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HOVERCOVER
Jim Kennedy of VMO-3 doing what we did so well, at the ready with 60 and marking smoke in hand. Photo Courtesy Jim Kennedy
VMO-3 off to work. Phu Bai. Photo Courtesy Jim Kennedy Bad day at the LZ... The following sequence of photos is the shooting down of two US Army helicopters.
Bird one is hit and down.
Second helicopter attempts to rescue the first crew and is shot down.
Another view of downed aircraft. Shortly after this picture was taken both crews were rescued by a Marine Corps CH-53 who used the "drop like a safe" tactic for landing into the LZ which was zeroed by VC mortars. Seconds after it took off with all souls onboard the LZ was hit again. Photos courtesy of Dennis Bevis DMBEVIS@aol.com
SCARFACE ON THE PROWL VMO-3 aircraft #3 and 4 in a formation of 4. I Corps, Summer of '68. Courtesy of Andy Wells
AND STILL PROWLING...IN KUWAIT SCARFACE Covering Marine column in the Deserts of Kuwait...Courtesy of Gary McWilliams
by Michael
J. Brokovich The Marines flew UH-1E gunships which were a lot like our old UH-1C gunships except theirs had an odd turret mounted on the nose with two 7.62 mm machine guns mounted side-by-side. They carried a crew of four, had a very short range, and were a whole lot slower than our Cobras. This particular CCN mission was to locate a platoon-sized element in Laos for extraction. The Marines normally flew "low and slow" to locate the troops while the ARA section (two Cobras) provided overhead cover and fire support, if needed. On this mission we had four Cobras because of the size of the extraction. On this day, the other Toro Aircraft Commanders were CAPT. Bob Davis (my wingman), CAPT. Bert Lanstra, and CW2 Jim Dailey. When the troops were located, slicks (I don't remember which 101st slick company was providing the UH-1H's this day.) would be brought in to lift them out. Since the platoon was deep in Laos, the mission would become more difficult if the NVA found them before we could get them out. As we passed to the west of Marine Firebase Vandergrift (a Marine base near the "Rockpile"), the Marine UH-1E's dropped in to top off their fuel tanks prior to crossing the border. Our flight of four Cobras flew on and planned to rendezvous with the Marines in the vicinity of the extraction site. When we arrived in the general area, the platoon frantically radioed, "Prairie Fire! Prairie Fire!" This meant they were in contact and needed some support right then, essentially an SOS call. The Marines were about thirty minutes behind us so I told Bob Davis to cover me as I went down to positively identify the platoon's position. I flew down to the treetops and flew as low and slow as I could to pinpoint the platoon. I flew down among the branches for what seemed to be forever and didn't even realize I was being shot at until Bob Davis yelled over the VHF, "Get out of there, Yellowjacket Lead; you're drawing fire!" I nosed over and pulled in more power as I quickly accelerated away from the ridge line in a hail of automatic weapons fire. On the way out I heard the platoon radio that I had just flown over them. Now we knew exactly where they were. About this time, the two Marine UH-1E's arrived, and I briefed the flight leader on the platoon's location as well as the enemy situation (I translated this into "heavy automatic weapons fire") on the ridge line. He acknowledged my transmission, and, to my amazement, flew across the same ridge line, only he was lower and slower and presented a fatter target. He immediately drew heavy ground fire. We were unable to lay down suppressive fires because we were too close to the location of the platoon on the ground. Our four Cobras fell in behind the stricken UH-1E, two on each side and to his rear. He apparently had been hit several times by automatic weapons fire as he radioed, "Mayday! Mayday! I'm hit and losing power." He started to turn east and head back to South Vietnam. He had been hit in the fuel cell and a cloud of fuel vapor began billowing out the left side of his helicopter. At this point I yelled to my front seat pilot, Bill Gurski, to start taking pictures with my Kodak Instamatic camera. I figured he might as well be doing something useful as the turret was totally inoperable. (Neither of us dreamed that we were about to get some fantastic shots of a helicopter going down in flames.) Meanwhile, the UH-1E started heading toward a clearing by a bend in a river to get on the ground. Our Air Force O-2 controller, Covey, told him not to land in the particular clearing he was approaching as there was a large unfriendly village nearby and that he would be better off landing on the near side. He started to make a descending right turn away from the village area, and the fuel vapor cloud burst into flames. He slipped the helicopter to keep the flames out of the crew compartment and lined up with the river intending to put it in the water to extinguish the fire. As the helicopter descended to about seventy-five feet, the tail boom fell off. The helicopter inverted and crashed into the river upside down. Pieces of rotor blades and helicopter went everywhere along with large amounts of water and debris that splashed up when the helicopter hit. When everything cleared, the helicopter was underwater. Kingbee Lead, commanded by Dai Uy Ahn, flew down to the river to look for survivors while our four Cobras put a wall of steel around his CH-34. They picked up two survivors (the aircraft commander and the crew chief) about one hundred yards downstream. Kingbee Lead (Dai Uy Ahn) then hovered back up the river to the crash site to check on the other two crew members. His crew chief hung out of the side of the CH-34 with his monkey straps and determined the pilot and gunner were still belted in and obviously dead. This was an outstanding demonstration of bravery on the part of Dai Uy Ahn as he was under heavy fire the entire time. Since there was no more that could be done for the two KIA's and the ground fire was becoming quite heavy, we all departed the area to get the two survivors out and for us to refuel and rearm. We told the platoon to hold on as we would be back to get them and flew back to Quang Tri to rearm and refuel. At the rearm point, I checked over my Cobra for hits and found seven holes. (I harassed Bill Gurski at this point as he had been in the front seat of my wingman on a CCN mission less than a month before and had been shot down deep in Laos with Bob Davis. I called him a "magnet ass", and this nickname haunted Bill for a long time.) Several rounds had gone through the rotor blades, but one had missed the 42 degree gear box by less than an inch. An AK-47 round had gone through all the longerons and stringers, which provided structural strength to the tail boom, and effectively grounded the aircraft. Since I was the TC Detachment Commander and unit maintenance officer at the time, I approved a one-time maintenance flight to get the Cobra back to Camp Eagle. The other three Toro's ("Yellowjackets"), led by Bob Davis, went back to Laos with the slicks and covered the extraction of the platoon without further incident. The flight back to Camp Eagle was routine as I carefully watched for strange vibrations and unusual instrument readings. When I landed at the Bull Pen (the Toro helipad), I discovered I had been luckier than I originally thought and had cheated fate once again. My maintenance people thoroughly inspected the Cobra and found that another round had entered the bottom side of the aircraft. It had exploded several rounds of my linked 7.62 mm minigun ammunition in the ammo boxes and had stopped, fully spent, at the last layer. I was lucky the round had not hit me in my right leg. Ironically, during my preflight inspection that morning, the crew chief for #086, SP4 Jacobs, reported that the grenade launcher didn't work. I directed him to remove the grenade drum and fully load the minigun ammunition boxes. Our ARA Cobras normally only carried a half load of grenades and minigun ammo as our primary weapon was the 2.75" FFAR. The extra ammo he loaded made up the layers of linked ammo the AK-47 round had come through before expending its energy short of the floor beneath my leg. If that ammo had not been there, the round would have come straight through unhindered and hit me. I was greatly relieved but had to contend with a very upset crew chief as he felt I had hurt his "baby". The tail boom did have to be replaced on #086 as well as the rotor blades and a lot of other sheet metal work, but at least we still had the aircraft to return to action a short while later.
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