Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

This was a tough day. It was tough physically and emotionally. We flew 8 hours of extractions in hot and humid weather. All of the slick and gun pilots were sweating and we were tired and hungry. I can't remember which slick company we supported that day. These missions were flown out of Camp Evans and the entire 227th was together again. Does anyone remember which company it was? After POL, we rearmed what was needed of the bullets and rockets, followed by the post flight inspection. On some of the extractions, as the slicks lifted off, Charlie would say goodbye with a few rounds.

We were very hungry and got some chow. No sooner than we got the food to the table we were scrambled. No one knew what was happening. We were to crank and get briefed over the radio. Everyone cranked but Yellow One did not have anything specific. After 10 minutes we were instructed to shut down but to stay in the air craft. It was still hot, getting dark with a miniscule 300 foot ceiling, lower in places, to the west of Camp Evans amongst the rolling hills. We were told to crank again. Another 10 - 20 minutes passed without a briefing and still on the ground in our revetments. As if someone was trying to torture us we were told to shut down again and remain in our air craft. By now it was dark. Now we cranked again and were told we were going to make a night combat assault in bad weather. I can't remember the name of the PZ (Firebase) where six slicks picked up the troops with Hoyt (Cobra 18) to the right of the formation and me (Cobra 12) staying to the left side.

The PZ was located in the rolling hills NW of Evans. It did not take me long to realize how close to the ground we had to fly due to a solid cloud layer with a 300 foot ceiling AGL with some cloud formations lower than that at times. I settled in to a flight procedure I used for the entire mission. With the slicks in site I climbed slowly until my rotor blades and sometimes the cockpit entered the clouds. At that time I slowly lowered my collective until I was VFR again. I never went high into the clouds, maybe 5 to 15 foot. This worked well for me since I knew how close we were to the ground. Yellow One did a good job leading the slicks. We sighted the lights at the PZ and Hoyt and I split from the gaggle and orbited while the slicks landed at the LZ and picked up the troops. The slicks lifted and headed south. Hoyt and I flew back to our positions.

As we approached the LZ, which was dark, Hoyt and I moved to the front of the slicks and prepared to prep the LZ. The procedure for night CA's, Combat Assaults, was for the guns to prep from the front, instead of the sides, for the safety of the slicks. We were within seconds of firing with four mini guns and 28 rockets and four M-60's when we heard a loud panicky voice hollering "Cease Fire", "Cease Fire", and "FRIENDLIES" in the LZ. "GUNS" don't fire. We acknowledged and flew straight over the LZ. I wonder if any of those troops on the ground ever knew how close they came to being hurt or killed. Probably not. I have no idea what was going on behind the scenes. Without a doubt there was confusion at BN or DIV level. My previous statement regarding startups and shutdowns proves that.

I am grateful we did not fire on the friendlies. A tragedy like that would be hard to get over.

So back to the LZ we all headed. I am sure the whole flight was angry due to the screw up and the extra time flown in extremely bad weather. Tired, hungry, bad weather and darker than dark. Pilots that flew out of Evans know what I mean about dark. The anger had to be set aside so we could safely complete the mission. The weather had not changed. We all headed back to the PZ to drop the troops off and then head back to Evans. I still had my rotors in the clouds most of the time. The troops were dropped off and the slicks lifted off for home. I took my position on the left side and could see Hoyt on the right side. I saw him on the other side of the gaggle. The flying conditions remained deplorable and all of the flight crews were flying on adrenaline, reaching back at all of our experience so as to get back to Evans safely.

At around three fourths of the way back to Evans I decided to contact Hoyt to see how things were going for him. I tried on UHF and VHF several times and I did not get an answer. I called Yellow One and asked him to try to contact Hoyt. Still no reply but I could see him right where he was supposed to be. By now we were on long final. When we landed at POL I instructed the Crew Chief to walk over to "Hoyt"s"" aircraft and verify that it was them and to advise them that their radios were out.

Another Catastrophe?

As soon as my skids hit the ground I directed the crew chief to make verbal contact with Hoyt. I pointed to the aircraft he was to go to. He was back quickly with the bad news. It was Charlie Charlie, Command and Control. Instantly I knew Hoyt was missing. I had counted the slicks. I did not have enough fuel to go on a search and rescue. I called our operations and they scrambled a ship. They found Hoyt's ship. He had hit one of those hilltops and flipped tail over nose. The crew chief spotted the ground and alerted Hoyt so they were able to flare, not enough to get over the hill but enough to slow the aircraft down and save the crew. They were lucky enough to catch the top of the hill. A little lower they would have hit the side of the hill and perished. Of course none of us knew this at the time.

In a situation like this it had been my experience that we had lost the crew. The search and rescue ship spotted some red pen flares and rescued all four crew members. What a relief when we heard the news. Hoyt reported that when they shot the first red pen flare they started receiving an artillery barrage from the PZ where we had dropped the troops. Luckily the artillery missed them. When they got back Hoyt reported his helmet was wedged between his armor seat and the Huey roof. He had to slide out of his helmet to get free. He also hurt an ankle. Yet all of this was good news. It could easily have ended with four fatalities.

The next day was April 19, the first day of Operation Delaware, the invasion of the A Shau valley.

Hoyt's DEROS and mine was 12 June 1968.

Hoyt and his crew were KIA on 25 April 1968, while participating in Operation Delaware.

Last updated August 12, 2012
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