"Harshberger"
Sgt. Robert Harshberger was an Infantryman. He did
36 months in country. He started out as a LRRP (long range reconnaissance
patrol) in I corps. He was a tunnel rat for about 6 months. He got into
flying by being a door gunner on Huey slicks then worked his way up to
gunner on Charlie Model gunships. He went into the Doughboys, also called
the Blue Platoon, when he was assigned to Dong Tam. That was where he got
into D Troop and then he joined the War Wagons as a Scout gunner.
His nickname was “The Mad Russian”
George Schmitz, War
Wagon 18,
remembers flying with Sgt. Harshberger.
Edited by Don Callison
(C) 1999
The first time I flew with him, we dropped down in
the AO and started a VR. He says, “ I smell them. One of them is bleeding”.
I said, “Sheeit”! “Harshberger, you’re as full of shit as Hogan’s
goat”! He says, “Yeah, no shit, I can smell them and one of them is bleeding.
I know he’s down there”. I’d been flying Scouts for a while and I just
knew this guy was pulling my leg. “Really, his blood smells sweet and he’s
real close by”. Harshberger was convinced that he smelled something. Sure
enough, about 3 minutes later he pulls me around on this guy. The VC had
been hit in the shoulder. He was sitting there, leaning up against a dike
and had covered himself in mud so we couldn’t see him. We could see the
blood on his shoulder. Bob yelled, “I got him!” as he fired and shot him.
Harshberger was a great Scout gunner. The only problem
he had was that when he was twisted in the left seat and hanging half way
out the door he could never seem to find the floor mike switch with his
right foot. He’d see something and start tapping around with his right
foot, trying to find the switch. I’d say, “Harshberger! What do you got”?
And he’d stomp harder and louder. As he got more exited he’d start jumping
up and down in the seat. He’d be exited and he’d want to talk so bad but
he couldn’t find the damned mike button. Usually I’d just say, “OK Harshberger,
go ahead and shoot”!
One day we were working an area where they told
us to kill very thing. Pigs, dogs, chickens, people. Everything. So I was
almost hovering while Bob’s shooting up this pig and this guy comes running
out of a hootch and he runs right at us. He looked like he’d been around
and was kind of smart.
He knew if he got directly underneath us that we probably
wouldn’t be able to shoot him. So he ran right under the front of the helicopter.
Little did the VC realize that his plan didn’t mean a thing to Harshberger!
He’s running toward the airplane! Harshberger starts firing his M60! As
the VC disappears under the nose, Harshberger shoots through the OH6’s
doorframe. He shoots off both copilot pedals! Shoots out the chin bubble,
through the cockpit air intake vent and finally nails the guy. I said,
“Harshberger, what would you have done if he’d have made it to my side
of the aircraft”? Bob looked at me, grinned and stomped the floor searching
for the mike switch.
Bob Harshberger
Photo
1970
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