APR 1: Flew 01+8 hrs today. CA. A short one this morning, down the river near the coast. Was no big thing. The lifts go pretty well as a rule. I noticed even Sunday's was smooth. Got a letter from my aunt. Guess they got a new car. Didn't mention what color, but I'd bet it is a Ford. Also got a few packages from my Aunt Rin. Guess I'd best write her and say thanks. I'm thinking about a new ride myself. Bill Fry is telling me about a new mission. Came bouncing into the hootch this afternoon talking about the "Fire Fly." The plan is to mount a bunch of C-130 landing lights, high powered, on the ship. Mount a fifty caliber machine gun in there, too. Put two gun ships behind and above you. Go out at night and cruise the country side looking for Charles. Gun ships run with no lights, we run the trails, canals and tree lines with the lights and our gunners applying a little recon by fire. When Charles makes his move, we'll get out of the way and let the guns move in. I sat on the bunk watching Bill bounce around the hootch and listening to him rave about how this was a great way to get out of the lift flying and all that nonsense. I figure he is plumb nuts. Go out and stir them up until they let you know where they are by shooting at you? Right. Sounds completely rational to me. Going out early in the morning, so best hit the rack.
APR 2: Flew 05+8 hrs today. Flew with Burch again today. Beginning to think he just might be that way all the time. Made what I considered to be a friendly suggestion to him. Must have hit a nerve. He turned to me and said, "Me AC, you pilot." I let it slide. Did all the little random tasks he asked of me - ran the radios, S.O.I., map, all of it. Even when it was my leg to fly. Got in this evening, shut down, took care of the log book, thanked the crew chief and gunner for their help, turned to Burch and said "Me pilot, you idiot." He didn't seem to want to pursue it. Think it disappointed the crew.
APR 3: Flew 01+2 hrs. Fire fly. Bill and I left Vinh Long at 0130 hrs. Climbed out, with the two gun ships, to the northeast. Hit clouds at 600 feet, called Delta Center, they advised the cloud cover was scattered. We elected to get on top and maybe range out a little more - find an opening sooner or later, we figured. Broke out of the clouds at around 3200 feet. As far as we could see it was clouds. Took a little flight on north, never did discover the 'scattered' as advertised by Delta Center. Since we'd entered the clouds at six hundred feet, I really didn't want to let down through them and play with Charles at such a low altitude, so we decided to come on back in. Had a Company meeting early this afternoon, out by the maintenance hanger. Finally got all the stuff that was captured last Sunday drug in. A rather large pile. Also reviewed the results of the battle. We lost four American lives, had 12 wounded. ARVN had 24 killed, 69 wounded. Viet Cong had 184 killed - plus an estimated 100 killed that were carried away - (whatever that means. If the Cong had the nerve to carry out 100 dead while surrounded by most of an ARVN Division, it should tell us something). 2 VC were captured. We lost one M-1 rifle and one .45 caliber pistol. The pistol belonged to Jon Myhre. That is how the American advisor on the scene found Jon the other night. Jon says he heard Vietnamese voices around ten or eleven. He decided all he could do was play dead, as he didn't know if they were ARVN or Cong. The voices drew nearer and were soon standing next to him. Someone took his wallet, his watch, and was trying to get his wedding ring off. Jon said that is when he figured to hell with it. He was laying on his stomach with his pistol under his chest. Rolled enough to get the gun out, put a round in his robber's head. Turned out it was a member of the 9th ARVN Infantry Division. By that time things had settled down and the American advisor that was, fortunately, on the scene came running over to see what the shooting was about. He kept the thugs from shooting Jon and got him a helicopter ride home. I'd say it was a pistol well lost. Had a huge pile of stuff out there - a couple of truck loads, maybe a little more. Said a little over 100,000 pounds of bombs were dropped on that tree line, including 28,000 pounds of napalm. Over 100 aircraft took part, flying nearly 1,200 sorties. Fired 360,000 plus rounds of 7.62 ammunition. Quite the morning. Myhre left for Tokyo today. Captain Hillegas isn't too optimistic about Jon's future. I knew Hillegas in the CAV. He was our Battalion Flight Surgeon up there. Gave me a flight physical when I first got here. A nice guy, and I'd say an excellent doctor.
APR 4: 01+8 hrs today. Fire Fly. Fry again. Northwest of My Tho. Left Vinh Long at 0230 hrs, had a pretty good night. Arrived at the Sector we were assigned to work without incident and began working a tree line which ran along the banks of a canal. On the first pass didn't really see anything, same on the second stretch. I shut the lights off so we could move elsewhere. Just as I did, the crew chief said he thought he saw a group duck under some trees. Came back around, hit the lights again, and the chief was right. They started shooting at us, the chief and gunner started shooting at them, and the guns behind us started shooting everything. I came to my senses, climbed to altitude according to plan, and let the guns take over. Had quite a little battle for a few minutes. We circled around, set up so the gunner could add some fire. Gun ships were taking some heavy automatic weapons fire. Every time they'd finish their gun run and break, they'd pick up more fire in that direction. Worm Petty was flying the lead gun, having a ball. After a few minutes the cong quit shooting. We fired the general area up a little more and went back on the hunt elsewhere. Got a call from Base Whiskey a few minutes later. They had spotted a camouflaged sampan on the river, asked us to come over and see if we could do anything with them. Got over there, looked around with the lights, but didn't see him. Did stir up a little more action, but not as fun as the first one. The number two gun ship's cargo door was blown off during that exchange. Hit the horizontal stabilizer, dinged up the skin over the fuel cell, hit the tail rotor as it went by, but luckily it didn't do any major damage. We headed for Vinh Long, ran into a little weather a few miles out. I got a little more instrument time. Fact is, I flew instruments all the way in. Let down out of it, broke out around 2100 feet, just northeast of the base. Was so smooth up there I do believe some of the majors could have flown in it. I'd like to fly this mission all the time.
APR 5: No flight today. Lay around in the sun, played some tennis with Fry. Sure was nice. Went over to our all tile showers and stood under the hot water for a long time. Got a package from home. Had my Levi's in it. Didn't take long to get here at all. Fastest package I've ever received over here. Getting close to the rainy season now, is real hot and humid, but getting a good tan. If you're flying it is cool enough to be comfortable. I do hate to be on the ground for very long. That cockpit is one big greenhouse. Gets extremely hot in a hurry. Up around 130 - 140 degrees. It feels like a lot more with all the gear on. Got a letter from Debie Walz today. First time I've heard from her in a long time. Been even longer since I've seen her. About seven years is all. But always good to hear from good lookin' women.
APR 6: Flew 05+7 hrs today. CAs. Flew with Ron Cone. Wasn't any big thing. Put them in and take them out. Another tough six hour day for the ARVNS. Sick. Went to Saigon in between the lifts. Mail run. Got by the PX, bought a movie projector. A real good Kodak. $159.00 worth. Picked the "campers" up about 100 meters away from where we put them in this morning, dumped them off at Vinh Long, then I went for another little ride, so I spent more time in the air today than the ARVNs did in the LZ area. And they're fighting for their freedom? Hooked up my new movie projector this evening. Got settled in to show the boys here what the real war is like up north. Got a half reel of film through it and the projector broke. Got hot and started smoking. Some of the humor over that wasn't very much fun. One of the remarks was that it must be a First Cav projector - all smoke and no show - so now I'll have to put up with that for a week or so. Also have to get the projector back to the PX. I hate the humor, but I'd hate to be out $159.00 even more. That would hurt. Don't know when I'll be able to get back up there and don't dare let one of these clowns I fly with take it up there. They'd come back without it. Probably claim someone blew a bugle, the projector jumped on a horse and rode off into battle singing "Gerry Owen." There is no mercy in this compound.
APR 7: Flew 06+7 hrs today. CAs. With Kalinger. The Knights were leading the assaults today. On final into the first LZ they called taking fire. Quite a lot of it, they said. We were in the second flight, shot up the area on the way in, stayed in the LZ entirely too. long. I called the flight leader and suggested firing on the way out, too. Said that might be a good idea. No way we were going to hit the troops we were putting in. They hit the ground as soon as they got off, and I imagine they stayed right there the rest of the day. Must have done some good, as the shooting at us stopped. I'm getting to be the biggest coward in the world. Spent most of the day as C&L ship. Hauling rice and other items the ARVNs stole. There is no way you can convince me that every village in the Delta has a cache of VC rice - nothing else stashed - just rice. Today, I watched them take motors off all the boats in the village. Some days it's all the chickens or all the pigs or all the dogs. Kind of makes me think it's a grocery list the cook has sent them out with. Our little allies are amazing.
APR 9: Flew 06+7 hrs today. CAs. Another fine example of the way things are ran around here. Take the ARVN out, wrestle them off the helicopter, fly around all day recovering their loot, and then around 4:00 PM, go back and bring them in so they can be home for dinner. I have only seen them stay out over night once. Easter Sunday. God knows that hurt them. The LZs in the morning are out in the middle of rice paddies. The ground they cover in the day consists mostly of rice paddies, maybe a village. I do not know what they expect to find in those paddies. Mommason planting or pulling rice is all I ever see. Don't believe Charles spends too many daylight hours camped in wide open rice paddies with absolutely no cover or means of exit. I actually believe it is all a game. The reports indicate they went on a mission. Covered such and such objectives, captured such and such enemy rice, dogs, chickens, rice wine, boat motors, pigs and other miscellaneous enemy equipment. I fly in some of the most amazing enemy equipment: stoves, little grills, those big frying pans, and other items of critical importance to the Cong's war effort. Made the mistake of mentioning this aloud one time. Was told in no uncertain terms that it was none of my concern and to shut my mouth. I have to do so when in the larger operations, but when I'm out there on a single ship or even a two ship mission, little things are done that sort of slow up the ARVNs shopping trips.
APR 12: No flight today. Dick Luna had an engine failure coming out of Can Tho and balled one up today. He isn't hurt real badly but the ARVN copilot has a broken back, at least that is what I hear. Sure hate to see it happen to Dick. He's a real good guy. Said he pulled all his pitch to keep from going through a Vietnamese house that sets just off the end of the runway. He didn't have anything left to cushion the ship in on, so it fell the last twenty feet or so. Jammed his knees into the instrument panel and hurt his back some. Learned Tom Goddard has been killed. He was in my flight class. Flew into fog.