I’ve enjoyed reading and re-reading the stories on the 92d website and can hang with the best of them when it comes to telling “no sh—“ stories at the bar. So I thought I’d try my hand at writing down a few yarns of my own. I have to tell you, some incidents in my tour where absolutely the most exciting in my life and as close as I ever came to doing anything heroic. But mostly I remember serving with real good guys and men of true substance and character. As Fred Harms said, they earned medals every day and occasionally they were even awarded some.
This story is a salute to Captain Denny Vaughan, a most unforgettable guy. If you are still out there Denny, this bud’s for you! And if you have already “passed over” I hope to see you at the reunion in the big heliport in the sky.
When I arrived at Fort Carson as a newly minted WO1 in early 1967, it was obvious that the unit was rank heavy with a lot of Captains and Captains (P) going back to Nam for their second tour. (We actually arrived in country with 16, count ‘em, Field Grade Officers). CPT Vaughan was one of these soon to be second-tour guys. As a matter of a fact he seemed a little “long in the tooth” to be a Captain, but it was obvious he had his stuff together and wasn’t prone to putting up with a lot of unnecessary military bullshit. I recall on one field problem out at the range, as I rolled out my issued sleeping bag (often referred to as a “fart sack” for good reason), I noticed CPT Vaughan had his portable TV and other amenities set up and was spreading out his silk sheets for his bed. In somewhat amazement I said “Dang, CPT Vaughan, Silk Sheets?!” His reply was “Joe, you don’t have to practice to be miserable, that shit will come naturally”. Over the next 20 years or so I found that to be very true.
At the time I wondered how a man of so much finesse and wisdom could still be a Captain. But I learned through “The Gross National Product” (aka Jim Broderick), that the rumor was Vaughan had shot one of General Key’s cousins on his first tour in country. Those of you who don’t know, Ky was at one time the Head of VNAF, had a hot wife, and later served as both the Vice President and then President of Viet Nam. Last I heard, he was running a chain of restaurants in California. (Funny how that part about his wife sticks in your mind). The story was that Vaughn didn’t kill the S.O.B. but he did in fact shoot him, when the guy pulled a weapon on some of Vaughan’s soldiers. It seemed that this incident and possibly a few other indiscretions had lead to Vaughan being passed over for promotion more than the allotted number of times allowed by the “up or out” program. But he was right at his “lock in” of 18 years of service, they need people in SEA and so they agreed to keep him on active duty till he retired at 20 years. Now I never asked the good Captain about this story so I can’t vouch for the details but I am confident the essences of it is true.
We deployed to Viet Nam on the MSTS ship the USS Pope along with a couple of other Helicopter Companies. The Officer’s were lucky enough to get overnight liberty in Okinawa. But we received a thorough briefing about the do’s and don’t while on shore, by the Chain of Command, and the Provost Marshall from Okinawa. They made certain that we understood to “NOT MESS WITH THE OKINAWAIN POLICE’. We left the ship and headed for the bars. During the course of the evening Barry Keene and I spent a considerable amount of time (and money) entertain a couple of local ladies. (But that’s another story for another time). We also ran into more than a couple of our enlisted guys downtown who were supposed to be restricted to the ship. That did not seem to be an issue at the time, so we looked the other way and continued to march. By all accounts, much later in the evening Vaughan staggered out of a bar and observed Okinawa police officers who had detained some soldiers. (I don’t know if they were from our unit or not) These soldiers were in a modified “front leaning rest” with their hands on the wall. They were being asked questions by the police, each time the police got what they considered to be the wrong answer, the soldiers were wrapped across the knuckles with a night stick. Vaughan allowed as how that was not a proper way to treat US soldiers and went to intervene. The last time anyone saw Vaughan that night, the cops were dragging him handcuffed down the alley.
The next morning on the boat, the platoon leader, Major Goodspeed was furious. He held a meeting while Vaughan continued to sleep it off, and mentioned that while he had tried “to play ball with us, Vaughan had tried to break the bat off in his ass”. He went on to explain that CPT Vaughan would be infused to another unit as soon as we got in-country. True to his word, Vaughan was shipped to the 281st at Na Trang. Vaughn didn’t last long at the 281st either. He apparently alternated between the operations shack and flying Slick missions. Later a member of that unit related to me the following. As an Aircraft Commander, Vaughan was participating in a Combat Assault. Apparently while on short final his Peter Pilot spied someone in black pajamas hiding behind a tree, so while Vaughan was getting the grunts unloaded, Peter Pilot unstraps, draws his 45 and without saying anything to anyone takes off like John Wayne to capture the “VC”. Prior to departing the LZ, Vaughan looks over at the empty seat, reaches over, closes the door and pulls pitch leaving Peter Pilot and his “VC” in the LZ with the grunts. Back at the PZ Vaughan says something to the effect of “Let me tell you what my dumbass copilot did . . . “ I assume the pilot (and his “VC”) got out on subsequent lifts.
Next stop for Denny Vaughan was a Cav outfit up north of our AO (7/17th Cav). There he served as a “blue” platoon leader (even though 1st Aviation Brigade website shows he was slotted as the XO – probably due to the fact he was a very senior Captain). Didn’t hear anything else from him, until I picked up a copy of “The Stars and Stripes” one day and read a feature article on how he had been awarded the “Distinguished Service Cross”, our Nation’s second highest award for heroism. I talked to him later at a PZ when we were getting ready for some major CA. Between his comments, the news article, the citation I found on line, and my failing memory that incident went somewhat as follows.
On April 18, 1968, an OH-6 had been shot down with pilot and observer on board; there were lots of bad guys trying hard to capture any survivors. They sent Vaughan and a platoon of about 20 “blues” out on a couple of Hueys for a rescue and recovery mission. He related to me that when they arrived at the crash site there were no LZs and he could not see the ground for the tree cover. While the pilots were trying to figure out how they were going to get the grunts on the ground, in proud Infantry tradition Vaughan turned to the “blues” yelled “follow me” and stepped out of the aircraft. Unbeknownst to him (or did he know and not give a damn), this was triple canopy jungle and he crashed through the trees and limbs and finally hit the ground, breaking his leg in the process. He told me he realized at that time that the grunts were not stupid enough to follow him down through the trees. But sure enough as he lay there trying to get on his feet he looked up and the whole platoon came crashing down though the trees. They apparently gathered themselves up (Vaughan with bad leg and all) and went about the business of finding the aircraft and crew. The US was putting artillery in close to trying to keep the bad guys off of them and the VC were putting in rockets trying to take them out. All in all it must have been one hell of a noise. The citation says, that while receiving heavy automatic weapons fire, Vaughan got the troops organized and set up defensive position and called in and adjusted air strikes around his platoon’s position. After beating back the ground attack, they were able to locate the crew members. As I recall the story, pilot was already KIA by enemy fire, but the citation indicates both crewmen survived. I remember Vaughan telling me that the observer was Hispanic and that the troops were yelling for him, but he wouldn’t answer because he thought they were VC. In desperation, one of the troops, also Hispanic, started hollering in Spanish and the observer finally answered. Apparently Vaughan had to call in more air strikes to keep the bad guys off of them as they beat feet through the bush until they could find an LZ to be extracted, remember Vaughan did all this with a bum leg.
Of course the citation says his “. . . extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service.’ I say he was just a damn good officer who always tried to look after his soldiers, regardless of the circumstance and do the job we where trained to do. I’m proud to have known Denny Vaughan and had an opportunity to fly with him (as limited as it was).
Joe Baggett
Derby/Sidekick 12
67-68
