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Chapter 34
Night Extraction
“Major, wake up, sir,” Captain Curran said, gently nudging the major’s foot.
“Yeah, I’m awake. What’s up? What time is it?” the major asked, rubbing his hand over his face.
“Sir, we just got a mission request with a oh-five-hundred H-hour pickup. One ship. I thought you would want to see this before I get a crew together. It’s oh two thirty hours now.”
Sitting up and reaching for a light next to his bed, the major stared up at Captain Curran, not fully awake. The cup of coffee that the good captain was extending was a welcome gift. Taking a sip, the major cleared his throat. “Okay, I’m awake now. Thanks. What’s the mission?”
“Sir, we are to provide one aircraft to make an extraction of one individual at oh five hundred in the vicinity of Firebase Six in a PZ that’s about one klick from the firebase. The aircraft will have an escort of four Cobras. The individual to be picked up is Lieutenant Thacker, the guy who stayed behind and covered the withdrawal with artillery fire.”
Fully awake now, the major asked, “That guy is still alive?”
“Evidently, sir. He’s been hiding out in the jungle around the firebase since Frank and the boys escaped. I guess he’s been pinned down by the NVA and couldn’t move for a couple of days, and he still can’t get back to Firebase Five. He has a radio and made contact, and they want us to get him extracted. Who do you want me to pass this mission to? It should be a guy with a lot of night flying experience,” Captain Curran explained.36
Coming out of his bed, the major slipped on his flight suit pants. “No one. I’ll take this mission. Get me another AC with night experience to fly as copilot. I’ll be in Ops in a few minutes,” the major directed.
Captain Curran started to protest, but the look the major gave him told him that his words would fall on deaf ears. With a simple “Yes, sir, I will wake your crew,” the captain left.
After the mission brief conducted by Captain Curran, Major Adams departed with Frank Zuccardi as copilot and flew to Dak To, where they met the aircraft commanders of the four Cobras and the senior advisor. The senior advisor took everyone to his headquarters for a briefing.
“Brian has been out there on his own now for eight days or so. He hasn’t been able to move much due to the NVA that are surrounding Firebase Six, but he finally got himself to a small clearing that can take two aircraft. He’s been there for a day now and reports no activity. The clearing is located here.” He pointed at the map. “He recommends a south-to-north approach as he says the trees are the lowest on that access. When he hears you approaching, he’ll mark his location with a flashlight with a red lens. He’s on FM radio, thirty-five point five zero. His call sign will be Runner One. I told him you would contact him at oh four forty-five for an oh-five-hundred extraction. It’ll still be fairly dark and may offer you some cover. Sunrise is at oh five thirty today. What’s your questions?” the senior advisor asked. There were none.
Turning to the flight leader for the Cobras, Major Adams asked, “What’s your air-to-air frequency?”
The flight leader gave it to him, adding, “I’m going to have two aircraft remain high at one thousand feet, and two will come in low on each side of you as you approach and enter the PZ. As you come out, the two high birds will drop down to cover you and the two low birds will climb to cover everyone. How’s that sound?” he asked.
“I’m good. Let’s go do this,” Major Adams said, extending his hand to the flight leader. Handshakes were exchanged all around and everyone returned to their respective aircraft.
After briefing Specialist Durand, his crew chief, and Specialist Robinson, the door gunner, Major Adams strapped in and Frank cranked the aircraft. Things were quiet as each member of the crew was lost in their own thoughts. A single aircraft flying at night into a known heavily fortified hostile area was not the most pleasant of situations to be in, even with four Cobras watching over you. As Firebase Six was only seven klicks from the airstrip, Major Adams tuned his FM radio to the frequency for Runner One as well as the frequency for the Cobras on the UHF radio. He knew the Cobras would be monitoring the FM radio as well.
“Runner One, Chicken-man Six, over,” the major transmitted. Nothing. “Runner One, Chicken-man Six, over,” he repeated and waited.
Finally in a whisper, the
reply came. “Chicken-man Six, Runner One, I have you. PZ is clear. I say again, PZ is clear. Over.”
“Roger, Runner One, understood PZ clear. We’re on the way. Chicken-man out,” the major responded and nodded to Frank to take off. The major wanted to minimize communications with Runner One for fear that the NVA might be listening and could have radio direction finders to pinpoint Runner One’s position. As Frank pulled in power, the Cobras did likewise, and immediately all four climbed to altitude for the short trip to Runner One’s position. Frank maintained his low-level flight while the major navigated, picking out checkpoints along the flight route he’d plotted. On the eastern horizon, daylight was beginning to appear and indicated that it was going to be a rainy overcast day.
Four minutes into the flight, the major heard, “Chicken-man Six, Runner One, I can hear you approaching. Red light is out.”
“Roger, Runner One. Two minutes out,” the major responded.
“Sir,” said Durand, getting the major’s attention, “a Cobra has just pulled up behind and on my side.” Quickly Robinson indicated the same on his side. Both crew members had had their guns up and ready since the aircraft had first taken off.
Commencing a deceleration at treetop level, Frank spotted a red dot in the middle of a small clearing and increased his deceleration while lowering his collective even more. As the aircraft came to a hover, a slight rocking could be felt. Lieutenant Thacker was on the skids before the aircraft even touched the ground.
“Sir, he’s aboard,” Durand said, and without further comment, Frank was pulling as much power as he could and building airspeed and altitude rapidly out of the PZ. No one shot at them.
“We got him,” was all the major said to the Cobra flight leader. “We got him.”
Looking over his shoulder, Major Adams saw Brian sitting on the floor, his back against the transmission wall, his head tilted back, his eyes looking up. Finally Brian looked forward at Major Adams. In the dim light of the aircraft instruments’ lights, Major Adams could see Brian’s white teeth and the double thumbs-up Brian was flashing him.
Chapter 35
Another Stand-Down
