Ed's Experiences in Vietnam, First Tour

Flying Gunship with the Stingrays

Ed's duty as a gunship pilot was often to fly to one of the smaller bases and standby waiting for call-up. Often he'd be there all night, return home the next morning and get an assignment to fly an OH23 because he was one of the few that were certified to do so. Eventually he got a reclining lawn chair to put in the back of his gunship so he could catch a little sleep while he was on standby. He was always tired.

It was frightening to see rounds of mortar and artillery coming up at you through the night sky—they looked basketball-sized fireballs. The enemy would not shoot at them where you were—they would shoot them at where you would be, so it would look like they were flying up straight in the sky, and then make a 90 degree turn and fly straight towards you. It was the weirdest sensation. You were too busy to be afraid; you just kept doing your job.

Once fire came in through the open door, where the crew chief had been moments before, went right between the pilot's seats and through the windshield. It was their closest call.

One of Ed’s saddest assignments was one

night when he was called to direct fire support on a base where four Americans were under fire in a compound. The Vietcong had totally surrounded their compound and were shooting at them, but despite the gunships' fire there was little they could do to pull them out until the next morning when could land and bring them out. By then only one was alive, and he was in deep shock. It appeared he couldn't believe he was still alive and full of shrapnel wounds. Normally before you bring anyone aboard, the crew chief makes sure all the equipment is removed from the soldier and his gun is emptied, but the soldier was so bad that the crew chief didn't try to do anything but pull him in.

Monsoons

While the dust drove you crazy most of the time, during the monsoon or rainy season, the mud made you insane. The dust turned to mud and there was no where it could drain so it just spread everywhere and you couldn't ever get clean.

Mines

One time Ed discovered it wasn't always best to be first in everything. Leaving Bearcat on

the dusty four-mile road to the main highway was awful. If you were first out of the gate, everyone else had to eat your dust rather than be behind them, and eat their dust. One day Ed and his driver were glad to be first in line on the road and waited patiently for the engineers to clear the road of mines. Then, halfway to the main highway, a jeep came up on the side of them and bypassed them to get ahead of them. 

Ed cussed them, and his driver asked if Ed wanted him to try to pass him, but Ed said, "No, don't worry about it." Then they ate the jeep's dust to the main highway, then followed it three or four miles down the road until the jeep ahead of them went over a bridge and was blown up by a mine. Ed and his driver stopped to help them. Luckily the people in the jeep didn't die, but Ed was very glad he hadn't kept fighting the jeep driver for first place on the road that day.