Found a site today with a lot of stories from CH-3 helicopter pilots in Vietnam, operating in conjunction with MACV-SOG troops in Laos and Cambodia. Some of the stories are stuff that would be deemed as too incredible if it was made into a movie. I have always been fascinated by the "secret" war in Laos and Cambodia. There are so many stories of incredible bravery and skill from that part of the war, and I love reading them. These men were real supermen!

http://www.usafhpa.org/experiences/knifetales/21stknifetales.html

Good find. Out of curiosity Semmern - have you read "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason? He was a Huey pilot in Vietnam. Probably one of the best (if not the best) account of flying in Vietnam that I read. Hilarious, tragic, and just written better than anything I've read on that period.

HERE





And I agree..the pilots & crew that served on those birds were incredible. My boss when I first arrived at MedCenter Air had done 3 tours in Vietnam flying helos. Incredible stories..

I'll second "Chickenhawk", great book.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about that book while showering last night.

I'll thirdererer-er Chicken Hawk is excellent but ever so slightly tarnished now thanks to Dogsbd shower comment lol.

Yep, I've read Chickenhawk. I will probably never look at it the same way after Dogs' post though

My other favourites from the Vietnam air war are Da Nang Diary and Bury Us Upside Down..fantastic stories!

I just bought this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GHOHRA

Will tell you if it is any good, looks promising, especially this quote:

“Thirty years ago, Robert Mason published Chickenhawk, a classic personal account of Vietnam helicopter operations that is still as potent as a satchel charge. I’d rank A Hundred Feet Over Hell right up there with it.”
-Air & Space Magazine

"Chickenhawk: Back in the World: Life After Vietnam" is also a good read about Mason's life after his trauma in Nam.

ordered Chickenhawk for my kindle, will read it once I am done with "With the old breed".

thread sanitized

Thanks Guod!

I remember reading one story of a hot exfil like this, the guy recalls running to the helicopter winch penetrator thing, while seeing aluminum bits of the helicopter falling down, from being hit by enemy small arms! Sounded like a very desperate few minutes...as I imagine most engagements with the Communist Vietnamese seemed to be. Funny how thick vegetation and hit-run tactics can equalize the outcome of a fight despite an amazingly mis-matched militaries' equipment/supply levels.

There are so many amazing stories. I'm currently reading SOG by John Plaster, and there are some rescues (I won't call them extractions, they're too hairy for that) that almost defy belief. One in particular stands out to me; That of Nov. 26 1968, when James P. Fleming extracted a SOG team from an exposed position on a river bank while under intense fire. The last man, the RT team leader, had to take a running jump for the skid of the helo as it backed away, and was dragged through the water of the river before being hauled aboard. Like I said, almost too much even for a movie, even though it actually happened!

Fleming was awarded the MOH for his rescue. Here's the citation:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Fleming (then 1st Lt.) distinguished himself as the Aircraft Commander of a UH-1F transport Helicopter. Capt. Fleming went to the aid of a 6-man special forces long range reconnaissance patrol that was in danger of being overrun by a large, heavily armed hostile force. Despite the knowledge that 1 helicopter had been downed by intense hostile fire, Capt. Fleming descended, and balanced his helicopter on a river bank with the tail boom hanging over open water. The patrol could not penetrate to the landing site and he was forced to withdraw. Dangerously low on fuel, Capt. Fleming repeated his original landing maneuver. Disregarding his own safety, he remained in this exposed position. Hostile fire crashed through his windscreen as the patrol boarded his helicopter. Capt. Fleming made a successful takeoff through a barrage of hostile fire and recovered safely at a forward base. Capt. Fleming's profound concern for his fellowmen, and at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country."

And yet Dogsbd's shower comment remains...

Those that have read the book should get the double entendre in my comment

SOG, Chickenhawk, and Samurai (http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Saburo-Sakai/dp/0743412834 - most unbelievable of all) are truly great stuff. The title of the thread really hits home for me. The first line in the Author's note (set out below) for me was: "This story takes place in an alternate universe very much like our own. Many of the passages are however based upon actual events. As is often the case in fiction, these seem the most implausible and contrived." Also from a chapter titled Three, Two, One: "The last leg of the insertion was a sphincter-constricting run through the peaks and valleys. A huge, red sun swallowed the helicopter whole as it rose sharply to clear a crest. Unbeknownst to all, and in time with the impossibly clean riffs, a stream of tracer fire erupted behind. If this had been a movie, your more acerbic critic would have chastised the director. "

http://wouldutrade.tumblr.com/

Lastly, sorry for pimping the hell out of my book

Author’s Note

This story takes place in an alternate universe very much like our own. Many of the passages are however based upon actual events. As is often the case in fiction, these seem the most implausible and contrived. A random few amongst them:

brown-brown is a gunpowder and cocaine cocktail that is sometimes sewn under the skin of child soldiers in Sierra Leone; initiates into the Lord’s Resistance Army reportedly wear coats made from the skin of their first kill; a crack-cocaine syndicate espousing Five-Percenter ideology ran rampant through Queens in the eighties;

a Central American death squad reportedly worshiped Tony Montana;

nuclear targeting data stolen by Jonathan Pollard was reportedly exchanged by Israel for Russian exit visas;

a friendly fire incident resulting from a re-set GPS unit almost killed Hamid Karzai;

a squad of three Chechens dressed in black successfully assaulted a fortified Northern Alliance position without firing a single bullet. This incident is recounted in Gary Shroen’s, First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Details from Shroen’s account (such as the helicopter tail number and a predilection for Cipro pills and Tabasco sauce) are used to lend color to the relevant passages;

RAF leaflet and US Aid drops have resulted in the death and injury of several Afghans;

The rebel advance through the minefield is based upon an incident from the Second Chechen War. Footage exists of subsequent amputations without benefit of anesthesia. The surgeon involved, Khassan Baiev, wrote a searing memoir titled, The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire;

the recollections immediately prior to the minefield incident are based upon the 1996 battle for Grozny;

there are claims that the Mexican government has in the past auctioned off rights to transact in illegal drugs within its borders; Amado Fuentes, known as Lord of the Skies, reportedly had no issues with loosing a plane per shipment of large consignments of cocaine; and

a video or audio recording of children being sexually assaulted in a US-run facility reportedly exists, and was amongst the items successfully suppressed by the Bush Administration in the wake of Abu Ghraib.

The Epigraph is from a standard English translation of, To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, by Robert Burns. John le Carré, author of many a field manual, commented on renting policies as they relate to Arabs. Elmore Leonard wrote about ‘hanging’ in a firefight.

The attorneys I had the privilege of working with are amongst the most professional and conscientious, and bear no resemblance to the characters depicted in this novel.

*sniff sniff*

Hey, a fresh pine scent!



The Jedi Master

Stuka Pilot - Hans Rudel Has to be the best unbelievable truth war story. Here is a copy:

Stuka Pilot -Hans Rudel

It would be a movie except he was an unrepentant Nazi.