Ed's First Tour of Vietnam--the Tet Offensive

Hong Kong & Tet

When Ed and his buddies went to Saigon to fly to Hong Kong on R & R in late January 1968, they stayed the night in a hotel there. That night as they walked around the streets, some kids bumped into them, and they later realized that they had been pickpockets and had stolen their watches and jewelry. Ed enjoyed his R & R in Hong Kong a great deal and found it very exciting. It was the Chinese New Year (or Tet) and there were many parades and holiday events.

Tet Offensive


Tet Holiday 1968 was when the Vietcong made a major surprise attack on 100 major towns and cities in Vietnam during the Tet holiday ceasefire; it was the main offensive of the Vietnam War up to that time. The main strike was January 30 and the Communists had hoped for the South Vietnamese populous to arise and support them but met heavy resistance instead.

However, the country was in a state of war and chaos for a matter of weeks. Ed was able to get back from Hong Kong but he couldn’t get into Saigon which was the center of the action, so he flew to Cam Rhan Bay where he waited three days for an aircraft to finally fly him back to Bien Hoa. I was very grateful that he’d missed the action, because his base was in the middle of things.


5 February 1967

"The big war has started to cool off over here. There for a while it was really going strong. But luckily, I missed out on the majority of it because I was in Hong Kong on R & R."

7 February 1967

"The VC are still causing trouble. They put over 200 mortar rounds on Dong Tam last night, but so far, Bearcat has been left alone. I really can’t figure it out. They have hit every place but here. I just hope they’re not waiting to hit us really big time.

"On my way back from R & R, I came through Bien Hoa, and it was really destroyed.

"Hundreds of places were burned down and it really looked bad. Also, there were bodies lying around all over. It’s really something."

8 February 1967

"There still isn’t a whole lot going on around here. The VC are still really brave, and for a change, they are finally staying and fighting. But that makes it a lot easier for us. But I’ll be happy if they leave us alone here.

"It sounds like there is really a good war brewing in the north. It is really costly. We had a company working with us today, and they had four ships shot down in a L. Z. (landing zone), so it is really active."

February 1967

"The action around here is still going on. They hit Saigon and Bein Hoa last night, and the Ammo Dump at Long Bien, plus bridges all over. When they hit the Ammo dump, I thought we were being hit here as it really made a roar. I had Staff Duty last night and had just gotten to bed (about 9:00), when it happened. I threw my covers ¾ of the way across the room and rolled out of bed to the floor. It can really shake a person up, even if it wasn’t an attack on us."

28 February 1967

"We had a little excitement around here. The VC finally decided to mortar Bearcat. They didn’t hit us hard at all, and no rounds even landed in our battalion area."

Comments from Ed's letters from Vietnam--1967

These are experiences from when Ed first arrived at Bearcat, near Saigon on his first tour of Vietnam. 

15 April 1967

Well, we’ve had quite a bit of excitement here. The kid that sleeps right next to me got shot down yesterday and while they were on the ground, the VC were shooting at them from all four sides, and I guess it was really hairy. But the others all got out with just scratches and scared.

18 April 1967

I spent most of the day with the 4^th Battalion, 39^th Infantry today, and it has really been a long day! I flew about half the time in the rain and it was quite an experience. You didn’t know what was in front, so you just crossed your fingers and hoped. Then when I got back here, they were going to send me back to My Tho, but the rain got so bad they called it off, which I was thankful for.

Well, it looks as though I may be preaching again. Last night one of the guys came over to where I was sitting and started asking me questions about the Church. So, I proceeded to really give him the old missionary talk (not discussions). But I really had to dig back into my memory to remember some of the scriptures.

20 April 1967

We went out flying all day—going into company locations out in the jungle.

It was really quite interesting. In this one place we went into, it was a pagoda, and  there were several statues around. Also, while we were there, one of the platoons ran into contact with some of the VC (Vietcong)! No casualties but a lot of fire. It was only about 500 to 600 yards away and it sounded like it was 50 feet.

Anyway, right after that broke off, we were standing in the pagoda which was being used as a CP, and an explosion rocked the place. I’ll tell you, I dove for the nearest bunker. People were running every which direction, getting into position for a fight when it was discovered that some private had failed to clear his weapon and had pulled the trigger. It was a false alarm, but it scared me. 

And then we went on a recon of the area and spotted a couple of suspects, so they sent a platoon out to investigate. I don’t know what came of that. Also, I did some resupplying. I had that helicopter loaded down with everything. It was really quite a sight.

Ed's First Tour of Vietnam--Funny experiences

Ed always tried to make things light for everyone! Here are some comments from his letters:

"When we are on standby at night, we are able to sleep a bit, but we’re usually fully dressed. Every time I take my boots off, though, while we are on standby, we get called out. The first time, I thought it was just a quirk of fate, but I’m slowing changing my mind. The others can take their boots off, and nothing, but as soon as mine come off, we are on the go. It has even got to the point now, where the crew members are asking me if I’m going to take my boots off.

"And if things get dull, they ask me to take my boots off. So take it for what it’s worth, but it sure works. So if my feet get really tired, and I start complaining about them, it’s only because I’m scared to take my boots off.

"As to when we get days off, we don’t, unless we are really lucky! So we have to do with trying to sleep on standby, unless I take my boots off!"

The living conditions at Bearcat were not too good. Ed reports his first accommodations there were open bay barracks. 

"The barracks we live in are so, so. They have a tin roof and the sides are wood about five feet high and then screen for about three feet. The wood is put on so that they overlap with space between for air.

"There are about ten of us in the barracks at present and we don’t have much time to get to know each other. But within a couple of days we should get another barracks the same size as this and so we’ll have a lot more room.

"Our barracks are open-bay , but most of us have put up partitions and made private rooms for ourselves. My room is about 8 feet by 16 feet or just a bit smaller so I have quite a bit of room. I have a bamboo-type rug on part of the floor and also a bamboo-type rug on the wall. They are these things like you see on sun porches. However, everything we have is what we have made or bought. It’s really bad by your standards, but for here, it’s not bad." 

Later, Ed was able to get a "private" room with a room mate. There were four rooms in a small building. 

Ed was injured once during his tour: 

"Well, I’m a casualty now.  I sprained my ankle. I’ve been hobbling around ever since, but it’s getting better.

"I hurt it while we were at Dong Tam on a C. A. (combat assault). I hurt it while we were refueling. There were four or five of us that decided we’d like some coconuts to eat. I tried to climb up and fell and that’s how it got hurt. Silly, huh. I’ve been grounded for two days with it, but it’s better now.

I’m hobbling around on a cane."

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.

Ed's Experiences in Vietnam--First Tour

Flying OH23 Aircraft

Ed had several scary incidents flying OH23 helicopters. One time he was taking a military photographer over an area and the photographer kept asking him to go lower and lower until he was hovering about 10 to 20 feet off the ground. He was concerned because he didn't know how secure the area was, and later that week, they put in combat assault troops into that same area he'd flown over. It was full of a large group of Vietcong and they lost three or four choppers in the fight in the same area he'd flown over at tree-top level only days before.

Another time Ed flew someone in an OH23 out to a fire support base. He dropped them off, and was heading back to Tan Am. He was flying about 1500 feet when he started losing lift. He increased RPM, but he still couldn't maintain altitude. This was a serious problem; he should have landed the aircraft on the ground to see what was going on with the engine. However Ed felt uneasy; something told him to continue on to Tan Am.  He made a long, 15- mile, B52 approach, with full power applied, gradually losing altitude. Once his aircraft got over the runway and touched down, it couldn't be lifted up again, even with full power. 

Maintenance personnel couldn't believe that Ed had made it to the airfield or that the aircraft had landed because the clutch was totally gone from the transmission. The transmission had slowly been failing, and completely disintegrated when he set down.

Two weeks later, in the area where he would have landed the plane, they found a division-size Vietnamese unit embedded there. If Ed had gone down anywhere there—he would have landed in a NVA (North Vietnam) unit.  He didn't always recognize inspiration when it was happening, only realized later what it was.

Ed once flew a Thai general in his OH23 to observe some Thai troops. As they watched the Thai troops came under attack. The general insisted that Ed put him down among his men, and Ed set down. When he landed with the general, the soldiers on the ground put wounded men aboard his tiny chopper, and he took them to the hospital and then flew back to get more. He made three trips landed among ground fire to pick up wounded to transport to the hospital while a medevac helicopter flew overhead and wouldn't go in to pick up the Thai soldiers because there was ground fire. He received a Thai medal for his heroism.

One night flying his OH23 back from Saigon, Ed was half way to Bien Hoa when his lights flashed and then the generator failed, and all the lights on the chopper went out. He had no way to see any of his instruments to see how fast he was going, where he was, what he was doing. He listened carefully to the RPMs of the engine to make sure it stayed in a safe range—between 3100 and 3200 RPMs and adjusted it to maintain that speed. He could barely see the road below as a dark ribbon between the forest and he followed it toward Bien Hoa. Eventually he could see the lights on the airfield and landed safely.

Ed was injured only once during his tour; during a refueling stop at Dong Tarn, he climbed up a palm tree to get a coconut. He jumped down from it and sprained his ankle.