As told to Michael H Pazeian.
First of two parts.
I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. After I graduated from high school in 1961, I went to the University of Miami in Florida. After a year, I quit, and went to work for Western Electric to save money, then went back to school. In the summer of 1966, the county draft board in Ohio drafted me. I was told if I was drafted I would be in the infantry and go to Vietnam. If I joined, I could pick what I wanted to do.
I grew up in Dayton next to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. I always wanted to be a pilot. The Army had a Warrant Officer rank which allowed you to fly without a college degree. The Army recruiter told me it was for helicopters.
I took the basic entrance exam which then included a GT section for IQ. Minimum score of 124 was needed for flight school. I got it. Over the next few weeks I did testing in Cincinnati, Ohio. First a physical, then an 8-hour rotary-wing test, and finally a Class 2 physical. The head doctor, a Lt. Colonel passed me. I asked for and was given Sept. 30 to report.
I was taken to the Cincinnati airport and flown to New Orleans, then to Ft. Polk, Louisiana for my basic training. I did normal, 8-week regular Army basic training. I was part of a 250-man unit. Most of the guys were from the south, only five of us were going to flight school. Half way through basic, the four of us left doing Warrant Officer Candidate Flight school were told to report to the base hospital to do our Class 1 physical. Three of us passed, one was found to have a heart murmur. We finished basic. We were promoted to Spec 5 in the Transportation Corps. We were given extra money for the clothes and things we would need at Warrant Officers Candidate Flight school. We got the WOC guide to prepare us for flight school.
After a short leave at home, I reported back on Jan. 5, 1967. This was flight school at Ft. Wolters, Tx., but the first month was all ground school: pre-flight (we never saw an airplane), map reading, military bearings, military justice, aerodynamics, plus ungodly harassment. Push-ups for anything and everything. Inspections for everything. We used Q-tips to clean our belt buckles. Pre-flight was a month long. Lots of guys quit, some who were prior service.
If you made it, you went up the hill where the flight barracks were. Each flight group was given a number and color. More harassment, it doubled. Crazy stuff, if you had more than 15 demerits a week – no pass. Demerits were earned by the entire barracks. The group could earn 70 demerits on Monday. So, on the weekend, we were all on base doing drills. One week we flew in the morning, then had class in the afternoon. The next week was opposite. We would double time everywhere. We had a mandatory study hall for two hours in the evening.
In pre-solo, learning to fly, each flight instructor had three Warrant Officer Candidates. We had six hours of flight time to solo in a helicopter. My primary Trainer was the Hiller, OH-23 Raven.
At the end of six hours, the Army tells you about everything that can go wrong, while you are learning to fly straight and level. Day one we started with all kinds of flight failures. My instructor told me to land next to the tower, he had to pee. Next, I hear on the headphones my call sign, “You are cleared to solo.” Making the radio calls and flying. You have a max of 10 hours with three different instructors to solo – if you do not, you are washed out. I soloed at six hours, at my first shot. On the way back to the field the bus stopped at a Holiday Inn and everyone who soloed was thrown into the pool. It was January 1967 in west Texas; we broke ice on the way into the pool.
Flight instruction is next with military pilots. Each day one hour of solo time and one hour of instruction flight time. During this primary stage we get more on various kinds of failures during flight. Then the advance stage. Much more flying and more difficult maneuvers. There are three grades: ground test, flight test, and military bearing. Failure of any one can get you kicked out. Out of 54 that started, only 19 of us made it thru the entire program and received our wings.
We all packed up our stuff and were transferred to Ft. Rucker, Alabama, the Army Aviation Center. I had about 115 flight hours. The first 50 hours there were all instruments. We never saw the ground. Meaning, the first 25 hours was how to fly the helicopter on instruments alone. You have a blindfold on, they cover the outside and you must fly completely on instruments, take offs, landings, hovering, everything. The other 25 hours is navigation with instruments. Also, 10-15 hours in a link trainer.
Plus, just flying the helicopter with instruments. The next 25 hours we transitioned into the Huey, The Bell UH-1 Iroquois. (All Army aircraft both fixed and rotary wing have Native American names.) We soloed in the Huey and learned to fly in formation and flight characteristics of the UH-1.
Next was Survival, Escape and Evasion Training in the Alabama woods. We had to survive off the land while being attacked and evading capture. Those captured were taken to a simulated prisoner of war camp. It was very hard on us, some did not make it thru. Immediately after, they took us to a different barracks, and gave us an opportunity to take a cold-water shower. We were all sitting in a room when a Chaplain came in. He sat next to another guy, gave him an aspirin and talked to him. The Chaplain asked him a bunch of personal questions getting information from the soldier. Then, the Chaplain stood up facing the guy and took off his collar exposing red stars. It was a test and the guy failed the exercise and had to retake the exercise again.
Our families were invited to the graduation ceremonies on December 15, 1967. I made it. We got our Warrant Officers bars, then our flight wings. That night we had a formal dance in Army Dress Blues Uniform. Most guys were given a 30 day leave before being shipped to Vietnam
It was January 1968. Two of us actually went to Ft. Knox, Kentucky first. We were told to gather all the gear needed, got all our shots at the base hospital because we were going to Vietnam in less than a week.
On January 31, 1968 we arrived. I was assigned to the 269th Combat Aviation Battalion, the 116th Assault Helicopter Company – the Hornets, in Cu Chi. I was almost 25 yrs. old, one of the oldest guys. I was shown around, where my hooch (living quarters) was and got all my gear. At 7 p.m., I was introduced to the rest of the company at our briefing.
We were stationed in the middle of all the worse parts of South Vietnam during 1968. The next day I had my standardization flight for about 1 ½ hours. I was assigned a flight for the next day, although I did not ever know where I was in the country.
My first lift (six soldiers) was part of 10 Huey’s taking 60 American soldiers into an area west of Saigon to prevent approximately 260 North Vietnamese trying to escape into Cambodia during Tet offensive. Crew of four, I am the pilot. We were scheduled to make three lifts each. As we took off from the first lift at the LZ (landing zone) we took an RPG to the mast. A Rocket propelled grenade hit the rotor wash and knocked us down, and we went down. My first 28 minutes of flight and I am shot down. We called in and were told to stay put. And I only had a .38 pistol. An air strike and artillery strike came in before they came to pick us up. We were welcomed back and celebrated for our baptism under fire.
Five days later, we are going into Dau Tieng, the home of the original French Michelin Rubber Plantation. The 25th infantry had a base camp there. Our assignment was to go in and pick the infantry up for a combat assault. The area was tall elephant grass, 8 to 10 feet high. We came in committed to land, others were being told to wave-off (not to land), to go around.
There is just so many places in the jungle where you can land 10 helicopters, so the NVA / Viet Cong knew our LZ. They had put bamboo polls up with an explosive on it with a palm prong on it. As we came in to land, the rotor wash blew the palm away and set off the explosive.
The explosion blew the tail rotor off, we did 360s and rolled up into a ball as we crashed. Been in country six days and I was shot down twice.
