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Date: 970923
Time: 16:22:48
In Vietnam I volunteered to fly with a forward air control group in a place called Tam Ky. Tam Ky was nothing more than a pin prick on a map but it had an air strip and its location was ideal for small aircraft operations. One afternoon the pilot and I were flying coastal patrol. This was a milk run as there was nothing to see but rice paddies more rice paddies and no jungle where the VC could hide. It was about 2 in the afternoon. We were flying at our assigned altitude of 1500 feet and even at this altitude you could smell the rice paddies and feel the humidity. Suddenly we received a radio call from a ground unit. They had reports of 300 or so enemy changing into civilian clothes. The information was as usual sketchy somewhat far fetched but still needing to be checked out. I got the coordinates and we headed westbound toward the hills. Reaching the area the pilot banked the aircraft hard right and I was looking straight down at.....the top of trees. We flying over an area dense with foliage making it almost impossible to see anything on the ground. I keyed my "mic" and just said "no joy" which meant no way in hell can I see anything. The pilot relayed the message to the ground troops. The reply was normal: "Can you go down on the deck for a closer look?" The pilot and I looked at each other I gave him a thumbs up and he replied "yes" to the ground commander. I pushed the thottles to full power we climbed a bit and then the exhilarating hard left turn pushing the nose to gain airspeed. We dropped out altitude from 1500 to 100 feet in less than 30 seconds. Our airspeed over the suspected area was nearly 150 mph. Seconds before we reached the area I remember looking up thru the canopy of the plane. Such a blue sky I thought. Too nice of a day to get killed. Then a strange thought. My grandfather...a man I never knew and who died when I was 9 months old. Something told me to move my seat closer to the control panel....just in case. We came in over the area "jinking" to keep from becoming a target. First a hard left turn then right then back left right again. Your stomach would react but you were trained to ignore it. Then the sound of something liek small pebbles being thrown on a tin roof. I heard several pops and turned slightly with my left arm raised. Suddenly there was a large popbang! and I felt like someone had slapped me. I shook my head turned back straight and saw the pilot slumping to the left. As he did he had pushed slightly on the controls driving the aircraft towards a rice paddy. I tried to reach the controls with both hands but only my right arm worked. I pulled back gently....ever so gently....so that we wouldnt stall out. I heard the pilot yell "Im OK...youre bleeding" I looked at my left arm and saw the stream of blood rapidly reaching my wrist. He had the controls by now and he was trying for altitude to get us out of the area. I put my head between my legs to try and ward off the shock knowing I had to get a bandage on wherever it was I was bleeding. But I didnt care..I felt sleepy...there was no pain. I head a voice saying "Are you OK....Are you OK? Answer me??!! God Damn you...ANSWER ME!" And with that I felt a surge of adrenalin. I kept shaking my head and was coming out of shock. I reached for my emergency bandage opened it and placed it where I thought I was bleeding. I look at the pilot. He had pain written all over his face. "You look like hell"...and then gave a very weak smile. "Im ok how bad we hit?" Pressure was dropping in the rear engine our airspeed indicator was smashed we couldnt get any more altitude than 3000 feet....and we were to find out within 30 seconds that we were on fire. We landed on a foam carpet at Chu Lai airport chased by fire trucks that eventually put out the hydraulic fire in our rear engine. The plane was a mess: over 35 bullet holes....and one large hole that entered the left side of the plane and cracking the plexiglass window on the right. Had I not moved my seat up that one notch as I had that bullet would have entered at my heart level and today I would be nothing but a long gone memory. The pilot? He was hit in his flak vest but the bullet never penetrated him. But he did get a black and blue circle from the bullets impact that stayed with him for some time. As for the plane it was repaired patched and sent back to our unit. I never flew in that plane again as I considered it bad luck. This incident happened 29 years ago. I still remember it...and I still dream it. But what I remember most is thinking about my grandfather moments before I would become just another WIA of the Vietnam war.