John Hiemstra
Vietnam Diary
Web Page 4

THE BEST OF CHARLIE HORSE
VIETNAM

1
September 71 QT
I flew with Larry Dunagan today. We did a VR up north of AL1 along the pink and a short VR near FSB Holcomb. That ended the day. Yeh!  I got a tape from home to¬day. Only 20 days to go!

4 September 71 QT
This morning Steve Wing was shot at with some type of air burst weapon so they RTB to look over the damage if there was any.  They were shot at near the pink above A2.  Our team went up to work the beach just south of the pink.  We rediscovered the 122mm rockets that we had found the day before.  As we worked our way down the beach 10 discovered 2 bunkers and proceeded to destroy them.  As he (scout) was making a third pass over the bunker his aircraft was hit with an RPG and crashed on the beach.  As Capt Hogg (my AC) swooped dawn to look for survivors, three gray uniformed gooks jumped out of the bunker 50 meters from the crash site and scattered in three dif¬ferent directions.  Capt Hogg was not in a position to use rockets.  In a long second that seemed an eternity, I had to make a decision to shoot. (The wreckage was in line with the gooks.  If I overshot the gooks, I could hit the survivors!  I sprayed rounds all over the area where they were running.  One dropped and the other two kept going.  One had made it up the beach about 100 meters from where they jumped up when our rockets started bursting in front of him.  One burst was so close that the gook was swallowed up in the resulting black-brown dust ball but he ran out the other side (of the ex¬plosion)!  I put some more 7.62mm on him with tracers all around him but he wouldn’t fall.  By this time 22 (Ezell) was dropping off the ARPs who set up a quick defense around the LOH.  In about 2 minutes the two bodies and one wounded were out of the wreckage and on board.  The Bagger headed for the Surg (18th Surgical Hospital).  At this time we left the scene to escort 22 to the Surg.  On our last orbit around the area we drew AK-47 fire from the area where I last saw the gook running.  Capt Gronberg (pilot) was killed along with his observer (Frank Orcini).  The crew chief (B.G. Dillenseger) was medavac’d to Da Nang.  Later today we checked on the wreckage. It wasn’t worth recovery so we destroyed it with rockets.

Revised text:
This morning Steve Wing was shot at with some type of air burst weapon so they RTB (return to base) to look over the damage if there was any.  They were shot at near the pink above A2.  Our team went up to work the beach just south of the pink.  We rediscovered the 122mm rockets that we had found the day before.  As we worked our way down the beach 10 (the scout) discovered 2 bunkers and proceeded to destroy them.  As he was making a third pass over the bunker his aircraft was hit with an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) and crashed on the beach.  As Capt Hogg (my AC) swooped dawn to look for survivors, three gray uniformed gooks jumped out of the bunker 50 meters from the crash site to fire on the wreckage.  Capt Hogg was not in a position to use rockets.  In a long second that seemed an eternity, I had to make a decision to shoot. (The wreckage was in line with the gooks.  If I overshot the gooks, I could hit the survivors!  Aiming low, I sprayed rounds all over the area where they were running and they scattered in three dif¬ferent directions. .  One dropped and the other two kept going.  One had made it up the beach about 100 meters from where they jumped up when our rockets (Cpt Hogg was firing once lined up) started bursting in front of him.  One burst was so close that the gook was swallowed up in the resulting black-brown dust ball but he ran (limping) out the other side (of the ex¬plosion)!  I put some more 7.62mm on him with tracers all around him but he wouldn’t fall.  By this time 22 (Ezell, lift pilot AC) was dropping off the ARPs (infantrymen) who set up a quick defense around the LOH.  In about 2 minutes the two bodies and one wounded were out of the wreckage and on board.  The Bagger (lift helicopter) headed for the Surg (18th Surgical Hospital).  At this time we left the scene to escort 22 to the Surg.  On our last orbit around the area we drew AK-47 fire from the area where I last saw the gook running.  Capt Gronberg (pilot) was killed along with his observer (B.G. Dillenseger).  The crew chief (Frank Orcini) was medavac’d to Da Nang.  Later today we checked on the wreckage. It wasn’t worth recovery so we destroyed it with rockets.  (The correction in name of the enlisted man killed is credited to a conversation with Mike Duffy and the Unit History written by Cpt Thomas Ford)

5 September 71 QT
I was scheduled to have today off but I ended up taking Bob Smith’s place during the afternoon.  I flew with Capt Hogg on a VR of QL9 out to the Laotian border.  The air was very clear, you could see for a hundred miles either way, very pretty.  I got part of the wall up on my AO today.  The bugs are terrible, constantly biting all the time.  Our latrine is sickening filthy--maggots and flies every¬where.

6 September 71 QT
All the guys are coming down with some sort of sickness that makes the body very weak and placid. I’m starting to get it myself. We had hardly enough people to get two teams up today.  Capt Hogg and accomplice blew up two loaded sampans out of 17 they found on the Ben Hai River (river marking the DMZ). Wing got a gook walk¬ing on a trail about the 1670 grid.

7 September 71 QT
I flew part of today with Quinn and then a little with Jim Weisend, Just about everybody is sick and I’m starting to get it.  We haven’t had a movie or show at the club since about the end of August.  That doesn’t make things any easier.

8 September 71 QT
I spent the entire day in bed today.  I woke up about 0100 and spent the rest of the morning making trips to the latrine.  But I did feel a lot better by evening.  I received a very cheerful letter from Kathy that made me feel a lot better.  I failed to mention that on the 3rd of September I had a major accident with McCormick in his slick. As I was lifting the aircraft out of POL (refueling point) the right skid caught in the rear (on the PSP). The aircraft spun to the left as McCormick set it down causing the aircraft cross-tubes to be spread and the tail boom to be wrenched.

9 September 71 QT
This day was also spent in bed. Only one team is flyable now. Everyone else is down with this virus. The war is still going on up here.

10 September 71 QT
I felt a lot better today but still didn’t fly.  McCocherell came back today.

11 September 21 QT
I did fly today with Capt Hogg.  Other than a very small appetite, I feel okay.  One of our sister companies had an aircraft with troops aboard shot up real bad as it approached the LZ at Rag Mop (near Ke Sanh).  Only the pilot and gunner came out of it with minor injuries.  One Ranger was killed.  We killed a gook today while he was bathing in a beautiful waterfall north of the Ashau Valley.

12 September 71 QT
Weisend was my AC today.  We had a lot of trouble with the turret on 063. It would fire whenever the arm switch was flipped on.  Not too cool. We fired a burst of 7.62mm in the revetments accidentally. The rounds probably fell out in the village square.  We put in one full load around A2 and a LL (last light VR) in the Backyard.

13 September 71 QT
There was no action at all today. By all indications the Reds have really been hurt in their war effort by the flooding up North.   I flew with Quinn today.  He received some harassing from me when his rockets were way off when he shot at the NVA flag in the rice paddies east of A2.  Herrick really gave us a scare today when he yelled “going down, going down” after passing over a bunker that we had just shot up.  He was experiencing a compressor stall but it sure scared us.


14 September 71 QT

I flew with Quinn today on 2nd team.  We flew down south of the Ba Long in a small valley that’s part of our new AO.  We are to start working the Laotian border and the Salient again. D Troop is going to stay in QT when 3/5 Cav stands down.  W02 Jeff Hayes is working in maintenance at squadron headquarters.  He came back from leave married.   Mr. Cavalluzzi is our new guy in the gun platoon.  He will be going into maintenance in about a month.  Knight is the new guy scout and some big brute of a guy called “an¬imal” Capt Cunningham is also a new guy in troop but also the oldest Capt by rank.

15 September 71 QT
We flew south of Ke Sanh today in “support” of the ARVNs working out there. Trouble is, we didn’t know where they were or know any frequencies to get com(munications) with them.  As a result we had a bad accident.  Capt Allen (17) spotted a gook pushing a cart along the road 619 that the NVA were building.  Steve fired nails.  Red panels came up all over the target area.  We were shooting at ARVNs!  It’s not known if we killed any of them. The ARVNs are building up their strength around Ke Sanh.

16 September 71 QT
I flew with Quinn today.  We flew a total of 1+30 for weather checks.  It rained most of the day along with a heavy overcast.

17 September 71 QT
We found a 30 x 30 grass hooch in some heavy trees by some garden plots in the Da
Krong valley.  We don’t know if any of our rockets set it on fire or not.  We also took
AK-47 fire a little lower on the ridgeline prior to engaging the hooch.  I flew with Ed Rickabaugh.

18 September 71 QT
I flew 2nd team with Quinn today.  The only mission we flew was a gun cover for a medavac slinging two wounded Rangers out of the dense jungle tops west of FSB ANN.  The medavac did an outstanding job concerning the evacuation.  He had to hover over the Ranger’s location for 30 minutes while the basket was lowered to the ground and the wounded strapped in.  Capt Laird got the remaining Rangers out by hovering over them as they climbed a 30 foot ladder.  I really made a blunder today.  With Brenick (crew chief) as my front seat, I took 62 to the POL to refuel.  After doing this we made a right closed traffic pattern and land¬ed without incident.  Trouble is the act was highly unauthorized.  As it is I didn’t get anything more than a good lecturing, but if something had happened while I was at the controls there could have been a lot trouble. The ammo dump was hit last night.  Six sappers were killed.  As usual, the rocking explosions didn’t disturb my sleep.

19 September 71 QT
It rained most of the day. I flew with Jim Weisend. About all we did was make weather checks through-out the day.

20 September 71 QT to 8 October 71
I had a very enjoyable leave which is a story separate from the one told here.  (The leave was taken in Idaho and Oregon.)





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