05Aug67-'People Sniffer' Flushes Enemy
Copyright 1967 "Stars and Stripes"
Contributed by Crusader Mike Rasbury
LONG THANH, (9th
INF-IO) - Rifle fire crackled from beneath the thick canopy of
tangled mangrove limbs which obscures much of the treacherous
Rung Sat Special Zone from aerial observation.
One of the rounds ripped into the tail of the Army UH-1D
helicopter hovering 50 feet over the slimy ground.
With the crack of rifle fire, a reconnaissance mission became
combat.
Machineguns on the
chopper answered the enemy rounds with a stream of deadly fire.
Tracer bullets burned into the twisted foliage
concealing the enemy sniper. Minutes
later, after several low-level firing passes, it was over.
An enemy, his rifle
silenced, sprawled face down in the stinking mud.
The 9th Infantry Division helicopter, one of a pair assigned to
sweep a portion of the Rung Sat northwest of Vung Tau,
had been out searching for the enemy who lays in wait for ships
bound for Saigon from the South China Sea.
But this time, it has been recon with a new twist.
The chopper, from Troop D of the division's 3rd Squadron, 5th
Armored Cavalry, carried a
device which can "smell" enemy soldiers concealed below.
One of the Army's
newest detection devices, the chemical personnel detector
or "people sniffer," mounted on a helicopter, samples the air
and tells its operator when it "smells" humans.
Moments before the engagement, SFC Charles W. Bracey, a member
of the division's chemical section and a "people sniffer"
operator,
had announced, "I've got a maximum reading."
First Lieutenant
Michael Terry, the pilot, eased the chopper into another treetop
level sweep of the area which had produced the "max"
reading.Meanwhile, reports of the find had been radioed to
another helicopter circling high above.
Inside it, 1st Lt. Robert A Guerra, a member of the
division's aerial intelligence section, was plotting the exact
location of the find.
Both choppers swung down for a closer inspection of the
area.
As they hovered over the thatch of mangrove branches and stunted
vegetation, the enemy sniper had opened fire, turning recon into
combat.
The chemical
personnel detector, operated by Bracey, had been sampling the
humid air at treetop level for more than an hour
when its indicator needle jumped and its intense beeping
announced humans presence down there.
"People sniffers"
have been scanning Vietnam's jungles and swamps with the 9th
since late in May and we've found something just about every
time we have taken them out." Bracey said.
The device weighs
about 25 pounds and is no larger than an overnight bag.
Taking a continuing sample of air, the sniffer
humidifies it and examines the sample
for several substances which humans give off when they
perspire.
The detector can pick
out the hint of smoke from a tiny camp fire because of its
carbon sensing capability.
Because it detects smells rather than sights, it is especially
useful for night reconnaissance.
It has become much more effective on helicopters than on a man's
back.
Since it would also
detect friendly troops and civilians, it is used primarily where
neither villages nor friendly forces are.
It detects only human
odors, thereby eliminating the danger of false alarms.
It was developed at the Army's Limited War Laboratory at
Aberdeen Proving Grounds in 1963.
1967
Time Line
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