FIRE FLY WITH A TWIST
By Long Knife Crewchief, Claude Stevens
Edited By Don Callison
Copyright 1998
I don’t remember the exact date of this event but I believe it was in August of 1970.
That evening my helicopter had just came out of a 100 hour maintenance inspection. I’d had to remove the cockpit doors because the hinges had cracks in them that needed repairing. We had recently heard of a helicopter that had crashed and burned, killing all aboard when one of the pilot’s doors came come off in flight and went into the tail rotor.
The maintenance team took my helicopter
into the hangar 10 hours early because the head bearing on the tail rotor
was bad. This was a "Red-X" condition that required immediate attention
and so while the ship was in they just went ahead and did the upcoming
“100 hour” inspection too.
I had gone down town and gotten drunk thinking I had
a few days off. Upon my return to the barracks I found out that the work
on my helicopter had been finished early and I was scheduled on it for
the Troop’s nightly mission around the perimeter of Vinh Long Airfield.
My Aircraft Commander (AC), 1st Lieutenant Thomas Eagleston, was the first to notify me of the night “Fire Fly” mission. So Eagleston and I went down to the airfield. We put all the covers and cowlings back on then we washed the helicopter. That was when we found the cracks in the door hinges. I entered a "Circle-Red X" in the aircraft logbook, then with permission from the maintenance officer, removed the doors.
I set up the powerful “Fire Fly” search light on the port side and put the M-60 machinegun on its mount. I stretched out in the helicopter and caught a quick nap until it was time to go. I was awakened by the arrival of my doorgunner Steve McClain and we finished up little odds and ends that needed to be done before takeoff.
The Co-pilot, also called a “Peter Pilot”, for the night’s mission was 1st Lieutenant Mike Rokey. He and the AC showed up. They did their preflight inspection. We all went over the aircraft carefully then climbed aboard, strapped in and just to be sure we were mission ready we cranked her up. After some quick engine checks and a radio check we shut the ship down. Mc Clain and I made another speedy exterior check, looking for fluid leaks and loose cowlings. We shut the cargo the doors to keep the mosquitoes out and everyone laid down inside to catch a little CAV nap.
Our first trip around the perimeter was always flown at about one hour after dark. 20 minutes before our scheduled flight I started making the last minute checks to make sure everything was clamped and tied down. I opened the port side engine door. Checked the tail rotor. By this time Eagle is in the left front seat and checking things out. I untied the rotor blade and held it. Rokey hollers, “Coming hot”! I hollered, “All clear”, let the blade go and headed for the engine compartment as the whine of the turbine started. (Such a beautiful sound that still takes me back to Vietnam more than anything.) Seems I never tired of the excitement produced by that whine, the clicking of the igniters as they lit off the JP-4 jet fuel spraying into the combustion chamber or the smell of the engine’s black exhaust smoke. Things start happening real quickly..
As the rotor RPM increases I look for any fluid leaks around the engine’s fuel control then shut the engine cowling and clamp it down. I put the fire extinguisher back in its bracket and pull the AC’s seat armor shield forward then jump in. The clamp that holds the light and keeps it from moving up and down is broken and I have to hold it with my knees. McClain gets into the port side gun hole and loads the 60 up as we lift out of the revetment, takeoff and move away from the airfield to search the surrounding area for enemy activity. Eagle makes a hard right and goes low level.
The fun starts. Eagle flies up the south side of the base going west; balls to the wall. I have the light ready and I’m waiting for the order to turn it on. Eagle gives the order; I flip the switch. Millions of candlepower transform the darkness to near daylight and I’m blinded for about 10 seconds and then start looking for the bad guys. McClain is pointing his machinegun into brilliant spot cast by the floodlight. We make a low pass all the way around the base then come back to the west side about 1/4 mile out and we see this guy running along a rice paddy dike. Eagle flares and that puts the brakes on! I 'm trying to keep the light on the guy whose making like a jackrabbit. I lose him for just a second and he dives into the water. Eagle has to level the ship to let off the brakes because the tail rotor is about to get a washing in the paddy water. I lose the guy again and I say over the intercom that if there’s one, there might be a couple and for everybody to keep their eyes open. We don't have anyone with a weapon on the starboard side of the Huey. Eagle radios the Crusader Cobras that are on standby and is letting the crews them know what’s going on. The gun crews have to contact someone in charge at the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) for permission to launch. In the mean time I'm looking for the jackrabbit like guy.
We’re just about hovering now and I'm feeling like a sitting duck. Eagle starts flying like he's in a big Loach. He manhandles it around like a bull in a china shop. He does pretty good moving that H Model around. We keep searching the area and finally Eagle sees something and we check it out. I couldn't believe what we saw. This guy, which turned out to be an ARVN, had a tube in his mouth and was breathing through it under the water. He had his eyes closed and I was shining the light right in his face.
At this time Eagle is telling someone in the TOC something which I didn't hear because I‘d turned the radio switch off. I look over at McClain, his eyes were wide as saucers and he was sweating just about as bad as I was from holding that light steady there for about 5 minutes. So we were on the intercom talking about wanting to kill this guy and Eagle said, "Hold on there"! About this time I reach up and turn on the radio switch and hear Eagle asking if we should waste this guy and from the TOC he gets a, "Hold your fire"!
So now the guns are airborne and they want to get in on the fun. They want to shoot the bad guy. No questions asked…. “Just get out of our way Long Knife”!
I look at my watch; it’s been half an hour since we started this chase and the dink is still under the water with the blazing in his face, breathing through the tube. Finally, whoever it was with some authority comes back on the radio and says that we were not to shoot the guy yet and that he has to check some more things out. So I tell McClain he might get the kill. McClain is sweating profusely now. Eagle says, "Don't nobody shoot ". I thought McClain was sweating badly until I noticed that sweat was running in my eyes and I was having trouble seeing now. I had been looking into the super bright spot on the paddy water for too long. I was holding the light up on my knees and everything was starting to hurt.
Eagle pulls away a little bit and I try to take a little breather. Now the guy comes up and starts crawling away, so we let him go a little to let him think he's going to get away. So I hit him with the light again and under the water with tube in mouth he goes again. Now it’s been 40 minutes. The guy in the TOC said they believe the dink to be an AWOL ARVN from a post right to the southwest of our position. He said, "Don't let him go until it’s confirmed". We’ve been containing this guy for 50 minutes. I take a peek towards the southwest and sure enough there's a little ARVN outpost there. Eagle also sees it and tells the guy on the other end that he can confirm the location of the OP. They tell us to stay there so they can verify the guy’s status. By now I'm soaking wet with sweat and it has been 1 hour when they finally tell us to break it off. He is an ARVN and that will teach him to go AWOL.
So we break off and start for home to refuel. Just as Eagle turns to the left there's a vibration that goes through the whole ship. I can't let go of the light but I want to see. So I turn the light around so I can look to the rear. I can see the tailrotor and everything looks to be all right. Eagle is worried. He says that the anti-torque pedals feel funny. By this time we are now over the main runway and Eagle brings the ship to a hover and starts to check the pedals by moving them back and forth. Everything seems to feel good. So he starts heading for the refueling point.
As we start to cross the grassy area I can hear Eagle say, "Something’s wrong with the pedals". Next thing I know we start to climb and Eagle says, "The pedals don't want to move at all"! At about that time I hear a loud snap and we are off and running in a counter clockwise spin. I can see out the door real good now because I'm hanging on to the pussy pole just to stay in the helicopter.
We’re spinning!
I see the tower go by….. then darkness, then the tower, then darkness, tower, darkness and so on. I can see and hear the tail rotor. The blades are still there and they look real wide but they are making a loud slapping noise and the tail boom is violently shaking up and down. Now I’ve grabbed the back of the AC’s seat and the light is trying to slide out the door and I'm doing everything to keep it from falling. Rokey says something and he sounds so calm and relaxed. Something about chopping the throttle, “Please do”, I say to myself and right about that time he does. The light slides back and slams me in the knee and I’m almost knocked out the starboard side but I catch the back of Rokey's seat by the armor plate and springs. I hold on and all off a sudden the helicopter is falling like a brick. For some reason the pilots roll the throttle back up and it’s tower, darkness, tower, darkness all over again. The spotlight is getting away from me now. We are starting to spin really fast.
The front seaters chop the throttle again; I get the same smack from the light but a little harder but I was almost ready this time but it still gets me, I'll work on that one the next time. They were back on the throttle and the light almost throws me out the door as the tower went again and again. I just knew was going out the door, light and all, if the sudden rotation happened one more time.
I keyed my mike and yelled, "Put This Mother Fucker Down"! He did! We hit the ground so hard that the skids were almost even with the floor.
The rotor stopped turning and the engine just stopped running. The damned light handle hit me under my chin and almost knocked me out cold. I got out and pulled Eagle’s chicken plate back to get him out and I pulled myself around to the starboard side and pulled Rokey's chicken plate back. I had something wrong with my back because I couldn’t feel my legs at the time. I saw McClain had gotten out on his own and was coming to help get everybody else out. We all cleared away from the aircraft for a few minutes.
The pilots had shut everything down so it was dark. I got out my flashlight and started looking over the damage. It didn't look to be to bad. I went to see what happen to the tailrotor. The blades were feathered in a paddle position into the wind, 90 degrees out of track. The head bearing was broken and the cross-link was hanging way out. We found out later that the tailrotor head bearing had been installed backwards.
I believe that Eagleston and Rokey saved our lives that night.
This is a long over due……. Thanks guys!
I learned that the old saying
was true.
"Any landing you can walk away from was a good one”.
Claude Stevens
