My first mission in Vietnam – “Stupid Flying Story”

There we were: finally arrived in combat. First, we had to familiarize ourselves with the area we were responsible for. I was assigned as copilot on the fourth aircraft of a four-plane formation.

A little background: on an American helicopter the aircraft commander sits on the right side and the copilot sits on the left. There is a good technical reason for this which I will not bore you with. Also, our squadron’s Operations Officer had his way of doing things. Disregarding the advice of more experienced people we flew that mission at a very low altitude and in a column formation which we called a “daisy chain”.

We had covered most of the area and had wandered down to the beach and started back by following a small river upstream. Again, we were down to treetop level and I was flying. I could occasionally see other aircraft in the formation as we passed straight sections of the winding river. Up ahead a small dugout canoe was crossing the river from left to right. (Now, bear in mind that because of our speed which was about 100 MPH, all this happened in a matter of seconds.)

There were two locals in the canoe with something in the middle covered by a tarp. The two men were very agitated at the sight of us and were paddling furiously to get to the other side. Just as our aircraft came up on them, up came the AK-47 from under the tarp.

With no time for any evasive action, I shoved the stick over and tried to hit the shooter with the right front wheel of the helicopter. I lost sight of my target as it passed under us. The aircraft commander tried to jump over to my side but was restrained by his harness while you could hear the entire magazine being emptied at us.

-We both missed.

Needless to say, after that one, we changed our tactics and followed the advice of experienced people.