I'm guessin' it was early 1969.  I was at Bao Loc for my two week RON.  I was still flying slicks and it was my turn to pull flare ship duty.  We had finished our daily missions and were done for the day.  The crew chief and gunner got the ship ready for the next day's mission and then loaded the flares and got ready to stand by.  That night I sat around in the hootch (GP medium tent) watching the little black and white TV that brought us Bobbie the weather girl who "socked those temps to us".  After someone turned off the generator and we raised hell with him for doing it, we crawled in our cots and tucked in the mosquito net and went to sleep.  Seems like there was always a skeeter or more that managed to get inside the net and I would lay there on my cot listening to it buzz.  When it landed on my face I would swat it.  I layed there for awhile slapping may face until I gave up and fell asleep.  I never slept well on that canvas cot as I was 6'4" tall and the cot was not nearly long enough.  Sometime after midnight, I awoke to the sound of explosions and I realized we were getting attacked.  I fought through the mosquito net and pulled on my fatigue jacket.  When we pulled alert we always slept with our pants and boots on.  My copilot and I hauled ass to the aircraft.  The crew chief and gunner were already at the aircraft when we jumped in the cockpit.  The aircraft was set up for a quick start and when the crewchief swung the blade I hit the start switch.  Mui pronto we were off.  That was the darkest night I think I've ever flown.  Once we got to the proper altitude the gunner started throwing out the flares.  We circled the hilltop and soon were contacted by the Sidekick gun team that took off after us. I contacted the 173d Airborne Brigade Tactical Operations Center (TOC) and things were chaotic.  We couldn't locate any targets for the guns and it was quickly apparent that it was a sapper attack.  We stayed aloft for over an hour.  We finally got the all clear and prepared to land.  We  had flares out and the guns landed first.  The night was so dark and the explosions caused so much dust that we had to throw out our last flare and descend fast to use its illumination to land.  As I let down I passed a burned out flare with its parachute drifting toward the ground.  Luckily I wasn't too close.  If I had got that in my tail rotor, things would have been bad.  Once on the ground, we sucked it up and acted like it was no big deal.  The crew loaded more flares and got the ship ready for another sortie should it be needed.  The next morning we found out that the VC had blown up the main bunker guarding the only road into our position.  They detonated satchel charges in the 173d motor pool and blew up our latrine.  I suspect they were after our aircraft but got misoriented. The 173d had a few KIA and the bad guys escaped as I recall.

John Paull      

Stallion/Sidekick Pilot

10/68 - 6/70

I remember it well, as I was Sidekick lead that night.  I tripped over my boot laces while running from the Gunny tent to the A/C and nearly broke my neck.  I also remember waiting for the flare ship (you) to take off so we could slide out of the revetments.  With all the firing on the perimeter, and the Satchel Charges exploding all around it seemed like we would never get off the ground

Tommy Marshall

Sidekick 17 

6/68 - 6/69

                                       FLARES OVER BAO LOC

Morning after photos by Thomas Dykes * Stallion Pilot * 1/69 - 12/69