Fanning Off a Quick Six

 

Like so much else, I’m not sure when the tradition began, but I do remember something we called, “Fanning off a quick six.”

First, a little history. While in flight school, in the couple of weeks prior to graduation, we were required to qualify with a pistol. We were shown how to break down, reassemble and then practiced with a .45 cal. ACP. Once we learned that, we were taken to the range and fired 21 rounds through them for qualification. We all knew that our next assignment, upon graduation, would be to Vietnam.

Upon arrival at the Hornets, I was issued… yes, a Smith and Wesson, .38 cal. revolver. So much for the training. I was also surprised to learn that the standard load for the .38 was 21 rounds. We could load it three and a half times. For those interested, that was based on the 21 rounds issued for the .45. Apparently, no one thought to adjust it for the .38.

This pretty much resembles my revolver in Vietnam.

The point here is that, while landing in an LZ with full suppression, we would sometimes fire the revolvers out the window, adding our rather anemic .38 cal. pistol rounds to the 7.62 of the door guns. Yes, the other pilot was flying at the time.

That was what we called, “Fanning off a quick six.” Six rounds in the pistol fired as quickly as we could pull the trigger.

Once, I fanned off a quick twelve. I was using the co-pilot’s revolver as well as my own.

And for those of you who worried that Clint Eastwood, while training the Recon Marines in Heartbreak Ridge (which was an Army battle), pointed out that the AK-47 made a distinctive sound, I note this. We, meaning some of the flight crews did carry captured AKs. As we were landing on a combat assault, one of the pilots, or possibly a door gunner, used his AK in a full suppression LZ. One of the gunship pilots wanted to know if anyone in the flight had an AK and was firing it.

The answer was no. It meant that there was someone on the ground firing at us. I don’t remember if that guy was spotted or not. I just know that the gunships were a little more enthusiastic in their suppressive fire.