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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 34,261 |
Rocky, reading that does an excellent job of putting me back there, and I don't think I want to go again...not that close to it. I guess I should get your books while I can and save them for some other day.
I especially picked up on the part where the Medevac pilot is talking under fire "almost casually". BTDT. I had a Captain in DTOC complement me one time on how I always sounded so cool and calm on the radio, even during contact missions. He didn't know our meeting was not by chance and I was there to maybe take his head off, due to his action/inaction during one of my contact missions a few days earlier.
Anyway, I was told later by one of my pilots that that Captain would never again question me or try to change the way I set things up during a contact mission. That worked fine.
Contact missions were what we lived for, and were undoubtedly the longest minutes of my life. I felt as an AO, my pilot and I had the most important job in the world, and I still think so. Buy Rocky's books great read. I got 'em both.
Don't vote knothead, it only encourages them. Anonymous
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." Anonymous
"Self-reliance, free thinking, and wealth is anathema to both the power of the State and the Church." Derby Dude
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 73,096
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
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TLEE, did you & your crew name your machine? Nope, but called it many things depending on cirmcustance!
George Orwell was a Prophet, not a novelist. Read 1984 and then look around you!
Old cat turd!
"Some men just need killing." ~ Clay Allison.
I am too old to fight but I can still pull a trigger. ~ Me
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2008
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Not a pilot, just a door gunner. "just"....??? Man, your balls must still be dragging on the ground.... Didn't know that... Respect factor was already there...now its topped out... Ingwe
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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Joined: Feb 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 73,096 |
Nah, the front seat guys got the big bucks. I was just along for the ride!
George Orwell was a Prophet, not a novelist. Read 1984 and then look around you!
Old cat turd!
"Some men just need killing." ~ Clay Allison.
I am too old to fight but I can still pull a trigger. ~ Me
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 78,307 Likes: 2 |
Doood...to me thats like saying Rin Tin Tin was just a dog!  Thank you and these other guys for being there... Welcome Home. Ingwe
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 73,096
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 73,096 |
I will just say thank you as I was just doing a job.
BTW, Welcome home yourself Sir.
George Orwell was a Prophet, not a novelist. Read 1984 and then look around you!
Old cat turd!
"Some men just need killing." ~ Clay Allison.
I am too old to fight but I can still pull a trigger. ~ Me
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2008
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Have to get your books,Rocky! Thanks so much for that and your service.
Run for your life,surrender or stand up and fight!
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2008
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BTW, Welcome home yourself Sir.
As Don Adams on " Get Smart" used to say...I missed that one by "thatttt much"... I was stateside throughout...graduated High School in 1970, was lined up through ROTC to slide in and get with the program, when along comes the Draft Lottery...pulled a high number...that, plus a father that was a WWII vet who did NOT want to see his son go off....no matter, health isues wouldn't have made the grade anyway... I am of that age group though...I've got three friends and a cousin with their names on the Wall and as you are well aware...it still stings... But I thank you guys again...what you did to get each other back home made it possible for me to have and keep many more friends... Ingwe
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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Joined: Feb 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
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Long as you weren't some long haired hippy out protesting!
George Orwell was a Prophet, not a novelist. Read 1984 and then look around you!
Old cat turd!
"Some men just need killing." ~ Clay Allison.
I am too old to fight but I can still pull a trigger. ~ Me
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2008
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No worry there..... Hard to get a conservative redneck to do that... plus...my father was VERY explicit about the consequences of THAT!!  Ingwe
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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Joined: May 2004
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 56,249 Likes: 34 |
Nah, the front seat guys got the big bucks. I was just along for the ride! Yeah, big bucks. $650/mo. and we arrived at the crash site first.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
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Joined: Feb 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 73,096 |
Nah, the front seat guys got the big bucks. I was just along for the ride! Yeah, big bucks. $650/mo. and we arrived at the crash site first. More than twice what I made, and they were my cushions for the wreck site! 
George Orwell was a Prophet, not a novelist. Read 1984 and then look around you!
Old cat turd!
"Some men just need killing." ~ Clay Allison.
I am too old to fight but I can still pull a trigger. ~ Me
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,695
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,695 |
Rocky,
Great read, thanks for the view. Your books are now on my short list of "must reads".
Best read on the Chopper War to date, IMO is "Chicken Hawk" by Robert Mason. My son read it while waiting for Blackhawk rides into hot spots in Iraq. That book got passed around a lot.
The History Channel just ran a show about the VN era FAC's. It was very interesting, to say the least. Very few of us had any idea of the crucial role those men played than and still do today.
Thanks again Gentlemen.
BT53
"Where do they find young men like this?" Reporter Savidge, Iraq
Elk, it's what's for dinner....
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 31,299 Likes: 11
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 31,299 Likes: 11 |
Today's Forward Air Controllers work either on the ground or from an F-16 at 30,000 feet. The way we did it would be essentially unsurvivable with things like the Stinger man-portable SAMs. It was getting close to unsurvivable for us when the Russian version began appearing at the very end of 'Nam.
I had one fired at me, and it was only the poor training of the operator that allowed me to live - I went by him really close and he fired. The missile was past me before it started to arm up and search. Had he waited 30 seconds...
We called it "getting a Strella suppository" because it would fly right up your butt.
A half-dozen F-16 FACs from Luke AFB came to one of our reunions four years ago. When they heard us describe what we did and how we did it, they literally blanched. The History Channel show UNDERstates what it was really like.
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,171
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,171 |
Rocky, I have a lot of thanks,awe and respect for the FAC's I communicated with in Vietnam. I was an Army artillery LT. and flew in the left seat of Marine Huey gunships as an AO (air observer) around Danang in late 1967. In 1968 I was a Forward Observer with an infantry company in the Army 9th Infantry Division. The FAC's saved my ass several times in the Mekong Delta.
Neil
Dong Ha Vietnam '67
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Joined: Dec 2006
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 52,680 |
Rocky,
Great read, thanks for the view. Your books are now on my short list of "must reads".
Best read on the Chopper War to date, IMO is "Chicken Hawk" by Robert Mason. My son read it while waiting for Blackhawk rides into hot spots in Iraq. That book got passed around a lot.
The History Channel just ran a show about the VN era FAC's. It was very interesting, to say the least. Very few of us had any idea of the crucial role those men played than and still do today.
Thanks again Gentlemen.
Got to warn you about Rocky's books, once you start one you won't want to put it down! They are excellent! I am patiently awaiting numba 3!
Liberalism is a mental disorder that leads to social disease.
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 8,748
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 8,748 |
Great thread. FAC(A) is definitely one of the most challenging missions. Did in the F-14, but in peacetime only. Peace seemed to break out every time I deployed... But, the mission was great, very dynamic, thinking and coming up with gameplans on the fly. Much harder than basic strike missions. Air-to-Air could be pretty dynamic too, but FAC(A) was the hardest, probably followed by CSAR. Can't even imagine what it would have been like to do it everyday. I have a great respect for what you did. Thanks!! When I was a very new guy, I was crewed with a guy who had flown LOACHs in VN before switching to the Navy. LOTs of great stories!!
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Joined: May 2009
Posts: 282
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 282 |
Central High Lands 66-67 D1/10 had crossed sabres on the nose and a shamrock on the tail boom.
Kind of sad the M60 is off Army and Guard property lists. The last VN style Huey is gone from the Guard, even the XM16E1 is obsolete. I shot a M60 at a machine gun shoot near Casper last spring sure stirred up a lot of memories.
The noise from a 12.7 hasn't changed.
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Joined: May 2004
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 56,249 Likes: 34 |
Strellas sucked sure enough. Lost a few friends to them, but more to small arms and 12.7mm stuff.
One of the things I recall vividly about I Corps aviation was the coverage FACs gave us when stuff hit the fan, and for the Air Cav mission the fan got hit a lot. There is no substitute for lots of HE when you need it.
Another thing I remember is everybody thinking everybody else was nuts for the mission they flew, regardless of what it was. Took a few Snake pilots our on scout missions and they liked to wet their pants. They took some Marine F4 pilots out in the front seat a few times. These guys were flying Steel Tigers but near about crapped when the snakes did a high angle rocket run from 1,500'AGL. Guess it's all relative to what you're used to doing for a living.
Spent a week looking for an overdue Bilk FAC out around the A Shau in 1970 and never found him. Only lost aircraft mission we failed at and it bothered me a long while. FACs were part of the team and we ALL relied on the team.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,262
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,262 |
...
We called it "getting a Strella suppository" because it would fly right up your butt.
... Rocky; I've told this before, but that is how I got the name Bulletbutt---I used to sit on my flak jacket because I just knew I'd take a green tracer up there. p.s. I never knew until now how much those pilots made a month over there, I just knew I was rolling in dough at $360 a month. That was after I made Sgt (E-5) in 14 months, which wasn't all that common.
Last edited by Bulletbutt; 11/08/09.
I saw a movie where only the military and the police had guns. It was called Schindler's List.
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