Combat Assault west of Camp Evans

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

Combat Assault Into a Valley Somewhere West of Civilization
(Camp Evans)

by Howard Burbank

During August of 1968 there was a rumor about a large combat assault being planned. As one of the flight leaders, I was notified to be prepared to lead the flight, as was, I am sure, the flight leaders in B/227 {Call sign: Potato Masher}, our sister company at Camp Evans.
Weather permitting this would be one of the largest combat assaults we had flown (based on the number of aircraft to be involved).
Flying lead on a combat assault is difficult to describe. Those qualified were usually flying combat assault missions at least every fourth day as Chickenman Yellow One. 'Chickenman' was the call sign of A/227. In a combat assault the first group of aircraft were designated the color 'Yellow' and the flight leader designated number 'One'.
Over the previous month and a half I had been checked out and trained for the Yellow One position and I had flown lead on combat assaults on a regular basis. Usually these were flights of 6 to 8 slicks {UH-1H}, a couple of D/227 {Call sign: El Lobo} guns ( UH-1C and/or UH-1D ) as well as Ariel Rocket Artillery (ARA) {Call sign: Blue Max}.
A combat assault (CA) in the First Cavalry Division was a highly choreographed mission. After being assigned the job for the day you would receive basic information about radio frequencies and map coordinates of the Pick Up Zone {PZ} and the Landing Zone {LZ}, most of which you would write in grease pencil on the Plexiglas windshield of your slick for quick reference. After assembling the flight and doing a communications check we would lift off from our revetments {'One's Up'} and form up in formation to head to the PZ to pick up the troopers. All the aircraft in a flight could usually land in a PZ simultaneously. The troopers would be lined up, organized and ready to load. After a quick check, Yellow One would again lead the flight off the ground and into formation to begin flying to the location of the LZ.
The flight leader at this point became a true multi-tasker. In addition to flying your aircraft you had to maintain radio communications with at least three elements of the mission. First, one frequency was the Yellow Flight which you would continuously inform of the situation and establish the formation being flown. Simultaneously, on another frequency you would be in contact with the Command and Control {C&C} aircraft that would be flying in the area of the LZ. This C&C ship would usually have the ground unit S3 on board who would be coordinating artillery for the preparation of the LZ. An additional frequency would keep you in contact with El Lobo and Blue Max. Once you had unloaded the troopers at the LZ you would also have communication with them to maintain. All of this chatter often happened simultaneously, and you would be listening to one while talking to another. Occasionally you would also use the intercom on your aircraft to communicate with your crew and co-pilot. All of this communication provided control of the firepower from support units and also for the flight itself.
At the start of the actual insertion of the troopers, an artillery preparation of the LZ would begin which would usually last for about 5 minutes. During this time you would have the flight on extended final to the LZ and be planning for the best approach and the number slicks that would be able to land in the size of the LZ. The last round of the artillery would be a White Phosphorus {WP} round which would indicate the end of the artillery preparation.
At that instant the flight had to be one minute out from landing. I would adjust my stopwatch and also adjust the speed of the flight to be able to touch down exactly 60 seconds later. During that next minute you would release the ARA {Blue Max} aircraft who circling high overhead, would add their firepower to the LZ. Once Blue Max had expended all their rockets (usually about 30 seconds) you would give your El Lobo the go ahead to race forward and fire on the LZ and the surrounding area. As the slicks in Yellow Flight crossed over the edge of the LZ, you would authorize the machine guns on the slicks to add to the firepower. All of this would end upon touchdown in the LZ as you issed cease firing. The effect was to keep any Vietnamese {Charlie, VC, NVA} on the ground with his head down until we had unloaded the troops and were airborne again.
El Lobo would now stay at the LZ as fire support for the troops as the Yellow Flight would return to the PZ for any additional loads of troops.
The flight leader had responsibility for the entire combat assault mission and the control and safety of the flight of aircraft and our passengers. A flight leader's command responsibility outweighs more senior officers during the mission. During my tour I had a few disagreements with Infantry Majors and Colonels during combat assaults that had their own ideas of how to run the show. Yellow One always had the last say during the assault - although getting reamed out later by a full bird could be a bitch.
Each day we were waiting for the rumored mission, a single C&C helicopter flew out over the mountains (and clouds) to check on the weather and conditions.
On the day the mission finally flew, a single C&C ship had again flown to the area and reported back about midday that he had found a hole in the overcast over the LZ. This was in an area west of base area 101 and south of the DMZ and near the border with Laos. The terrain there consists of jungle and mountains. In general, all the mountains in this range have steep slopes with heavy vegetation, huge waterfalls were common as well as exotic plants and animals. This was terrain with no place to land unless someone had carved a hole in the jungle, or blown off a mountain top, or in this case, found a natural sandbar in the middle of a shallow river, just big enough for a couple of slicks to land at once.
I had been flying a single ship supply flight that morning, taking food and personnel to a unit in the field. I was called back about noon to lead the yellow flight. My aircraft that day had a problematic radio, which would later provide me with no communication with the C&C aircraft directly. I had to relay much of my communications through Yellow 3. Yellow 3 was the second in command of the flight and would take over should anything happen to Yellow One.
I met up with the flight as it assembled at LZ Jack, which was just to the west of Camp Evans, and was the PZ for this mission. I don't now remember the number of slicks we had that day but it was more than twice the normal,somewhere between 15 to 20 slicks (some of which were attached for this mission from B/227) and 4 gun ships (D/227).
We lifted off in the afternoon and flew a course north along HWY 1 to point about halfway between Evans and Quang Tri then turned west, all the while we were gaining altitude to be able to be above clouds as we flew over the mountain ranges. The C&C aircraft was visible circling over hole in clouds in the far distance. As we approached the opening in the clouds the C&C pointed out his selection for a LZ.
Because of location there was no artillery support and we only had El Lobo with us to support the landing. We decided to approach the LZ from the south, flying down a 'V' shaped hillside with the trees just underneath and to both sides of us to a final landing on the sandbar. The rate of descent was so steep that it felt much like an autorotation. Making this approach would give us an exit along more level ground as we took off to the north. Each group of two aircraft made the trip successfully, without receiving any fire.
I checked in with the troopers we had just inserted as they were finding some tracks in the sand near the river bank. I then reformed flight and went back up through hole in clouds and then retraced our route back to Camp Evans to refuel and and then to LZ Jack to pickup the second load. The gun ships returned with us to also refuel.
By the time we had climbed back up over the cloud tops (which were higher now) and headed to the west again it was getting late in the afternoon. I could not raise the C&C aircraft on the radio and saw no sign of him on the horizon. I did see what appeared to be one hole in the clouds to the west and over the next 20 minutes or so I took the flight west towards it.
As we moved west I was trying to radio those we had put into the LZ earlier with no luck. I parked yellow flight in orbit over the opening we had found and went down as a single ship under cloud layer to reconnoiter. I didn't recognize this area as the same we had flown into earlier in the day. I had no contact with first unit on ground (I had the commander of the troops on board try his radio also). In the distance I could see a Chinook flying below clouds but I was unable to make contact. I could hear his radio transmission as he was asking for an IFR return to Camp Evans because of the cloud cover.
Just then we saw red and green tracers from what looked like coke cans flying up past the front of our helicopter. It looked like a fourth of July show right in front of us with a continuous steam of green and frequent reddish lights zipping past. The 4 gun ships (I didn't realize they had followed me down below the clouds) rolled in hot as we broke left and back up towards flight. All four gun ships dived and fired on the source of the anti aircraft fire we were receiving. They reported that they saw some secondary explosions from their run.
Because we had no contact with the troops we had put on the ground earlier and because we were not able to find their location I made the decision to abort the insertion. I told Yellow 3 to take the flight out of orbit and start back east as it was now getting toward dusk.
I caught up and rejoined flight as lead. I was now flying a magnetic course, as it was getting darker and only the cloud tops were visible. As we proceeded east in the dark, an Arc Light (B-52) mission went off just below us to our left, which provided another fireworks display through the cloud layer. I wondered at the time if they knew we were there as they dropped their loads of bombs.
I eventually could see one solitary street light (which was the only light anywhere in view that evening) visible intermittently between clouds. It appeared to be along the coast and was probably Quang Tri (I hoped). That light would appear and then disappear in the clouds as I used it to set a standard rate of descent to the coast. Thankfully the cloud cover was more broken along the coast and as we descended below 1000 feet, we broke out below the cloud layer just southwest of Quang Tri.
I broke up the flight outside Quang Tri. Some of the aircraft, especially the guns, were running low on fuel. Yellow 3 volunteered to take over about half of the flight and proceed into Quang Tri to refuel. I took rest of flight back to LZ Jack to unload.
To this day I don't know how far west I took the flight that day. More than likely we were over the Ho Chi Minh Trail when fired upon with antiaircraft fire. The border with Laos was surely not that far away.
It must have been an exciting day for the troopers on the second flight. It was quite a ride, high and cold above the clouds, dark with tracers, an arc light and then being returned to base after hours instead of being dropped off in the boonies.
The pilots and crew on this mission performed as always in the 1CAV, doing their job as professionals with honor and valor. As for myself, I was more than glad to have everyone back safe and sound with a story to tell.

The second load never did get inserted as the weather socked in over the mountains
for over a week and the first group had to leg it out.

Updated 12/23/2014

I have been able to confirm through several sources that the mission I describe in this story took place on October 12, 1968, not earlier in the year as I had previously thought.