This door position concept further implemented aboard CH-21, UH-34, and UH-1 by enlisted men specially designated and trained, with the aircraft crew chief serving as both maintenance manager and other tasks. Normally, a second enlisted man served as a second operator (such as on a UH-1, and UH-34, which both used two — one on each side).
VIDEO HERE (27:30 minutes)
Our crew chiefs and door gunners were the finest men anyone can imagine. Fearless, smart, dedicated, loyal, serious, irrelevant, and funny. It was my privilege to learn from and fly with them. regards, Alemaster
ReplyDelete"Irreverent!" r/Alemaster
DeleteHuey gunship rolling in, aircraft commander saying "Gunners, fire forward," and then the rocket whooshes from the pylon mounted pods, then four M60 flex guns, two each side, begin firing, and then you sit down on the trigger of your M60, a thousand or so rounds linked together in the wooden ammo box at your feet, and you are pumping out all tracers at cyclic rate of fire. In a documentary on the Razorback gunship platoon, one crew chief said what every door gunner knew: "It was fun." It was. I never saw a VC running, but pilots did, or one stepped from behind a tree and fired a round at the gunship team. I flew 64 missions, slicks and gunships. The assigned gunners and crew chiefs, up every day, sometimes two or three missions reacting to ambushes -- go out, expend, come in, reload, refuel, repeat and repeat. I flew eight hours one day, refueled a few times. By shutdown time, I was beat. I did it only now and then. The guys who had gunner as the job every day ... earning that flight pay.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 67N Huey Crew Chief. The men who trained me were all CEs in Nam. All of the senior guys in my section through my first Enlistment had flown in that war. They were all, without exception, top-flight soldiers. The stories they told made me thankful that I served in Jimmy Carter's Army and not RMH's or LBJ's. I think their casualty rates were around 20%; actually higher than the Infantry. Those guys were bullet magnets but they had the guts and skills to soldier on under intense counter-fire because they knew others depended on them.
ReplyDeleteEx Father-in-law was a door gunner in Vietnam. Only person in that family who I respected.
ReplyDeleteI was on the ground. Always a pleasure to see these guys arrive. 3/1 India 68-69.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I notice few comment on Nam posts these days. Thanks for posting them. I means something to a few of us. Big time.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure.
DeleteWhen I was growing up, damned near every adult man I knew was a combat vet and they were all heroes to me. Still are.
My Dad and his three brothers served in WWII and beyond.
DeleteOne uncle was a pilot who flew fixed-wing and Helos in Germany, Korea and Panama 'Her was a gunship Crew Chief in 'Nam and had lots of stories. He retired as a full Colonel in the mid 70s.
They are all resting at Arlington...
As a kid my bus driver was a WWI Vet. A very nice man and my hero. I knew he was a Vet because his name was on the monument across from the Town Hall. Both World Wars and Korea Vets from my home town were listed. My buddy Bill and I used to stand there and read those names. A small town and we knew all of them that were alive. Being little kids in the fifties we were saddened that there would never be a war so that we could fight for our country. To us at around eight years of age, the ultimate honor. We were poor and only a handful of us had a full Cub Scout uniform but we would keep what we had in our desks so every morning we could put what we had on and salute the flag during The Pledge of Allegiance instead of our hand over our hearts. My bud Billy went on to be a Full Bird, Norwich University Grad. We lost him two years ago. He was buried with military honors. I miss the shit outta him. I carry his jack knife every day. Which reminds me, we sliced our hands open pretty good one day held them together and tied them. We were/are blood brothers. My only hero's are military persons. America and the American way means so damn much to me.
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