Our Command and Control helicopters (C&C) operated at 1500 feet above the working Scouts. The Air Mission Commanders who flew the C&C aircraft usually stayed out of the way of the Crusaders’ Cobras. The gunship crews were rarely interrupted or distracted when they were covering the Scouts. That was part of the romance of being in the Air Cavalry. Being left pretty much alone to do our job.

      I remember one morning when Gary Winsett and I were working an area down south of Ben Tre. We weren’t taking a hell of lot of enemy fire but I was having a good time and we were getting a lot of secondary explosions out of some bunkers and old houses. In that particular area we destroyed six or seven bunkers and set fire to several hootches. The more we worked the area the more evidence turned up showing that it had been recently used by Charlie. We reported our findings to C&C and the decision was made to insert an ARVN Battalion. Before we could get the insertion set up the Scouts and guns were called to go way down south in the U Minh Forrest.

    We were going to work very near the seacoast. Carl Eiseman had been the Air mission commander flying the C&C ship that day and he had to stay at Ben Tre to coordinate the insertion of the battalion. As it turned out, they got into a good 2 or 3 day battle.

    ACE Cozalio, the Crusader platoon leader, was leading our gun cover and became the new Air Mission Commander. He and his wing man flying their Cobras accompanied Gary and I in our Loaches as we flew to the new area to hook up with some US ground troops.

    As Gary and I arrived in the new area, I was amazed at how utterly flat and open the terrain was and that any areas with tall vegetation were brown, wilted and dying. The Agent Orange defoliation program was in full swing.  The enemy continued to live in the decaying areas. It actually afforded them with a more timely warning of our arrival and even gave him better fields of fire at us when we were low level.

    Our new assignment was to Scout ahead of a US Army Infantry platoon that was accompanied by an ARVN Company and we got in some great action.  We were working near a small village and doing quite a lot of damage to a bunker system about a half a mile Southeast of the small town.  It was exiting and fun. It was a bit dicey because we took sporadic small arms fire from nearby stands of dead trees. We also knew that for every enemy soldier we killed that there were probably three or four others watching from the distance.  The U Minh had a reputation for being a Viet Cong stronghold and that day the enemy lived up to expectations.

    While we were low level and “entertaining” the troops, the everwatchful pilots in the Cobras above were watching us and the village.  Ace popped up on the radio. He said he saw a guy with a kid run out of the village. Apparently we shook a guy and he ran. He looked like he was running with his daughter or grand daughter, but may have just been some kid from the community. He did a pretty good job and had sneaked got out of the village and almost got away. We actually hadn’t paid that close attention to him and he managed to get about a quarter of a mile away from us. Carrying the kid, he walks right into the US Infantry platoon. He takes one look at the grunts and of course he grabs the kid tighter and deedee maos into a bunker that is inside of a nearby burned out hootch. The infantry called and asked us to help get this guy and the little girl who couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.

    Ace guided us over to where the couple had disappeared. We flew to the area and as we came over the hootch we could see the platoon coming towards it. They were walking abreast across the fields. Among them was this huge guy, he was big enough to eat hay. On his helmet was written, “Montana”.  There was a pack of Camels stuck in the helmet’s elastic band and the guy looked pissed.  On the FM radio the Platoon leader told us they had seen the guy take off and wanted us to find him. Gary and I went sniffing around and with directions from Ace and the ground troops we found the bunker where the guy was hiding, but couldn’t get him to come out. Since he didn’t want to injure the child, Gary dropped a CS grenade into the bunker. We were all concerned about the little girl. Anyway, the CS drove the guy out.
    As he came out of the bunker he was holding the girl and using her as a shield. I’ll never forget this. Big “MONTANA” walks over to the guy and with his huge yet gentle hands, lifted that little girl away from the enemy soldier. Handed her to another guy and then grabbed that scrawny little VC. As he did the man seemed to get littler and littler. He just seemed to shrink in fear in the grasp “Montana’s” huge fists.  With the little girl safe, it just made us feel good. For once I felt like the Americans were the good guys for a change. The kid went back to her village. The VC went to a POW camp.

The author is unknown.
Maybe Winsett remembers.