Frank Weed Charlie Troop 1965 to 1966

 

I know all of you were in country a lot later than I was. I stepped
off of the 707 in Saigon and the smell hit me hard. Several of us
were loaded onto a Caribou almost immediately. When we landed at An
Khe. Being a tanker, I looked around for some tanks. The only thing I
saw was a large area with helicopters. I later learned that this was
the golf course. There was a NCO there who assigned us an area to wait for
someone to pick us up.. I was assigned to C Trp, 1/9 Cav. Being
assigned to a Cav unit at Fort Carson, I still thought that I would be
assigned to a tank unit. That sure didn’t happen!
The 1st Sgt assigned me to the Scout section. A SFC took me to a tent
and introduced me to some of the other gunners/observers and CC’s (Crew Chiefs). The
next day a SP4 took me under his wing and introduced me to the H-13 model helicopter. I
learned how to load and arm the M60 that some of the H-13’s had mounted
on the skid’s. He also showed me how to load the rocket pods that the
other choppers had mounted. Each pod held four rockets. He told me that
they were to be armed just before take-off.
My first flight was first light with a W3 as pilot. We flew several
miles out away from the base. I was able to fire my M-16 to get use to
leading the target. The pilot had a 3 shot M79 grenade launcher that he let me fire.
That evening we flew last light. I was getting use to what to look for.
I never got air sick from the way the pilot flew (low and fast).
Sometime’s we flew high cover, while another scout flew low. Once in
awhile the cover bird had an artillery officer and he would call a
strike into an area.
Several weeks later we found a hooch that was located on a hill-side
that overlooked the base several mile away. We hovered over the hooch
and I dropped smoke. We got the hell out of there and a few minutes later two
F4’s came in and blew the hooch off the face of the earth. That was the
first couple of months assignment to the troop.

I wish that I could remember the names of the EM (enlisted men) and officers that I
knew while assigned to the unit. I blocked a lot of what happened out of my mind when I got back to the states. This includes the way I was treated when arriving home and the units I was assigned to. Most of the officers and enlisted men I ran into stateside had not seen combat.

Now that I have been in contact with some of the men I served with and others, I realize that I still have a lot of memories blocked. Some are coming back.

I will have more stories to tell.