James Darryl - Phoenix 13

PHOENIX 13

Americal Division Artillery Air

Section Helicopters in Vietnam

Vietnam Helicopter TINS* From Americal Division Artillery Air Section

Chu Lai, Vietnam 1968 and 1969

*TINS, an acronym for war stories that are more or less supposed to be true: This is no shit.

Driving a Scout Helicopter in Vietnam can be Dangerous to your Health!

Americal Division Artillery Air

Section Helicopters in Vietnam

DARRYL JAMES

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright Darryl James, 2020

ISBN 978 1 52675 942 9

ePUB ISBN 978 1 52675 943 6

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52675 944 3

The right of Darryl James to be identified as Author of this work has been assertedby him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Excerpts from an article in the Permian Basin Oil and Gas Magazine , September 2010, pp.24-25.

By Lana Cunningham, Special Correspondent

Darryl James can say he survived the odds. An officer and a helicopter pilot, he served a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam from September 196869. I was one of 10,000 helicopter pilots in Vietnam, he said one afternoon in his office at H.L. Brown, where he worked as a geoscience manager. One-fourth of all casualties in Vietnam were officers, and of that number one-fourth were helicopter pilots. Half of all the helicopter pilots crashed or were shot down. Add one more statistic to that: James was one of the few pilots to have a Masters. He grew up in Sayreville, NJ, and at Rutgers University, he joined the ROTC because it interested me. After obtaining a Bachelors Degree in geology, he was given a two-year deferment to stay in college and work on a Masters Degree. During college, he volunteered for the Army flight program and earned a private pilot license. After graduating in 1967 with his Masters Degree, James entered the Army and eventually Darryl James was one of the 10,000 helicopter pilots assigned to Vietnam. I wanted to go into fixed-wing but the Army needed helicopter pilots, he explained.

The basic helicopter training school was located in Mineral Wells, and the assignment gave James his first taste of Texas and Mexican food. Advanced helicopter training was at Fort Rucker, in Alabama. Orders came to head to Chu Lai, Vietnam, with American Division Artillery Air. I had three days of orientation flying a scout helicopter, which is a single-pilot aircraft, he said. Most helicopter pilots went over there and flew as co-pilot in a Huey for four months before being allowed to become aircraft commander. On my fourth day, I went solo on a combat mission in the small scout helicopter...

James saw his share of combat missions. By the time he returned to the States, he had received sixteen Air Medals, which equated to twenty-five combat missions for each medal.

Serving in the Army gave me leadership qualities and made me confident in myself, James said in looking back on those experiences. My year in Vietnam was memorable. That year, I developed a confidence and trust in myself that steered me successfully through life. There is nothing like the camaraderie and friendships made in the military service, James said. These men in my unit have remained my friends and are like my own brothers.

Robert Lee Leffert, Warren Fuller and Connor Dotson provided details for several of the stories included within this TINS collection. Richard Tricky Cross, First Cav Loach Driver and recipient of the Silver Medal, provided careful proofreading. Robert McNaughton and Warren Fuller provided proofreading services and wordsmithing.

This collection of stories is closely based on my and my units experiences flying small scout/observation helicopters in Vietnam in 68-69. We were assigned to fly Ravens (OH-23G) and Loaches (OH-6A) in Americal Divisions Artillery Air Section. The stories are as I remembered. Minor parts portrayed of the enemy are fictionalized. Otherwise, each story is what I experienced or what my fellow pilots told me. Details regarding firebase names, landing sites, etc. may or may not be correct.

Storytelling was a daily evening occurrence in our unit. We called these stories TINS, an irreverent pilot acronym for This is no shit. Many of the TINS within this collection reveal the closeness and rapport developed among pilots and crew chiefs, a friendship I remember vividly; a brotherhood and comradeship that is perhaps only found in war.

My year in Vietnam was memorable. Like many, I arrived fresh, right out of flight school, apprehensive both about my abilities to perform and the inherent dangers of being and flying in Vietnam.

Flying alone in a small scout helicopter was frightening for a pilot fresh out of flight school. Most Vietnam helicopter pilots flew larger helicopters and had the luxury of working as co-pilot for an experienced aircraft commander. Flying solo, our unit relied on the counsel of our experienced pilots to survive. With their advice and the Armys training, and perhaps some luck, we learned to fly and live through this experience.

Americal Divisions area of responsibility was located in I Corps within a very large area in the northern part of what was then South Vietnam. It stretched from the large city of Da Nang, south to the small town of Duc Pho and west to the Cambodian border. The area we overflew consisted of rugged mountainous jungle bordering a narrow coastal plain with farmlands and rice paddies. The coastal plain bordered a beautiful coastline of the South China Sea.

Americal Divisions headquarters was in Chu Lai, a small village on Highway One about 60 miles south of Da Nang and near the beach. Our unit was the Division Artillery Air Section. When I first arrived in September 1968, we were flying an obsolete reciprocating engine helicopter designated the OH-23G. After a few months these tired old birds were replaced by the latest scout helicopter, the OH-6A, which was nicknamed the Loach. It was a dream to fly, like getting a Corvette to replace an old Ford. Our missions included aerial observation, carrying critical small cargo and key personnel. We flew convoy cover, provided Mac V support, aerial scouting for the Marines in Da Nang and inserting long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) and SEALs into small landing zones.