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The Tomahawks; 128th AHC,
and the Robinhoods; 173rd AHC, where sister company’s in the 11
CAB. We where working a Battalion lift just to the north of Quan Loi’s
perimeter. The Tomahawk’s Gunplatoon: Gunslingers as well
as the Robinhood’s Gun Platoon: Crossbows where both
represented. Red Dog Six the 11 CAB commander was the
command and control. I was the wingman: Crossbow 38, flying with Jim
Ayton; Crossbow 34. Tom Stanley; Crossbow 32, was
the fire team leader, I don’t know who was flying with him.
We landed at Quan Loi and refueled, we came off Quan Loi with the slicks,
they had picked up grunts from the 1st Division. The two lift
company’s formed a single trail formation to the East, The Gunslingers
took up position on their right and we formed on their left, Back to the
West and just North of Quean Lois you could see the Artillery prep going
into the Landing Zone. On approach to the LZ, The entire flight started
taking and enormous amount of fire from a very large area. I counted at
least three 12.7 MM guns firing. The Gunships used VHF radios for
ship-to-ship communications.
I fired almost immediately at the targets under the flight, Crossbow 32
was positioned beside the flight to cover in front of them, I was
positioned behind them and in a position to cover beneath and beside them.
I made a call to Red Dog Six advising that the flight was receiving
heavy fire, He advised the flight to get some altitude and return to Quan
Loi and hold there. The slicks pulled up and headed back to Quan Loi. We
stayed with them until they landed at Quan Loi, we then returned to the
area where we received the fire. Flying over the area at about 1000 feet
we where getting fire from what seamed like everywhere.
We advised Red Dog Six that we had tripped across at least a
regiment sized unit down here that want to play and we wanted to work them
over good. This was not a normal every day find, normally the NVA where
very close to their bunker complexes, or within reach of spider holes,
that they would drop into and disappear. But we had caught this unit out
in the open, so to speak, with no place to go, even though it was not open
terrain, there was a dense cover of bushes and trees. The bushes and trees
did not provide much protection from our firepower. Even though we could
not see them for the bushes, we could easily spot their mussel flashes,
and zero in on their locations.
Jim was flying right seat and firing the rockets, and for once I was
pleased to have the left seat firing the mini-guns. I advised Red Dog
Six, "Sir, you might consider calling Robinhood Operations
and asking for the secondary fire team to come out and play, they would
love to join in on this turkey shoot." On one pass, Jim and I where
concentrating on a 12.7 mm location, and when he broke to the left, mussel
flashes caught my eye from the right front of the ship. I swung the
mini-gun to the right and racked them through a stand of rubber tree
saplings, where the mussel flashes had come from, then I got my last burst
on the 12.7 location.
The door gunner started screaming on the intercom, "Holly shit Sir,
did you see that."
"See what" I asked.
" In that stand of rubber saplings, there had to be 150 to 200 NVA
standing in there, when you racked the mini-guns through there they went
down like pins in a bowling ally, I’ve never seen anything like that
before, Holly shit, Sir that was fantastic."
As we engaged a target we would fly over it for damage assessment and we
would receive fire from another location, giving us another target. There
was no end to this. We expended and advised Red Dog Six that we
where headed back to Quan Loi for rearm and refuel.
While refueling hot at Quan Loi, Our secondary fire team called on
station, We advised them of the fun they where going to have, and to be
careful - the little people where everywhere and that there where also
some 12.7 mm’s down there.
Coming out of POL, we pulled off the active, in front of where the
slicks had parked to rearm, The Grunts had dismounted the helicopters and
where mulling about on the North taxiway. When we pulled up and sat down
the grunts started carrying out ammo and rockets to the ship, much more
than we needed. The Crew Chief and door gunner where happy about this help
and quickly linked ammo and fed it into the trays, while Jim and I loaded
the rockets. The grunts had a lot of questions, "what’s going on
out there" They had damn near been in the middle of all that and
could have been put back into it. So, they where more that a little
curious. There wasn’t much we could tell them other than there was at
least a regiment sized unit out there.
We cranked and headed back out about the time our secondary fire team was
coming back in to rearm and refuel. They too where amazed at the quantity
of targets, nothing was noted about quality. For the rest of the day we
simply rotated back to rearm and refuel and back out to the turkey shoot.
I lost track of the Gunslingers, they where doing much the same as
we where, at one point the Gunslingers and our fire team had set up
on parallel paths engaging separate targets, and I called Gunslinger
Three Six and advised him that he was receiving fire from his three
and nine o’clock positions every time he was inbound. He responded with
a disgusted voice saying, "I KNOW IT, DAM IT. "
n the afternoon, when the firing at us had stopped, and we ran out of
targets, I’m sure there was more down there but they had stopped firing
at us, witch is what told us where they where. We advised Red Dog Six
that we guessed that they where tired of playing this game. He released us
and we headed back to Lia Khe.
The next day our Operations got a call from The 1st Division
and was advised that the Crossbows where credited with a 3000
body count based on a sweep that had been made of the area. It was
rumored that the Gunslingers where credited with the same number,
never knew for sure about that though.
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