Lucky Shot

Peneprime was yucky stuff.  It was an asphalt-like coating that was sprayed on the ground to help control dust.  Flanders heliport got covered with it and so did the helicopter parking area at Bao Loc.  The problem with the stuff is that it wouldn’t stay on the ground.  As we walked across a treated area our height would increase by several inches as it built up on the bottom of our boots.  We always had to spend several minutes before a flight, sitting in the aircraft and picking the gunk out of our boots.  It still got all over the anti-torque pedals and on the floor.  Crew chiefs hated it.

The same thing would happen to the helicopter skids.  If you set down on peneprime, it would stick to the bottom of the skids, adding more weight.  It restricted our ability to make running takeoffs, which for the gunships, was a critical maneuver.  The worst thing it would do however was to flake-off in pieces, stirred-up by the rotor wash, and lodge around our 2.75 inch rockets.  What would happen then is when the rocket was fired, it would stick in the tube.  Eventually it would break loose, but while it was stuck in there we had rocket assist on one side of the helicopter.

The job for the day was to cover an insertion flown by one of the Stallion platoons.  For some reason as I started writing this, I flashed Bob Meacham as being the flight lead, but I wouldn’t count on that as being anywhere near accurate.  At any rate, the LZ was supposed to be hot and the best intelligence was that the bad guys would be on the left side as the flight landed.  Although we always anticipated a hot LZ, we rarely got advanced notice that it would be, so we were going to spend some extra time working it over.

We found the LZ and went to work.  The plan was to unload one set of tubes on the prep and use the other side during the landing.  I was firing my right tubes first as we hosed down the tree line on the left side of the landing area.  We were making right breaks so we could take a look at the right side, and the door gunners were working it over just in case.

Lead called 3 minutes out and we broke off the prep to fly out and meet the flight.  The procedure was to position ourselves along the side of the formation so that as the lead aircraft was touching down, the lead gunship was putting suppressive fire in the threat area as the troops disembarked.  If we timed it correctly, Sidekick lead would be passing the flight lead just as he was getting ready to lift off, and then the Sidekick wingman would pick up the formation and follow it out.  That was the plan.  I wouldn’t be writing this if the plan had worked.

I was coming up on the middle of the formation just about the time flight lead was coming over the edge of the LZ inbound.  I had just punched the button to launch a rocket on the tree line when lead called receiving fire from the front right side of the LZ.  Simultaneously, the rocket fired and stuck in the tube.  The C model jerked to the right because of the sudden extra thrust on the left side, and as I looked through the sight, flight lead was dead center in the pipper.

I knew the rocket was going to break loose any second and trying to use left pedal to straighten the aircraft out wasn’t going to work so I released the pressure on the pedals and allowed the nose to yaw further right.  Along with the rocket thrust on the left side, that caused the nose to come up just a little, but in the nick of time because immediately after that, the rocket broke loose.

I held my breath as it gracefully arced over flight lead’s rotor system and landed squarely in the front right corner of the LZ.  Exactly where lead had called fire.  Even before he touched down, lead was complimenting the “great shot” on the radio.  I couldn’t buy a drink at the club that night.  Everyone was bragging on the great support we had provided.  Of course being a gun pilot, I would never admit that it was anything less than skill, but something else was guiding that rocket on that mission.  The only skill I had was keeping a straight face while someone bought another round.

Fred Harms

Sidekick 3

Nov 67 - Oct 68