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“Good. Keep me posted,” the major said. “Anything else?”
“No, sir,” Captain Wehr responded.
Looking at 1SG Miller, Major Adams asked, “1SG, what you got?”
“Sir, company strength right now is ten commissioned officers, twenty-seven warrant officers, and ninety-eight enlisted. Of those ninety-eight enlisted, we’re seeing an increase in those that were drafted. Not saying they’re a problem, but the morale of those people is a bit down compared to what we were seeing a year ago when most folks were volunteers. The draftees see the war as winding down, and with so many people being shipped home, they have a problem with being sent here. The other issue we’re having is that we’re getting people in with the wrong MOSs, or we have an overfill for people with the same MOS.”
“Not sure I follow, 1SG,” the major responded with a quizzical look.
“Well, sir, for example, if we get an 11 Bravo infantry guy in, I can put him on as a door gunner and that’s okay. We’re so over-strength in crew chiefs that I have one working in the mess hall as a cook. He’s happy, but… I have a crew chief working in the orderly room as a clerk typist. We have a dental hygienist that I finally put in the aid station even though we have no dental facilities here. I can find stuff for people to do, but for the most part they’re not happy as they aren’t working in the fields they were trained for. We’re so over-strength in avionics repairmen that I put two in the Operations section to monitor the radios.”
“What about officers?” the CO asked.
“We’re okay there right now, as we need forty-two to launch all the aircraft, but seldom do we have all twenty-one aircraft up, so some guys can be on leave or R&R and we’re okay. I watch that schedule pretty close to make sure we don’t have too many gone at the same time.”
“So no major personnel issues is what you’re telling me?” the major asked.
“No, sir. A few Article 15s pending for you, one for drunk on duty and three for smoking pot,” the 1SG replied.
“Three for smoking pot?” the major said, looking up from his notes quickly.
“Ah, yes, sir. They’re three guys in the service platoon.”
“Have they been offered the Article 15s yet?”
“No. No, sir, they haven’t. We were waiting for you to address them as this only happened last night.” The 1SG looked to the XO for some support on this, but the XO was suddenly looking at his notes as the service platoon fell under his leadership.
“Good, then don’t offer it. All three can stand summary court-martial. That ought to send a clear enough message to everyone that I will not tolerate pot smoking or any kind of illegal drug use. Is that clear enough?” The CO looked around the room. Each attendee acknowledged.
“Put the paperwork together and let’s get it up to Battalion tomorrow on the courier bird. Have those three in my office at oh eight hundred, and I’ll read the charges and make sure they have their Miranda rights read to them. Say nothing to these three about what they’re getting,” the major directed. “Anything else, 1SG?”
“No, sir.”
“Ops, what you got?”
“At the present time, we have eighteen aircraft commanders, of which four are qualified as flight leaders. We have two
unit instructor pilots for in-country orientation flights and additional training. I will bring you the records on a couple of pilots that I believe are ready to move up to aircraft commander with the recommendations of the other aircraft commanders. Sir, as you may know, we’ve seen a dramatic drop in our flight hours supporting the division, but a major increase in supporting the ARVNs and specifically Third ARVN Airborne Brigade. Currently we’re being told to just respond to their requests, which come in sort of haphazard. I’d like to have a liaison officer over there working with them so we can better plan our pilot and aircraft usage and cut down on the ‘hey you’ missions,” Captain Beauchamp stated.
Supporting his comments, the out-going maintenance officer, Captain Head, jumped in. “Sir, if I may, this would be a help to the maintenance situation as well as allowing me to plan and manage our maintenance flow. I would have an idea of how many aircraft we would require for the next day’s missions.” Captain Head had already been notified that he was leaving Chicken-man and being transferred to the Mashers to replace their maintenance officer. Captain Finn had arrived two months prior and was maintenance qualified. He would be taking Captain Heads place in Chicken-man.
“Okay, I’ll get with you later, Ops, and let you know who we’ll tag to be company LNO—unless you have a recommendation.”
“I’ll get back to you on that, sir.”
“Maintenance?”
“Sir, of our twenty-one aircraft, three are in for one-hundred-hour periodic inspections. One aircraft, 532, is equipped with the smoke generator system but is still used for missions if smoke isn’t being used. The pilots don’t like to fly 251 as that has been used in the past for defoliant missions and the aircraft is covered in that oily stuff. If we could get ahold of a steam cleaner, we could clean it up, but right now there is none around here and the one at Battalion is broken; has been for a while. Currently we have no aircraft in maintenance due to combat damage. We have one aircraft in for a blade strike and should have a new blade and back up in a couple of days. That’s about it for now, sir,” Captain Finn concluded.
“Who was the pilot on that aircraft?” the major asked, looking at the Ops officer.
“Sir, that was Mr. Bailey. He caught the main on a tree limb coming out of a hover hole up at Song Be. It tore a hole on the underside. Too big for hundred-mile-an-hour tape.”
“Pull his AC certification,” the major said, looking at Captain Beauchamp. “Not going to have ACs getting blade strikes. Put him back into Pete Pilot status until he gets re-certified with the company IP.”
With a look of surprise, Captain Beauchamp came to Mr. Bailey’s defense. “Sir, Mr. Bailey is a damn good pilot. It was just one of those freak things that happens in this area and under these conditions. If you pull his certification, we can’t put an AC in each aircraft if we launch all twenty-one aircraft.” He paused. “In addition, if we’re down another AC, it’s just going to make it harder for other ACs to get leave or take their R&R.”
“Well, we best find a Peter Pilot that’s ready to move up to AC to take his place.” The major was standing firm on this decision, and setting a tone by sending a message to the remaining ACs: Don’t break the birds.
