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“Nice job, old-timer. You’re getting the touch back pretty quick.”
“Thanks, but I need a few more hours under the hood before I’ll be comfortable. But it sure did feel good to be back in the cockpit. O’Donnell, you have a mighty nice bird here. She flies good.”
“Thank you, sir. Appreciate that,” O’Donnell answered.
Leaving O’Donnell and Hector to tie up a couple of things, Cory and Sinkey walked back to Flight Operations to turn in the logbook. It had been a relatively easy day considering they were back just after 1200 hours. Standing in Operations was Major Adams, who was looking over flight records with Captain Beauchamp.
Seeing Sinkey and Cory walking in, he asked, “How did he do, Mr. Sinkey?”
“Like he never was gone, sir. We flew partial panel back as you asked and shot a GCA approach. He did good.” Cory just realized he had been set up.
“We flew partial panel back? I didn’t see you slap the hood on there, Sinkey,” Cory answered with a shake of his head. “Sir, I felt fine coming back on partial panel, but I can’t vouch for him.”
“Glad you got it out of the way. Have you ever flown with Mr. Barstow?” the major asked.
“Not as a right-seater, sir. I think I gave him his orientation ride when he arrived in-country,” Cory respectfully acknowledged. He still wasn’t sure how much joking he could do with the CO.
“I’m putting you up with him tomorrow, Dan. It’ll be another mission with the ARVNs up in the same area you were in today.”
“Fine by me, sir. But let me ask. We’re authorized to fly 10k over into Cambodia. That far, I mean?” questioned Cory.
“Technically, we don’t have combat forces in Cambodia. Helicopters are not considered combat forces—that’s one way to look at it. The other way is that technically you’re not in Cambodia as you’re flying above Cambodia. Kind of a Catch-22 thing,” Captain Beauchamp explained.
“And if we get shot down over there…?” Cory inquired.
“Then I suggest you either escape and evade, or don’t get shot down, Lieutenant Cory,” Major Adams said, indicating that this line of conversation was not desired.
“Yes, sir. If there’s nothing else, sir…”
“No, have a good day,” the major indicated with a wave of his head.
Chapter 23
The Rumor Mill
“Sir, here are the records on seven right-seaters that have the time to move up,” Captain Beauchamp said after Cory and Sinkey had departed. Major Adams and Captain Beauchamp continued to look over flight records of each of the right-seat pilots. Several aircraft commanders had returned to the States and a few more were about to go home. New pilots had been slow to come in due to the drawdown of US forces in-country. A couple of new pilots were transfers from units that had already stood down. These guys had less than three months in-country, so they didn’t get to rotate home with the rest of the unit. They were not happy campers. They had had enough time with their old unit to build a bond with fellow pilots and crew chiefs. Watching them depart while they themselves were left behind wasn’t taken well. This was not limited to just Alpha Company but was happening all over Vietnam. Morale was slipping across the country.
“We need four new aircraft commanders to replace the guys that went home last week. Let’s plan on Lieutenant Cory moving up into an AC seat after tomorrow’s flight with Mr. Barstow,” the major said.
“Good idea, sir. Cory was a hell of a pilot before, and he won’t let you down. He was a good flight leader too. Led the last mission out of Cambodia too and was the unit IP,” Captain Beauchamp added. Captain Beauchamp had arrived in-country about four months prior to the Cambodian Incursion. He talked of opening a haberdashery in New York City when he returned home. In Cambodia, he’d orchestrated the rescue of a downed Air Force pilot, earning the Distinguished Service Cross for his crew chief. The Air Force had put the crew chief in for the Medal of Honor, but as so often happened, it had been downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross by those armchair commandos who had never moved to the sound of guns.
“Who else do we have coming up that’s ready for AC?” Major Adams asked.
“Well, sir, Reid and the two Zuccardis have the time and the hours. The ACs have all said they were comfortable with them in AC positions. Here are their records.” Captain Beauchamp handed their flight records to the major, who accepted them and started leafing through the first one.
“As you can see, sir, they all have the hours, they’ve all flown night missions as well as logging both actual instrument time and hood time.” As the weather had been nasty, Major Adams had really focused on the instrument flight time for everyone, hood or actual. Like most aviation unit commanders, Major Adams was now on his second tour in-country as a pilot. He was well aware of the possibility of suddenly being caught in crappy weather with an aircraft on partial instrument panel. The only other course of action when the aircraft instruments for inclement weather flying were broken was to sit it out on some firebase. However, now that there were no longer any US firebases, no one relished the idea of spending a night stuck on one of the ARVN firebases, which, when attacked, were usually overrun by the NVA.
“Okay, let’s get them all up for AC check rides in the next week. Now who do we tag to be our liaison officer with the ARVN headquarters?” Major Adams asked.
“Well, sir, it should be a commissioned officer. I don’t think the US advisor over there would take it well if we sent a warrant officer as it’s a face thing with the Vietnamese. Hell, if they had their way, you would be the one playing that role every day, and that ain’t happening.”
“You got that right. What commissioned officers do we have?”
“Sir, we have 1LT Collard, who’s about to make captain.
We have 1LT Hicks, who will be DEROSing in a couple of months. We have Captain Vargus, who hasn’t made AC in the eight months he’s been here, and we—”
“Captain Vargus, is it. Why the hell has he not made AC in eight months?”
