Smokey

 

In the Hornets, Smokey was a UH-1C, which was assigned to the gun platoon, known as the Stingers. It was set up with a ring near the turbine’s exhaust so that it could inject oil into the hot flames. This produced a thick cloud of blue-gray, whitish smoke that could conceal the flight from enemy bunkers and fire. Smokey would fly along the perimeter of the LZ, slowly, so that he could lay down the smoke screen. It could be quite effective.

I was assigned to the Second Platoon, known as the Wasps. I had a rare day down while most of the pilots were out on missions. There came a point where I was flying nearly every day, but now, at that point, we had nearly a full complement of pilots, so that we were treated to a day off now and then.

I happened to be in Hornet Operations, a big bunker dug into the ground and covered with a thick layer of sandbags and PSP. You had to walk down a long flight of stairs to enter and, best of all, it was air conditioned. That encouraged us to review various documents and manuals.

The call came through that they needed Smokey. The infantry unit had approached a tree line and as the point entered it, he was shot, as was the man behind him. The rest of the soldiers had taken cover, but they were unable to advance to rescue the wounded men. Smokey could cover them as they ran in, grabbed the two wounded soldiers and got back out.

Since I was in Operations, I said that I would take Smokey. We needed a second pilot, and one of the gun team was available. I rad to my hootch, grabbed my weapon and my helmet and ran back out, across the road and into the Hornet’s Nest. I met the other pilot and we ran to the Smoke Ship.

Once we had the engine cranked and the radios operating, we got in touch with the C&C, flown, I believe by Hornet Six, that is the company commander. He directed us to the firefight.

As we approached, we were briefed on the situation and what the Ground Mission Commander, the lieutenant colonel or colonel in the backseat of the C&C wanted us to do. He was, of course, in touch with the company commander on the ground.

The gunships were working over the trees where the enemy bunkers were but I think that was just to keep their heads down. It’s tough to peak out with a minigun hosing down the area or 2.75-inch rockets are impacting around you.

We could see the situation on the ground. We could see some of the tracers coming out of the trees and we had a good idea where the wounded me were. We dove for the trees and as we did, C&C said, “Smokey, you’re not smoking.”

At that instant I hit the button to active the system and we started to created the smoke screen. I could hear the firing all around us, including our door gunners working the area. I felt, through the floor, the enemy rounds hitting the aircraft and thought I could hear them tearing through the thin metal of the cockpit.

Soldiers in a cloud created by Smokey.

We made pedal turns over the bunker area, putting down a very thick cloud of smoke. We finally turned and climbed out, ready to make another run when we learned that the two soldiers had been rescued. The after-action report said:

As the advance element moved forward they were taken under intense enemy fire. The pointman was hit and fell about 10 meters inside the treeline. The second man was also hit and fell at the treeline. The remaining men were pinned down. The air mission commander decided to use the smoke ship to cover the troops. On his first pass the ship received intense enemy automatic weapons fire. He did a pedal turn and made another smoke run. Because of the thick screen, the infantry men were able to recover their wounded and withdraw to better positions. Later there became a need for resupply. Again he made several runs. Because of the smoke, the enemy was unable to bring accurate fire on the resupply ship. During the final extraction he once again made several smoke runs. This kept the enemy from making any hits on the infantrymen or helicopters.

I confess here that I don’t remember much about what else happened. When released, we flew back to Cu Chi, filled out the paperwork, and headed over to the club for a drink. Yeah, I was still 19, but that made no difference here. I was an officer assigned to an aviation unit and had participated in a somewhat hairy rescue of two soldiers. If I wanted a beer or a bourbon, no one cared.

All I really remember at this point was as I walked into the club, someone said, “I can’t believe you did that.”

His surprise was only that I was not a member of the Stingers but was a member of the Wasps.