On Mar 6, 3:18*pm, Big John wrote:
--------------clip---------------

So john, tell us about some of your sorties in Nam. *I would also like
to hear some of the R&R stories as well.

Wil

************************************************** ****************

Will

Nam was very much like other conflict/wars.

Lost some close friends and acquaintances.
Killed enemy.
Got shot at.

I was in the FAC business. Besides being Director of II DASC flew a
combat sortie on average of every other day when I had paper work
done.

I lost two of my pilotsout of about 35 during my tour.

First was buzzing returning from mission and ran into a tree top
killing him and the ARVN observer.

Other was in mountainous terrain and a high wind that day. Just never
came back and never found. Best guess was that he got trapped in a
canyon and with wind and mountain gusts couldn't get turned around????

My order of best close air support fighters 'in country'.

Spooky's in a class by them selves.

A-1 and AT-37 about equal and best for close air support. Both slow,
long mission duration so could hold over battlefield and wall to wall
ordnance.

F-100 good all around bird. Could normally hit target.

F-4 not a good CAS bird. Very hard to get them to hit marked target.

F-105. During bombing pause in north, sent me a flight of 105's to use
in troops in contact. With TIC you had to be very careful not to hit
your friendly's. When the 105's checked in they said all they could
give me was one pass. I marked target and they rolled in as a flight
from 20k pickled everything and with the burners running pulled out
and headed for home in Thailand. They threw bombs all over the area
and just lucky they were so poor a *shot or they would have killed
some friendly's. Their delivery was what they did in north VN but
worthless in south VN. I called Saigon and told them not to send any
more 105's to Two Corps and what had happened. They then just gave the
105's a stand down in Thailand.

During TET I launched after things broke (about 01:00) and flew till
dawn to have a FAC airborne. They started shooting at me and I could
see the tracers so just turned my lights off and flew blacked out.

Had a flight of F-100's and we had just poked a hornets nest when my
engine quit ( Didn't wan't to go down where we had stirred them up
so did all the good things and finally got engine running again. told
the flight leader I had lost engine and he offered to escort me back
to home base. I told him to stay with me until I got back over Hwy 1
(which ran the full length of county north and south and had lots of
friendly traffic all day on it). When I got over Hwy told fighters
thanks and released them and both of us flew home. Bird check out ok
on ground so was kept on schedule. A couple of days latter it did the
same thing with one of my pilots and he also made it back. We took to
support Sq and they put a new engine in. Looking back, I think the
problem was probably the mixture. We ran pretty lean as SOP.

Got a call one day from Spooky CO and wanted a joint mission with a
FAC. There was a village near Pleiku that was giving them ground fire
on their night missions. Rendezvoused with the Gooney after dark and
they started dropping flares. I flew under the flares where I could be
seen from ground. As soon as I started getting fire, Spooky opened up
and zapped them. We did this several times until they had cleaned out
that nest.

Nothing like D-day but each day was something new for me.

On numerous occasions had Army troops come up to me and thank me for
saving their life. Told them our mission was to help the Grunts )

Just some more ramblings Will.

Was ALO to 7th ARVN at My Tho. Story was told that Martha Ray had
visited a few weeks before I arrived and she got in 0-1 and was taken
on a combat mission. Saigon turned their eyes on her activities in VN.
Troops at all levels loved her maybe more than Bob Hope as she went to
the small units that Bob didn't visit. He did good but she may have
done better. She also had nurses training and helped medically on many
occasions. Sorry to see her pass.

Provided back up support for some Seal operations.

Landed by a line of idling Huey's. One didn't have his collective full
flat pitch. As I went buy the down wash blew me over almost on my
back.

Army Hueys used to land at our little laterite (clay) strip to refuel
and re-arm. In heat of summer with full fuel and a full load of 2.75
Inch FFAR's they couldn't lift off and then accelerate to translation
so they would put on max power and max blade rotation (both probably
over red line?) and then add collective and bird would jump in air and
then fall back to ground. They kept some forward stick in and each
time they jumped they got a little more forward speed and eventually
they got into translation and started flying. As their speed built up
they then could start to climb. These takeoffs always scared me as
they fell back and hit so hard. I expected them to explode but all I
watched made it ok.

We may have some chopper pilots who can expand on this technique???

Went to Hong Kong and landing at the old airport was just like I had
read about. Buildings above final approach altitude off both wing tips
and wheels just above roof tops. Touch down and full brakes and
reverse and just stopped 100 feet from end of runway (and harbor)
normal landing.

Enough chit chat. All from a time long ago and a war far away.

Big John

Thanks John. Great reading, you should write some more and some day
put them all together into a book.

Wil