THE BEST OF CHARLIE HORSE
VIETNAM
26 May 1971-20 March 1972
26 May 1971 Travis AFB, CA. Today has been a day of many emotions and
anticipation of what's ahead, frustration at small
problems, weariness from much travel.
I called home to Mom and Aunt Dawn, both helped to cheer
me. There is a planeload on United, destination
Bein Hoa, RVN.
I wonder how many will not be coming back alive.
Captains seem to really be enjoying themselves, drinking,
(which isn't allowed) telling crude jokes and in general
enjoying themselves. While I was in the lobby at Travis
waiting to board flight U2B3, a pretty young girl who was
obviously drunk wrapped herself around an Army colonel she had
been with earlier in the evening. She proceeded to
embarrass him in front of his subordinates by showering him
with affection and loud pleas. It was an amusing
disturbance. I've picked up a few memoranda to remind me
of this trip; playing cards, map, etc. Tomorrow promises to be
a long day.
28 May 1971 Over Vietnam The pilot has brought to our attention that
we are over Cam Ranh Bay. It is shocking to look out upon such
a beautiful land and realize that there is a war going on down
there, truly amazing. The mountains look like those
found in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho.
Such a beautiful scene for a mountain boy. Our flight
was in Yokota, Japan, early this morning. There I bought
momentos for Mom, Aunt Dawn, Grandmother, and Kathy. They are
beautiful Japanese wall murals depicting Japanese
scenes. Also I sent a card to each of the above.
I truly hope that I will have the time and opportunity to see
more of the highlands. It has been a very long, tiring
day but also fascinating. Our flight arrived at
11:00. We were quickly briefed on the events of
the day and taken on a short bus ride to our compound at the
381 Replacement Company of the 90th Det. The open areas
are very lush with growth. Everywhere you look
though, you see concertina wire in long fences spiced here and
there with mine fields.
At every strategic point there is a fortification
with machine-gun armed Americans or Vietnamese. A lot of jeeps
carry mounted M60's and a lot of soldiers walk around with
M16's or sidearms.The population seems to be pretty carefree
despite the obvious machines of war grinding away amidst
them.
All along the roads in Bien Hoa are peddlers offering their
goods. There are a lot of funny little Lambretta taxicabs that
look to be a cross between a motorcycle and a covered cart.
One of the first things I did when I got myself set up at my
bunk was to change into the more comfortable fatigues and
then trotted off for a refreshing shower. After this
delight I went to the OOM to get a bite to eat. Wow,
what cute girls they have there.
All transactions are in MPC that causes a little confusion
until you get used to it. We drew our ration of combat
equipment and then spent the rest of the day loitering. The
day was topped off handsomely when the assignments were put
up. I got l/5 Mech Cav near the DMZ along with two
school buddies, (Jim) Sims and Weisend. Other Cobra
drivers got assignments in II, III, and IV corps. 30 May 1971 Bien Hoa
I'm sitting here at Bien Hoa AB waiting transport to
Quang Tri. Last evening everybody bound "upcountry" had a
short briefing and were given boarding passes for the C-130
which would take us to our new assignments. W01 Wood
(101 Phuc Bai) claimed that someone shot a round into the
barracks he had just walked past. Rumors are flying
about the terrible fighting up country. Worst rumor
though, is that there aren't any Cobra's with the 1/5
Mech. I walked around with a 1Lt looking at the defenses
of the compound. It looked pretty easy for a
determined attack to get through the wire and bunkers. During
TET '68 this very compound was overrun. We saw what may have
been a rotten shirt in the wire torn off one of the attackers
over two years ago. It was very interesting to watch the lizards
congregate around the lighted-up screens on the building. They
were really having a feast on the bugs. The lizards are about
four inches long including the tail and they are light green in
color. They make a cheery, chirping sound pleasant to
hear. I haven't seen many birds at all. Dogs seem to be
quite common.
1 June 1971 Quang Tri
Today has been my last easy day for a while for tomorrow
I fly. Not much has been happening. I
need to record the death of W01 Jerry Foy. He was killed
25 May 71 when his aircraft failed to recover from a dive.
(I had graduated from Cobra school with Jerry.) I don't
know the name of the captain who was the aircraft commander (AC)
at this time. (I later learned his last name was
Carter.) I was happy to find out today that I could
get my mama-san to purchase fruit off the local market for
me. I sent her out for coconut, pineapple, and a small
variety of watermelons which are available.
My good friend (W01) Major Merrick is flying scout for D
troop. Mr. Angotti is flying slicks. Their
platoon (slicks, Hueys) is referred to as the Baggers. The
Baggers often insert rangers if they are not flying recovery on
a recon team. I drank some of mama-san's tea today.
I wonder if she also uses some tobacco leaves in the tea.
I converted $20 MPC to piasters today. It came out to
$5,500 piasters. I still can’t figure out what one piaster
is since $1.00 MPC equals 275 piasters.
The guards have begun their routine popping of M79's and M60's
early tonight at 19:35. Usually they start about 22:00 and go on
sporadically throughout the night.
You get used to it.
Another Cobra was lost from another unit (from the
base). It was working West of Ke Sanh (Redskins).
I gave the mama-san from the next hooch a panty hose that
I was using for polishing my boots. She broke into a fit of
giggles as she pulled them on over her slacks. She was very
pleased.
2 June 1971 Quang Tri
I flew on the first team today with WO2 Jeff Hayes as
AC. We flew four missions. I watched the scout work
and tried to pinpoint his position on the map. Earlier
this evening I got my baptism of fire. Gooks were firing
one klick East of ALC. Fox fours (F4 fighter-bomber)
and arty (artillery) was pounding the suspected
site. Ten Cobras rolled in and expended their
ordnance on the site also. I was with Cpt Jackson
when he rolled in on the target. Muzzle flashes were
popping all over the side of the hill. I thought the
flashes were from enemy weapons and reported them to Cpt
Jackson. It looked like we were sure to be shot
down! I was greatly disappointment to be unable to return
fire because the 40mm and 7. 62 Gatling gun failed to fire. I
will try again tomorrow to get the guns to work. (I later
discovered this action took place along the pink east of FSB
Fuller and that the “enemy gun flashes were really our own HE
rounds exploding against the hillside. The gooks must have
been deep inside bunkers with all the ruckus we were causing).
3 June 1971 QT
I went out this morning with Bob Lee to get a weather
report. We flew to the “golf course” and saw where the WP
(white phosphorus) had burned out large areas. Then we
went up past the “Rock Pile” and on over to C2 and A4. We
flew down to Wunder beach for the first time. One light naval
vessel was grounded on the beach. It must have been there for
some time because the aft is sunk into the sand. We have
to move out of our AO (Area of Operations) for a while for a
possible prisoner ex¬change on the DMZ.
4 June 1971 QT
It seems like it has been a hard day but it hasn’t. We flew 14
Guns, 2 Scouts and 2 Baggers to Camp Evans, home of the 101st,
today. What a bunch of gung-ho troopers. It looked like a
stateside base with all the paint and grass. I ran into Robert
Bohman (WO1). He is going thru the “SERTS” school’. He is very
anxious to fly. We flew all our missions to Mia Loc and
spent the day lying in the grass and talking to the gook
peddlers. Thn we came back and flew a mission up by
A4. C2 was taking mortar fire and they were firing
back into the pink. So it goes.
6 June 71 QT
Today has been a very slow day, didn’t even realize that it was
Sunday until late this morning. I flew one mission today. We
went up to the “rock pile”. En-route we overtook a Birddog (0-1
fixed wing with the callsign Catkiller) and harassed him
by flying formation off his 3,6,9 o’c1ock position. We also
caught up with his buddy at the rock pile. The Birddog
immediately took evasive action by rolling out of altitude. Capt
Jack¬son kept on his tail in a classic dogfight. What a show.
7 June 71 QT
Not much happened today. The wind was too stiff for the scout to
work as it has been for the past few days. Capt Hogg proclaimed
that he had sighted a single NVA in a creek bed on the NE side
of the mountain paralleling the Razorback. He ex¬pended some
20mm, as did Bob Lee, my AC. Honestly I don’t think the guy was
even hit but Capt. Hogg claimed it as a “kill”. Lee had to
fly with a Spec 6 (enlisted person) in the front seat.
Poor Lee , he had to handle all the radio calls due to Capt.
Hogg’s inop radios and the front seat was no help at all. During
a 20mm run the gunner canopy flew open and was finally closed
after great difficulty. We also had the master caution light
flick on during the dive. Oh so it goes.
8 June 71 QT
Day off, looking forward to big party, which is the initiation
rite for the new guys. The new guys have to chug beer to
the tune “Puff the Magic Dragon” and drink beer out of a gook’s
skull (I refused to do that).
(I got so drunk from chugging beer that I had to crawl back to
my hooch but I detoured to the showers where I passed out!
One of the guys found me there and got me into bed where I
vomited during the night. It is a wonder I did not die
from drowning in my own vomit!)
9 June 71 QT
8 June was another unexciting day but today was different. For
one thing it was 91/2 hours flying during which I was
depressingly sick from last night’s “Cardinal” initiation. We
also had two firefights with the NVA. It was all one-sided, we
shot and they hid. We still don’t know if we killed anybody
after all the smoke cleared away. One new ranger got shot in the
left calf while on patrol. We spent the entire afternoon trying
to get the bad guys who did it. We even called in five
slicks of troops and seven APC to sweep the area. The score at
the end of the day, 1-0, their favor.
After today I know I’ll never touch another beer.
10 June 1971 QT
I flew with Jeff Hayes today seven long hours. He gets very
uptight about me firing the turret. He will not even let
me touch it. Some tracks (APC) five klicks east of the
stream crossing the road leading to A4 got hit with an RPG. A
couple of the crewmen were hurt, and were soon medavaced out.
The APC burned all day. We spent the entire day trying to
destroy the bad guys. We may have killed some but it is hard to
say. P.S. Three NVA bodies with packs and AK-47s
were found the evening of the 11th. They were in the draw which
Capt. Jackson and Hayes had shot up with 20mm. The scout that
discovered the bodies said they’d been killed with 20mm but it
is hard to say since so many weapons were shot in there.
They also found a hole 50 feet deep on the top of the ravine
overlooking the bodies.
11 June 1971 QT
I flew with Ed Rickabaugh today for the first time. He is
a really cool AC. Ed is going to the States in three days
for a well deserved R&R. We flew one mission (VR)
close to where the ranger was hit the other day. Just as
we were coming out of Mai Loc, Ed experienced a lateral cyclic
servo malfunctioning… away we streaked for QT (Quang Tri).
In the afternoon we went out to “Farmer’s Valley” SW of the
“Golf Course”. It wasn’t long before the farmers and our
guns were trading shots. It really got exciting until we
broke off the engagement.
On a later mission Allen’s crew nearly shot some rangers when
they popped up near him on the fringe of the free fire zone. I
ended my day by playing handball with Ed and a couple of other
guys.
12 June 1971 QT
Today was standby for me but Steve Wing was sick so I took his
place. We flew up north of the “Razorback” today looking
for tanks. Whew, didn’t find any. We were doing VR
(visual reconnaissance) NE of FSB Fuller when a 14.5 cal machine
gun opened up on the scout. They nearly bought the farm
right there. WO2 Dunagan, my AC, escorted 17 (Cpt. Allen)
back to the 18th Surgical hospital where the crew chief was
hospitalized. We still don’t know if he is going to
live—he had his guts literally shot out of him. Everybody
that flies up to the Rock via the south side of Fuller gets a
burst of .51 shot at him. It used to be AK-47. The gook
gunner has been nicknamed “Henry”. He never has hit
anybody. The scout or perimeter VR took fire from a
guard. He really got a scare himself though when all four
ships came over to his bunker and threatened to blow him to
Kingdom Come.
13 June 1971 QT
Today I flew again with Ed Rickabaugh. Very
enjoyable! Sp/4 Bradshaw (?) died 11:31 today of wounds
received yesterday morning NE of FSB Fuller. I’m now getting up
close to the 60 hour level (of flight time in country). Three
gooks were killed in the wire last night as they tried to
infiltrate the perimeter. This gives me more impetus to sleep
with my pistol. The Vietnamese who live across the river must
really have courage. The guards are forever firing over their
heads or shooting into the river where they are bathing. I
had a very good time socializing with Hansen and Bradwell in the
swimming pool. Sure is a nice way to end a day. It
took six days to get a letter from home. Tomorrow is my
day off to which I intend to put to good use.
17 June 71 QT
19:30 to 20:00 hrs a memorial service was held for Sgt Gary Lee
Westphal, 19 years old. He’d spent all of his young life after
high school serving his country in the Army. All that is left
now is the grief that will wane with the years for his mot¬her,
father, brothers, and sisters. The service was short but in it
was all the honor due a fallen brother. There were the prayers,
the scripture reading, the songs, a heart rending “taps”, and
the final honor, a salute, one by one, of all the men who served
in the troop with him. All during the ceremony the sounds of war
echoed in us, the thump, thump of artillery, the creaking rumble
of rolling tanks, the whine of aircraft engines, the yelling of
men. Oh God, give us peace! Today was another weather day,
standby for me. I managed to elude my shadow, the check
pilot, but I feel he’ll catch me tomorrow. I’d best be ready!
18 June 71 QT
This was another bad day for the enemy, especially the
unfortunate souls who fell under the wrath of Charlie-Horse at
Farmer’s Valley, next to the golf course. At least one gook was
killed and many more wounded and demoralized. I received my
first letter from home (Idaho) today. Mother wrote it and as
usual it was full of news that I really enjoyed. I miss my
family tremendously.
19 June 71 QT
Today was a weather day, I didn’t fly much at all.
20 June 71 QT
Today was my day off and I made it to chapel by the “Z” club
while I was waiting to call home. I finally got through
10:10. It was 23:10 Sat evening at home, I enjoyed talking
to family tremendously----well worth the effort. There was
a lot of action at FSB Fuller this evening--a scramble! Seems
that the gooks wanted to sleep in Fuller tonight but I don’t
think they will.
21 June 71 QT
This morning we never did get going. Both times we launched this
morning two of our aircraft would have a bad fox mike, uniform,
or victor (radios). We did get in 7 hours though--all in one
very long afternoon. We spent one entire fuel load trying to get
into Checkerboard I to VR possible enemy troops--and we never
did get in there! The last flight was really hairy--escorting a
medavac into FSB Fuller during dusk, five aircraft in one small
area with no lights on any of them. Talk about peeled eyeballs!
At any rate we got the three G.I.s out without taking fire from
the gooks.
22 June 71 QT
Flying wasn’t much today, the usual ole writer’s cramp, strained
eyeballs, and sore seat. We worked out at “Sonny-Brook
Farms” today. We found lots of activity i.e.
bunkers, hootches, trails, 15 poles, and 7 flattened out 55
gallon drums. What are they for? Last night was really fun
though (and I slept right through it!). Sappers came through the
wire and guards to plant timed satchel charges in the ammo
dump. At 02:30 this morning the charges blew. The
ammo dump looked like a cross be¬tween Hiroshima and. the 4th of
July according to witnesses. Claims were also made that
hootches were shaken and fragile items broken by the
blast. We are on the opposite side of the base. I feel
sorry for the guys that live close to the ammo dump!
23 June 71 QT
FSB Fuller was under attack today. More arclights are going in
north of Fuller. C2 and A4 are taking more than their
usual share of incoming. Even Camp Caroll is getting
hit! Something big is going to happen. Last night
there was a lot more shooting along the perimeter. Perhaps
the guards are getting jumpy!
24 June 71 QT
The ARVN’s abandoned Fuller yesterday evening leaving hundreds
of thousands of dollars precious equipment up there. The
Air Force and arty spent all night blast¬ing at Fuller in an
effort to deny the use of Fuller and the war booty there to the
exurbant NVA. Today C2 and A4 took rockets intermittently all
day long. We tried to spot the rocket sites but there was
so much arty firing from Camp Carol, C2, A4 and Mai Loc that we
couldn’t “safely” fly up there.
24 June 71 QT
Arty shot up Fuller all day along with arclights. We worked in
the southern back yard and southern Mai Loc. Nothing!
25 June 71 QT
Another day like yesterday! The ARVN’s are building up for
a big push above Fuller.
26 June 71 QT
I had today off. I read and studied all day. There still no
mail. It’s been six days now!
27 June 71 QT
Today I met my Christian brothers. It was very exciting.
The Baggers are drunk tonight and out to harass me. Why they all
seek me out when they are drunk I don’t know but they do.
28 June 71 QT
I was up flying by 08:00 this morning with Bob Lee. We worked up
just west of a CB “E” (Checker board). We were finding some good
stuff when an air strike began next to our orbit, what an
unpleasant surprise! The explosions had a dull THUD to
them. You best believe we packed up and left pronto! We
also had to do a VR of the Razorback. That place just east of
the Razorback and north of Fuller and the valley has really been
hit hard by arclights and arty. I saw a very strange looking
building by the Cathedral in QT, must look at it again.
29 June 71 QT
We still see a lot of woodcutters where they shouldn’t be. A
snatch was made of three of them in order to interrogate
them. Jeff Hayes and I had trouble with aircraft #110 all
day. Mostly the armament circuit breaker kept popping. The
scout found some very promising material around 1067-68 west of
A4/C2. We expended on a sus¬pected troop bunker but got no
reaction from it. Five of our guys were awarded the “Army
Commendation Medal” for their work during “Lamson 719” in Laos.
Charlie-Horse lost a lot of good men in that action. Rapier got
his much deserved scout bandana.
30 June 71 QT
What a day! I made two tapes to Kathy which was no
good. At least I found out some things about taping
letters. I received one tape from home today. Not much
else happened. Today was my day off.