Artillery Up Close

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

Arty...Up Close, Real Close!
by WO-1 John L. Keller, 1st Flt Plt, A/227

Part #1

I had only been "in-country" a little over a month and I had flown with CW-2 John C. "Jake" Cogburn on several missions with the First Flight Platoon. It was now the 23rd of May, 1966 and I was two days short of my 21st birthday. Operations had assigned us 64-13740; the fourth different UH-1D I had flown while in A Company. I was still a novice at the heavy weight takeoffs and quick as lightning combat assaults. I was really pleased to be flying the bigger Huey. At least this one had the L-7 engine and no two foot extension "doughnut" in the tailboom. #358 and #372 also had the glued-on main rotor blade extensions and you always wondered if the bonding glue would "hold" in the types of weather conditions we flew? I was the proud owner of the right seat and had "racked up" 51 hours with the Company.
It was a typical late afternoon mission for four of our birds; take a night ambush team to an area about 20 "clicks" west of the Golf Course and drop them near the highway to Mang Yang Pass. They would set up and hope to catch VC patrols looking to mess up the truck convoys going east and west. Dropping off the troops, we headed back to base camp and climbed to 1,500 feet; hopefully enough to keep us out of small arms range. Jake and I were on the right side of the formation as the #2 bird and everything seemed peaceful.
The Division Artillery was firing "harassment and interdiction fire" (H&I) to the northwest of Golf Course and our flight path was projected to be well south of the GT Line. Good old "Murphy's Law" struck again! I was looking at the flight lead that had Platoon Leader, Captain John Stipes in the left seat and CW-2 Charlie Howell in the right. I saw something in my peripheral vision that didn't look right. A really big picnic basket was headed for the lead aircraft! Hey! It wasn't a basket it was an 8 inch shell! Where did that come from? At the same time, I saw the round go between the skids of the lead aircraft and follow the fuselage from nose to tail. Charlie keyed the mike and said, "Holy sh__, did you see that?" I saw the shock wave of that big shell lift the UH-1D like it was surfing on the airwaves. Luckily, we weren't in a trail formation! Captain Stipes was flying and he realized immediately what had happened. We had been flying right down the GT Line. He dove his helicopter and the rest of us followed in a collective to the bottom, 110 knot descent. Down on the trees we went with an immediate call to DIV ARTY. They had a response, but it was not one we wanted to hear. They had a fire mission from the ambush patrol we had just dropped in the LZ. It was only a few minutes after we cleared the area that they came under attack from an area of bunkers. The gunships had been on another frequency after the drop, and could not return because of their need to refuel.
The original firing grid had been correct, but DIV ARTY did not have enough time to make a blanket broadcast on the frequency to alert our formation to the urgent fire mission. That had almost been the end of a really good day!

Part #2

The Company had been tasked to go to Turkey Farm for a week or so to support ground operations south and west of Pleiku. I had a grand total of 83 hours "in-country" and had now earned my third award of the Air Medal. Because the original members of the First Cav were scheduled to DEROS in mid-August and early September, our unit received several Aviators from other non-divisional aviation assets located in other parts of Viet Nam. One such Aviator was 1LT Robert E. "Red" Smith who had flown for The Jokers (Guns) of the 48th Aviation Company (Blue Stars) out of Phan Rang. His "white" helmet had the "Joker" painted on the back, and NO, he was NOT going to cover it up with OD paint, even though he had been "invited" to do so many times. He was a tall, red-haired, easy-going Lieutenant from Fayetteville, North Carolina. His first Cousins were Raymond and Marilyn Floyd who turned out to be professional golfers on the PGA and LPGA circuit.
To me, he was always, "SMITTY" and I was always, "JOHNNY." We had a great time, because of the stories he related of their classy Officer's Club, great parties and lots of raunchy songs! He would entertain us for hours with tales of the Jokers. Today was the 8th of June, 1966, and I was at the controls of 63-08742 and our flight of four was headed to the Plei Me Special Forces Camp, located east of the Ia Drang Valley. That area had seen so much bloody combat since early November 1965 that it was always known to us as the "Valley of Death." Our flight was to pick up a load of ARVN troops and their American Advisors and assault them in an area near LZ Cat. LZ Cat was actually a pretty good "frontier" runway and large landing zone that had been used previously by units of the Division in other operations. It had even been "spruced up" by the Division Engineers to accept large flights of helicopters; 64 or more.
Our ship was #4 in the flight. We were in a loose trail formation on a wide, left base to the dirt strip on the east side of the Camp. Now in a 30 degree bank to the left and a short left base, I was following the flight to the runway. Just then, ARVN Artillery, on the south perimeter of the Camp, let loose a few rounds; probably for aerial adjustment near the proposed landing zone. In that same millisecond, my crew realized this may not end too well. My Crew Chief; I believe it was SGT Hart, said, "God almighty! A round just went through our cargo bay!" I looked immediately to the right and could see the 105 round spiraling, arcing upward toward its target. Whew! Luck over skill, anytime! "Smitty" just shook his head, but I think that was because all of us were shaking in our boots! We survived to fly another day.