Submitted by Sonny Kayser
Copyright January 2010.
All rights reserved
The three pictures attached show what's left of one of D Troop's UH-1C gunships.
This incident occurred at Tan An airfield sometime in April.
Our fire team led by Capt. Sam Slaughter was on normal counter motor rotation,
one of the assignments given to the Troop by Division HQ when they separated us from the Squadron.
On previous missions, we had several occasions when we needed flares to see what was happening on the ground.
It was difficult to get the artillery to fire flares unless you were in a fire fight involving US troops.
Sometimes you could get a "Puff" ship to help, but even that required enemy contact with US troops on the ground.
After several missions where we really could have used flares, Capt. Sam, Al Orgain (Al flew with Sam) WO Bob Cook (my pilot) and yours truly,
discussed the idea of carrying our OWN flares, IN MY AIRCRAFT.
That afternoon after we landed and went to the briefing by S-2, we returned to the airfield, found an Air Force Airmen, inquired about the flares and asked if we could have 6 of them. The Air Force didn't care, so 6 flares were loaded on my Charlie model.
GREAT CARE WAS TAKEN TO INSURE THERE WAS ENOUGH LANYARD TO
CLEAR THE AIRCRAFT AND NOT GET HUNG ON THE ROCKET PODS, NOR
THE TAIL FINS.
After a final check, off we went.
Our plan was for my ship to climb to 5000 feet ASL, literally kick out a flare and then dive back down to take up my position as wing.
WE DID IT, NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE.
SUCCESS!!!!
As we were about to go for the third release, Sam felt a vibration in the rotor mast and decided to return to Tan An to see what the problem was.
We landed short of the bunkers, Sam got off of his ship, climbed on top to see what was wrong, got hit in the head by one of the dampener arms and
needed medical attention, so we went to the bunkers and shut down.
Within less than five minutes, there was a loud "POP" like a sniper had taken a shot at us, and the next thing is one of the flares cooked off.
My fire extinguisher was useless as was Sam's.
Everyone started running for cover as the fire engulfed the Charlie model, setting of 7.62 rounds, 2.75 rockets and last
but not least, 3.5 grenade rounds.
The pics will tell the rest of the story.
Hope you enjoy,
Sonny
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