The Golf Course

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

The Golf Course

by John 'PePe' LaDue

When I was in 9th grade, my family was living at Fort Lewis, Washington. My father was a career Army officer, and also a VN vet (from 65 - 66 he was a CO of a signal unit at Qui Nhon).
One of our neighbors was a helicopter pilot by the name of Bill Williams. He went to VN in 61 or 62 as an H - 21 pilot. I think he went TDY, because his wife stayed on post. We were still there when he got back, and I recall hearing stories about French Villas, tennis courts and daily swims in the swimming pool after the day's flying was done. Bill, was a childhood hero of mine and was one of the reasons I became a pilot.
R.C. Ireland and I went to flight school together and coincidentally flew to RVN on the same plane. After spending 2 or 3 days at the 90th Repo Depot we both got assigned to the 1st Cav ( at the time that did not make us very happy ), and were loaded aboard a C-130 for the flight to An Khe. After 2 attempts to get there ( the first returned to Tan Son Nhut because of bad weather at An Khe ) we finally arrived, checked in and got our assignments, RC to A/227th and I went to B/227th.
I distinctly remember the Spec. 4 or 5, who gave us our assignments saying that B Co. was out by the "Golf Course" and then he sent us on our way. When I heard the "Golf Course", naive as I was, the first thing that came to mind was Bill Williams. And I thought about French villas, wine with dinner, and little Vietnamese cuties who spoke broken English with a French accent. I thought 'Maybe this won't be so bad after all, and the Cav just had a bad reputation. I like sports, maybe I'll take up golf.' I was soooo wrong!
This type of thinking was why the Army, in it's infinite wisdom, recruited 19 yr. olds to fly helicopters in combat. We were too stupid to know any better.
It all sorted itself out, and in my mind, I finally ended up with the "Creme De La Creme " of flying jobs. Flying guns at Phan Thiet. There weren't any French villas to live in, or fine French wines to drink and the chow sucked, but it was a primo job and I got to work with a lot of terrific people.
No golf though, and now there's a real golf course at Phan Thiet.
Go figure.