> In a message to Robert Linenweber  David
 > Kirschbaum wrote:
 DK>> I only got up to DaNang once (hitched a ride in a VNAF
 DK>> KingBee to visit a buddy at the CCN camp there S of DaNang).
 DK>> Thought I
 > Wow!  As I recall, few Americans would set foot on VNAF
 > airplanes.  Through no fault of their own, the VNAF pilots
 > didn't have a good reputation.  You were either of a different
 > mind-set or you really wanted to see your buddy.
We routinely had VNAF pilots fly us on recon missions or insertions.
The recon missions were safe as houses.  Two VNAF pilots in a pretty standard 
Cessna, as I recall, and the Recon guy sitting in the back seat.  They'd 
navigate us to the general area (all at around 5000 feet or so, way way WAY 
high), and then the Recon guy would have to convince them to fly over what he 
actually had to look at.  We never liked the VNAF pilots for recon because 
you couldn't _see_ anything; they wouldn't get low enough for you to get a 
decent look at the ground, possible LZs, possible targets, trails, roads, 
c.
While the Army guys in their L-19's would get right on _down_ there!  Hell, I 
remember one VR flight of LIMA-9 or some such .. most of my looks at this 
long valley I was supposed to recon was through the glass in the top of the 
cockpit :-)  Yahoo!
Now the VNAF pilots that flew the Kingbees (CH-34's, that big Sikorsky 
chopper with the huge old radial engine up front, one monster propeller 
overhead, one big door on the right .. oh yeah .. and wheels :-) ).  And they 
were nothing like the gutless wonders in the VNAF Cessnas.  It was absolutely 
routine to hear them whistling as they came back to our CCC camp at Kontum 
from a mission .. the whistling coming from all the blade tips being dented 
and knocked off because they'd had to chop themselves an LZ in the brush or 
bamboo to get in an extract a team!
They never patched the bullet holes in the Kingbees, you know .. sitting 
inside one of them was much like being within a seive.  Never knew whether to 
feel reassured by the fact that the aircraft was still flying with all those 
holes or not.
Yep, the Kingbee pilots (who lived right with us at the CCC camp, their 
Kingbees parked right out back on the pad between the motor pool and the back 
wall) were something else.
When I hitched that ride up to DaNang (they were based out of DaNang and 
would rotate about every week), the pilot yelled down to me if I wanted to 
see something pretty.  "Sure!"  Should'a known better.  They flew up this 
narrow steep valley (felt like the trees on either side were almost into the 
rotors, but I know it had to be wider than that) .. and at the very end (I 
was hanging out the door watching all this) was a beautiful waterfall!
And they swing the bird sideways so I can get a good look (and to slow it 
down so they can turn around and fly back out the way they came in) .. and 
all of a sudden there's all this damned green tracer!
So they turn it around _real_ fast .. and I damned near fall out the door 
because the Viet door gunner is scrambling for his .30 caliber LMG and is 
blasting away almost between my legs .. and the old Kingbee is howling as 
they haul _it_ around and grab some air .. and boy that valley sure looks 
narrow .. and I haven't a _clue_ as to where we are or how to walk out of 
here, even if I _do_ live through the crash ...
But there's only a few clunks from the tail (and a few new holes, I presume), 
and the big old radial hangs together just one more time .. and they climb on 
up to 3000 feet where they should've been in the first place :-)
Was funny to be rolling down the DaNang runway (rolling in a chopper: I was 
too used to those Hueys), looking at the sights.  The big Gunfighter hangers 
(the F4 squadron there) and all the rest.  One F4 was rolling past with all 
the ordnance and fuel tanks hanging off it, off to do someone no good at all 
obviously.
Yep, quite an experience .. despite the green tracers.  I had a lot of 
respect for the VNAF Kingbee pilots:  they were quite as brave as the US guys 
who flew for the Headhunters and Pink Panthers and the other outfits that 
supported us "Deep Within Enemy-Held Territory) there in the tri-border 
region.
 DK>> Yeah, me too.  Hope somebody's writing all this stuff down.
 > I wish I had kept a journal when I was in Nam.  Every once in a
 > while I think about writing what I can remember for future
 > generations but there never seems to be enough time.
 > What were you doing there?  Service, job, etc.  ???
Ran Recon.  Was US Army Special Forces, SOA (CCC) in a little base astraddle 
the Pleiku highway just out of Kontum.  Had a recon team (3 US SF, 7-9 
Montagnard mercenaries) for 7 months, then moved over to Hatchet Force (our 
reaction company, US SF leaders, Montagnard mercenary troops) as a platoon 
sergeant.  If you ever had a "box" 10 KM square marked out on a chart .. 
lessay somewhere 40 or 60 or 80 KM West of DakTo .. that might've been me 
:-).  Or if the names "HOTEL 9" or "CHARLEY 7" or "The Bra" or "LEGHORN" ring 
a bell ...
We had our buddies SOA (CCN) (Command and Control North) in a base up near 
you.  All I recollect of the place is this horrible sandy terrain (they 
must've been right on the beach), a rectangular camp with bunkers and berms 
and everything built out of this sand (and LOTS of sandbags) .. I thought 
somewhere south of DaNang proper, but can't swear to it.  But close to the 
city though.  They would've been one of the "spookish" activities, you know, 
no entry without TOP SECRET clearance, if they told ya they'd of had to kill 
ya, guys running around in funny non-standard uniforms with no US Army or 
nametags or unit patch, that sort of place :-)
David Kirschbaum
SGM, USA SF (Ret)
Recon 10, SOA (CCC)
---
---------------