Into the 192nd
<> The 192nd AHC was one of our
sister companies and was 10th Battalion's southern
most outfit. The 192nd was based on the high ground that was to
the
immediate south of the city of Phan Thiet. Because the entire
unit
had come to Vietnam by ship they all had the same DEROS (go home)
date.
When this fact finally dawned on the powers that be, a scramble was
made
to swap personel out with other units in order to scatter the dates so
that they would not have all the personal leave at the same time.
And I went from a 281st "Intruder" to a 192nd "Pole Cat".
When I was signing into192nd,
with another 281st pilot whose name I can not recall, 2 jets just
happened
to low level up the runway. Since we were signing in inside the
OPS
tent we could not see the jets, only hear them. Both of us yelled
out "In Coming" and hit the
floor with our hands over our heads. The laughter signaled the
all
clear and we got up and dusted off. Apparently the 192nd had
never
come under 122mm rocket fire. How fortunate for them.
Being with the 192nd had
it's immediate good points and it's bad points. The good points
were
that the unit was just as close nit as the 281st was and that, except
for
the deep jungle insertions which wasn't their mission, they were just
as
professional as the 281st. The bad points were that they lived in
tents and had to eat Swiss Steak for supper 7 days a week. Just
now,
more than 30 years later, can I stomach Swiss Steak.
In order to combat the Swiss
Steak problem, an arrangement was made between all members of our tent
called, "The Womb". Each pilot would have their folks or wife
send,
on a weekly basis, a survival package (5 lb. was the limit). We
would
pool our resources and cook our own supper. My folks supplied the
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and packets of dry soup. Smally's folks
ran a cannery in the North West and they supplied us with
various unlabeled dented cans of salmon & tuna. I believe
Tweedy
was the 3rd member of the tent and he had the Jiffy Pop popcorn and
some
other things. Chad Gilbert was the last member of the tent but I
don't remember what he had to supply. So between the C-rations we
could come up with and the packages from home and the swapping we did
with
the other tents, none of us lost any weight. There may have been
a 5th man in the tent and his name may have been Gibson, its been a
long
time for the old memory.
Each of the guys had their own
distinct personalities. Smally was pretty quite while Gilbert was
very outgoing. Gilbert's approach to things was the same as old
"One
Lung" and his light-hearted comments about the days fowl ups or
whatever
would bring a smile to almost any face. Tweedy was also a quiet
one
but his appearance demanded respect from even the RLOs for Tweedy
sported
one of the finest and largest handlebar mustaches I have ever
seen.
When he had to shave it off a month or two later nobody recognized him
and he was treated as a FNG for a few days until he figured out what
was
wrong and began telling people that he was Tweedy, just without the
mustache.
I thought he was a new guy too.
The main mission of the 192nd
was to support the ARVN and U.S. Troops in the area with combat
assaults.
They also did a lot of ash & trash runs. The 281st didn't do
a whole lot with the ARVN troops but the 192nd sure did. They
were
not very good soldiers and more often than not, when loading up for an
assault, I would see several of them hiding in the bushes so they would
not have to go into battle. Countless times we pulled them out of
supposedly hot skirmishes and some of them would still have the dust
tape
on the end of their rifle barrels. They were just not very
effective
soldiers.
The 192nd had come over with
all H-model Hueys I believe and they were all in pretty good
shape.
It sure was a pleasure to fly a ship with a good strong engine in it.
Over
to the side though were 2 real dog choppers that probably had the
original
L-1 engines in them instead of the L-11 engines. There was no
such
thing as an L-1 engine but it gives the other pilots reading this an
idea
just how weak those ships were. I think the radios were salvaged
from Noah's Ark. Seats were comfortable though so they did have a
good point.
Flying those two ships was
where
I found my "niche" with the 192nd. They were much too under
powered for combat and it was kind of like an insult or punishment to
get
assigned to fly them. Nobody wanted to fly either of them until I
came along.
With the 281st I had a lot of time
in the older "D" model Hueys and was use to flying under powered ships
so I didn't mind as much to fly them as the others did. Besides
that,
flying them meant I'd get to see more of the country and I'd much
rather
do that then be bored to death flying the ARVN all over the
place.
The OPS officer saw the perfect use for those ships and, what was once
a real sore spot in the unit, became a blessing for all future ACs in
the
unit. I became the unofficial transition officer for the
192nd.
It became my job to take the unit's senior PPs and let them fly left
seat
on the many various ash & trash missions
that we had. You couldn't get any better training than that for
those
new ACs to be. As I recall it only took about 1-2 weeks of flying
those ships before they had a real appreciation of what the word
"precision"
meant. It sure got their heads outside the cockpit in a hurry and
forced them to plan ahead for virtually everything that had anything to
do with being an AC. As I said, I found my niche.
In the above picture and the one to your right, four
ships would land surrounding a small community and their VN troops
would go in and inspect hands. If your hands were smooth they
took you away for interigation. Rice farmers have weathered
hands, the bad guys didn't.
I only stayed 3 months with
the 192nd before I DEROSed out. I made a lot of friends and felt
good inside about having a hand in shaping the pilots that I did.
A lot of stories came out of my time there and the day I left I was
given
one of the highest honors possible. As I was boarding the
"Freedom
Chopper" for home, the young crew chief that had flown so many missions
with me on his "dog" chopper ran up to me and yelled out "Sir".
He
then snapped to attention and gave me a "Stateside" salute, something
you
just didn't do over there. He said he would miss me. To me,
that was the equivalent of my peers giving me "The Medal of
Honor".
That put a lump in my throat, just as the memory of it is doing now as
I am typing this in. He had thought of himself as the bottom of
the
barrel crew chief wise because of the ship that he had. His
attitude
soon changed when he saw just how important that ship was to the
training
of all those ACs to be. It was still a dog as far as choppers
went
but by God it was the best kept dog chopper around. I am glad
that
I had a hand in shaping that young man's character.
Into the 192nd
<> The 192nd AHC was one of our
sister companies and was 10th Battalion's 
southern
most outfit. The 192nd was based on the high ground that was to
the
immediate south of the city of Phan Thiet. Because the entire
unit
had come to Vietnam by ship they all had the same DEROS (go home)
date.
When this fact finally dawned on the powers that be, a scramble was
made
to swap personel out with other units in order to scatter the dates so
that they would not have all the personal leave at the same time.
And I went from a 281st "Intruder" to a 192nd "Pole Cat".
the
floor with our hands over our heads. The laughter signaled the
all
clear and we got up and dusted off. Apparently the 192nd had
never
come under 122mm rocket fire. How fortunate for them.
various unlabeled dented cans of salmon & tuna. I believe
Tweedy
was the 3rd member of the tent and he had the Jiffy Pop popcorn and
some
other things. Chad Gilbert was the last member of the tent but I
don't remember what he had to supply. So between the C-rations we
could come up with and the packages from home and the swapping we did
with
the other tents, none of us lost any weight. There may have been
a 5th man in the tent and his name may have been Gibson, its been a
long
time for the old memory.
would
not have to go into battle. Countless times we pulled them out of
supposedly hot skirmishes and some of them would still have the dust
tape
on the end of their rifle barrels. They were just not very
effective
soldiers.
missions
that we had. You couldn't get any better training than that for
those
new ACs to be. As I recall it only took about 1-2 weeks of flying
those ships before they had a real appreciation of what the word
"precision"
meant. It sure got their heads outside the cockpit in a hurry and
forced them to plan ahead for virtually everything that had anything to
do with being an AC. As I said, I found my niche.