle Boots George Reese- United States Army
I have a short story to relate as far as flying with jungle boots is concerned. The event happened in early 1968- at that point I had been promoted from 1Lt. to Captain. I had already spent six months with the "Bears" and was now Operations Officer if the Diamondheads. We had a Huey in "B" Company that was a Special Missions ship. It did all kinds of strange missions, such as Sniffer, Firefly, and Smokey. The event took place during a Smokey mission, just outside Cu Chi, toward the Cambodian Border. We were escorting a flight of Hueys into the Landing Zone. Typically, when Hueys were about three miles out, just coming into heavy machine gun range, the Smokey would "smoke" the tree line, so the Hueys would not be seen by those on the ground. The area that they were landing in was a rice paddy that had trees for a hundred meters down the left side, and then the trees swung to the right, kind of "L" shaped if you will.
I was flying in the left seat. The fellow in the right seat was the Diamondhead XO. He was a senior Captain, and much older than me. He was the one doing the flying, however, anytime you are on such a mission where the pilot might get hit, the other pilot needs to be on the controls as backup. Anyway, when the Hueys began their last leg, we dropped down to about 30 feet off the ground and got the Huey up to about 90 knots. Since we would be a very good target, if detected early, we came in low, fast, and from an unexpected direction. About half a mile from starting to release our smoke I noticed that the flight was just starting to be engaged with .51 caliber machine gun fire. Not just one machine gun, but several. A few seconds later and we were letting the smoke (fog oil) billow from our Huey. All I could see was a blur of green to our left as we were only 50 meters from the trees and going 90 Knots. We were able to make it the first 100 meters (down the stem of the "L"), but when we went into our right bank to follow the tree line we started to take small arms fire.
Captain Boyington, all of a sudden, let go of the controls and did a lot of screaming. His right foot jerked off the right anti-torque pedal. Since I was already on the controls, I continued to fly. Our mission was finished at the time. I scanned the gauges to see if anything vital was hit. Nothing wrong with engine or transmission, etc., and we were only minutes away from Cu Chi. We very quickly got to Cu Chi and I got clearance to land directly to the Medevac pad, where they came and got Cpt. Boyington. Now to the boots- he was wearing jungle boots, which have a steel plate. The bullet that he got hit with was just 7.62 small arms. The bullet came thru the chin bubble, went thru the right anti-torque pedal, thru the rubber and smacked into the steel plate, but did not penetrate it. It must have felt like getting hit on the bottom of the foot with a steel hammer!
Cpt. Boyington limped around the company for a while but he recovered. I wish I would have kept the anti-torque pedal with the hole in it, but had other things on my mind yet. I flew the Huey from the Medevac pad to the "B" parking area. After shutting down, I got to get a close look at the bullet trajectory. If the bullet had missed the pedal and Boyington's foot, it was heading for my neck and head! I talked to Boyington just a few months ago, and he told me that we had had to leave five Hueys in that LZ as they could not be flown out.
Please visit George's site at http://www.flyarmyair.com
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