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.)