Caught Red-Handed: A Soviet Spy in Saigon

Life RoLLs on Civilians moving along in the midst of war chaos and carnage on hamburger hill Bravo Company’s Fight for Survival

assauLt HeLicopteR from concept to combat

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Helping Our COmbat WOunded WarriOrs and tHeir Families Contents October 2014

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Chimp puts ejection seat to the test, may 1961.

FEATURES

28 Bailout! Bailout! When a B-52 was shot down on a bombing raid DEpARTmEnTS into , the pilot ordered a bailout, but the navigator had a problem: His ejection seat 6 Correspondence did not work. By Paul Novak 8 Intel Another Vietnam-Nixon controversy; War 36 A Soviet Spy in Saigon photographer honored; Veterans group recognizes A French doctor used his friendships with South excellence in the arts; the war’s deadliest years Vietnamese offcials to acquire information for the Soviets. By Merle Pribbenow 16 Homefront September-october 1964

40 Life Rolls On 18 Interview Retired Colonel doniphan “don” Wartime photographer Paul Stephanus captured Carter talks about his views on war—after being in scenes of people moving around three: World War ii, korea and Vietnam. with bikes, trains, rickshaws and sampans. 22 My War dan Smith, sergeant, U.S. Air Force 46 On the cover: Deadly Mistake on Hamburger Hill As the battle for A unit assaulting Hamburger Hill was accidentally 24 Arsenal North Vietnam’s mig-21 Hamburger Hill hit by U.S. helicopters. An Army lieutenant gives intensifes in May 1969, a wounded 27 a frsthand account. By Frank Boccia Editor’s Notebook soldier is taken to a helicopter for 54 Helicopter War Guru 60 Reviews Invasion of 1971; the Air Force’s evacuation. When helicopters were transformed from delivery Charlie Chasers; the CiA’s Lockheed A-12; U.S. vehicles to fghting machines, former infantryman Combat Shotguns Robert Shoemaker helped lead the charge. By Brent C. Bankus 66 Offerings

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z m Marine pilots, except by thosetrained references. thanvisual rather instruments Regulations—navigatingment Flight by isqualifed to who fyunder Instru- of by therainy season. There’s also theissue weren’t available; weren’t they grounded cle andexplains why helicopters certain toprior the events inMr. Bercaw’s arti- no doubt, wastasked to help. was This Vietnam to pick up theload. The Army, time, H-34swere additional to shipped Vietnam by1968. January that During andweremajor modifcation back in helicopters were sent to overhaul for ing catastrophic failures. airframe The problemstural theCH-46, with caus- 1967, theMarines were having struc- in therainy season. By thesummer of Canyon, Dewey Operation of which was ner, Ifew inSikorsky most H-34sduring ment isnotquite true. As aMarine gun- reliable support….”without state- That the rainy season, left their ground troops “Marine pilots, grounded for much of in QuangTri, immediatelyafter Tet, John Bercaw histime saidthatduring My Warthe In Rainy Season Sikorskys ASA wasnotin Vietnam. Mr. Prados themyththat perpetuates units. To notmention them inhisarticle, research companies research or radio theseunits, were of they radio tity called ArmyAgency. Security To hide theiden- Those Army comint men aname: had the Agency andthe Army’s “comint men.” Group,Security National Security the Air Force Service, Naval Security (Augustgram 2014). He gives credit to evolved into the “Vinh Window” pro- about anoccurrence story esting that Historian JohnPrados ASA OutoftheCloset i n e correspondence Former communications Former communications intelligence offcer, intelligence ASA story (Auguststory 2014), Cape Nedick,Cape Maine Neil Mahoney tells aninter- Marines in Vietnam in 1970, and I’ve Tavak 2014). (June the with Iserved MIA remainsthe recovery at Ngok of interestI read with Ngok Tavak POW Bracelet Unit Citation Hoa. atDuc for itsactions Vietnam to awarded be the Distinguished thefrst the 197thbecame Army unitin the 197th Aviation Company. In April, aviation. In March 1965, the68thbecame company, unique in atthattime Army helicopter missions andwasanall-armed Company wasinvolved support inalotof inthewar,it wasearly the68th Aviation their Huey wasshotdown. Even though Theodore Winowitch were when killed Morgan, Sergeant Frank Porter andPfc. Offcer Roy Azbil, Warrant Offcer Steve ous injuries. OnDecember 30, Warrant outevacuated of seri- Vietnam very with but Murray andSpc. 4Casprowitz were were shot down. crew The wasrecovered, ray and Warrant Offcer Sullivan Daniel On December 29, Lieutenant Paul Mur- killed. Hueys Both were from the68th. ters were shotdown were andfour airmen Nhut. You mentioned thattwo helicop- Aviation Company atTan stationed Son (AugustDuan 2014). the68th I was with Gia mentioned inyour aboutLe article I was amazed Big Battle atBinhGia young Army Huey andChinook drivers. respect thework all donethey by those dotes the about working with Army, but I checked offered with humorous anec- them inadvertently. Other Marine pilots entered clouds the they when out get of rating, them which helped instrument IFR qualifed, atactical had they though Army of pilotswere portion A good not the Army, were and are rated. instrument

to see the battle of Binh Binh to thebattleof see Monroe, Washington George Berenbrok Essex, Maryland the story about about the story Wayne Stafford VietnamMag. www.facebook.com/ afanat Become weiderhistorygroup.com. Leesburg, VA 20176;orto Vietnam@ Vietnam Editor, 19300Promenade Drive, Send letters andreunion notices to: everyone’sbring stories to life. plished. you Thank for you what do to citations for many frsts thatwe accom- milesinourtour and receivedof unit tion Company. We traveled thousands 2013). Iwasinthe442ndTransporta- “Hard Ride inaHard War” (December I enjoyed your story Nam Road Truckers of theplates from aMarineof fakjacket. ered. In thatsamespot, Irecovered one where McGonigle’s remains were recov- fort, on thebracelet thespot andIburied group made the trek upto theoldFrench McGonigle’sPOW/MIA bracelet. Our thisarea,would visiting be Itook along Duc.the campswasKham Knowing I ForcesSpecial campsinICorps. Oneof theold 2010 Idecided some to of survey hisremains.and therecovery of In March stances surrounding McGonigle’s death French fort. Iresearched thecircum- North Vietnamese Army from theold Mike Force the observing been thathad men sent to Ngok Tavak the to support McGonigle, theMarine artillery- one of thenamePvt. with bracelet William Dee Around 1980, Iacquired aPOW/MIA returningbeen to Vietnam since 1999. Returned toNgok Tavak Roland “Ron”Huegel The Villages,Florida Clement L. Reynolds Clement Urbana, Illinois Courtesy roland Huegel on truckers,

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october 2014 T required, buttheNationalArchivesprefersit. Foundation approvalofpresidentiallibrarydirectorsisnot Naftali statedinanopinionpiecethe choice, not approveofthe partner, theNixonFoundation,did of TexasinAustin,toflltherole,butlibrary’sfundraising library, pickedMarkLawrence,ahistorianattheUniversity Archives andRecordsAdministration,whichmanagesthe ment LibraryatNewYorkUniversity.In2012theNational Naftali, whoresignedin2011andisnowdirectoroftheTami- Vietnam War,accordingtothelibrary’sformerdirector,Tim foating museum, but those plans did not work out. foating museum, butthoseplansdidnotwork out. affliated with “Bailout! Bailout!”pg.28). rescued agunnerwhohadejected fromadownedB-52(see Gulf ofTonkin,carryingplanes thatfewmorethan1,500missionsagainsttargetsinNorth Vietnam.In1973,thecarrier the vesselwasdeployedinCubanmissilecrisis,Vietnam WarandGulfWar.In1972-73, behemoth for1cent,accordingtoNavyTimes.com. scrapyard. TheNavyhascontractedwitharecyclingcompany toremoveanddismantlethe demise inaBrownsville,Texas, The venerableaircraftcarrierUSS Scrapping theUSS Saratoga The companywillgettheproceedsfromsellingrecycled steel.StretchingaslongtheEmpireStatebuildingistall, Fight Over Vietnam atNixon Library The ship was decommissioned in 1994. Veterans groups The shipwasdecommissioned in1994.Veteransgroups in a controversy over the library’s treatment of the in acontroversyoverthelibrary’streatmentof Library inYorbaLinda,California,hasbeensnarled he selectionofanewdirectorfortheNixonPresidential intel Saratoga tried to raise money to turn it into a triedtoraisemoneyturn it intoa Saratoga Chicago Sun-Times , launchedin1955andnowmooredNewport,RhodeIsland, willmeetits

. promise hesecretly broke just days before theelection. quiet aboutPresident Johnson’s peace initiatives in Vietnam, a During his1968 presidential bid, Richard Nixon agreed tokeep meet withLawrence,andhewithdrewfromconsideration. tion overtheWatergateexhibit.Thefoundationrefusedto Vietnam, accordingtoNaftali,whoclashedwiththefounda- and writethescriptforallexhibits—includingoneon further onthat.”Thefoundationwantstorevampthemuseum perspective “wasjustdifferent”andadded,“I’mnotgoingany dation leadertoldthe the war,accordingtoNaftali,whonotesthatafoun- take on national History Lawrence istheauthorof , and the Nixon Foundation does not like his , andtheNixonFoundationdoesnotlikehis Orange CountyRegister The VietnamWar:AConciseInter- Saratoga wasstationedinthe that Lawrence’s thatLawrence’s If we leave Vietnam with our tail between On the our legs, the consequences of this defeat RECORD in the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America would be disastrous.

—General maxwell taylor, ambassador to south vietnam, years ago in a report to secretary of state dean rusk, september 1964 sept. 13 south korean troops arrive in south vietnam. the Tribute to a War Photographer force, which will eventually grow to about 50,000, initially consists Photographer Art Greenspon became an honorary member of the 327th Infantry of 34 offcers and 96 enlisted Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division in a ceremony at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, men in a mobile hospital unit, on May 19. Greenspon was recognized for his black-and-white photograph Help along with 10 tae kwon From Above, snapped during a fve-day patrol with the unit in Vietnam’s A Shau do instructors. Valley near Laos. Greenspon, who headed to Vietnam in late 1967 as a freelance pho- they join other tographer, recalled that he was “too naive to be scared,” reported the NCAdvertiser, allies already a newspaper in New Canaan, Connecticut, where Greenspon now lives. His picture, in vietnam. taken in 1968, shows a man with upraised arms directing a helicopter that is ready Contingents to land. Greenspon sold it to The Associated Press for $15. He was badly wounded from New shortly afterward and returned to the States. His photograph became one of the war’s Zealand and best known and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. the philippines arrived earlier in 1964. australian army advisers had been in vietnam since 1962.

oct. 1 the u.s. army 5th special forces Group, based in fort bragg, North Carolina, is assigned to vietnam to oversee Green beret operations on a permanent basis. special forces detachments had been operating in south vietnam on temporary duty assignment since at least 1957.

oct. 8 a military group from the republic of China (taiwan) comes to south vietnam. estimated at fewer than 50 people, it will provide advice on political warfare Art Greenspon’s Help From Above shows a sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division guiding and assist with medical care. a medevac helicopter that has come to retrieve injured soldiers near Hue in April 1968.

CloCkwise from top left: NixoN presideNtial library aNd museum; arChive photos/Getty imaGes; larry burrows/time life piCtures/Getty imaGes; art GreeNspoN/assoCiated press; ph2 rory kNepp/u.s. Navy 9 intel

VietNam tOday Rx or R.I.P. for Rhinos?

The Asian thirst for the supposed heal- ing powers of ground rhino horn is driving the animals to the brink of extinc- tion, and Vietnam is reputed to be the product’s biggest market. To preserve the species and counter medical myths, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health and the Tradi- tional Medicine Association issued a statement saying no evidence supports the belief that rhino horn has the power to fght cancer. The announcement was made at a workshop in Hanoi sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation, South DNA Africa. Results Challenge Rhino poaching in South Africa surged from 13 in 2007 to more than 1,000 in 2013, according to the African Wildlife Foundation. The most endangered rhinoceros spe- Identity Claim cies is the Javan rhino, which once inhabited Vietnam and Indonesia. The last Javan He has claimed to be lost rhino in Vietnam was poached in 2010, and only a few dozen survive in Ujung Kulon Army sergeant John Hartley National Park in Java, Indonesia. Robertson, missing since his helicopter crashed over Adapt or Drown Laos in 1968, but a man living in Vietnam under the As a nation where 70 percent of the name of Dang Tan Ngoc is people live along the coast, Vietnam now confronted with DNA is especially vulnerable to rising sea tests that don’t back up levels related to climate change. The his story that he was taken country has already taken steps, in prisoner, escaped and created collaborative aid projects valued a false identity. A forensics at nearly half a billion dollars, to laboratory compared a DNA build food-resilient sea dikes, roads sample from Robertson’s Flooding is a rising concern in Vietnam. and houses. The efforts also include nephew with one from a planting mangrove trees as a buffer against rising water and to help absorb runoff. In a bloodstain obtained from recent projection, 10 percent of City will be fooded from rising sea levels by Ngoc, according to a May 12 2050 and 20 percent will be under water by 2100. The director of the Water Management story in Stars and Stripes. and Climate Change Research Center in Ho Chi Minh City has said that an improved sewer system is critical for dealing with the increase in fooding. Dengue Fever on the Rise

The mosquito-borne Dengue virus, which produces high fevers and aching bones, is being spread by insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. Dengue fever cases in Vietnam are up 28 percent over last year. Four of the 8,000 infected patients have died. The disease is colloquially known in the United States as breakbone fever because of the excruciating pain John Hartley Robertson

october 2014 that victims suffer.

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VVA Presents Awards Khe in 1970, pursued a career compos- for Excellence in Arts ing, performing and recording music. He co-founded the Lt. Dan Band, which per- Each year, the Vietnam Veterans of formed for military personnel worldwide America presents awards honoring excel- from 2004 to 2012. lence in the arts. The 2014 recipients are In 1968, 18-year-old Terrie Frankel and actor Tucker Smallwood; musician and her twin sister, Jennie—who had appeared composer Kimo Williams (the subject as The Doublemint Twins—took their of a Vietnam magazine profle in April guitar-and-accordion act to Vietnam 2014); musician and author Terrie Fran- for the USO. Terrie became a producer, kel; and writer Jim Northrup. screenwriter and composer, as well as an Smallwood, best known for his roles author of several books, including the in Star Trek Enterprise and The X-Files, best-selling You’ll Never Make Love in This was drafted into the Army in 1967, vol- Town Again (1996), which she co-au- unteered for Offcer Candidate School thored with her sister, who died in 2008. and went to Jump School and Special Poet and novelist Northrup enlisted in Identical twins Terrie and Jennie Frankel Warfare School before commanding a the Marines in 1962 and served in Viet- fve-man Advisory Team in the Mekong nam from 1965 to 1966. In his latest Delta, where he was severely wounded. book, Dirty Copper, Northrup, who is a In 2006, after making a return trip to member of the Anishinaabe in north- Vietnam, Smallwood published an ern Minnesota, writes about Vietnam anthology of essays, Return to Eden. vet Luke Warmwater, a Native American Williams, following his service with the with post-traumatic stress disorder who Jim Tucker Northrup Smallwood 20th Combat Engineer Brigade in Lai becomes a deputy sheriff in Minnesota.

CloCkwise from top: library of CoNGress; © ed Geller/Globe photos/Zumapress/alamy; euaN kerr/miNNesota publiC radio/assoCiated press 13

Weider History’s MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library present Writers On War

A unique collection of works from each of the seven winners of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Great Literature Award for Lifetime MILITARY Achievement in HISTORY Military Writing. from today’s Item: WHGWW BEST Print: $11.99 (s&h included) WRITERS! Digital $9.99 Don’t miss this extraordinary offer. Available in print or digital! Call: 1-800-358-6327 s Or go online: www.historynet.com/writers-special Weider History Group, PO Box 8005, Dept. VN410B, Aston, PA 19014 intel

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DIGITS Wanted: Women’s The Vietnam War’s Five Deadliest Years Nurse Uniforms About 90 percent of the more than 58,000 deaths during the The Yankee Air Museum in Ypsilanti, Vietnam War occurred in the fve-year period from 1966 through Michigan, wants to round out its Vietnam 1970. In 1968, the bloodiest year, 16,899 were killed. display, which opened Memorial Day, with uniforms from female personnel in all military branches—and particularly nurses’ uniforms, according to a report on hometownlife.com. To donate, contact:

Yankee Air Museum Curator Julie Osborne 734-483-4030, ext. 237 [email protected]

Source: NatioNal archiveS/DefeNSe MaNpower Data ceNter. the Death DateS raNge froM JuNe 8, 1956, through May 28, 2006. the Date recorDeD for the DeathS iS the actual Date of Death or the Date of the iNciDeNt that cauSeD a Death that occurreD later. the iNforMatioN waS curreNt aS of april 29, 2008. the total Death couNt theN waS 58,220.

left to right: KeviN JohNSoN; u.S. MariNe corpS/NatioNal archiveS 15 16

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october 2014 were told to pack up. next The morn- there for two months, andthen we Mountain eventually. Division Iwas October. It out to turned the10th be atCampDivision Swift, Texas, in to the10thLightI wasassigned Where didyougonext? back to three months. basic course, cut that andthen they we were to there be for afour-month [Georgia], asdidmy roommate, and infantry, soIwent to Fort Benning to ourbranch schools. chosen Ihad place inNormandy thatday. earlier taken had he saidwasthatthelandings Forces.Armyof Service frst The thing Lt. Gen. Brehon Somervell, thechief went to graduation, thespeaker was to three instruction years.of When we and theacademy thecourse shortened months later Pearl Harbor happened, 1945. July theclass of of Six 1941 with I entered West Point on thefrst day What wasitliketograduateonD-Day? A Perspective on War From aMan Who Was in Three were NATO two andfour assignments tours inthree war zones with Interspersed in Vietnam. Division the 25thInfantry offcerinKorea,staff with andacolonel operations regimental and 179thInfantry in Italy during World War II, amajor 10thMountain thefamed Division with Doniphan “Don” was alieutenant Carter uated from West Point. Utah grad- beaches, andOmaha Carter 1944, theday American on landed troops shores Normandy, of France. June On 6, canmatch. that few themid-20thcentury of conficts great onthe colonel, hasaperspective infantry atthePentagon.stints After amonth’s leave, we reported all It all began onD-Day—butIt notbegan onthe all Carter, was an also father Army whose interview line. We were them, behind just sitting companiesrife inthebattalion were on war inItaly. able for upthe ourfnalattack to wind place to take thatwould terrain favor- be We stayed upthere aboutaweek. afewhad casualties, nothingserious. didn’t any get trouble from them. We post, thatobservation andsowe of theGermans.prised wastheend That rocky face andgot upthere andsur- climbers from a scaled thedivision we could to, get but some mountain was inaplace didn’t theGermans think fre onto it.that could direct artillery It time. didn’t They kick usoff. We stayed. Division. And they’d taken itback each by ittwice kickedthe92nd been had off We took themountain. Germans The made anattack on Mount Belvedere. February,of division thewhole when mishes, nothingmajorthe23rd until intoally combat—little minor skir- andthen eventu- oursealegs of rid Appenines. We went on hikes to get Florence,tain, of north upinthe We were amoun- dug inon theside of When didyoufrstexperiencecombat? to Livorno. on afreighter, andwe went upthecoast we arrived inNaples, my unitwasloaded and that’s we thefrst time knew. When toldThen they uswhere we were going, land, by of all ourselves. sight out of woke upthenext morning, andwe were We didn’t know where we were going. I America Camp Patrick Henry. down inHampton Roads [Virginia], at ing we got on trains. We wound up On the 15th of April,On the 15thof theother two From there we went to some other post There observation wasaGerman On Jan. 4, 1945, put usonthe SS they , renamed theUSS

West Point . company 196men. of Now weren’t they bloody. We a lost22men thatday out of could fnd, we went. andoff It waspretty We weapons had cave sited on every we fre put preparatory on them. artillery Air Force dropped bombson them. The buildings, were but they stone. all The fortifed.had small It wasabunch of were going to hitthisplace theGermans would company, thelead be andwe were going to passthrough them. We there for waiting theorder to go. We went inthesecond wave. We went on the farshore, sent them back. I the frst wave. captured Germans They cap, they’ve surrendered. and put on their helmets asoft take off takeGermans orders well. pretty they If for the inthesecondAmericans wave. back across the boats dle theriver side, usecaptured to Germans pad- inthefrst waveboats to get thefar for thesecond wave. question washow to back theboats get back for others] disappeared, had sothe thefrst troops across,ferried then rowed ered [andwould theassaultboats have two waves. deliv- had who engineers The company,the whole sowe to had have groups.” We didn’t have for boats enough andsaid,on theradio “Organize theboat 12, thecompany commander me called 12 o’clock. When close itwasgetting to would making anassaultcrossing be at nextThe day we were we informed What happenedthere? the Po River. proud inItaly, andeventually we got to afootblown off. had men who go through. Iwalked pastacouple of killed,all but we two had to minefelds The companyThe commander went in I made amajor decision: When the 10thMountainThe diditself Division across, and as we’re running up the dissidents who don’t like what’s going bank, the medic took a bullet in the on, and they’re organized well enough thigh. We got his equipment, stopped to create problems and the governments the bleeding and bandaged him up. aren’t strong enough to hold them off. We captured three Germans, put them If we back out, then it’s a tossup in the boat and told them to take the whether throwing money at them is medic back to an aid station. He made going to help. What are we trying to do? it back OK. It worked well. That was We’re trying to export democracy, and I kind of a fascinating event for me. don’t think you can do that. I think that We proceeded north, and the division has to be developed from inside. was supposed to plug Brenner Pass [on the border between Italy and Austria] Earlier you mentioned your roommate so the Germans couldn’t get out and at West Point. That was General Dwight defend up around Berchtesgaden, where Eisenhower’s son, John Eisenhower. Hitler had a redoubt. We were there on We were good friends. My wife, Eleanor, May 8 when the war in Europe ended. and I are the godparents of his oldest child, and he and his frst wife were the Seven years later you were in Korea. godparents of our oldest child. How did you wind up there? Eleanor and I got married in June of There was a war on, and I wanted to be ’46, when John was stationed in Vienna. in it. So I volunteered for Korea. I went After the wedding, we went on an abbre- to Korea in September of ’52 and had viated honeymoon that ended at my par- my year there in an infantry regiment. ents’ place in Severna Park [Maryland]. I got a communication from Mamie: “I What did your unit do in Korea? have a wedding gift for you, but you’ll After West Point, Don We didn’t do anything unique. We didn’t Carter fought in World have to come in to Fort Myer Quarters go anywhere, except sideways, back and War II, Korea and Vietnam. One [the Washington residence of the forth. We moved around a little bit. But Berry Jennifer e. Army chief of staff].” we didn’t go north or south. There was a interest, where they moved around and So on the Fourth of July, Eleanor and demilitarized zone. The enemy was on tried to do what they were supposed to I sat on the front porch with Ike and that side. We were on this side. We shot be doing, which, I was told, was winning Mamie and drank ice water and watched at each other. We ran patrols to make the hearts and minds of the people. the freworks. While we were enjoying contact with them. Some people kept score by body count. the freworks, he asked me, “Well, what We had some encounters when they It wasn’t the happiest experience of my are you up to?” tried to get in our trenches. But we life, being in Vietnam. It didn’t come I said that on July 6 I was to report for fought them off. I was back at regimen- out very well. shipment back to Europe. tal headquarters. I was the regimental “Where are you going?” operations offcer. Professionally, it was Do you see any parallels between “I don’t know. I guess I’ll get in the a good tour of duty. Vietnam and Afghanistan, where we also replacement stream and somewhere I’ll are training local forces, hoping they can get an assignment.” Then came Vietnam. hold the country together after we leave? “How would you like to go where I got orders to take over a brigade in The only war I’ve been in that was a John is?” Vietnam in June 1967. I had the 25th good war was World War II, because we Now you’re a frst lieutenant, and Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade. We took the objective, which was to defeat you’re talking to a fve-star general who were at Cu Chi, co-located with the the Germans. We won the war there, was chief of staff of the Army, what do headquarters of the 25th Division. and the enemy was defeated. And now you say? “Wherever you want, sir.” I had three battalions, and each one you don’t have a political entity that So I wound up in Vienna, where John’s had its own tactical area of operational you’re fghting against. It’s bunch of battalion was.

19 20

october 2014 until they tried to keep tried they usfromuntil helping Brits. were Germans The nothreat to us Germany we because were the helping Harbor. course, Of we got involved with we can’t put upwith, like bombing Pearl danger that’ssome level of something I thinkwe have to fndourselves in women to go towar overseas? think itis right toask young menand War II, Korea andVietnam, when doyou From your experience serving inWorld knew how to to people get work together. the autobahn. did with the Germans He road network, seen what andhehad know areason hehad to wantabetter interstates,but credit he gets for them. I under him. You may or may notlike the that. matured well very country The nothing but play golf, but Idon’t believe thinkhewasapresident ple who did who more it. to do with Iknow there are peo- waste thatwarcaused, hedidn’t wantany he saw thedeath anddestruction, the War him. out IImade apacifst of When into Vietnam. John told methat World Korea.He got usout of He didn’t take us Europe. decisions. good He made a lot of the job ascommandera good in Allies of the top inthislastcentury. people He did I thinkhewasagreat man. He’s one of What’s your assessment of Eisenhower? to us, were andthey just ourhosts. a four-star general. were They nice being awe him. of We were cadets, and he was couldn’t thetrain. off get We were in all mates to dinner on thetrain. Eisenhower was authorized to invite three class- station. atthetrain dropped John off Point inaprivate car, rail which was then. He andMamie cameupto West there wasnotgoing to aninvasion be would they know was notinEngland knew he the Germans secret if because He camehome from London. It was at cadets West Point 1944. of inJanuary John him while I frst met andIwere Had you met Dwight Eisenhower before? interview followed us, behind sowe weren’t doing do now. We left them there. medics The didn’t take thewounded back like they to theaidstation. We kept moving. We takeGermans himback across theriver my shot—we getting the medic let and didn’t do any did. better thanthey takingitoverand we tried from them the French got thrown out of Vietnam, going to take ourfriends. care of Well, Vietnam. Kennedy decided thatwe were don’t thinkthatwe were endangered in Britain. Then we were endangered. I ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ 31, 1974; assignments included: service: Military Academy,Military WestPoint, new york Academy, Cornwall-on-Hudson; U.S. Education: Born: Doniphan Carter This littleincidentThis Itold you about— professor, science military Career Management Division, 179th infantry regiment, 45th new york Military Academy, assistant infantry5th regiment, 71st infantry Company e, infantry38th regiment, Company B, 87th infantry regiment; Combined Command for recon. Pentagon far Activities east, Japan infantry Division, Korea 2nd infantry Division, Colorado, Texas Division, Vienna Colorado 10th MountainDivision, Texas, italy, feb. 13, 1923,fort Benning, Georgia new york Military

June 6, 1944-July Capt. Don CarterandU.S. Rep. Francis Case inspecttroops of the5thInfantry Regiment in Vienna inSeptember 1947. ◆ ◆ ◆ Post-military activities: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ entity that cansay,entity “OK, we give up.” tosurrender there’s because nopolitical can’t say it’s when over. There’s nobody we don’t have apositive objective. You I thinkone reason it’s so long is because not involved inthiswar Afghanistan. people,killing then it’s…I’m I’m glad you don’t have anobjective other than take theterrain. him. That’s they’re because notgoing to comesomeone andthen they back with soldier left behind.” go out andlose They thing.Butwrong the now you have “no President, West Point Class of 1944, President, eagle Graphics, Membership director, national Adjutant General’s Offce, Pentagon Offce of theU.S. Delegate, Directorate for CivilDisturbance 1st Logistical Command, Vietnam infantry 25th Division, Vietnam Offce of theUndersecretary of Headquarters, nATO’s forces Allied Offce of theDeputy Chief of Staff, We anobjective had to take. But if 2001-present Alexandria 1981-94 Alexandria, Virginia1974-81 formsBusiness Association, Committee,Military nATO, Brussels Planning andOperations, Pentagon the Army,Pentagon Southern europeCommand, naples Pentagon Personnel, Department of the Army, H

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october 2014 F ‘Overseas’in Texas and Vietnam Cong on the other side of a 20-foot wall. a20-foot Cong on theother side of A-1E dive-bombing Skyraiders Viet was walking to my I noticed hooch when again. for time This Vietnam. for something new. Ivolunteered So slide show atShepard. andfipchart manual, for every gadget aid, training circuit andhydraulicdiagram, electrical part, engine wiring every I illustrated . information a visual my unit, as but intheend Iwasassigned Needless to say, my theire letter raised of Icould swapto another occupation.if Zukertand wrote to Secretary ask him in the “chaincommand,” of Isatdown mechanic. Not having schooled been yet Force decided I’d make agreat aircraft a caror changed plug, aspark the Air aptitude, I’d andthough never owned Falls, Texas. Itested inmechanical high then Shepard Air Force in Base Wichita inTexasBase and for basictraining there’s anything Icando for you, just ask.” us, offered andsaid, congratulations “If gave usouroath. He handswith shook the Air Force of Secretary Eugene Zukert 18 recruits went to Washington, D.C., and said, “Let’s do it.” For in, theswearing the or photography.something ineither art I month. He assured methatIcould fnd the would sworn be inon the18thof were 18recruits who 18and onebe of the commemorationAir Force: of Iwould the18thanniversary of I would part be Virginia, Ichose to join told methatif local Air Force recruiter in Arlington, ber, Iconsidered joining theservice. The any college, andhaving alow num- draft The dayThe I arrived atTan Son Nhut, I After three years inTexas Iwasready designer,As and graphic anillustrator to Lackland off I shipped Air Force fnal grades wouldn’tfnal grades meinto get job andthe Vietnam War. My school graduation,high my frst or me, my 1965wastheyear of my war every other night,every Iwastold to go back to line.the fight But after mortared being air-conditioned communications room on on sleeping thefoor inasmall I started operating. It wassohot inmy hooch that aircraftline, were of where many types Southeast Asia. Imoved out to thefight electronic reconnaissance throughout the unit responsible and for visual both 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing— Robert Kennedy inLos Angeles. blow by wastheJune 6assassination of quickly. the events to that seemed Oneof from thenext, passed my in-country time seven days aweek. Not one knowing day ings, which occurred 24hours aday, personnel inthe “need to know” meet- sible for graphics, prepared for thevisuals headquarters. My unit, which wasrespon- about theMay Offensive Tet. following came through. Everything wasbuzzing few days my until sandbags flling orders isjust like“This TV.” thenext Ispent news coverage thewarandthought, of watching wasgoing what on. seen Ihad Soldiers were thebarracks on thetops of that hedesigned for the Air Force. Dan Smithshows oneof theunitpatches In four months I was reassigned to the In four months to Iwasreassigned the to SeventhI wasassigned Air Force

until until rebuilding. wasasecret This campaign and ground sensors. The VC just kept on photoand other assessment damage with it and then counted kills thetruck out of Chi Minh Trail. we So thehell bombed theHo chokepass wasthe The pointof airstrikes on theMu GiaPass inLaos. photos that showed bombdamage from by the460th. remember Iespecially the the surveillance of Viet Cong conducted my hooch andmy 98-degree mosquito net. magazine, a sister publication of former artdirector of Mayin-country 1968-May 1969. Heisthe Dan Smithserved asasergeant andwas and Vietnam!” Force,always I say, two—Texashad “I overseas tour my during inthe time Air college on theGIBill.home andstart into my clothes, civilian ready to head men’s andchanged room intheairport enlistment. Backon U.S. soil, Iwent to the three months left onwith my four-year downsizing andthe Air Force mego let andgoshoe home.” doctor suggested thatI “put itinatight my toe. With my tour, aweek left of the time. Playing soccer on thebeach, Ibroke that the Viet Cong their down- alsospent little beach where resort it had rumor took athree-day R&Rat Vung Tau—a there on the streets.machines right would make thepatches on their sewing local Vietnamese tailorsor dressmakers intoand took thedesigns Saigon, where offcial andunoffcial—units—both We patches designed for various Air Force we could fxor build or create anything. on something. As long aswe tools, had between theguys, everyone wasanexpert My photographic job wasto review When people ask me if Iever When an had askmeif people When Ileft Vietnam, was themilitary myClose to assignment, theend of I What I liked wasthat about my service Newsweek magazine broke magazine thestory. H Military History Military Vietnam By Dan Smith

.

Right: jennifeR e. beRRy; Above: CouRtesy DAn smith ‘Between the guys, everyone was an expert on

something. As long

as we had tools, we could fx or build or‘ create anything.

24

october 2014 T Fighter Regiment. Although the 921st Vietnam. Theplanesenteredservice withthe921st designation of“Fishbed-C”by NATO)toNorth the (given MiG-21F-13s frst the shipped Soviets Crusader andF-4Phantom. InApril1966the opponents suchastheF-105D Thunderbolt,F-8 but itwasclearlyatadisadvantageagainstfaster nam’s airspaceastonishinglywellsince1964, MiG-21s toactiveusewasNorthVietnam’s. and manystilldo.Amongtheairarmsthatput craft inhistory. making theplanemost-producedMach2air- in China astheChengduJ-7 from 1964to2013, Czechoslovakia andanundeterminednumber built underlicensingagreementsinIndia,194 from 1959 to 1985 inthe Soviet Union, 657 were and morecomplexMcDonnellF-4PhantomII. career ofitsfrequentadversary,themuchlarger ment, longevityandoverallsuccessparallelingthe than 30years—arecordofprogressivedevelop- in 1959andremainedfrst-lineserviceformore an effectiverange of up to8,000 meters. the AmericanAIM-9Sidewinderandhad direct copyof NATO) wasa in (K-13 Atoll missile The MiG-21’sR-3Sinfraredhoming sidewinder soviet MiG-21: Hanoi’s Aerial Equalizer fying MiG-17s sinceFebruary 1964, itspilots ini- The subsonicMiG-17haddefendedNorthViet- More than50countrieshaveusedMiG-21s— In additionto10,645MiG-21smanufactured ity frst few in 1955, entered Soviet service ity frstfewin1955,enteredSovietservice delta winginterceptorwithMach2capabil- atailed of concept Mikoyan-Gurevich he arsenal

had been (Modernized) A BAd MF A BAd suffx wasshort for in 1969andwasfrst exported in1970. Its

various users, not by anyonepilot. users, not various racked upbytheplane’s fghters representvictories North Vietnamese of stars onthenoses The red stAr lone no The MiG-21MF entered service service The MiG-21MFentered MiG-21 claims. been positively matched totheNorthVietnamese American aircraft64 drones. have Onlyand two 13 aces,ledbyNguyenVanCoc withsevenplanes aircraft, includingpilotlessdrones, andproduced pilots werecreditedwithatotal of134American volvement inVietnamJanuary 1973,MiG-21 still attributetoSAMs. claims ontwoB-52bombersthattheAmericans including IandIIthatyear, Operations Linebacker were heavilyengagedintheclimacticairbattlesof advanced MiG-21MFs(Fishbed-J).Bothunits parlance), whilethe921stre-equippedwithmore formed withMiG-21PFMs(Fishbed-FinNATO performance andradar. a successionofupgradedmodels,withimproved artillery. NorthVietnameseforcesalsoreceived fghters, surface-to-airmissilesandanti-aircraft effective elementin a coordinated triaddefenseof an MiG-21 the tomake tactics their adjusted namese hadlearnedtheirhardlessons,andthey to adiscouragingdegree. to practicaluseincombat.Lossesexceededsuccess Mach 2fying,radarandair-to-airmissiletactics tially hadtroubleputtingtheirSoviettrainingin Forsirovanny By thetimeUnitedStatesceaseddirectin- On Feb.3,1972,the927thFighterRegimentwas By theendof1967,however,NorthViet-

Modernizirovanny (Uprated). H

on July 23,1980. on Soyuz V. Gorbatkoaboard with Viktor Vietnamese cosmonaut,going frst the 1972. Helaterbecame Dec. 27, on thenightof B-52D with shootingdowna credited Tuan whenhewas Pham Capt. No. 5121wasfownby MiG-21MF pilot FAMed -37 for 79 days beginning -37 for79 days beginning RP-22 radar. RP-22 radar. The MiG-21MFused A nose For rAdAr [ 1,044 miles Range twin-barrel cannon one GSh-23L air-to-air missiles, infrared-seeking R-3S Four Armament 14,320 lbs. turbojet, R-13F2S-300 One Tumansky Power 1,352 mph Max. speed Max. 17,086lbs. lbs. Empty 11,400 Weight 13 ft. Height 6 in. 47 ft. Length 23 ft. Wingspan

MiG-21MF By JonGuttman

]

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Everyone has bad days. Those days Exhausted troops rest after the brutal fght for Hill 875 in the Battle of Dak To. when the “check engine” light comes on and the computer conks out, when nowhere. McTernan knew that if he Also in this issue, we begin tailoring it seems like things could not get any didn’t get out of the plane before it our Homefront department to the worse and they do. But the next time crashed into the South China Sea he 50th anniversary commemoration you are bemoaning your bad day, think would die. McTernan also knew he had of the Vietnam War. Homefront will about the really bad days described in to stay calm and fnd a solution in just look back at the songs, movies, books, two articles in this issue: a matter of seconds. fashions, celebrities and domestic • A plane is hit by a missile and The story about the helicopter news stories that caught the country’s catches fre (bad enough) and then an incident, “Deadly Mistake on attention exactly 50 years ago. This ejection seat doesn’t work. Hamburger Hill” (pg. 46), takes place issue returns us to September and • An infantry company of the 101st midway through the 10-day battle, one October 1964. Airborne Division starts an uphill of the most famous—and bloodiest— The new Homefront complements assault in a mountain jungle and engagements of the war. It’s told by the Intel department’s “50 Years Ago suddenly is hit by rockets—from its Frank Boccia, a frst lieutenant in Bravo in the War” timeline of events in the own army’s helicopters, and then the Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry war zone. Readers can easily see which enemy launches a counterattack on the Regiment, whose company commander events were occurring simultaneously troops, weakened by the friendly fre. was seriously injured in the accidental overseas and at home. attack on May 15, 1969. You will notice, for example, that In “Bailout! Bailout!” (pg. 28), Paul Boccia’s narrative transports readers in October 1964 Green Berets of the Novak, a navigator on a B-52 bomber to the scene with a nearly minute-by- Army’s 5th Special Forces Group were during the Vietnam War, tells the story minute recounting of the chaos and the assigned to Vietnam, and Martin of the last B-52 shot down in the war. decisions by young offcers who kept it Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel The plane was on a bombing run in under control until their troops could Peace Prize for his civil rights work. January 1973 when it was hit by a get to a safe position. The juxtaposition of activities on North Vietnamese missile. The article is an excerpt from Boccia’s the front lines with events on the The pilot ordered a bailout, but when book The Crouching Beast, A United homefront is likely to present navigator Myles McTernan pulled the States Army Lieutenant’s Account of the many interesting contrasts in the handle on the ejection seat, he went Battle for Hamburger Hill, May 1969. coming months. H

27

Bailout!Bailout! Bailout!Bailout! When his B-52 bomber was struck by a North Vietnamese missile, the pilot ordered a bailout, but the navigator’s ejection seat failed and he had just seconds to fnd another way out of the burning plane By Paul Novak

B-52 Stratofortress with the call sign Ruby Two, under the command of Lt. Col. Gerald Wickline, few over North AVietnam the night of Jan. 3, 1973, on a bombing mission. It was supposed to be a milk run, easier and safer than a recent raid. It wasn’t. Since the frst B-52s began fying in the early 1950s, only 18 of the 744 planes put into the air have fallen to enemy fre—all in the Vietnam War. The last one was Wickline’s. Wickline and his crew had just completed a pair of missions that destroyed a railroad on the north side of Hanoi and nearby Phuc Yen airfeld as part of Operation Linebacker II. More than 1,000 missiles had shot down 15 B-52s over Hanoi and Haiphong during 11 nights in late December. “There were so many surface-to-air missiles fred at us during those missions, they looked like swarms of frefies,” Wickline recalled. When the SAM onslaught was fnished, 32 crew members were dead and 35 had become prisoners of war. Wickline’s crew was exhausted, relieved and happy to be alive after 30 combat hours in the air and a long trip from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to their new station at U-Tapao airfeld, Thailand. An ejection seat On January 3, only three days after his last Linebacker II mission, separates from a crewman, and a Wickline was ordered to strike the city of Vinh, a North Vietnamese small parachute industrial and agricultural center midway between Hanoi and the South opens ahead of the main one. Vietnamese city of Hue on the main north-south coastal highway and

U.S. Air Force/NAtioNAl ArchiVeS 29 30

october 2014 territory. deep intoenemy and othercities targeted Hanoi B-52 bombers they werethey able to aimtheir missilesmore accu- few aircraft. By thelastplanesfew over, thetime on thefrst their sights the SAMoperators aligned said. “We’d from learned missions that previous aircraft. of in thestring Sgt. Carlos Killgore, tailgunner. Bill Fergason, electronic warfare offcer; andTech. Major RogerKlingbeil, navigator;Captain radar co-pilot; Captain Myles McTernan, navigator; Air Force inTexas: Base Captain Bill Milcarek, away.and ahalf 15 milesnorthwest of Vinh, wasaboutanhour 2:43 a.m. Vietnam time. target, Their park atruck fromship wave B-52sthatdeparted U-Tapao of at line.rail Wickline’s Ruby Two anine- of waspart “I wasn’t happy to next be to last,” McTernan towardFlying Vinh, Ruby Two wasnext to last Wickline anexperienced had crew from Dyess explosion directly below ournose.” “We were rocked by atremendous

A run, andwe were Linebacker veterans II.” of rately. itwasamilk But notto Itold worry; myself being guided straight to Ruby guided straight being Two. radar,with even momentarily, andtheSAMswere the North Vietnamese locked had onto theaircraft inthewindshield, which usually meantthat ary their left wing. themissilesappearedAll station- Milcarek fourSAMs off sawdistant fashesof the west targets hitting andsouthwest of Vinh.” us, of ahead andattheother two waves B-52s of over Hanoi. Several missileswere fred atplanes than Iever saw before, including thetwo missions “Ruby Two wasthebull’s-eye,” Wickline said. At 40seconds before bombs away, Wickline and fre over Vinh,” Wickline recalled, “more [anti-aircraft artillery] triple-A saw lotsof s theplanesdrew closer to their target, “we —Gerald Wickline U.S.Force/NAtioNAl Air ArchiVeS

THe B-52 STraToforTreSS “I maneuvered to avoid the incoming. the B-52 Stratofortress was designed in the late 1940s as the U.S. military’s The frst SAM whizzed by our nose and primary long-range bomber. Assigned to the , the plane detonated just above us. The tail gun- was built to deliver nuclear weapons, although by the mid-1960s B-52s were also ner reported the second missile missed carrying conventional bombs. our tail by only 50 feet and exploded Boeing Aircraft co. made 744 B-52s in Wichita, Kansas, and Seattle between just above us. I lost track of the third 1952 and 1962, when production ceased. the prototype, the YB-52, frst few on April 15, 1952, followed by years of testing with several aircraft designated the and fourth missiles, but it didn’t mat- B-52A. the frst B-52A’s maiden fight was in August 1954. the frst version to ter. There was no time left to dodge. We enter service with the Air Force was the B-52B on June 29, 1955. were 10 seconds from the target, and I At the Strategic Air command’s maximum strength in 1963, it operated 650 needed to fy straight and level to get an B-52s in 42 squadrons at 38 U.S. bases. accurate bomb drop.” the Air Force few the B-52D (including ruby two) and B-52G models in As the last of the 108 500-pound Vietnam. A total of 31 were lost in the war—18 from surface-to-air missiles and bombs fell from the aircraft, one of 13 from causes such as ground accidents, midair collisions and mechanical or the North Vietnamese missiles found structural failures. Since then, 11 additional B-52s have been lost to accidents. its target. For the past 20 years, the h model has been the only active operational B-52. “We were rocked by a tremendous the 76 aircraft, assigned to the Air Force Global Strike command, are housed at explosion directly below our nose,” re- Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and Barksdale Air Force Base in louisiana. called Wickline. “Three windows on –Paul Novak my side of the cockpit shattered and showered us with broken glass. The emergency light for No. 1 engine came on, and un- quenchable fames spurted from the engine pod.” Wickline shut down the damaged engine. “All of my fight instruments, including airspeed and attitude were out,” he said. “The glass in most of the engine instruments on both sides of the cock- pit was shattered, and they no longer worked. All hydraulic power to the left wing was out, and all fuel gauges on the left wing were either spinning or stuck. I polled the crew. Everyone answered ex- cept Sergeant Killgore. A few minutes later we felt a thump and heard his parachute beeper go off.” Flames, which the rest of the crew could not see, forced the gunner to bail out on his own. Kill- gore, riding in the gun turret at the rear of the line said. “I worried if they could get out. The es- Sa-2 Guideline plane and facing aft, jettisoned the turret, leaving cape hatches were flled with JP-4. Any tiny spark surface-to-air nothing but air in front of his seat, then leaned could ignite the fumes and destroy the aircraft.” missiles, such as forward, fell clear of the aircraft and pulled the rip The crew members were extremely concerned this one in Hanoi, cord to open his parachute. about the leaking fuel. “We didn’t even want to were unleashed Catastrophe struck the two men on the lower shut down our equipment on the lower deck be- on approaching B-52 aircraft. deck, 8 feet below and 15 feet behind Wickline’s cause we were afraid moving a switch could create seat on the top deck. A fuel-transfer valve above that spark,” McTernan said. radar navigator Klingbeil’s head was destroyed by Two sister B-52s stayed with Ruby Two as shrapnel, and a highly fammable jet propellant, Wickline started the descent. He leveled off at JP-4, poured out, soaking Klingbeil and McTer- 12,000 feet about 90 miles north of the U.S. base nan, leaving severe chemical burns on their ex- at Da Nang. The huge Stratofortress was barely posed skin. Klingbeil, the most severely burned, controllable. Every time Wickline attempted to screamed in pain. slow down, the aircraft would start a roll to the “The lower deck was foating in jet fuel,” Wick- right and could be straightened only by increasing

© MArc riBoUD/MAGNUM PhotoS 31 32

october 2014 pictured above. like the one cockpit, much rubyin Two’s instruments out allthefight strike knocked The missile W reliable instruments, soIcouldn’t sure.” be weresix engines working OK, but Ididn’t have at idle.running As nearas I could tell, the other the No. throttle,” 8engine hesaid. “I thinkitwas toued intermittently, burn andIlostcontrol over the airspeed. fre inthe No.“The contin- 1pod “I turned out to“I turned seaandordered bailout about Sergeant Killgore,”contact with Wickline noted, that rescue forces from theUSS ese airspace. “As soonasIheard over theradio and South the 17th parallel Vietnam- of safety if theejection seat rockets ignited thefumes.” “The planecould become aninstant freball next half-hour as they few towardnext half-hourasthey the to keepgled theplanein airfor the ickline andco-pilot Milcarek strug- Saratoga

were in And atthesametime, McTernan yanked the trig- tight, Imust have looked like Popeye.” cockpit,” hesaid. my“I pulled parachute so straps seatrocketsejection the thefumesflling ignited the couldairplane become aninstant freball if McTernan. notto thinkthatthe entire“I tried togan consume their plane. China Sea, illuminated mostly by thefre thatbe- members prepared to into jettison thepre-dawn Bailout.” It wasnow about 5a.m., andthecrew shouted over theinterphone: “Bailout. Bailout. DaNang.”20 mileseastof Hislower-deck companion,Klingbeil, ejected. On thelower worried still fuel deck thespilled Wickline fred and upthebig red light warning —Myles McTernan U.S.Force Air

How an ejecTion SeaT workS ger ring between his legs. His seat was in ruby two and other B-52Ds, the fve crew members in the main cabin are in pushed back and downward. But the ejection seats. the three on the upper deck—the pilot, co-pilot and electronic hatch didn’t blow as it was supposed to. warfare offcer—eject through the top of the plane. the two on the lower deck, the “I heard the ejection seat thruster and navigator and radar navigator, eject through the bottom. in both cases, a thruster felt the seat accelerate briefy,” McTer- rocket blows the seat well clear of the plane before the main chute deploys. on all models up through the B-52F, the sixth crew member, the gunner, nan said, “but there was no wind blast rode in the tail of the aircraft. to bail out, he would jettison the gun turret, lean or ruffe of the parachute, and I felt no forward, fall clear of the plane and manually open his parachute. the gunners separation. I opened my eyes and saw in the B-52G and h models sat in an aft-facing ejection seat next to the the hatch must have been jammed by electronic warfare offcer on the upper deck. shrapnel from the missile explosion.” When a crew member needs to eject, he lifts a pull-handle, setting in motion The thruster that normally propels the a sequence of events completed in just three or four seconds. An explosive seat won’t fre if the hatch is not re- cartridge blows the escape hatch away from the aircraft, the chair is pushed leased. McTernan was trapped. up or down, and a leg and thigh restraint system is activated to hold the crew On the upper deck, Wickline heard member’s legs against the seat. then an under-seat rocket motor blows the two thumps below him and assumed chair out of the aircraft. Electronic that both McTernan and Klingbeil had once the chair is out of the plane, a drogue gun, warfare officer, ejected. By the time he turned his head an explosive device in the seat, fres a metal Bill Fergason to check on the electronic warfare off- slug that pulls a small parachute out cer, 15 feet behind the co-pilot, Wick- of the top of the chair. Another Pilot, line saw only a hole where Fergason’s motor-driven mechanism fres, Gerald Wickline escape hatch had been. Looking across lifting the seat cushion, Co-pilot, Gunner, Bill Milcarek tail turret, the throttles at Milcarek, he said, “Bill, which pushes the crew Carlos Killgore get the hell out of here.” member out of the seat. The co-pilot nodded, rotated his After a specifed delay, an armrests and squeezed the triggers. altitude sensor causes the Wickline made a last call on the in- main parachute to open. terphone to confrm that no crew mem- –Paul Novak ber was still on board. “When no one responded,” he said, “I waited a few interminable seconds, pulled the throttles to idle and ejected.” Radar navigator, Roger Klingbeil No one responded because a desperate McTer- Navigator, Myles McTernan nan on the lower deck could not reach his micro- phone switch. “I heard Wickline call, ‘Anyone still on board?’ that beautiful big orange and white canopy above McTernan said. “I realized he didn’t know I was my head, and said, ‘Wickline, you lucky son of a downstairs, but I couldn’t key my mic in time to gun. You’ve got it made now.’ Then I pulled off my tell him. As I reached for the foot switch, I heard oxygen mask and barfed into the South China Sea the co-pilot eject, and I panicked. I wrestled with a few thousand feet below.” the seat belt so I could let Wickline know my pre- Back in the plane, McTernan was all alone as the dicament. I took a few seconds to get loose and burning Stratofortress plunged toward the ocean climbed up to the platform between the down- 10,000 feet below. He knew he would die when it stairs seats. That’s when I heard Wickline eject, hit the water. McTernan had only seconds to get out. and my heart jumped into my throat.” “My only hope was to bail out through the hole When Wickline left the plane, he felt a tremen- left by the radar navigator’s ejection seat escape dous kick in the seat of his pants, a blast of cold hatch,” McTernan said. “I crouched above it, rolled air, a sense of severe tumbling and a sharp jolt, into a ball and fell through the hole into total which tore the ejection seat from his hands. Then darkness. I knew I bailed out a couple minutes be- there was a loud pop, followed by intense silence. hind the rest of the crew, and I’d land in the water “It all happened in seconds. I looked up, saw miles from them. Though I remember nothing, I

KeViN JohNSoN 33 34

october 2014 After rubyAfter two colonel in1991. Henow lives inFolsom, California. training atMather Air Force Base inCalifornia. career aschief of navigation training for jointnavigator other navigator-related assignments, heclosed outhis tour atDyess Air Force Base in Texas. After aseries of Palm City, Florida. and the0-2Skymaster observation plane. Wickline andhiswife now live in 1959. In thefollowing years, hefew notonlyB-52sbutalso B-58bombers McTernan retired from the Air Force asalieutenant 1975 McTernan completed hisB-52 Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. In at U-Tapao airfeld, Thailand, and July 1973 to fytraining missions and returned to Southeast Asia in recovered from hisinjuries stateside CAptAin Myles MCternAn went back to fightschool andearned hispilot’s wings in aircraft atMcClellan Air Force Base inCalifornia. Wickline career in1954asanavigator ontheRC-121 reconnaissance in 1973. Hehadbegunhis Air Force Wickline retired from the Air Force also recovered from hisinjuries. lt. Col. GerAld wiCkline lowered them upto andpulled thecopter, which picked up by ahelicopter. A horse-collar was device more thananhourafter bailout, thefour men were came up, about 6:10a.m. Some 20minutes later, iton andwaited.”turned I got tossed about, radio, out my pulled survival unstable. very which made theraft on Iheld as discovered crawled I[had] into thenarrow end, overa housewashed me,” Wickline said. I “Then claw my way into aswaves thelife raft as ashigh kit. seat, asurvival the ejection along with to into get thatdeployed thelifehe tried raft from jured hisshoulder, as useless arm makinghisright reached the water safely, although Wickline in- had into ahuge reddish freball.” orange atthehorizon andsawglanced Ruby Two explode getfulness,” hesaid, quickly thatpassed “but asI the tray by hiswindow. atmy“I got furious for- membered heleft hisfavorite cigarette in lighter must have cord.” therip pulled Wickline remembers asthesun inhisraft sitting “It took meabout15agonizing minutes to Wickline, Milcarek, andFergason Klingbeil all As Wickline foated down, theB-52pilotre-

LAOS LA TARGET TARGET –Paul Novak Vinh Vinh Ha Tinh Dong Hoi Dong Hoi Quang Tri Quang Tri and couldn’t thetwo ignite fare/smoke canis- either,”to myself help he said. “I losttwo radios crews on combat fights. equipment vest, from hissurvival worn by B-52 all didn’t.They hope wasthatthechoppers would come quickly.” Iwaitedswells while for rescue,” hesaid. “My last life preserver kept mefrom drowning in10-foot seat,ejection wasback on theaircraft. “Only my kit, andsurvival life attached raft to thefailed itaspainamnesia.” diagnosed they McTernan’s Imust havethought lost consciousness, but later blood.with Icouldn’t remember anything and life preserver infated, had andIwascovered remembered. “My chute foated me, behind my moment, theseafor hissurvival. wasfghting tion) but damage. nopermanent must haveeye (the visor shattered ejec- during inhisright visor helmet Fergason apiece had of dar navigator, suffered from blistering JP-4 burns. “Nothing worked, and Iwasn’t doing much For 4½hours McTernan attempted to usethe “When Iwoke upitwasdaylight,” McTernan noword had They on McTernan, who, atthat T in good shape.in good But Klingbeil, thera- pital, Killgore. upwith where met they few themen to DaNang Air hos- Base Tonkin Gulf of Hue Hue Da Nang Da Nang Gunner bailout injuries. Co-pilot Milcarek was the rescuedhe gunner been had by 17th Parallel LeFT: CoURTeSy PAUL NovAk (2);RIGHT: kevIN JoHNSoN Saratoga Huangliu andreported no Crew bailout Crew bailout McTernan McTernan

a Sikorsky HH-3e helicopter, ÒIn 10-foot swells, my last hope was that the “jolly Green Giant,” pulls up the choppers would come quickly.Ó a downed pilot in ÑMyles McTernan Vietnam during a search-and- ters. Somehow, I punctured my life preserver and ries,” McTernan recalled. “We discovered that he rescue mission. needed to constantly re-infate it by mouth.” worked in command support at Da Nang at the Barely afoat in the raging sea with no way to time of my rescue. He told me the small fxed- alert rescuers, McTernan knew death “might be wing aircraft searching for me turned back when only minutes away.” its fuel approached Bingo [just enough to return The right side of his face had been smashed to base]. As the craft made the turn to base, the in during bailout. He was bleeding, burned by jet pilot saw a spot of color on the ocean. I must have fuel and had cuts on all of his fngers. His insides just hit the top of a wave and became briefy visi- were a mess from all the salt water he ingested, ble. The pilot radioed a helicopter to pick me up.” and—someone told him years later—he was in McTernan looked thoughtful and added, “If shark-infested waters. that rescue plane hit Bingo fuel a few seconds later “My parents even got a telegram that same day or earlier, or if the pilot made a right turn instead saying I was missing in action,” McTernan said re- of left, or if I wasn’t at the top of the wave at the cently, managing a slight smile. right instant, I never would have been found.” H Not until 10 years later at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California, did McTernan Paul Novak, a decorated former B-52 navigator learn how very close he came to being listed as who teaches creative writing at an adult extension killed in action. of Arizona State University in Phoenix, wrote about “A fellow offcer and I were sharing war sto- B-52 crews in his anthology, Into Hostile Skies.

U.S. Air Force/NAtioNAl ArchiVeS 35 36

OctOber 2014 frenCh DoCtor the CASe ofthe in SAigon A Soviet Spy T gence staff, about harbored William Colby, theCIA’s Saigon theCIA’s of Angleton, chief thelegendary counterintelli- about thecase. on suspicions James primarily focus They 1981 spy novel, onbased theFrench doctor in appears Arnaud de Borchgrave’s theCIA of History Tom Mangold’s John Sullivan’s spy tales, mentioned in hasbeen many publications, including The “French doctor case,” theconfict’s one of mostintriguing But such accounts have provided only information vague

mingled freely with U.S.freely with mingled and Vietnamese offcials. Frenchman treated who tuberculosis patientsand insidebased South Vietnam thewarwasa during espionagehe only agent Soviet known permanently Of Spies andLies Of The Spike Cold Warrior . Additionally, character clearly afctional . By MerlePribbenow a clinicinSouth Vietnam doctor whooperated lavish parties andone the French FBI, Russian agents inParis, A story of CIA offcers, andJoseph Trento’s , John Prados’ Lost Crusader,

The Secret The Secret

Soviet intelligence offcers stationed at their country’s embassy in Paris, above, secretly received information about the situation in South Vietnam from a vacationing Saigon doctor.

JACk GARoFAlo/PARIS MAtCh VIA Getty IMAGeS; leFt: kluBVoy/IStoCkPhoto, Photo IlluStRAtIon By keVIn JohnSon 37 38

OctOber 2014 every year,every thedoctor’s during annual inFrance. vacation intelligenceviet offcers inParis. occurred once meetings These tosubsequent Moscow trips So- with before meeting hebegan espionage andclandestine communications. Hautier made two Hautier saidhetraveled to Moscow in in1967to trained be intelligence contacts. social circle gathered through hiswide of was asked to supply his VC “friends” andpolitical military with icine to Communist forces inSouth Vietnam. Later thedoctor recruitedinitially by the Viet Cong to provide andmed- money but according to Wolton, thedoctor told theDSTthathewas to and Soviet Vietnamese intelligence fles, Hautier’s access confession without is true Hautier by thepseudonym Victor Gregoire. gavewho himthe story, Wolton refers to French attherequestperhaps of offcials offcials.security In thecase, hisaccount of from unidentifed French intelligence and Le KGB France en thecaseinhis1986book of other aspects theconfession vealed and thedetailsof arrested thedoctor in1972. Surveillance du Territoire, or DST, which theFBI—Direction de la equivalent of made under interrogation by France’s Hautier comesof from aconfession he the Communisttion about recruitment offcials. South Vietnamese Quangandother high-ranking with dined Nguyen Van Thieu. couple The regularly affairs for Presidentnational security and Quang, assistantfor military special was arelative Lt.wife of Gen. Dang Van turer atSaigon University’s school. medical His Vietnamese 1960s. least theearly Dr.the home of Pierre Hautier, Saigon since aresident at of duous investigation zeroed point: inon thetransmission to Moscow. straight andbeamed transmitter ar- and long A messages were medium-speed sent being from aSoviet-style from thecity. revealed thesignals thattheAn analysis of Saigon itintercepted when coded messages broadcast radio and could hardly remember him. talkedthedoctorhe had only on afew socially with occasions gold state thatColby intheir books told another CIAoffcial asrequired byin writing CIAregulations. Prados andMan- by thedoctor—contacts contacts had with to hefailed report inthe1960sandlater theagency’sstation chief director. Col- It tois impossible know how muchof FrenchWolton Thierry journalist re- onlyThe publicly available informa- Hautier atuberculosis ran clinic inSaigon andwasalec- spy abouttheexistence in aSoviet CIAlearned The of , on based information Hautier confessed to contacts withSoviet intelligence offcers. Caught red-handed,

to arrest Hautier ashe washandingapackage to Em- Soviet its surveillance. OnJuly 11, 1972, DST offcers swooped in summer vacation. As arrived, soonas they theDSTresumed scent, Hautier andhisfamily returned to France for their any without ued alsopicked inklingthattheDSThad upthe heandhisfamilyuntil left for Saigon. ligence, theGRU.) French The monitored Hautier’s activities cers Hautier incontact intel- with worked military for Soviet offcer, but off- other sources theSoviet indicate of thatall lived. informa- to had CIAstill determinekindof The what nals thatHautier wasaspy, atfrst knew only they where he ment sohecould intelligence get from information them. intheSaigon govern- politicians offcers andhigh-ranking tomoney throw for senior lavish parties Vietnamese military must havevided important. been the Hautier some used of hepro- andanindication thattheinformation at thetime $20,000inU.S.him atotal of currency, asubstantialamount nication, according to theconfession. secret commu- other of forms invisible via inkor transmitted gathered.had in He written separate reports sent theSoviets would come to hisclinic to receive Hautier theinformation way. hiscaracertain parking Then, asTBpatients, posing they The nextThe year, astheCIAinvestigation inSaigon contin- When from CIAagents learned theintercepted sig- radio Hautier admitted thatfrom 1967to paid 1972theSoviets In Saigon, Hautier would his signal Viet Cong contacts by (Wolton’s says book theoffcial wasaKGB the doctor’s summer inFrance. vacation passing apackage to the offcial during Hautier spotted EmbassyinParis Soviet intelligenceknown offcer to the assigned 1971, aDSTsurveillance team watching a about Hautier. thesummer of During gation, itsown developed suspicions of the CIAinvesti- noknowledge of with handlers. hisSoviet with induce himto secretly on contacts report mastersthe doctor hisSoviet against and was to “double” thisoperation—to turn the doctor andhiscontacts. goal Their game,waiting hoping to more learn about Its counterintelligence offcers played a decided to keep to theinformation itself. materials,other incriminating theCIA tor’s residence for and thetransmitter ese police could sothey search thedoc- ment inespionage. Hautier hisinvolve- extent and the full of transmitted,tion wasbeing gave who itto In themeantime, theDST, operating theSouth briefng Instead of Vietnam- AkG-IMAGeS/unIVeRSAl IMAGeS GRouP/SoVFoto Dr. Pierre Hautier lectured at Saigon University, above, and befriended South Vietnamese leaders who gave him information he passed to the Soviets in coded radio transmissions. bassy Third Secretary Vladimir Nesterov. Inside the package, Hautier affair provides a couple of historical insights into ef- the DST found intelligence reports the doctor had written on fective intelligence operations. “the political and military situation in South Vietnam” and First, in counterintelligence investigations it is often best Hautier’s accounts of the money the Soviets gave him to con- to take direct action once your target has been identifed. In duct his operations. the Hautier case, CIA investigators wasted time and effort trying to sidle up to the doctor and his associates in the hopes aught red-handed, Hautier confessed. The French gov- of “turning” one of them. They lost the chance to catch the Cernment then expelled Nesterov and two other Soviet doctor with his transmitter in Saigon, where the South Viet- offcials involved in the case, Georgy Sliuchenko and namese police and CIA had considerable leverage they could Viktor Aleksandrovich Sokolov, declaring them persona non have used to persuade him to identify other members of the grata. Hautier received no punishment. A judge ruled that Soviet spy ring, his Viet Cong contacts and his sources. In- the doctor had not committed a crime under French law be- stead, the CIA had absolutely nothing to show for its lengthy cause he had spied only on the South Vietnamese and Amer- and expensive operation. It could not even take credit for icans, and Hautier was released. He never returned to Saigon. Hautier’s arrest because the French investigation had been The family resettled in a former French colony in West Af- conducted without American knowledge or assistance. rica, where the doctor lived until his death many years later. Second, this case revealed that the vaunted Soviet espio- As word of Hautier’s arrest in France fltered back to Saigon, nage offcers were not nearly as good as their reputation. The the South Vietnamese police swept into the doctor’s residence Soviet GRU offcers handling this case managed to compro- and conducted an extremely thorough search. No incriminat- mise their agent twice—once to the CIA, through their use ing documents or spy materials of any kind were found. The of an easily detected and identifable transmitter, and once radio transmitter, the doctor’s code books and all of his other to the French, through the poor tradecraft and surveillance- espionage gear were gone. No one knew who “cleaned out” the detection measures they used when meeting with the doctor. doctor’s residence. In contrast, the CIA and DST never detected the classic, non- Rumors about the reasons for Hautier’s sudden departure technical meeting and communications arrangements that rumbled through the overseas French community and Saigon’s Hautier said VC intelligence offcers used to contact him, high society, but the entire embarrassing affair was quickly showing once again that simpler is better. H hushed up and forgotten. In addition to its signifcance as the only known case of Merle Pribbenow is a retired CIA offcer who was stationed in a Soviet spy operating in South Vietnam during the war, the Saigon from 1970 to 1975.

JIM BRown ColleCtIon/the VIetnAM CenteR And ARChIVe/texAS teCh unIVeRSIty, VA048264; InSet: PoPPeRFoto/Getty IMAGeS 39

A girl on a motor-assisted bicycle rides through Saigon seemingly carefree.

40 “It was and is a beautiful country.” As a civilian news photographer during the war, Paul Stephanus traveled all over South Vietnam from 1967 to ’69, visiting places such as Saigon, Vung Tau, Tay Ninh, Dalat and Nha Trang, as well as Hue, the site of a devastating battle in February 1968. He carried an accreditation card from the organization in charge of all U.S. forces, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, permitting him to fy on military helicopters, which, he says, was the coolest way to go and great for photography. His photos were published by United Press International, The Associated Press, Life, Look, Parade, The New York Times, Newsweek and many other publications around the world. Much of his flm survives, Stephanus says, because he sent it home to his mother for safekeeping.

Photography by Paul Stephanus Life RoLLs on

41

A Vietnam sailing junk catches the wind in Vung Tau Bay, about 75 miles southeast of Saigon.

42

“I saw the country by helicopter, car, hitchhiking, motorbike and train, my personal favorite.”

T Top: Vietnamese are ferried to a hospital ship in the Rung Sat Special Zone southeast of Saigon. Bottom left: A diesel Life RoLLs on locomotive, emerging from a tunnel, pushes a fatcar near Nha Trang as a precaution against mines. Bottom right: Saigon’s Central Market is flled with many methods of transportation. 43 “Unlike many people who had been to Vietnam, I had more good experiences than bad ones.”

Top left: Rooftop passengers enjoy a breezy view at 25 mph on the Nha Trang to Thap Cham train. Top right: A sampan works its way up the coast in Nha Trang. Bottom: Against a backdrop of destroyed buildings in Hue, rickshaws await business.

44

South of Hue, a locomotive built in 1927 backs up a work train to reopen the line to Da Nang after the 1968 siege on the imperial Life RoLLs on city. Sandbags on the foor protect the engineer from mines.

45

DeaDlyDeaDly mistakemistake onon hamburgerhamburger

46 A soldier from the On the ridges of what would be 101st Airborne Division is wounded by a North called Hamburger Hill for the Vietnamese rocket exploding behind him way troops were ground up in the on Hamburger Hill. fghting there, U.S. helicopters mistakenly hit a 101st Airborne unit on the verge of winning its battle against rough mountain terrain, dense rain forest and a well- entrenched enemy

n one of the war’s bloodiest battles, about 1,000 troops from the 101st airborne division and 400 soldiers from south Vietnam’s 1st division, part of a large operation to destroy I north Vietnamese forces in the a shau Valley, fought their way up ap bia Mountain in May 1969. their mission: dislodge the 7th and 8th battalions of the enemy’s 29th regiment, “the Pride of ho Chi Minh,” ensconced in heavily fortifed positions on the mountain, designated hill 937 on military maps. when the battle was over, 72 americans had been killed and 372 wounded—a casualty count that earned it the sobriquet hamburger hill and caused a frestorm of criticism from american politicians and a war-weary public. the 101st airborne’s 3rd brigade, deploying troops from the 3rd battalion of the 187th infantry regiment, made frst contact with the north Vietnamese army on May 11 at 1630 hours. after several days of intense fghting, the 3rd bat- talion, commanded by lt. Col. weldon honeycutt, still had not made much headway in the rugged mountain jungle. on May 15, the battalion’s bravo Company was ordered to renew the assault on the middle ridge, fanked to its north by a badly battered delta Company and to its south by alpha Company, which had replaced the shattered remnants of Charlie Company the previous night. the long, narrow ridge—only a meter wide near the summit—and its steep, heavily forested fanks made maneuver nearly impossible. bravo’s 3rd Platoon, led by Master sgt. luis Garza, began the assault, backed up by the 1st lt. Marshall eward’s 2nd Platoon. the hill Excerpted from the Crouching beast: a lieutenant’s account hill of the battle for hamburger hill, May 1969, copyright 2013, by Frank Boccia and reprinted by permission of McFarland & Co. Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. By Frank Boccia www.mcfarlandpub.com.

bettmAnn/cOrbiS 47 1st Platoon, under 1st lt. frank boccia, was charged something to snyder, who grabbed one of the radios. i looked with securing the ridge from 2nd Platoon’s rear down up and down the trail; from where i stood, i could see almost to a helicopter landing zone, about 550 to 600 meters no security around us. Jorgenson and sweet, who had been from the summit. in between 2nd Platoon and the land- securing the area immediately around the command post it- ing zone was the company command post and a lower- self, were both down. level night defensive position. i looked over my shoulder; helms, who was standing several Just as the 3rd Platoon entered a clearing, some 75 me- feet away, having already started to move down toward the lZ ters from the summit, a huey helicopter mistook bravo ahead of me, was unhurt. “tell wright to bring a squad up here, for the enemy, hitting it with four 2.75-inch rockets and now,” i yelled. shredding the command post. boccia was 10 meters from when i turned back, i saw snyder holding out the radio; the company commander, Captain Charles littnan, when it was the battalion net. i ran forward and took it from him. everything was washed out in a glare of white. in an excerpt “black Jack, this is bravo one six, over.” i kept my voice fat from his book, The Crouching Beast: A United States Army and low pitched. Lieutenant’s Account of the Battle for Hamburger Hill, May “this is black Jack. what have you got down there?” 1969, boccia tells what happened next. “one six. we just took a round, maybe two. i don’t know what it was; it didn’t sound like rPGs, over.” here was a harsh, fat crack, not at all loud, and “this is black Jack. it wasn’t rPG. it was that goddamned an acrid smell of smoke and scorched, white-hot ara. You just took four 2.75s in your column.” metal and an impression, just below the level of “roger.” i was too stunned to be angry. “bravo six is down. T consciousness, of bright red lines of fre streaking so’s bravo five. and a lot more.” through the air past me. Yells and screams tore “roger. how’s your three six element doing?” black Jack through the air. i whirled to fnd a scene of carnage: bodies asked. lay everywhere. littnan was down. so were Conzoner, Price, “they were oK, the last time i heard, a couple of minutes ago.” Peters and Crenshaw, who lay with his right leg twisted un- “tell ’em to keep up the pressure. i want those objectives derneath him.…My mouth went dry, and all i could do was secured,” he said. stare for a long moment. “affrmative.” snyder was one of the men i had moved up; he was still in “You got any fos down there?” the CP area but had escaped unhurt. schoch apparently was “Crenshaw’s down. so’s his rto. i just got mine, over.” unscathed also, because i saw him move quickly to littnan’s “Keep three six moving up. we’ll lift the mortar and arty.” side, pause briefy and then turn to Crenshaw. he yelled “roger,” i replied. “i’m going to check on three six now.” “roger. out.” lieutenant eward was running down the ridge to the command post. he dropped to his knees beside me. “You just fnish talking to black Jack?” eward asked. “Yeah. Marsh, we got a mess.” “i was just getting ready to get on the horn myself when i heard you pick it up. where’s littnan?” “he’s over there. i don’t know how bad it is, but he’s not moving,” i said. “look, black Jack says keep pushing. how about you move back up and take care of things there, and i’ll try to get things straightened out down here? we need a casualty report and i guess we’ll have to open up that lZ.” “Yeah. hey, what the hell hit us?” “ara. 2.75s.” A medic treats a wounded rifeman in the bamboo jungle. “bastards.” eward stood up, shook his head

48 AP PHOtO Battlefield Lingo on Hamburger Hill and began running back up the ridge toward three six and the clearing. ◆ Black Jack call sign for 3rd ◆ Arty Artillery six bodies lay scattered around the battalion commander, Lt. col. ◆ CP command post radio i was using. one of them was Weldon Honeycutt ◆ FEBA Forward edge of the Price. he was unquestionably dead, ◆ Bravo Six call sign for bravo battle area, closest to the enemy with half his head torn off by shrapnel; company’s leader, captain ◆ FO Forward observer, an offcer the ground under him was red with his charles Littnan who directs artillery fre blood. Conzoner was sitting up, with ◆ Bravo One Six 1st Platoon’s leader, ◆ LZ Landing zone his right hand pressed to his chest. his 1st Lt. Frank boccia ◆ M60 or mike 60, a 7.62-caliber face was white, and he seemed not to ◆ Bravo Two Six 2nd Platoon’s leader, machine gun see me, but he was breathing normally, 1st Lt. marshall eward ◆ M79 Weapon that fres grenades so i judged that his lungs weren’t per- ◆ Bravo Three Six 3rd Platoon’s ◆ NDP night defensive position, a forated. Crenshaw and his rto, Peters, leader, master Sgt. Luis Garza temporary formation lay side by side, next to their radio. ◆ Bravo Five bravo company’s ◆ NVA north Vietnamese Army Crenshaw’s leg was split open, from senior noncommissioned offcer, ◆ RPG rocket-propelled grenade thigh to knee; his face was twisted in 1st Sgt. William murtiff ◆ RTO radio-telephone operator agony, but he remained silent. Peters ◆ Bravo One Five 1st Platoon’s ◆ Sitrep Situation report, from lay with eyes open, a trickle of blood senior noncomissioned offcer, the feld to headquarters seeping from his mouth. Jorgenson Platoon Sgt. Samuel Wright ◆ Top Short for top hat, the top non- was off the trail, his head hidden by a commissioned offcer in a company bush; he wasn’t moving. ◆ AK Short for AK-47 rife or platoon. Littnan uses the term for littnan, his arm and shoulder ◆ ARA Aerial rocket artillery murtiff. boccia uses it for Wright. drenched in blood, lay next to Price’s body. i saw him struggle to get up, and i quickly moved to his side. Soldiers of Bravo Company “don’t move, captain,” i said, gen- tly pushing him back to the ground. ◆ carlton, raymond, Pfc. ◆ Jorgenson, Jerome, Pfc. his face was white, his eyes dull. he ◆ conzoner, Steve, Spc. 4 ◆ Logan, tim, Spc. 4 stared at me without recognition for a ◆ crenshaw, russ, 1st Lt. ◆ Peters, John, Spc. 4 moment, then nodded and rested his ◆ Dickerson,* Sgt. ◆ Price, Joseph, Spc. 4 head back against the dark earth. ◆ Garvey,* Spc. 4 ◆ Schoch, nicholas, Spc. 5, “how bad…is it?” he said, wincing. ◆ Helms, Dennis, Spc. 4 ◆ Snyder, John, Spc. 4 littnan was asking about the company, ◆ Hudson, Dennis nye, Spc. 4 ◆ Sweet, Floyd, Spc. 4 not himself, but i deliberately misun- ◆ Hyde, nathaniel, Sgt. * First name unavailable derstood him. “bad enough. You’ve been hit in the arm. You hurt any place else?” littnan shook his head slowly. “arm is…numb. what… i hesitated, but decided littnan had a right to know. “ten, 12.” hit us?” “CP?” i gritted my teeth. “ara.” “everyone in the CP’s hit, sir.” anger and disbelief fashed through his eyes. “Christ!” it he grunted softly. “top?” was the strongest swear word i’d heard littnan use. he closed “him too,” i replied. his eyes, mouth white and tight-lipped. “Got…the whole…crew, huh?” Medics were frantically working on Peters. one medic, “Yes, sir.” hudson, was wrapping bandages around Crenshaw’s leg. as “oK. You’re in charge. take care of ’em.” fast as he wrapped, the bandage turned red. i turned my at- “Yes, sir. Just lie back,” i told littnan. “i’m getting you a medic.” tention back to littnan and asked if he wanted water. he said “no. others…frst. i’m…not bad.” no. i told him Garza was continuing the attack and eward the frefght, which had been steady up to that moment, also was up there. suddenly erupted in a heavy wave of sound. i realized that “how many…hit?” most of it was nVa. i called eward.

49 “two six, this is one six. what’s going on, over?” pointed to the battalion net radio lying at my feet. there was nothing, at frst, just more and more in- “Put that on,” i yelled. tense fre from above. and then, behind me, i heard a he looked at me slack jawed. “i ain’t no rto,” he said. few shots coming from down the trail. i looked around; “You are now. Put it on.” there was no one now between the CP group—which now consisted of the casualties and medics working on s Garvey reluctantly put the radio on, i held the them, no one else—and the trail below us, leading to the receiver to my ear with one hand and its cord up lZ. i made a rapid calculation in my head: there was no in the air with the other to keep it from getting way to secure the entire ridge anymore, not with Garza near A tangled up as the man struggled with the har- the summit and eward just below it in a clearing that had ness. black Jack was already on the horn, want- become a killing ground. there was simply too much space ing to know what was going on. for us to cover. “this is bravo one six,” i replied. “two six and three six eward’s voice on the radio interrupted my thoughts. “one, are taking heavy incoming, from all sides. i’ve also got fre this is two. Go.” coming from my right rear, along that south slope.” “what’s going on?” i asked. “roger. how bad is that?” “damn if i know. something’s got these little mothers all “don’t know. Just started up. i’ve got two six on the line, and stirred up. they’re all over the place, all of a sudden. sons of he’s telling me he’s still got a way out, but it may be closing, over.” bitches must think there’s a war going on.” “roger. delta and alpha are getting heavy fre too, black “roger. i’m hearing fre from my right rear. anything off to Jack said. “are you up at feba?” your fanks?” “negative. i’m on my way up, soon as i fnd out what’s “affrm. all over the compass,” eward replied. happening behind me, over.” “do you and three six have a way out?” “roger. don’t take all day at it. is your lZ secure?” “affrm. for now. but if they pinch off that knoll there, be- “that’s what i have to fnd out. i sent word down to secure tween me and Garza, he’ll be in a world of shit.” it just before the ara hit, over.” i looked around. helms was standing behind me, having “well, you’re gonna need the son of a bitch, so make sure it’s returned from delivering my message to wright. he had his secure,” black Jack said. “i got a new six and a new three six radio tuned to the company net, so i dropped the receiver on the way to you, when you can secure the lZ. and you’ll and took his. Just then Garvey, a trooper from eward’s pla- have to bring the wounded out. You got a count yet?” toon, walked by; he was one of a pair who had brought back i told him i had a partial list: two killed and 10 wounded at a wounded man from Garza’s platoon. i grabbed his arm and the CP, and an additional four wounded from Garza’s platoon. “Can three six keep up his attack?” black Jack asked. “wait one.” i thumbed the switch on the other receiver to call eward. “two six, this is one six. how are things now?” eward’s voice was barely audible. the level of fre around him had ratcheted up enor- mously in the past minute. “this is two six. we’re catching some real shit up here. are you on your way up?” “roger, in a moment.” i wasn’t panicked, but i was deeply worried. i still had no idea what was going on behind me, and i had no one near me i could send to fnd out, except for helms. i looked down; Conzoner’s radio, the one tuned to the company net, the same as helms’ radio, lay on the other side of Price’s body. i made a quick decision. “wait one,” i called to eward. Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt issued orders as “Black Jack.” i stepped over Price, reached down and picked

50 AP PHOtO Battle For up the receiver, handing the other one Hamburger Hill A SHAU back to Helms. I shouted in his ear: May 10–20, 1969 to Khe Sanh VALLEY “Call One Five: Find out what’s happen- Landing zone ing down there. ASAP.” S.Vietnam/U.S. attacks A D D He nodded and put the mic to his lips. S.Vietnam/U.S. units B “Black Jack, this is One Six.” I said. “I’m NVA retreat C moving up now. Three Six and Two Six NVA units are still heavily engaged. I’ve got some- NVA fortifcations Hills one checking on the LZ right now.” 3rd Battalion, 187 Infantry “Roger. Are you up there yet?” A BCD A “Moving.” Companies 937m

had to push Garvey forward; he wasn’t so much afraid as confused. I 900m nodded at Helms, who blew out his LAOS cheeks and nodded back. We had N I SOUTH 916m made about 50 meters or so when VIETNAM 800m Helms tapped me on the shoulder. “Two Six is on the line. He needs to talk to you. And Sergeant Wright says 0 0.8 km they’re getting harassing fre from the south. He’s not sure how many of ’em.” On May 15, three platoons from Company B, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, I nodded and took the line from assaulted Hill 937, flanked by other companies in the battalion. Helms. I was walking almost crablike, with one radio cord stretched out in front and the other them back down, now. And stay on this damn radio.” behind me. I thumbed the receiver to talk to Eward. “Roger.” I shifted to the other radio and called Eward. “Two “Roger, Two Six. What’s happening?” Six, can you withdraw? You and Three?” “They got snipers all over the place. Watch yourself. Wait “Roger. If we hurry. Three will have to clear, and then we one….Bo, things are bad. We’re taking heavy fre, and now some can move down.” of it’s coming from behind us, from where Delta’s ridge is.” My mind raced. Things were as bad as they could be. “Roger. I blinked. That was very worrisome. Up to now, we’d re- Look, let’s do this. I gotta move back to the NDP and the LZ. ceived fre only from the east—the knolls and clearing— I’m worried about that. You take charge up here, and bring and the south. Now Eward was getting it from the north. everyone down ASAP: We’ll consolidate around the NDP I looked up the trail ahead of me but could see little; this and the LZ.” part of the ridge was the very narrow, steep razorback just I shouted to Helms and Garvey to follow me. before the clearing. When I got to the NDP, things were even worse than I had Before I could reply to Eward, Wright broke in. Simultaneously, feared. Snyder and the other two with him had left the trail I heard a burst of heavy fre from below. “One Six, this is One and moved back down to rejoin 1st Platoon at the LZ. Only Five. We are taking heavy incoming, from our south and west. a few 2nd Platoon troopers, those who had brought down They are probin’ us pretty good, over.” the wounded, were anywhere near the NDP. Leaderless, they My mouth went dry. That completed the circle. We were had at least secured the immediate area. surrounded. Between them and my 1st Platoon was a gap of about 100 “Bravo One Six, this is Black Jack.” meters. But I couldn’t move the CP group—the medics and “Roger. This is One Six.” wounded—so I had to bring at least a squad up to secure the “Alpha may have to withdraw. What’s your sitrep?” trail. Once Eward brought back the other two platoons, we “This is One Six. We’re in trouble. Two Six is reporting could cover everything, but in the meantime we were vulner- very heavy fre from his east, north and south, and my One able. I bent over to yell into Schoch’s ear; he was now working Five down at the LZ says he’s got enemy units to his south on Littnan. I wanted him to know what we were doing, but and west.” he barely nodded. He was concentrating on his job. “Roger. Delta’s taking heavy casualties,” Black Jack said. “Bring Moving down the trail toward the LZ at a run, I could hear

kevin johnson 51 the fre in front of me; it was getting heavier, but at “i got two six and three six still moving. when we consoli- the moment it seemed to be M16 and M60. snyder date, i’ll let you know, over.” and two or three others were kneeling along the trail “roger. stay in touch with me. out.” just above the lZ, facing south. beyond them was the the aK rounds were snapping leaves and twigs from the lZ itself. i covered the last 30 or 40 meters in a crouching trees overhead; i still hadn’t heard the sound i feared most, sprint. i could hear the heavy thumping of helms’ boots be- however. there was no rPG fre. i decided that i would wear hind me and hoped Garvey was behind him. i didn’t have helms and Garvey to a frazzle if i had them follow me up and time to turn around to look. down the ridge, so i tapped helms on the helmet. “stay here. hyde was the frst one to see me. i ran over to him. “nate: switch radios with this guy here. i want you to monitor the take your squad, move it up the ridge to the ndP. we got a battalion net. i won’t be far.” gap between us and the ndP right now. You copy?” he nodded, wide eyed himself. in all the time he had been he nodded and moved off immediately, gathering his men. my rto, i had never seen helms finch, and he didn’t now, i saw wright kneeling by his radio at the edge of the lZ. but i could see the fear deep in his eyes. “top: i’m sending hyde up to secure the trail. we’re bring- i ran crouching past hyde’s squad, to where dickerson’s ing everyone back down from the clearing. alpha and delta squad lay stretched out. the incoming fre there was more are getting hit too. soon as eward’s back, we’ll consolidate intense, but at the moment the nVa seemed content to pour around the ndP and the lZ.” in small-arms fre. but on my way back up, i heard shouts “Yes, sir. we got ammo on the way?” and a sudden burst from logan’s gun: they were coming up “not now. but we have a couple of crates back up there.” that small draw to his front. i ran past him, with just a pause “oK, sir. they’re movin’ in behind us, along that trail lea- to look down the draw; i could see movement but nothing din’ back to the battalion.” else. logan was sighting carefully, loosing bursts of 10 or 15 “Yeah, i know. eward says he’s taking fre from the north.” rounds, not indiscriminately but in measured fre. wright nodded. “we’ll hold ’em here.” i called eward again. “two six, this is one six. we’re under i began running back up the hill. i knew helms would keep assault. watch yourself, over.” up. Garvey would just have to suck it up. “i’m back down where you are. i can see you. Garza says i found hyde setting his men up along the trail. the last he’s taking fre from directly above us, and they’re moving up man in his line, farthest up the ridge, was Carlton, looking that ravine to his south. i’ve flled in around the ndP.” scared and wide eyed; he was covering the area between him- “roger.” i picked up the other receiver. “black Jack, one six, self and the ndP, a gap of about 15 meters, with his M79. over.” Meanwhile, logan, with his M60, was set up in the middle of black Jack’s rto answered: “black Jack’s on the other net, the squad, facing southwest along a partially clear draw that one six.” led up to the trail. i got back on the radio with eward. “roger. tell him we’re being attacked from south and east, “two six, this is one six. how’re you coming?” and we’re receiving fre from all directions, over.” “three six just cleared; Garza’s gonna set up along the “roger. delta’s getting hit too,” the rto said. east side of the ndP. i’m on my way.” i never responded. all hell let out for lunch. he next few minutes were simply chaotic. fire the nVa had infltrated down the ravines to our was coming in from everywhere, and shouts and south and up from the laotian border to the west yells indicated where frst one and then another and launched an all-out assault on us in that mo- T position reported nVa moving in their front. i ment. one minute—no more—after hyde’s squad ran up the ridge in a crouch and almost ran into plugged the gap, they hit us. if they had been 65 eward coming the other way. our eyes locked. neither of us seconds sooner…. said anything. we both straightened up. no more scuttling “bravo one six, this is black Jack. is your new like a crab. Call it pride or duty or the sobering understand- six in place, over?” ing of what fear could do; we stood together in the middle of i blinked in astonishment. Couldn’t he see? the trail and looked at each other grimly. then i realized he probably couldn’t; black Jack “they’re coming up from the ravine and down from the was probably over at delta right now. clearing,” eward said. “negative,” i said. “the lZ is not secure. we’re “Yeah. they’re trying to break through the middle of the under attack from three sides right now.” trail, cutting off the lZ.” “roger. i have mortars if you need ’em.” “that’s what i thought. how are we for ammo?”

52 The battle-scarred mountain terrain “oK,” i said. “it’s all up here with you, at the ndP.” shows the heavy toll “Good. i’ll stay up top, keep an eye on things up there.” inficted by the fghting i continued to move up and down the ridge where my men on Hamburger Hill. were. i stopped by logan’s position and knelt down along- side the machine gunner. the men around him were yelling that the nVa were coming up the hill. for a moment, i saw nothing, and then, for the only time in all that period of combat, i saw the live enemy: five of them were running up the slope. they were assaulting dickerson’s positions just above the lZ. logan’s shoulders tensed as he brought the muzzle of the machine gun around, and then the gun bellowed, and the fve went down, one after another, in quick succession. i stood up and walked down toward the lZ. i carried my rife, but afterward found that i had not even loaded it; the magazine was locked, but i’d never chambered the round. it didn’t matter. i wasn’t supposed to be a rifeman. the lZ was holding. the enemy had tried to move across the lower saddle, at the trail junction, but had been repulsed by machine gun and rife fre. farther up, snyder and his team had used grenades to clear the area in front of them. the next 10 minutes were just a repetition, a sort of boring but necessary ostinato. Move up the ridge, look, move back down. Get on the radio, talk, put it down. and move up or down the ridge again. it ended, fnally. the enemy broke off the attack, up and down the ridge. almost at once, the fring slackened and pe- tered out. a few calls rang out, mostly in question; i heard someone cry for a medic. eward and i met again, in the ndP. there was no exultation on our faces. and no relief. a fle clerk, putting away the last piece of correspondence, might have felt as much. i had no emotion, but i understood this: the troopers of bravo Company, in dire circumstances, had withstood a serious and determined enemy counterattack. exhausted, at half-strength and battered as they were, they held. that screaming eagle on the 101st airborne shoulder patch means something. H five days later, on May 20, the 3rd battalion—assisted by the 1st battalion, 506th infantry, and the south Vietnamese 2nd battalion, 3rd infantry regiment, 1st division—reached the summit of hill 937. the 3rd battalion’s casualties totaled 39 killed and 290 wounded. bravo Company had a casualty rate of slightly over 50 percent: 10 killed, 62 wounded. More than 600 enemy bodies were found on the hill, and an unknown number of dead and wounded had been removed.

Frank Boccia is the author of the Crouching beast, a memoir of the battle for Hamburger Hill. He lives in North Carolina.

U.S. Army miLitAry HiStOry inStitUte 54

october 2014 By Brent C. Bankus former infantry offcer large part to theefforts of a killers in Vietnam, thanks in transformed into hunter- in Korea, helicopters were medical evacuation vehicles vans in World War iiandas Used essentially asdelivery bettmann/corbis jump intoaction from aHuey helicopter. Troopers of the1st Cavalry Division(Airmobile)

55 56

october 2014 M thought it really might be aninteresting be itreally might thought thing. Iapplied So thefuture.’of But the more about itthemore Ithought I means said, ‘Gee, Ireally have to into get that. That’s the way the aviation company commander. But notby Ihad any position,” herecalled. to“I had go through theplanningwith Sikorsky H-19unit. offcer,and training Shoemaker saw exercise atraining for a cided to become an Army pilot. College atFort Leavenworth, Kansas, in1959, Shoemaker de- 1954.until While attending theCommand Staff andGeneral Regiment,Division, 2ndInfantry andstayedin South Korea the23rd Infantry of thewaraspart rea inthelatter stages of Regiment, 82nd Division,Airborne Shoemaker went to Ko- the325th After Infantry with severalAirborne assignments ment, Division, 1stInfantry inoccupied Germany in1946. West Point in1946. Regi- the18th Infantry He with served Michigan, from andgraduated theU.S. Military Academy at near farm Branch in1987,Almont, dairy on asmall wasborn (Airmobile) in Division the1stCavalry unit of Vietnam. four-starII androse to of general after therank commanding a inGermany aregiment stationed with after Worldtryman War was RobertM. Shoemaker, hiscareer started asan who infan- and rockets. theleaders inthisaviation experiment Oneof testing copters machine andbegan guns ficts with armed copter developed could for technology further future be con- M.A.S.H the their role (familiar to of evacuations viewers in medical tions.By theKorean War(1950-53), helicopters expanded had injuredusefulness inevacuating soldiers from isolated loca- as resupply aircraft, but choppers quickly demonstrated their World War II. As as 1944 the early Army wasusinghelicopters about 130Sikorsky with earlier R-4s inthewaningdays of UH-1Huey,the Bell two decades began service their military inthe feld Vietnam War, mostnotably through theexploits of War II. helicoptersAlthough rose to prominence on thebattle- Army andNavy helicopters experimented with during World skeptical,Still did some I research,sure and enough, the both “I’m tellin’ ya, that island on a helicopter.” off I was evacuated gered by my answer, hepointed hisfnger atmeandsaid, usinghelicoptersstart theKorean until War.” an- Somewhat “It to was used a reserve airlift battalion into a blocking inKorea, histime During planning asanoperational Shoemaker, to told who the hisstory Army’s History Oral By thelate 1950s,for waslooking ways heli- themilitary . show television inthe1970sand’80s). Questioning hisstory, Isaid, “Dad, didn’t they ter after Hill. wounded being on Sugar Loaf fromhe wasevacuated theislandon ahelicop- nawa in campaign World War II, once told me y father, acombat theOki- Marine veteran of

ation school inFort Rucker. combat’s aerial Because future Combat Reconnaissance (ACR) company in1957attheavi- today by theTraining Command. andDoctrine also managedall Army “schoolhouses” andtraining, handled United States, today’s themission of Forces Command. It CONARC wasresponsible for units in thecontinental all tation wastheContinental Army Command. At thetime Defense Robert McNamara.of theexperimen- In charge of helicopters, expanded for useof Secretary apriority became Offce. Instructions Director of thePlansandPrograms inthe Division abama, of aschief the Army of on thestaff Aviation School atFort Rucker, Al- school andwasaccepted.”for fight Hospital poses withabell H-13 sioux copter inKorea in1951. real-life m.A.s.H. team from the8225thmobile Army surgical capabilities duringa1944 war bondshow inChicago. below: A Above: A sikorsky Hns-1 Hoverfy helicopter displays itsrescue CONARC already had established an experimental Aerial 1960s, theearly During Army aviation, the particularly Aftercompleting his pilottraining, Shoemaker wasplaced natIonal archIVes in the Army was still uncertain and the ACR’s aviation work meeting, but he quickly became a signifcant contributor to was experimental, the unit also had nonaviation elements at- the group’s work. tached to it, including several companies of the 31st Infantry At that meeting, Brig. Gen. Eward L. Rowny, assistant divi- Regiment at Fort Rucker, an artillery battery and a small en- sion commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, asked Shoe- gineer component. In one of its early aviation experiments, maker to stay a day or two at Fort Bragg to work with the staff the ACR attached a variety of weapons systems to helicop- that he was putting together. Rowny was not an aviator. ters, particularly the Bell H-13 Sioux light helicopter. Many “We sat down, and I was the aviation expert,” Shoemaker of the weapons systems were fabricated at Fort Rucker. said, noting wryly that he had been out of aviation school In January 1962, Shoemaker, who had been selected for for only a year and commanded an experimental aerial com- promotion to lieutenant colonel but had not offcially received bat reconnaissance troop. He and Rowny brainstormed the the rank, accepted command of the 8305th ACR Company, rough design and resource requirements for a test program. even though his peers warned that accepting a company-level Shoemaker initially was told he would command the ex- position at that point in his career would limit his prospects perimental units but instead was assigned to work with the for promotion. test developers. “I would run all of the reconnaissance and “A lieutenant colonel, a contemporary, who had gone with the shooting tests. I enjoyed working on test development, me from Leavenworth to fight school who was also assigned and within a week I had cranked up the outline of tests.” on the Rucker faculty, told me, ‘This will kill your career’,” Shoe- maker recalled. “I was surprised that anyone would bring that hroughout the summer of 1962, Shoemaker designed, up. I thought this would be a great opportunity to return to prepared and conducted tests on a variety of concepts troop duty, have a lot of fun and learn new things. I didn’t [see] Tinvolving the expanded use of both rotary and fxed- how this could be bad.” wing airframes, including several major demonstrations for se- As the aviation experiments continued, the 8305th ACR nior joint military leaders and the secretary of defense. “All this did further work with the H-13 Sioux and also attempted time I remained, on paper, the commander of the 8305th ACR,” to mount machine guns and rockets on helicopters such as Shoemaker said, but “I didn’t even know where the company the Sikorsky H-37 Mojave, the Piasecki H-21 Shawnee and was most of the time. My very competent executive offcer ran the Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw. It also explored the feasibility it. I was totally absorbed in my duty with the Howze Board.” of various types of airframes and weapons confgurations The fnal Howze Board report was delivered on Labor Day. on gunship helicopters. The researchers concluded, how ever, Its recommendations included the organization of an air as- The Army asked Shoemaker to determine how long it would take the 11th Air Assault Division to deploy to Vietnam. that none of those airframes would make a truly suitable sault division with an accompanying air transport brigade. weapons platform because of power and weight restrictions. The air assault division would be a light, quick-response In May 1962, Shoemaker accompanied Fort Rucker’s force capable of being deployed anywhere in the world on commander, Brig. Gen. Robert R. Williams, to Fort Bragg, short notice with minimal use of the wheeled or tracked ve- North Carolina, to participate in a McNamara initiative to hicles found in a traditional Army division. explore expansion of Army aviation. After taking some leave, Shoemaker returned to Fort The Army had put together a group under the direction Rucker to resume his command of the 8305th ACR, but soon of XVIII Airborne Corps commander Maj. Gen. Hamilton he was told to accompany Rowny to Washington. At the Pen- H. Howze to determine the extent to which air vehicles could tagon, Shoemaker was instructed to acquire a passport and be substituted for surface systems. The Army would have to depart for Vietnam on a 90-day temporary-duty assignment evaluate not only aircraft requirements but also new or re- that included “perhaps as many as eight offcers,” he remem- vised operational concepts, organizations, personnel needs, bered. The offcers were assigned to Army Concept Teams on facilities and training requirements and cost-effectiveness a mission to see what lessons could be learned from Army tests. Shoemaker was only a backbencher for Williams and aviation’s participation in counterinsurgency operations. At one of the most junior offcers at the Howze Board’s frst the time, there were fve companies of H-21 aircraft in Viet-

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october 2014 eventually the Bell AH-1 Cobra, anattack aircraft. the Hughes OH-6Cayuse scout, nicknamed the “Loach,” and modifcations, (andwith agunship).carrier others The were UH-1 Iroquois, better astheHuey, known atroop andcargo three newrating helicopters into itsinventory. Onewasthe sis from “support” to andkill”“hunt missions, was incorpo- andequipmenttional structure needs. documents outlining thedivision’sand drafting organiza- procedureserating structure; andanoccupation specialty and procedures; standard op- theestablishment ensuring of includedties overseeing helicopter tests tactics, of techniques inthenew division.Shoemaker activity thecenterHis du- of that Shoemaker offcer. operations hisdivision be made That Kinnard, the11th commanderAssault of Division, requested tivated atFort asadivision Benningon Feb. 1, 1963. the11th Air of Brigade Assault Division, ac- whichbeen had the new Mohawk battalion organized being inthe Aviation the exercise. Afterward, Shoemaker to wasselected command Fort Benning, toof takeMohawk charge of preparation for asked by Norton andMaj. Gen. C.W.G. Rich, thecommander Mohawks hisexperience with of in Vietnam, Shoemaker was “Swift Strike III” exercise from May to August 1963. Because surveillance systemstoons with equipped to tested be inthe Georgia. several wasorganizing OV-1 fort The Mohawk pla- the SchoolArmy atFort Benning,mandant of Infantry contacted by Brig. Gen. John “Jack” Norton, assistantcom- research of anddevelopment.chief fre techniqueson aerial support for Lt. Gen. E. Dwight Beach, the Mohawk, Shoemaker to thePentagon wasassigned to work his assessment around May 1963. After on makinghisreport could achieve surveillance inboth andfrepower. He completed theMohawk on what andcollectedels observations hisown Shoemaker U.S. interviewed andcorps atdivision lev- advisers II Corpsarea of Vietnam. mintedA newly lieutenant colonel, palm or atNhaTrang bombs—wasbased on thecoast, inthe to andtheability fremachine gunpods rockets or drop na- Mohawkarmed .50-caliber detachment—six planeswith man OV-1 Mohawk, adual-prop, fxed-wing airplane. The theSouth nam supporting Vietnamese wareffort. cavalryman, rapidly andfexibly putting frepower where needed. The helibornesoldier isthemodern-day version Meanwhile, the Army, amajor shiftinempha- of aspart But wasalsoshort-lived. thatassignment Maj. Gen. Harry in hisassignment Washington,During Shoemaker was Shoemaker’s a Grum- was to assignment evaluate testing of

I rockets—that would asescorts. serve Within afew years, the Hueys—withily armed multiple machine gunsandmounted gressed. moreAn solutionheav- initial number was asmall of helicopters andloiteredtransport over thearea asthebattlepro- ing zone abattlewould during agunshipthatescorted be the or ground forces. fromsupport artillery troops frequently were delivered to alandingzone without thecopterswhen camedown to their soldiers. drop off The mobile” troops were to vulnerable groundfre, particularly helicopters armed or lightly armed to used transport “air ground attack. The Army soonrealized, however, thatun- evacuation, search andrescue, electronic warfare and, later, missions included troop cargo transport, delivery, medical ters, in itsservice largely asaresultVietnam. of Its primary speech onspeech July 18, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson said he would command abattalion once deployed. his division In a atKontum.brigade at one brigade An Khe, atPleiku andathird another brigade Vietnam, recommended and headquarters thedivision placing maker, and usinghispastexperience analyzing theterrain in Highlands. for operations intheCentral the division Shoe- of command’s offcer, operations apotential selected area they Command, Vietnam, Maj. especially Gen. William DePuy, the was deployed. Working theMilitary Assistance closely with were to scout for out locations possible incaseit thedivision offcer,logistics to travel to Vietnam on asecret mission. They ordered several offcers, including Shoemaker and the division’s Vietnam. Kinnard, the11th Air Assault Division’s commander, wassent from Brigade OkinawaAirborne to Bien Hoa, South to needed people planit. mum number of Shoemaker themission to themini- toknowledge restrict of Air Assault to Division deploy to Vietnam. Johnson alsotold Shoemaker to determine how long itwould take the 11th frst dedicated helicopter gunship, the AH-1 Cobra. Huey gunshipswere andeventually augmented replaced by the Johnson made a Christmas visit toJohnson Fort Benning, visit made aChristmas heasked for the Army, Harold General K. Staff of but Chief when n December 1964, Vietnam priority wasnotyet ahigh The best protection best The for theHueys andtheir troops ataland- HueyThe theworld’s isone of mostrecognized helicop- After hisreturn from Vietnam, Shoemaker wastold he 1965, of heated thewarhad thespring up,By andthe173rd of theoldhorse 40 kilometers south of , a city in the Central Highlands, and 30 kilometers from the Cambodian border. Ostensibly, the North Vietnamese attacked the Special Forces camp to draw the 1st Cavalry Division into the fght and learn about its capabilities and tactics. During the October 19-25 battle, Shoemaker’s battalion, along with other units of the division, immediately proved the validity of the aviation concepts, tac- tics and systems that the experimental units had developed. After leading the 12th Cavalry Regiment’s 1st Battalion for fve or six months, in December 1965 Shoemaker was given command of a second battalion-size group, the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment. The squadron, acting as the eyes and ears of the 1st Cav, hunted for the enemy. Its units included a headquarters troop, three air cavalry troops and a ground troop. Two more air cavalry troops were added later. Each air cavalry troop had 27 aircraft: 11 gunships, six troop/cargo car- riers and 10 scouts. Above: Brig. Gen. Robert M. Shoemaker, right, reviews a battle In less than fve years—after a series of experiments with map with Lt. Gen. Michael S. Davidson near the Cambodian airframes, weapons systems, tactics, techniques and proce- border in 1970. Below: The Bell AH-1 Cobra was the frst Army dures—the airmobile operation became an integral part of helicopter built to serve solely as a gunship. the Army’s structure. The 1st Cavalry Division showed the value of an airmobile division in countless battles through- out Southeast Asia during a time when something other than a traditional armored or infantry division was needed. The heliborne soldier became the modern-day version of the old horse cavalryman—rapidly and fexibly putting decisive fre- power where needed and saving American lives in remote and austere environments. Often fying day in and day out, in good weather and bad, the 1st Squadron participated in 13 campaigns and has been credited with more than 50 per- cent of the enemy killed by the 1st Cavalry Division. The “quick strike” airmobile force in Vietnam was the fore- runner of today’s even more powerful 101st Air Assault Divi- was sending the Army’s airmobile division (the 11th Air As- sion. The airmobile concept, which continues to be refned, sault Division refagged as the 1st Cavalry Division) to Viet- has been successful both in conventional conficts, such as the nam. On the day the division was refagged, Shoemaker was Gulf War of 1990-91, and in unconventional fghts in places given command of an airborne infantry battalion, the 1st such as Afghanistan. Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division The initiative, vision and leadership of Shoemaker at ev- (Airmobile). By Sept. 11, 1965, the “1st Cav” was operating in ery rank from captain to general (a rank obtained with a pro- its assigned area at An Khe, Pleiku and Kontum. motion to brigadier general on Oct. 1, 1969), combined with Throughout its frst year in the war, the 1st Cavalry Di- the work of many contemporaries, was essential to the evolu- vision had a two-pronged mission: prevent the buildup of tion of the helicopter from a glorifed “mule” to a devastating North Vietnamese forces in the Central Highlands and give “hunter and killer” on the battlefeld. H the South Vietnamese Army time to regroup because its forces were being depleted at an alarming rate. In its frst large-scale Brent C. Bankus, a retired lieutenant colonel, is chief of the Oral operation, the 1st Cavalry Division assisted in the relief of a History Branch in the Army Heritage and Education Center’s Special Forces camp, Plei Me, in October 1965, a precursor to Military History Institute. James O. Kievit, a retired lieutenant the larger actions in the Ia Drang Valley, as famously depicted colonel and a professor at the Center for Strategic Leadership in the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers. Plei Me was about and Development, contributed to this article. toP: aP Photo; bottom: national archiVes 59 60

october 2014 T Oklahoma Press, 2014 D. Sander, University of not quiteended whentheARVNwent of Laos1971 sons whythingswentbadlyin both perspectives. known tothe ARVN, endedbadlyfrom before, OperationLamSon719, asitwas year American invasionofCambodiathe tarily successfulbutpoliticallydisastrous might alsobebecause,unlikethemili- viding onlyairandlogisticalsupport.It (ARVN), withtheUnitedStatespro- of theArmyRepublicVietnam involved primarily soldiers it is because Vietnam War.Perhaps this Lam Son Lam 719, Invasion of Laos 1971: An attack gone awry Lam Son719: Robert D.Sanderrevealsmany rea- gotten episodesofthe Laos isoneofthefor- he 1971invasionof reviews by Robert . Therainyseason had Invasion supposed todemonstrate thesuccessof into SouthVietnam. Politicallyitwas North Vietnamesemilitary supplies sive” aimedatdisruptingthe fowof intended asa“limitedobjective offen- bodian incursionandwas similarly to beafollow-upthe1970 Cam- accompanying thegroundforces. prevented U.S.militaryadvisersfrom and advisersfromenteringLaos which prohibitedU.S.groundforces Cooper-Church Amendment,the of by theeffectsofJune1970passage The Laotianinvasionwasmeant port. They wereexacerbated American-supplied airsup- the groundforcesandtheir the stafflevelandbetween command and control, at There wereproblemswith poor visibilityduetofog. to copewithrainaswell ground troopshad in, sothe

cosm oftheentire VietnamWar.While University. troops onthecampusofKent State down byOhioArmyNational Guard American studentprotestersbeing shot dian sweepwastheconcurrent sightof the AmericanpublicbyCambo- on made and mostlastingimpression the previousyear.Byfardeepest successful Cambodianoperationof generated bytheotherwisemilitarily extremely negativepoliticalbacklash operation wasthe the Laos conducted in Afghanistan. in IraqandNATOisstilltryingtodo United Statestriedtodomorerecently government andmilitary,muchasthe ingly self-suffcientSouthVietnamese an increas- be carriedoutby was to ization” policy,becausetheoperation the Americangovernment’s“Vietnam- to achieve themissionÕs objectives. the opportunityin1971 totake the Lam Son719 was almostamicro- Another reasonthatARVNtroops lead inaninvasion of Laos, failed South Vietnamese troops, given

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it began well, achieved its short-term and could carry more electronics and man whose position was in danger of objectives and produced a “favorable” weaponry than the AC-47 and because being overrun by Viet Cong: “Screw the body count, in the long run those suc- there were not yet enough C-130s avail- F-4s—get me a SHADOW!” cesses meant little against the ultimate able for the job. With C-130s in crit- —Jon Guttman outcome of the enterprise. Likewise, ical demand worldwide as cargo and while the politicians were able to pro- troop transports, 52 C-119G “Flying claim they had achieved a great vic- Boxcars” were each packed with four tory over the enemy, that “victory” did 7.62mm miniguns to become AC-119G Lockheed A-12: The CIA’s Blackbird nothing to curtail the fow of North Shadows. A second batch of 26 were and Other Variants, by Paul F. Vietnamese supplies or alter the out- given two J-85 jet engines to provide Crickmore, Osprey Publishing, come of the war. In fact, the ARVN the supplemental power to allow them Oxford, England, 2014 emerged from the operation with heavy to carry two 20mm cannons as well as losses and damaged morale, from which the four miniguns and more advanced it never fully recovered. fre control, sensors, Doppler radar and Sander is well-qualifed to tell this illumination systems. These AC-119K story because he was among the small “Stingers” proved far more effective number of U.S. personnel actively than the AC-119Gs in dealing with involved in combat during Lam Son Communist truck traffc and anti- 719 and witnessed events frsthand as a aircraft artillery during operations over helicopter pilot. And as a retired Army the . colonel with 25 years’ experience, his Larry Elton Fletcher, who few 177 conclusions about the failure of the missions in Shadows with the 17th he shooting down of Francis Gary operation carry considerable weight. Special Operations Squadron, earning TPowers’ Lockheed U-2 by SA-2 sur- —Robert Guttman the Distinguished Service Cross among face-to-air missiles at 70,500 feet showed other honors, wrote two novels on that high altitude alone could not be a Shadow operations before producing defense for American spy planes. Clar- this nonfctional account of the AC-119s ence L. “Kelly” Johnson and Lockheed’s Charlie Chasers: History of USAF AC-119 in action. As such, it is certainly a “Skunk Works” (its advanced develop- “Shadow” Gunships in the Vietnam War, detailed eye-opener when the author ment program) responded by design- by Larry Elton Fletcher, Hellgate sticks to the subject—his forays into the ing the A-12, a technological marvel Press, 2013 “big picture” are not always as accurate, capable of speeding along at Mach 3.2 as when he refers to a second attack by at 82,000 feet while taking photos that North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the plainly identifed objects such as heli- destroyer USS Maddox on Aug. 4, 1964. copters. In Lockheed A-12, No. 12 in (A reappraisal by both Maddox and the Osprey’s Air Vanguard series, Paul F. accompanying destroyer USS Turner Joy Crickmore focuses specifcally on the determined that the “attacks” that pro- early models of the “Blackbird,” prior voked the war-escalating Gulf of Tonkin to the YF-71 and SR-71 versions. Resolution had in fact been nothing but Along with providing exterior and radar “ghosts.”) interior views of the A-12, its anatomy There are also occasional bits of less- and equipment, the book includes a alling chronologically between than-pristine editing. This should not comprehensive account of its opera- Fthe more famous Douglas AC-47 detract from the main subject, which tional career—with a section devoted “Spooky” and the more potent Lock- deserves telling. However much “in the to Vietnam overfights that might come heed AC-130 “Specter” gunships, the shadows” the AC-119 has been, the as a surprise to veterans unfamiliar Fairchild AC-119 “Shadow” was very impression it made from its introduc- with the hitherto classifed Blackbird much an interim weapon, selected tion to combat early in 1969 may best story. Like the plane’s very genesis, because it was newer, more powerful be summed up by an American radio- politics overcame ambivalence about

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using it in Vietnam, when the National ticularly wish to know. Nevertheless, Security Council was briefed on the argues Leroy Thompson in his entry possibility that North Vietnam was in Osprey’s Weapon series, the shot- importing surface-to-surface missiles gun has probably seen more use by in May 1967. The Blackbird’s capabili- Americans than any other combatants, ties made possible the CIA’s Operation starting with fintlock blunderbusses Black Shield, whose surveillance fights blasting at attacking Indians whatever by July had ascertained that no such scrap metal and glass an 18th-century weapons escalation had taken place. settler could get down its smoothbore During subsequent overfights, the barrel. From those origins, U.S. Combat North Vietnamese displayed their pro- Shotguns traces the perfection of the fciency for hands-on learning with a single-barrel pump action shotgun and series of surface-to-air missile attacks. its use from the Philippines at the turn Blackbird pilot Denis Sullivan of the 20th century to the present. acquired the distinction of being Coming fully into its own in World attacked on two separate missions and War I trench warfare—when Germany returning from one with a tiny piece of alleged that it violated the Geneva shrapnel in his lower wing fllet, lodged Convention, a claim the Americans against a support strut of the wing ignored—shotguns tend to be meted out tank—the closest that any unfriendly as supplemental weapons to the regular object of the Blackbird’s attentions rifes and machine guns, always ready for ever came to shooting one down. situations for which they are best suited. Besides its coverage of an outstand- In Vietnam, where jungle ambushes ing airplane, Lockheed A-12 should often brought the opposing sides into provide anyone with an interest in close contact, shotguns were a staple for the Vietnam War with yet another, point men, soldiers clearing dwellings, little-known facet. guards or South Vietnamese police. —Jon Guttman Special Forces, Navy SEALs and other such units had at least one shotgun among their multipurpose small arms arsenals when on missions in enemy U.S. Combat Shotguns, by Leroy territory. Vietnam also saw consider- Thompson, Osprey Publishing, able variation in the theme, includ- Oxford, England, 2013 ing automatic shotguns fring multiple rounds in seconds and the “duckbill” spreader choke, which scattered the shot horizontally for maximum effect against a massed assault. Some soldiers made the shotgun their weapon of choice and developed personal preferences between the hand pumps and automatics. Such pros and cons are given frsthand treatment in he shotgun, scattering multiple the Vietnam section of U.S. Combat Trounds at close range rather than a Shotguns, covering all types used during single bullet from a distance, is a nasty the confict before moving up to their weapon whose use by U.S. military current descendants. forces is something few know or par- —Jon Guttman

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Limited time ofer: Transfer balances from your higher-rate credit cards today to the PenFed Defender American Express® Card and save with a 4.99% APR promotional rate on Balance Transfers for 48 months with no fee 4.99% APR promotional balance transfer rate on transfers made through September 30, 2014 for 48 months with no balance transfer fee. After September 30, 2014 the APR for any new balance transfers will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate, and is currently 9.99%. This transaction is subject to credit approval. Apply Today PenFed.org/DefenderV • 800.732.8268

Rates and ofers current as of June 1, 2014 and are subject to change. The APR for cash advances is 9.99%. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. ¹Cash advances, credit card checks, or balance transfers are excluded from cash rewards. You must be in an active military service status, a member of the Reserves or National Guard, honorably discharged U.S. Military Veterans or retired from such service to qualify for this product. This Credit Card program is issued and administered by PenFed. American Express® is a federally registered service mark of American Express and is used by PenFed pursuant to a license. PenFed is Federally Insured by NCUA.