Quote:
Originally Posted by Riverrat1969
Snakedriver, here's a "I'll be damned" story for you. One of the guys in our group had been a crewman on a mikeboat in Vietnam, in the Navy, not the Army. He grew up in New York state, along with a friend of his that had been one of the youngest Cobra pilots in RVN, Don?....don't remember his last name. Don also joined our group, and I mentioned running from My Tho north towards Tan An, with an escort of two Cobras and a Loach.
I mentioned that I would never forget the gonads of the Loach pilot. A short way in to the canal, the Loach found an opening in the trees along the canal bank, and flew under the canopy of the trees, for at least 100 yards or more, trying to draw fire! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The Loach pilot came up on our radio, saying, "hey boat.....if the shooting starts, don't fire those fifties over this way." The epitany of calm.
I suppose you may have seen similar flying.......maybe done that yourself, but that incident was branded onto my memory forever. When I mentioned that to Don, he said he had been flying one of the two Cobras over us that day.......that was in late 1969. A tip of the hat to you Sir. You, and others like you, sure made life safer for the rest of us on the ground and water. Thank you.
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Riverrat, yeah, I was one of those guys who went through the Army's High School to Flight School Warrant Officer Program. I was barely 19 y.o. when I graduated from flight school. I didn't turn 20 y.o. until I was almost half way through my tour in Vietnam. Interesting work for a wet behind the ears kid.
I was in the Aerial Artillery when I was down south in III Corp.. While I was also in I Corp & II Corp I never really got to to much of IV Corp. We did escort a couple of river convoys of supplies up the Mekong to Phnom Penh a couple of times with the Navy PBR's in 1972 though. I did the Air Cav. Pink Team mission, like you mentioned, up in Pleiku later on in my tour after the 1st Cav. went home and I was reassigned to the 1st Avn. Bde. & the 17th Cav..
Thanks for the praise, we did what we could to keep everybody safe.