Thank God for all of you who flew rescue and support missions in Nam!

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

I finally found the right place to say what I wanted to say to you guys but never got the chance to while serving in nam.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN NAM!
and if you had a problem seeing those word because most of you are as old as me know.. here ya go, I'll say it again.

[SIZE="7"]THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN NAM![/SIZE]

Some of you pilots were either out of your mind nuts or under strict orders not to return until you have completed your mission, I have no clue which, but while I was in nam 69 thru 70 Co A 1st Bn 7th Marines 1st Marine Division I watched you guys come in to areas I was in and pick up our wounded and dead marines while we were still getting hit big time.

pouring rain.. visability almost '0' or less than 50 feet / viet cong shootn at you from all over the place.. mortars going out toward the gooks from us and mortars coming in on top of us.. it just didn't seem to matter to you.

You were there with one mission in mind and you were not leaving until you had completed your task... It didn't seem to matter if enemy rounds were hittn your choppers from all directions. I have no idea why your choppers did not just blow up or fly out of control with the amount of hits you guys took but you some how managed to houver over head of us.. kick butt on the gooks / pick up our people and get the he#$ outa there without crashing?

man I'll tell ya..
people talk about medal of honors.
Anybody who was part of the huey crews that flew rescue and support missions for ground forces in nam should have got medal of honors for sure.

Those of you where were there and are now reading this story can chuckle in your seat but also know you are one lucky son of a btchs to be home alive cuz it wasn't funny nor pretty when you were over there, that's for sure.

Heck, just approaching our areas you were sitting ducks up there in the air yet you still came in to help us?

Not sure if you guys ever saw it in our eyes as you were there saving our butts because we never got to talk to you 'directly' and ANY of those moments but you guys were 'our' 'Gods' over there.

Nothing in the entire world made us more relaxed during a fire fight then when we saw a couple 3 hueys popping up over a hill to help us out in a fire fight.

Especially if we were taking hit bad.

I mean we use to say to each other that I swear these guys are flying underground or something because you'd pop up out of 'no' where sometimes blastn away right over our heads, just kickn butt like a mother for us.

I'm not going to bore you to death here with my appreciation post but myself and a ton of other guys from 1/7 owe our lives to you guys time and time again.

I never stayed close to our radio guy on the ground because 'that' was not a good place to hang out during a fire fight so I never knew if you guys were called in to assist us or not so when you popped up over a hill firing away at the gooks it was like a frikn movie to all us on the ground.

You never heard the cheers or crys out of 'thank God!' man the hueys are here, but I assure everyone of you who frequent this board and were there supporting the ground troops in nam that if we on the ground had the opportunity to talk to you in the choppers at the time you came out of 'nowhere' to bale us out of a crunch I'm telling ya you would have heard non stop thanks from everyone of us.

so please dont take this post as just another thank you from a line co. marine ok..

I say this with sincerity to all who supported us during combat.
You guys are the bravest people "I never got to know"
I am so happy to have found this forum here knowing that those of you here were 'those' guys over there.

Thank you so much from my house to yours..again and again!

and if any of you from my time in nam / 69 thru 70 who operated in or around the area of FSB Ross during Jan 6th 7th attack on Ross are ever up in my neck of the woods / Warwick, Rhode Island / please look me up so I can get ya a cup of coffee and have the honor of shaking your hand.

Do you know that while I am not a centimental type person, as I write these words to you I have to hold back my emotions thinking of how many of my friends you guys saved over there during and after the firefights were over.

One of you guys actually flew me to Da Nang hospital after the Jan 6th 7th FSB Ross attack and when I was gettn out of the chopper I tried so hard to get the attention of the guys on board to say thank you but there was never any time for that sort a shi$. As we all knew, it was all business over there no matter what mission you were on at the moment and I understood that so nothing more than a quick wave of 'thanks' was all we could do then 'off you went' on yet another honorable mission kickn butt or pickn up more downed marines.

So I say this from my heart.
God bless you guys!
Every one of you for what you do
Without your presence in nam
myself and many others would not be here today!

Pat Bonanno
Warwick, Rhode Island

[Allyn Hinton]

Every day we would send 2 CH-46's and 2 gunships either UH-1's Hueys from HML-167 or AH-1's Cobras from HML-367 to Baldy to support the 7th Marines. You'd stand by there for anything that came up. See Photo Archive photo #212 taken over Ross after the attack in Jan.1970, and #4202 UH-1 from 167 at Baldy.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

Allyn,

Thank you for that believe me!

Are there more photos of the FSB Ross attack?
I need pictures for a claim I am submitting this friday.

[John Ace Hunt]

Yea '69thru'70, I'm glad all those hueys were there too. I guess all we on the '34's,46's, and '53's were just a drean everyone of us had. Boy if it wasn't for the huey, we would have lost the war before we stalemated, and pulled out. Yep, the huey was the only Chopper over there, and it won the war all by itself. Glad you made it back. But, the '46 was the best troop Bird the Marines had there. Did more too.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

John, thanks for your post and glad you made it back alive too.

go easy and write anytime

Pat B. USMC
Co A 1/7

[Joe Reed]

Phrog Phlyers Phorever!

[topusmc]

We flew the big and slow CH-53A over there. I had the job of starboard gunner with M2 .50 cal. FSB Baldy was a frequent stop. 7th Marines and
1st Marines were constant customers of ours.

When I look back I wonder how in the heck I managed to get out of there intact. Yes we were nuts...but we were and still are Marine Helicopter Crews and will do what ever it takes to support the guy on the ground.

We dont get thank you letters very often but when they do come it really means a lot.

I sincerely thank you.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

are you kiddn me?
I can't thank you guys enough and meant every word I typed below.

I'll tell ya bud, I never have been able to go yet but If I was ever going to attend a military reunion of folks that were doing a job in Nam for Co A 1/7 or who serviced Ross and the ground troops in that area I would much prefer to go to one full of helicopter crews so I could finally get to shake a few hands and actually talk to you guys to express my appreciation.

I'd probably be the only USMC grunt walking around there but I'd be having the blast of my life.

cheers,
PB

[Lou O'Neil]

I have to say it's hard to stay humble when you come across stuff like this, this type of appreciation has been expressed throughout the years, yet I am always in awe of what so many of you young Marines went through with little if any recognition, the Corps is a special deal, appreciate being a small part of it...Louie the"rat" O'Neil

I finally found the right place to say what I wanted to say to you guys but never got the chance to while serving in nam.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN NAM!
and if you had a problem seeing those word because most of you are as old as me know.. here ya go, I'll say it again.

[SIZE="7"]THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN NAM![/SIZE]

Some of you pilots were either out of your mind nuts or under strict orders not to return until you have completed your mission, I have no clue which, but while I was in nam 69 thru 70 Co A 1st Bn 7th Marines 1st Marine Division I watched you guys come in to areas I was in and pick up our wounded and dead marines while we were still getting hit big time.

pouring rain.. visability almost '0' or less than 50 feet / viet cong shootn at you from all over the place.. mortars going out toward the gooks from us and mortars coming in on top of us.. it just didn't seem to matter to you.

You were there with one mission in mind and you were not leaving until you had completed your task... It didn't seem to matter if enemy rounds were hittn your choppers from all directions. I have no idea why your choppers did not just blow up or fly out of control with the amount of hits you guys took but you some how managed to houver over head of us.. kick butt on the gooks / pick up our people and get the he#$ outa there without crashing?

man I'll tell ya..
people talk about medal of honors.
Anybody who was part of the huey crews that flew rescue and support missions for ground forces in nam should have got medal of honors for sure.

Those of you where were there and are now reading this story can chuckle in your seat but also know you are one lucky son of a btchs to be home alive cuz it wasn't funny nor pretty when you were over there, that's for sure.

Heck, just approaching our areas you were sitting ducks up there in the air yet you still came in to help us?

Not sure if you guys ever saw it in our eyes as you were there saving our butts because we never got to talk to you 'directly' and ANY of those moments but you guys were 'our' 'Gods' over there.

Nothing in the entire world made us more relaxed during a fire fight then when we saw a couple 3 hueys popping up over a hill to help us out in a fire fight.

Especially if we were taking hit bad.

I mean we use to say to each other that I swear these guys are flying underground or something because you'd pop up out of 'no' where sometimes blastn away right over our heads, just kickn butt like a mother for us.

I'm not going to bore you to death here with my appreciation post but myself and a ton of other guys from 1/7 owe our lives to you guys time and time again.

I never stayed close to our radio guy on the ground because 'that' was not a good place to hang out during a fire fight so I never knew if you guys were called in to assist us or not so when you popped up over a hill firing away at the gooks it was like a frikn movie to all us on the ground.

You never heard the cheers or crys out of 'thank God!' man the hueys are here, but I assure everyone of you who frequent this board and were there supporting the ground troops in nam that if we on the ground had the opportunity to talk to you in the choppers at the time you came out of 'nowhere' to bale us out of a crunch I'm telling ya you would have heard non stop thanks from everyone of us.

so please dont take this post as just another thank you from a line co. marine ok..

I say this with sincerity to all who supported us during combat.
You guys are the bravest people "I never got to know"
I am so happy to have found this forum here knowing that those of you here were 'those' guys over there.

Thank you so much from my house to yours..again and again!

and if any of you from my time in nam / 69 thru 70 who operated in or around the area of FSB Ross during Jan 6th 7th attack on Ross are ever up in my neck of the woods / Warwick, Rhode Island / please look me up so I can get ya a cup of coffee and have the honor of shaking your hand.

Do you know that while I am not a centimental type person, as I write these words to you I have to hold back my emotions thinking of how many of my friends you guys saved over there during and after the firefights were over.

One of you guys actually flew me to Da Nang hospital after the Jan 6th 7th FSB Ross attack and when I was gettn out of the chopper I tried so hard to get the attention of the guys on board to say thank you but there was never any time for that sort a shi$. As we all knew, it was all business over there no matter what mission you were on at the moment and I understood that so nothing more than a quick wave of 'thanks' was all we could do then 'off you went' on yet another honorable mission kickn butt or pickn up more downed marines.

So I say this from my heart.
God bless you guys!
Every one of you for what you do
Without your presence in nam
myself and many others would not be here today!

Pat Bonanno
Warwick, Rhode Island

[Lou O'Neil]

I have to say it's hard to stay humble when you come across stuff like this, this type of appreciation has been expressed throughout the years, yet I am always in awe of what so many of you young Marines went through with little if any recognition, the Corps is a special deal, appreciate being a small part of it...Louie the "rat" O'Neil VMO-2 67/68
Thanks again for your kind words especially in LARGE print

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

I'll say it again and again.

Thank you very much for what you guys did for us on the ground!
Maybe I'll bump into you some day and get a chance to shake your hand.

later!

Pat B. USMC

[Allyn Hinton]

Pat, sign up with the association and make it to Reno for the reunion. You'll be able to meet a lot of helo crewmen, and you might even run into some guys you went through boot camp with.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

I can hear it already..
I can hear you guys laughing like hel$ but I do not do good on anything that is elivated more than 5 foot off the ground.

going to Reno would require me to fly on a very long flight.

not happening on my end.

I will be more than happy to drive there if I hit the lottery or drive somewhere closer but just can't dig up the ole guts to get on that flight.

I was a ground grunt and you were a air grunt.
big difference.

hope you understand.

[beddoe]

Pat, I added your thoughtful comments to the "Free Fire Zone" section of our website, reserved for comments such as yours..

http://www.popasmoke.com/freefire.html

Thank you again for taking the time to send your thoughts to the POPASMOKE Marines.

[bunniemccosar]

I can hear it already..
I can hear you guys laughing like hel$ but I do not do good on anything that is elivated more than 5 foot off the ground.

going to Reno would require me to fly on a very long flight.

not happening on my end.

I will be more than happy to drive there if I hit the lottery or drive somewhere closer but just can't dig up the ole guts to get on that flight.

I was a ground grunt and you were a air grunt.
big difference.

hope you understand.

Don't be ashamed of being a Marine GRUNT. It now has became a great title to have. If it wasn't for our favorite GRUNTs, there would be no need for the remainder of the Marine Corps. - We are all brothers no matter what your main function is. We would come if we were able, - sometimes higher authority would say "hold on". Most likely, many crewmembers would know what they were going to fly into and go puke it all up, put on their flight equipment, climb into their aircraft, and fly off into the battle. The Letters M-A-R-I-N-E-S painted on the side of the aircraft would let you know that our Grunts were not alone in the battle. Semper Fi brother.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

..what I was saying was that I hated flying..

I never minded being a grunt at all.

sorry, I must not have gotten my wording screwed up.

and Beddoe,

do appreciate your moving my post over there.

I'll have to go check it out.

PB

[bonehead]

We in the chopper community have only one purpose in life and that's to support the "Marine Grunt" on the ground. No matter what it takes, we'll be there.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

I always wondered..

is it true that your chances of surviving a chopper crash are much better than an airplane crash?

I was under the impression that if the engine dies the chopper props are still spinning so as to slow the crash down as long as the chopper is going straight down bottom first.

is that so or is that a myth?

Next, I wanted to let you guys know that when we were picked out in the bush or off a mountain top for regular evacuation or an emergency situation I know for a fact that they guys you picked up along with myself felt very safe the second we were pulling up and away from the areas we were leaving from.

this all may sound like hogwash to you guys but you guys were the most appreciated things in nam aside from mail and chocolate chip cookie crumbs sent from home.

The cookies all started out good but by the time they reached us they were nothing but smashed crumbs.

Never once did I witness a chopper going down in a crash..
Seen em smoking like hell looking like they were going to crash but somehow just kept on flying away from me till they were finally out of site.

I can remember a time when we were on top of some terrible hill I call 'death hill' to this day because of the number of marines we lost on patrol off this hill.

We were sent there to look for underground hospitals that were supposed to be in that area. Only thing was there was only one way off this stupid hill.

3 sides of the hill were shear rock ledge almost straight down.

1 path was all we had to descend on our patrols when looking for the hospitals.

Everytime we left out on a patrol we got ambushed and lost a couple 3 guys.. EVERY SINGLE TIME OUT.

So after about a week of this crap somebody in the higher ups must have said the heck with it.. and scheduled us to be picked up.

Only problem was it was monsoon and the cloud cover was screwing things up for you guys. Guess you couldn't see enough of the land below to judge a safe landing or something but it took 4 days of multiple attempts daily for you to finally touch down and get us out of that he#$ hole.

We were getting hit at night with occasional chicom grenades and shot at intermittently with ak 47's.

At first we figured they were just trying to keep us from going on patrols and felt they wouldn't bother hittn us if we just stayed on top of the mountain and stopped patroling but not so..

in the middle of the night / pouring asS raing these little (beepers) would climb right up the side of the rock ledege and hit us with chicom grenades when we'd least expect it.

We couldn't figure out how in the heck they were able to climb up these shear rock / straight down cliffs / but amazingly they did it.

so finally, on the 4th or 5th day we heard your choppers above yet again.

as with the other days they were so close I felt like I could reach up and touch one of em..

The clouds were so thick and rain dropping heavy again so we all figured, NOPE / ain't nobody going to attempt a landing in this kinda stuff and figured we'd be hearing the beautiful sound of your engines drifting farther and farther away yet again but that didn't happen this time.

not sure if you guys were told not to come back without us or what.. we have no clue cuz like I said in an earlier post, we never did get to talk to you guys. You were just the silient (martians from out of space) look alikes all dressed in your fancy kick butt looking uniforms with wires, headsets and mics attached all over the place, totally focused on precisely what you had to do at any given moment.

so next thing we knew we just couldn't believe it..

down thru this almost 0% visability comes the legs first then the bottom of a huey! There was only room for one at a time so this guy just about touches down and a heap load of guys dive into the chopper and off he goes..

2 seconds later another one drops down / makes his pick and screws.

the next one drops down thru the muck and as soon as he does the door gunner starts shootn like a mother just above our heads into the surrounding hill side while at the same time he's trying to motion to me to look where he's pointing, so I spin around and see a what appears to be a couple 3 gooks with AK's not far away but actually running towards our position looking like they're wanting to get close enough to actually take down the chopper so I slap this guy's arm who was on my right and spin him around and we open up on these 3 nut head gooks with balls as big as basket balls or all drugged up, I have no clue but there they were doing their thing at least for a second anyway..

We wasted em, jumped on the chopper and took off. I really don't know what happened to the rest of the guys that were on that hill after we left because there were only about 10 left when I took off and never saw any of them return back at the base that day.

The USMC was always picking me up from one location and dropping me somewhere new all the time so I figured they must have needed those guys to go elsewhere. One was a radio guy, one was a LT. and I the rest were either Sgts. or below..

We were lifted out tons of times in situations like this during my time in nam which is why you see me repeating myself over and over again here at the forum about how much you guys were appreciated.

..just can't thank yas enough!

later,
Pat Bonanno USMC

[Dale A Riley]

they call this popasmoke - but I remember more than a few times when whatever hilltop we wanted was in the clouds and we would circle looking for a flare. The trick then was to try and hold that spot and drop in, talk about eye strain and pucker factor. But I think one of the hairest times I remember was in the rain when we stayed below cloud cover and raced up a narrow ass valley (it seemed in slow motion at the time) and I kept thinking a gook would drop a frag on us. When we got out of it I climbed in between the pilots and said "Did you see how close we were to the hills on both sides?" The pilot, a Lt. Draper, was pressed as far back into the armor sided seats as he could get and said "I couldn't see out side from in here" He remains my favorite of favorites.

[timothy]

Pat when the engines fail and you have enough altitude the helicopter can autorotate. Without altitude and failed engines you drop like a rock.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

makes sense to me..

I can understand what you're saying with altitude the blades may spin to slow down that sudden stop at the bottom.

Thanks for answering my question.

[timothy]

From altitude you reverse the blade pitch (Collective down) and the air going through the blades at reverse pitch makes them windmill. Prior to striking the ground you pull up on the collective and slow your decent. It may be a harder than normal landing but it is controllable.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

That sounds interesting as heck..

wish I could have flown one of those Huey's or Cobras man they were pretty sharp looking.

next time I get a chance I am going to a museum somewhere and sit in one just to see what you guys were seeing when you were upfront.

my son in law came by my house once with a miniature remote model helicopter.

I could get it off the ground and houver for a bit but when I went to go forward I just kept ramming it into the wall.

after a few of those crashes he immediately took it away from me.

I hope my daughter divorces him now. ho ho

[timothy]

Pat I was in a CH-46 squadron, the big twin (Tandem) rotor helicopters in Nam. We pulled you guys out of a lot of $hit sandwiches too!

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

That's for sure! and well apreciated it too.

NICE Pic!
The 46's were super but kinda to big an ugly of a chopper though compared to the beuteeful looking Huey.. ho ho!

[Bob Quinter]

As far as survivability goes, everything is great as long as you have your rotors, but the world turns dark when either the main or the tail rototrs depart the scene. In tandem rotored aircraft it's one of those good night Harriets, in the main rotor - tail rotor world, life is just a little more complicated.

Getting to the hilltop zone. I recall one mission that took us a long flight west from DaNang to a radio relay type zone. Zone was completely socked in so we pulled the traditional, get close enough to the mountain to see the trees and hover up the side. Got to the top and had a devil of a time fitting the 46 into the zone. As we left the zone the man on the ground thanked us and commended us for our landing saying "That Huey had a hard time fitting into the zone the other day."

So far as beauty goes, I've flown the Frog, the UH-1s and the Snakes. Yes, the Snakes were a lot nicer to look at, but the Frog was one of those birds that only its pilots could love. And we did.

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

...well that's the thing Bob,

only those who flew them / loved them, and I hope I don't distrupt things here by preferring the design of the 'much better looking' Hueys or Cobras

[Bob Quinter]

What must be revealed here is, had you been able to see the crews, you would have realized that the 46 crews were always remarkably better looking that the other crews!

[Buck Simmons]

Hi USMC,

Jim Bell and I were flying a Cobra during a medevac for a patrol out of Ross in my first week in country in July of 70. We were between Ross and Baldy, south of the Que Sons. We were shot down on our first pass and picked up by the 46 we were covering. After we took off and I as I was breathing a sigh of relief, we went right back down to get the wounded Marine. He had a sucking chest wound and he showed me right up front why the helicopters were there. Wounded as he was, he had a big smile and thumbs up for us as he came aboard. I had 10 minutes of pucker, but that Marine, his buddies and you lived with pucker every day.

My hat's off to you all.

Semper Fi and God Bless,

Buck Simmons
Scarface 48

[USMC-69thru70-vietnam]

... the was we were just a bunch of kids all following the fearless leader who in most cases was as scared as we were.

walking accross open rice patties.. approaching tree lines from the wide open?

who ever thought of these ideas? we had no clue, but had to do as we were told.

lots of times I found the guy behind me following almost directly behind me rather than sweeping next to me in order for me to hopefully block the first sniper shot out of a tree line.

at first I was like,... what the hel#?

only later, after seeing a few guys get taking down I ended up kinda doing the same thing whenever possible.

ya just never knew when or where the first round or multiple rounds were going to come from. Usually we had no cover other than floppn down in the water behind the walk ways that were built up a bit around the periminter of the rice patties which was cool with me as long as I was close enough to one, but when ya had to run 20 to 40 feet to get to one ya usually didn't make it in time before rounds were hittn the water all around ya..

Was gung ho in the begining till I had my first confrontation then 'charge' went right out the window with John Wayne.

after the first firefight I use to cringe anytime I was rounded up for another patrol or ambush off our base camp.

was so happy to get out of that place ya just wouldn't beleive.

some guys thought they were smart when going on ambushes, by 'not' going to their designated grids at night. Instead they'd stay close to the base, as close to the wire as they could then just before morning they'd pick up and come in like they were out there all night on location.

When I found out about it I told em they were all nuts because if we started getting hit at the base during the night they would have been the first ones shot once the flares went up cuz the guys on watch wouldn't have expected them to be there and would think they were gooks close to the wire.

and ya wonder why so many marines were killed by friendly fire.

they caused it to happen to themselves..

[Bob Quinter]

The guys flying weren't much older.

[timothy]

We used to call the pilots "The Rich Kids" because back then only rich kids went to collage.

[Joe Hanner]

Sorry to break your bubble but some of us " rich kids" were dirt poor. Some of us, however, were fortunate enough to pass the college GED [ with no actual college credits ] while in boot camp [ Parris Island ], pass the flight physical and the evaluation interviews and get selected to go to flight school as a Marine Aviation Cadet [ MarCad]. In my pre-flight class at Pensacola, there were 6 MarCads- 4 of us were prior enlisted [ Fleet Marines ] and the other 2 came from college [ Paper Marines- sorry about that]. MarCads- twice the pilot at half the price-ask Marion Sturkey. Semper Fi Joe H.

[timothy]

I know Joe, most were just rich kids though. We had all the respect in the word for all of them.

[Ray Norton]

"Jim Bell and I were flying a Cobra during a medevac for a patrol out of Ross in my first week in country in July of 70. We were between Ross and Baldy, south of the Que Sons. We were shot down on our first pass and picked up by the 46 we were covering. After we took off and I as I was breathing a sigh of relief, we went right back down to get the wounded Marine. He had a sucking chest wound and he showed me right up front why the helicopters were there. Wounded as he was, he had a big smile and thumbs up for us as he came aboard. I had 10 minutes of pucker, but that Marine, his buddies and you lived with pucker every day." Buck Simmons

[FONT="Courier New"]Buck told me about this mission on the day it happened. We were in the shower at Marble in the evening. He accurately went through each and every detail. Indeed, he paid a nice compliment to the '46 pilot. I never told him that I was the 46 pilot he was referring to![/FONT]

[Buck Simmons]

Dear Ray,

Thanks for coming to get us that day. When I jumped out of the front cockpit, I stepped on a marker pointing to booby traps. Naturally, I only saw it after I crushed it and so could not tell where it pointed. We started taking fire from a tree line about 100 meters away, the same guys that got us during our pull out. We had to choose between taking fire in the open and running through an unknown booby trap. We took the third option, that being that our feet didn't touch the ground until we landed on your ramp.

Perhaps you remember how we used to smirk when the grunts would shoot out the window and then duck down behind the paper thin skin of the 46? Jim and I shot though the windows and ducked down behind that great bullet proof skin like anyone else.

I really thought we would die when you arced right down after take off to pick up the wounded guy. I don't have the courage to be a 46 driver or a grunt. I do remember the great big smile you had as wee ran to your bird. You seemed to say "look at the hot shot gun bird drivers now!".

Aren't you Smokey Norton of fame and legend? My wife, children and grandchildren and maybe my inlaws all thank you for coming to get us. May God bless you.

Buck

[Ray Norton]

"Aren't you Smokey Norton of fame and legend?"

No, I am not. Smokey was my senior as he was a flight instructor at Pensacola when I was a student. I also had the honor of serving with him after my 'nam tour at MCAS Kaneohe.

We could be distant cousins, as my family tree dates back to John Norton who landed in Connecticut in 1620.

Finally, I am certainly not of "fame and legend!" I just did my job.

[R.T.Foster]

We Huey people are very proud of our bird. We are very aware of who ''went in''. I hope we covered you well. you 46 guys. you , as well as the grunts were our top concern. We were flying medivac one time and blew an engine and got a ride back to Marbel with you ( and a wounded) Thank you. ( the 53 that brought my bird back dumped it at the hanger too high up and drove the skids through the belly!!!!!) You ''Phrog'' guys are tough and respected. TV-4 ''Pied piper'' Huey Guns

[timothy]

We loved the skid kids too, you covered us good!

[Tom Knowles]

[SIZE="4"][/SIZE]Thanks for all the adulation and kindness you give to us.

From the Huey and Cobra squadren members who had to spend all their time down on SKID ROW.

Tom Knowles

[dweathers]

"Skid Row" wasn't bad for the Cherry Dueces or HML-167 !!! Pour me another 4 ozs of Scotch--and another 2 ozs for a chaser !! C U in Reno !!
Drippy

[timothy]

Yep we'll all meet in Reno!

[george mckee]

too bad those praising the huey and 46 didn't get a chance to fly a real helicopter. i flew in a huey from montgomery, al to cherry point once. i promised god that if i lived through it, i wouldn't ever do it again. long live the '34. took a lickin and kept on tickin.

[timothy]

George the 34 with PT-6 turbine engines kick a$$! I rode in the civilian version with Carson Helicopter in Pa.

[Tom Knowles]

George McKee

I did fly a real helicopter-- the H34D. My first squadron was HMM-161 in '66 and I selected to remain in country to fly with VMO-2. From a pilots point of view and MANY crew--the UH-1E was the best thing going. nuf said.

Tom Knowles

[george mckee]

and another one is brainwashed. i agree the s-58t can sure hack the load. and certainly everything after the hu-1c was a vast improvement in maintence per hour flown and in capabilities. i was graveyard maint foreman at lowe field ft rucker late sixties and early 70's and it was a snap to maintain the 90% availability required of the contract with the huey. i am just partial to the smooth flight of the 'ole '34. served with hmm-365 '64-'65 with over 180 missions in the 'ole dog.

[cnowotny]

Dear Ray,

Thanks for coming to get us that day. When I jumped out of the front cockpit, I stepped on a marker pointing to booby traps. Naturally, I only saw it after I crushed it and so could not tell where it pointed. We started taking fire from a tree line about 100 meters away, the same guys that got us during our pull out. We had to choose between taking fire in the open and running through an unknown booby trap. We took the third option, that being that our feet didn't touch the ground until we landed on your ramp.

Perhaps you remember how we used to smirk when the grunts would shoot out the window and then duck down behind the paper thin skin of the 46? Jim and I shot though the windows and ducked down behind that great bullet proof skin like anyone else.

I really thought we would die when you arced right down after take off to pick up the wounded guy. I don't have the courage to be a 46 driver or a grunt. I do remember the great big smile you had as wee ran to your bird. You seemed to say "look at the hot shot gun bird drivers now!".

Aren't you Smokey Norton of fame and legend? My wife, children and grandchildren and maybe my inlaws all thank you for coming to get us. May God bless you.

Buck

Windows? At least in a CH-46A, it wasn't the window's or port holes I fretted about; it was the stub wings that contained all fuel that seemed to attract the outgoing fire of the recon Marines who were demanding a little pay back activity when leaving a hotly contested extraction zone.

Window's? You must be referring to the clear Plexiglas coverings that the stateside birds had installed in them at the Boeing plant. Those round pieces of clear plastic were all removed by one means or another soon after reaching d'nam. I suppose it may have been the extra weight and less strain on the T-58's, or maybe the reflection of sun to ground alerting NVA on the ground to our coming that they were removed but really; window's?

Their removal was just another thing that didn’t need spit shinned and thusly saved the glass cleaner for the hacks who actually thought they needed to see where they were going. Also, one more reason to 86 those "winders" was that they made fine bullet bouncers when fired on from within. Little things like that made the rest of the crew a little uneasy as one might expect.

Windows? didn't have no stinking winde'rs in my bird. They only served to block the clean phosphorous, cordite and napalm scented air that would clear out the redolent stink of the leaking hydraulics from the cabin as well as the occasional rancid nuoc mam sauce that some hapless but happy refugee NVA prisoner spilled on the decks.

Those open ports kept the bird smelling just like ...Wild Hickory Nuts!

One of my lighter stories and somewhat happy memories was while taking a break from Shinning Brass missions and while in Danang on a Milk Run, fully expecting to haul some famous USO people north for a Christmas Show at 3rd Mar Div [Heard it was gonna be Bob Hope and maybe Ann Margaret? One could only hope!] and having that mission scrubbed, [DARN the Luck!] we flew south to An Hoa to transport some grunts to Danang. I heard that they may be going home for Christmas. That softened the blow of not seeing Ann Margaret, Bob Hope or whom ever the USO folks were.

After picking up the full load of "grunts" from An Hoa nigh on Christmas of '67 and putting up with all of the usual loving and brotherly snide remarks they all made about "Air dales, swinging with the Wing and living on Easy Street pls some not too kind words describing kitty cats etc" , we departed for Danang in a flight of the usual division of two birds. I was in the trailing chopper. We were hauling fast, balls to the wall as many knots as we could muster and we were flying low, bobbing and weaving as we crisscrossed over the open flat paddy country. I was standing at my usual gun station, standing tall.crouched behind my 50 rocking back and forth, taking full advantage of the thick chest plate from a bullet bouncer I had wedged in my gun tub for protection [Of my Huevos Ranchero's] as we banked hard port and hard starboard so as to keep my 50 pointed in the general direction of the ground. The Horizon would appear then fly upwards then sink down again and I'd get a full view of the rice paddy’s and vill's below then we'd rise again to view the sky and the horizon. I'd hang on the spade grips of my 50 keeping watch, ready to push the Iron butterfly unleashing a hail of APIT destruction to anything in the way, all the while depressing the muzzle toward the earth until the gun stops prohibited the weapon's muzzle from shooting through the blades {Christmas Story hadn't been written yet and it was an attempt to keep us from shooting our eyes and ass's up.] as we went hard port. Then we'd rock or roll back starboard again as I's start depressing my muzzle toward the paddy’s until we again swung back to port. This drew a little good natured hazing from the troops on board until, [SIZE="5"] Craaaaaaaaaaack! [/SIZE] A bullet penetrated the deck mid way between the cabin and station 410. Later I discovered that t actually came up through the heavily armored Budweiser can tin floor, hit the rail and didn't penetrate the overhead. But to my amusement and the grunts chagrin, they all did what they were trained to do. They all, in unison, simultaneously as if choreographed, hit the deck belly down and all tried to crawl in or underneath their helmets. It was early evening and it was just a tad dark in the cabin but when I looked back over my right shoulder, all I saw were about 16 bright unblinking eye lights located slightly over the noses of those Marines laying on their belly's proned out on the belly of my bird. I couldn't return fire because I didn't see from where it came and below were many civilians and some V.C. water boo finishing up their daily rice growing tasks. I did manage a great big smile and thought out loud as I observed those Mud Marines looking to me for...maybe guidance maybe some glimmer of hope or what do we do now. If this were the usual recon mission, guns would be blazing from all the open ports and even some not so open. I’d be having a cow wondering what damage my bird was taking from friendly fire, but no, not a sound. “It was quiet…, too quiet” as they say in the movies. I thought out loudly as I smiled looking back at the sprawling melange of USMC, my brother Marines spread out flat on the deck…

''Hey wise ass's that is the last place you'll find me in a 46 taking fire from the ground, lying on the deck in the back of the plane; Man...ya know, Charlie don’t lead!"

As it were, no one was injured that day, no one died,..., well maybe some grunt egos went down the piss tube but of course, that didn’t mean a dang thing.

I hope they all got home safely and even better, I got to have a fine Christmas back at Phu Bai with my brother Air Dales and Swinging Wing mates of HMM 164.

Semper Fi to all

[Joe Reed]

Windows? didn't have no stinking winde'rs in my bird

Me 'neither, not usually. Whenever one crashed and had a remaining window or two, I'd go get them and hide 'em. Come monsoon season they were worth their weight in beenie weenies!! WE were GLAD to have 'em then. Then we would school the recon teams and grunts NOT to lean back so far as to poke something through them, but, alas, it wasn't to be.....

[cnowotny]

Me 'neither, not usually. Whenever one crashed and had a remaining window or two, I'd go get them and hide 'em. Come monsoon season they were worth their weight in beenie weenies!! WE were GLAD to have 'em then. Then we would school the recon teams and grunts NOT to lean back so far as to poke something through them, but, alas, it wasn't to be.....

joe,

I just saw your post on a CH-46 site re: placement of the guns on the starboard side port behind the front hatch. You were absolutely right. No body ever mounted a M-60 or a Ma Duce in the front starboard hatch. They were probably thinking of the UH 34. Anyway that was the best place to test out unauthorized/confiscated weapons borrowed from Charlie. IE, M-79's, Thompson's and of course the infamous rumored M-67 grenade lodged in a mason "fuel" jar????

Every photo i have of my bird shows that it had no porthole or winder coverings in d'nam. The only one with windows is when she first came to d'nam and that was taken by Mr. Montoya prior to my arrival in June of '67.

I was just jesting and writing in my nom de plume mode of Sgt. Justin A. Jolknow when I was taking jabs at the "Windows" comment... Windows wasn't even invented by Bill Gates until '95.

S.F.

Chuck aka Justin A.Jolknow

[Jim Wilkening]

Aren't you Smokey Norton of fame and legend? My wife, children and grandchildren and maybe my inlaws all thank you for coming to get us. May God bless you.

Buck

Capt. "Smokey Norton" was a Cobra Pilot after he flew 34's.

[John Ace Hunt]

Jim, didn't you hear, the only Bird in 'Nam, was the huey. The huey saved them all. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.