Christmas Eve in Vietnam

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

Christmas Eve in Vietnam
War and Peace

by Bob Kelly, A/227 and D/227, 1967-1968

For this Christmas season, as was customary on other occasions, the United States government negotiated a truce, a cease fire, with the North Vietnamese government. In 1967 the truce was to begin at 18:00 hours on Christmas Eve. In the past, the enemy had broken many these truces. Because the enemy couldn't be trusted to keep their agreements our commanders had put contingency plans in place. Various assets were available if needed. It was 17:50 and dark. Cans of beer were heard popping open instead of the usual out going artillery fire.
That is when the call came.
One of a pair of 1/9th H-13's was shot down near a Village South of Phan Thiet. They were on their last light patrol and were about to head home when they got shot down. We scrambled a pair of D Company gunships, one of which I was flying, an empty Alpha Company rescue ship, eight 2/7th grunts for security, picked up and flown by A Company Pilot Pat Edwards. The flare ship was most likely on station but I don't remember any flares being lit. I checked weather records and there was a crescent moon out that night.
We know and love the 1/9th scouts, but they push scouting to the max. That's their job and they do it well - but come on guys, it's Christmas Eve.
No matter, we had a situation and we had to take care of it. We had to get that pilot and door gunner off the ground.
We arrived on station and were briefed by the other scout ship. It was decided not to insert the security force. The gunships analyzed the situation as to friendly and enemy location. There were only two safe paths for gun runs due to the location of the downed crew, Easterly and Westerly. An obstacle forced us to make our runs in an Easterly direction. It was the village. If we fired toward the West, bullets from the miniguns would ricochet into the village. The same thing would happen if one of the rockets had a fin malfunction. This posed just one problem. That was being fired at from the village or its perimeter. The village was known to be friendly. That was now in question, at least this night, due to the scout shoot down. We had to get to the downed bird and the crew. By now we knew the general area of the enemy and we had to get fire on them before they shot 1st Cav personnel.
That is war. It is still war. It will be war until the rescue ship gets in and safely extracts the crew, no matter the time.
However the story requires me to leave the war for a bit and tell another story. I was flying Westerly passing the perimeter of this rather large village. I saw a large building lit up at the center and some sort of activity centered close to it. I made a left 180 which took me right over the village and headed toward my first gun run. What I saw was completely unexpected. It was so stunning I took my eyes off of the target for a few seconds. I was only 50 foot high and saw that the large building was a cathedral bathed in a dim light. The highlight of this scene was not the cathedral but a very long candlelight procession the head of which was already entering the building. There must have been several hundred villagers holding lit candles and marching toward the church. Not in a straight line but following curves around this block and that, and then angling around a crooked road and so on. We were in a fight with the enemy, trying to rescue two downed men, and they were celebrating Christmas, complete with a candle light procession. War is just crazy. I was lined up to rip the enemy with miniguns and rockets, and 50 feet below me, they were singing Christmas Carols and having a parade ending in a Catholic Church.
I forced myself to get back to the war. Instantly we began firing at the target. We were still over the village, about 200 feet to the left of the procession. Brass was falling on the village as well as rockets making their way over rooftops and hitting their mark. Of course besides brass falling from the miniguns, the huge quantities of tracers looked like a red ray gun. And that quick we were in a left 180 to begin preparation for a second run. Another left 180 took us over the village. What amazed me this time was on the ground all was peaceful and the procession proceeded as before. No running, no hiding, no gaps in the line. The villagers went on with their wonderful procession making their way slowly toward the church. I was impressed with the entire ceremony and was awed that our war did not distract them from their Christmas ritual.
Now that you have heard the heart of this story we can get back to the war.
After our third run the rescue ship went in, picked up the downed crew and made it back to friendly airspace. We made a few more runs spraying the whole area being careful not to hit the downed aircraft. We were elated that the H-13 crew was safely picked up. It was a very good Christmas present for us. As we left to go back to LZ Betty I took one last look at the village.
All was well.
John Woods went in to the crash site Christmas morning, rigged the H-13, and it was returned to LZ Betty. He recalls the recovery was uneventful. He talked to Tommy Harrison who took a picture of the H-13 when it was returned to LZ Betty. Several Alpha Company and 1/9th personnel were contacted by Wayne Driver, Don Cates and I. We were unsuccessful in locating the other crews involved in this operation.

Photo from Wayne Driver

The truce: The truce was not broken that night, at least not at this incident. There was engagement with the enemy after the truce began but only because the action was already in progress. I wanted to include that information to remind readers of how hard the 1st Cav pushed during their deployment to Vietnam.