Ace: We saw him go in the water.

Mike S: We? You had a crew chief?

Ace: Yeah we had crewchiefs on our scouts. We cauied one pilot and one crewchief. The crewchiefs, also called observers or gunners, in our unit rode in the helicopter's left front seat. They used M60 machine guns mounted by bungee cords to the frame above the door on the left side of the aircraft. We cut the co-pilot's cyclic stick off short enough so they didn't come above the gunner's knee. Then we taught the crewchiefs to fly by putting their hand on top of the cyclic stick stump. All our ships had the minigun mounted near the left cargo door and we had two ships that had Cessna 0-1, "Bird Dog", two shot rocket pods mounted near the right doors. We used marks on the inside of the windshields for sights for the mini gun, we bore sighted and used the same mark for the rockets. In the delta we usually carried flechettes .We flew differently from other units too. We always used two scouts and two Cobras. We always worked two and two. If something developed we could split the team. We could set up better attack racetracks and be better used during Cavalry Screening operations when working closely with ground troops.
    On that particular day we were on a recon mission along a canal line when we spotted a running, military aged male. I thought he was carrying a weapon when we went after him. We didn't engage him but I saw where he had jumped into the water. Then he didn't come up. He just stayed under. Since I'd seen where he had entered the water I found an open area and landed the helicopter. I had the crewchief set up his M60 so he could give me covering fire. I had told my wingman scout what was going on, so he knew what I was doing and he set up orbits on the crick so his crewchief could also give covering fire with his M60.
    Then I proceeded to step in to this canal and with my saber, you know, just kind of poked down and around through the mud. It wasn't real soft, but you were just in muck. Well I don't know how long I did that, maybe less than minutes. Anyway, after a reasonable period of time I'd been poking around in this area I where thought he'd went into and I hit something solid. I thought "Aha?", and I pushed on the saber a little harder, and the "solid something" started to move. I just kind forced the object up, you know, pulling the saber up in front while keeping pressure on the tip. Well, up out of the water comes this man.

Mike S: Breathing through a reed?..

ACE: ... Well, he had a reed but he wasn't using it. He had it in his hand when he came up. But that's what he'd been doing While laying down there on the bottom of the crick.

Mike S: What was he? A pay master, tax collector or something?

Ace: I didn't know what he was but I hauled him in.

Mike S: You took him to 9th Infantry Division at Dong Tam?

Ace: ... Yeah, we took him to the Military Intelligence guys. They took him in to sort him out. I claimed he was military even though I couldn't find the weapon I knew he'd been carrying.

Mike S: Did you guys do a lot prisoner captures?

Ace:  Yeah, just keep things interesting we had a little contest going in our scout platoon. Scouts could earn beer and soda credits buy catching Dinks. If you remember, sodas and beer cost us 20 or 25 cents,... real expensive ...I looked a an old payslip the other day Mike, ya know we used to do that shit for $500 a month!  Whoever captured the most prisoners never had to buy anything at our little lounge.