by Lew Jennings
“I told all three of them that I had a really bad feeling about the mission this morning and feared someone was not going to survive the day. Captain Courtney slapped me on the shoulder and said not to worry, it’s just a routine extraction. Maybe so, I replied, but I still have a strange feeling.”
“Little did I know,” Don recalls, “that a few short hours later, my helicopter 67-17663 would crash into the mountainous jungle and one of the LRRP Rangers would die.”
“We departed Eagle with two helicopters to do the extraction, mine and Rosie’s (crew chief John Rosenback). We would extract three of the LRRP team members with my helicopter and Rosie’s would extract the other three. However, before we reached the pick-up point, our commanding officer (CO) Tom Curtin, decided only one helicopter, mine, would be used to extract all six members of the team.”
“When we arrived at the landing zone, it appeared to be a very tight mountainside LZ with no place to land. We would have to use a rope ladder to do the extraction as Captain Courtney maneuvered us in close and would come to a hover above the pick-up point.”
“I left my position manning one of our two M-60 machine guns and dropped the rope ladder over the left side to the ground below, then assumed my position back at the machine gun. The LRRP team was instructed to allow only one man at a time on the rope ladder as it was hot, high and we might not be able to carry the full team at one time. The first Ranger climbed the ladder and scrambled aboard. A second Ranger was already on the ladder and he got aboard too. Then a third started climbing the ladder and a fourth man got on the ladder too, while the third one was still only half way up. Uh oh.”
“I could hear the engine and transmission starting to whine as the Huey struggled to handle the load, with two Rangers aboard and two still on the ladder. Old 663 then started oscillating violently. It was losing power and the rotor blades started slowing. We were going down and the only thing I could do was hang on and pray.”
“The helicopter started to corkscrew down as the Pilots lost tail rotor control. Dirt, grass and tree limbs were flying all around us as the rotor blades cut into everything in their path.”
“There is a seat support post attached between the cargo deck and the roof and I was holding on to it with a death grip. I was being thrown from my seat out and into the machine gun on its pivot mount, then back into and against the transmission bulkhead, never letting go of that seat support while we spun toward the ground.”
“We crashed to the ground and came to rest with the Huey on its right side and the nose high pointed uphill. The seat post I was holding on to had broken free from the floor and ceiling, still in my hands. Larry was looking at me and yelling my name. My first thought was, so this is what it feels like to die.”
“As my brain cleared and Larry came into focus I could hear what he was trying to tell me. One of the LRRPs was trapped under a rotor blade and we needed to help him. As I clambered out, it only took one look to see he was beyond need of our help. He had been hit in the head by the rotor blade and was obviously dead. It was a sight I would remember a thousand nights or more over the next 48 years.”
“We gathered at the front of the helicopter for a head count to see how many of us were left. That’s when I realized I didn’t have my M-16 rifle or M-79 grenade launcher. I scrambled up and over the helicopter to find my weapons and that’s when I saw an NVA soldier down the mountainside. He jumped for cover and disappeared at the same time I found my M-16 and M-79. I also found a PRC-25 portable radio to call for help and my Instamatic camera that I used to take some pictures of the wreckage before we were extracted.”
“Our CO, Major Curtin, arrived high overhead in his C&C bird. He was coordinating our rescue and called down asking me to check 663 over to see if it could be lifted out. I examined the chopper from top to bottom and discovered the transmission had broken loose from its mounts. Old 663 would never be leaving this mountain.”
“She was a great helicopter and she was mine. A few Pilots had flown her, a few door gunners had protected her, but I was the only crew chief ever assigned to her. I felt like I had lost my best friend.”
“We waited to be extracted with the remaining crew members and Rangers. The dead Ranger was extracted first by medevac helicopter. The rest of us would wait our turn and be extracted by rope ladder, only three at a time.”
“I volunteered to go last. The first three were out and it seemed like hours before a Huey returned to take the rest of us. I was standing on top of Old 663 and grabbed the rope ladder. I climbed up and at the top was greeted by my dear friend and fellow crew chief John ‘Rosie’ Rosenback as his hand reached for mine.”
“Once inside and looking down at the wreckage, the tears started flowing. I couldn’t stop crying as the others climbed aboard. Rosie slapped me on the back and gave me a thumbs-up signaling, everything’s going to be okay.”
Don Foster continues; “After we were all clear of the crash site, Cobra gunships came in and put Old 663 to rest with rockets through and through. She was a part of history now. I was assigned a new aircraft, Triple Nickel, that would become my second-best friend. To this day, I still have an empty feeling about that fateful day when we lost courageous Ranger Sergeant Keith Hammond and the loss of a good friend, 67-17663. May they rest in peace.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HAMBURGER HILL
Needless to say, it was with much trepidation that Mike and I continued operations in the A Shau over the next few days following Speed’s crash.
With our Scouts, we reconned the valley and adjacent ridgelines and supported A Company, 3/187th “Rakkasans”, that had replaced our Blues from 2/17 Cav to build out Firebase Airborne.
Artillery was helicoptered into the firebase by huge CH-47 Chinooks to provide support anywhere within 20 miles. We would need it and much more over the coming days.
We had encountered sporadic enemy activity and called in Air Force F-4 fighter jets to destroy some hooches we found on a jungle covered ridgeline near Hill 937 and Tiger Mountain.
One of our teams engaged a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun emplacement in the western hills and killed the crew. Major Curtin wanted to extract the enemy anti-aircraft machine gun and take it back to Squadron Headquarters. Probably not a good idea but what the hell, as the saying goes; "If you ain't Cav, you ain't shit!"
Eddy Joiner flew his Scout bird in low to make sure all the bad guys were dead and then hovered over the gun to hoist it out with a line and grappling hook. Their plan was to have his Observer, Sergeant Hyden, hook on to it, fly it a few kilometers away, then land and transfer it to the Boss’s Huey.
Mike Ryan in his Scout bird and Don McGurk in a Cobra came in to provide cover for Joiner.
Just as Joiner and Hyden had the anti-aircraft gun hooked and started to lift it out, Ryan spied an arm come out of a nearby spider hole with an automatic rifle. The NVA soldier unleashed a burst of fire and Joiner’s bird took several hits in the engine and transmission area. They just had time to drop the line, hover over to a grassy area and settle onto the ground in one piece as the aircraft lost power.
Ryan killed the soldier in the spider hole with a burst from his M-134 minigun, the electric Gatling gun we had mounted on all the Scout birds for self-protection, and then went over to check on Joiner and Hyden. Neither of them were wounded, however their Loach was in deep elephant grass and there was nowhere to land and pick them up.
With Ryan circling low overhead in his Loach, McGurk providing gun cover with his Cobra and the Boss standing by to help out in his Huey, Joiner and Hyden were frantically removing their gear out of the downed aircraft and piling it on top, including their personal weapons, grenades and any sensitive materials. They didn’t know if more bad guys might emerge from more hiding places at any moment.
With so little room around the downed aircraft, Major Curtin couldn’t get in with his Huey and directed Ryan to try and rescue them with his little Scout bird. The OH-6 Loach has just enough room for t
wo people to squeeze in the back, however now with two guys up front, plus their minigun system, plus Joiner and Hyden, the aircraft would be severely overloaded and possibly unable to fly out of there.
Ryan zoomed in low, came to a quick stop over the downed bird and then very gently rested the tips of his landing gear on top of the rotor blades of the downed bird. Now with Ryan’s Loach stable, Joiner and Hyden threw their stuff in the back and climbed in.
Ryan started pulling in the power to take off. He totally maxed it out to get airborne and then plunged down the hillside to gain speed. They had to find some place to land quickly as, sure enough, his little Scout bird was overloaded and straining to stay in the air.
They made it to an old abandoned airstrip just a few minutes away in the bottom of the valley. Aloui airstrip had been built by the French back in the ‘50s. Now pock marked with bomb craters and overgrown with vegetation, the strip was not useable for fixed wing aircraft but still had some open areas sufficient to land helicopters. Ryan landed safely and Joiner and Hyden transferred to the Boss’s Huey. Mike Ryan had saved the day!
While Major Curtin came in to pick them up, he was calling back to base to get crews, riggers and aircraft to come in and sling load out the downed bird with a Huey. He didn’t want to have to destroy it in place and hoped to be able to get a team back in there to haul it out, which is what they did. The CO got called on the carpet for that escapade. It wouldn’t be the last time he got chewed out for our antics.
The rest of us continued our reconnaissance flights, calling in dozens of spot reports as we found more evidence of enemy activity; trails, footprints, bicycle tracks, fighting positions, bunkers and hooches. There was definitely a lot of enemy activity in the area.
Eddy Joiner’s Scout bird being sling-loaded home after being shot down trying to grapple hook a Chicom 12.7mm Anti-Aircraft Gun.
On the evening of 8 May, we all assembled in the mess hall for another operational brief. This one was definitely different. The place was packed and included a lot of new faces. Several map boards had been erected on easels. The Boss looked serious.
We leaped to our feet as “Attention” was called and we knew someone of high rank had entered. The Squadron Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Bill DeLoach walked in and took a seat up front accompanied by Brigadier General James Smith, the Assistant Division Commander (ADC) for the 101st Division. Known on the radio as “Hawkeye”, he seemed to be everywhere and lived up to the name.
“At Ease, Gentlemen,” someone commanded. The rest of us took our seats and the briefing started.
“Holy cow, this is really serious,” I thought.
“Gentlemen, day after tomorrow on the morning of 10 May, Operation Apache Snow will get underway to take control of the A Shau Valley.” Major Curtin began.
“Intelligence and our own reconnaissance operations indicate significant enemy presence in the valley.”
“The 101st Division intends to take control of the valley to deny the enemy any further capability to conduct combat operations from there,” he explained.
“To do that, there will be a massive air assault operation, airlifting approximately 10 Battalions of 3rd Brigade infantry, ARVN and 9th Marine forces into multiple landing zones in the valley supported by Air Force, Navy and Marine tactical air support, artillery, aerial rocket artillery and us,” he said as he paused and looked across the room to make sure he had our attention. No doubt about that!
“This may be the largest air assault operation of the Vietnam War. Pay close attention to the following briefs by Captain Dowdy and others as this has to be orchestrated to the minute and even second and failure is not an option,” he emphasized.
It quickly became obvious that a lot of detailed planning had been going on for quite some time to launch an operation of this magnitude.
Mike leaned over and whispered to me “Wow. This is just like out of a World War II movie or something.”
After the initial brief of the Operations Order outlining the overall concept for the operation, the Squadron Commander and General Smith took their leave and we spent the next two hours going over the details for our part in Apache Snow.
The five-part sequence of an Operations Order (OPORD) is memorized by all soldiers; Situation, Mission, Execution, Support and Command and Signal. We carefully reviewed each of the five parts to understand the planning of the operation and our role in it.
General Creighton Abrams had taken over command of all US forces in Vietnam from General Westmoreland, who was now the Army’s Chief of Staff back in Washington DC. General Abrams and his staff at Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) suspected that the North Vietnamese Army was again building up forces and supplies in the area of the A Shau Valley, after being devastated a year earlier during the Tet Offensive of 1968.
Reconnaissance indicated that as many as a thousand enemy trucks a day were moving south on Route 922 parallel to us and just across the border in Laos, which had prompted Operation Dewey Canyon north of the A Shau a month earlier with the 3rd Marine Division and their 9th Marine Regiment.
The 9th Marines fought several intense battles with well-equipped NVA forces capturing tons of weapons, ammunition and supplies and destroying many enemy structures, including a fully equipped field hospital with eight buildings.
As a follow-up to Operation Dewey Canyon, Army Corps Commander Lieutenant General Richard G. Stilwell tasked Major General Melvin Zais, Commander of the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) to plan and conduct an operation to find, fix and destroy enemy forces, supplies and equipment in the A Shau Valley.
General Stillwell would augment the 101st Division with additional forces; the 9th Marine Regiment, two Army of Vietnam (ARVN) Infantry Battalions and the US 3/5 Mechanized Infantry Battalion.
General Zais met with all the Commanders and tasked his own 3rd Brigade, commanded by Colonel Joseph B. Conmy Jr., to conduct a reconnaissance in force with three Battalions in the western center of the valley near Hill 937 adjacent to the Laotian border.
Colonel Conmy planned to have the Battalions reinforce one another to concentrate combat power whenever they found major enemy resistance. Their assigned helicopters could rapidly move forces about the battlefield.
The two ARVN Battalions would be airlifted in, north and south of the 3rd Brigade, to conduct reconnaissance in force and block enemy escape routes to the south and west.
The 9th Marines would be airlifted into the far north of the A Shau to also conduct reconnaissance and block enemy escape routes to the north and west.
The 3/5 Mechanized Infantry with their tanks and tracked vehicles were to clear and open the final portion of the road that had been under construction from Camp Eagle near Hue, west through the hills and mountains to the heart of the A Shau.
The 3rd Brigade would employ three Battalions to aggressively conduct reconnaissance in force operations in the west center of the A Shau, north of the Aloui airstrip.
1/506th in the south would recon northwest along the Laotian border.
3/187th Airborne Infantry in the middle would recon north of Aloui towards Hill 937, Dong Ap Bia.
2/501st in the north would recon southeast towards the Laotian border.
It would be a three-pronged pincer type reconnaissance; 1/506th Battalion on the left, 3/187 Battalion in the middle, and 2/501st Battalion on the right.
3/1 ARVN Battalion would provide a blocking force across the middle of the valley south of Aloui airstrip at Ta Bat.
1/1 ARVN Battalion would provide a blocking force in the north near Tiger Mountain.
9th Marines would provide additional blocking forces north of 1/1 ARVNs.
One Company (approx. 130 soldiers), B Company 3/187th was to be held back as Brigade Reserve.
There were six landing zones (LZs) identified to airlift all the forces into their respective locations. Another 30 or so alternate LZs were targeted to keep the enemy guessing as to which ones we would actually be using.
; The plan called for 70 minutes of preparation fires. In first was TAC air (Air Force, Navy and Marine fighter jets) for 50 minutes, dropping hundreds of bombs at all the identified landing zones. The fighters would peel off at H hour -20 minutes, when the artillery would take over for 18 minutes of bombardment, followed by us at H hour -02 minutes doing a quick one-minute recon of the LZs and then at H hour -01minute Aerial Rocket Artillery (ARA) Cobras doing a last one-minute pounding of the LZs, as the Hueys carrying the troops were on their final approach to the landing zones at H-hour.
Whew! Timed to the minute and second like the Boss had said. What could go wrong?
The following day we still had missions to fly in the valley and then spent more hours back at home base updating our map books, organizing our gear, reviewing our tasks, prepping our aircraft and getting ready for the big day. I don’t think any of us got much sleep that night.
May 10 (Day 1)
Up at zero-dark-thirty on 10 May. I had showered and shaved the night before, so I quickly donned my jungle fatigues and after a cup of coffee and a quick trip to the shitter, met Mike Talton back at the hooch, grabbed our gear and headed to the flight line.
We were pretty loaded down. Besides our chicken plates, dog tags, P-38 can openers and survival vests, we had a couple of boxes of C-Rations, a cooler of water, map books and knee boards with pencils and grease pens.
And Mike never went anywhere without his Thompson sub-machine gun, so we packed that too. Good man to have along in a fight.
The armament guys had loaded up our rocket pods, Gatling gun and grenade launcher for us. Our crew chief had done all the maintenance work during the night. All we had to do was load our stuff, do a thorough preflight inspection to make sure everything was in order and we would be good to go.
