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“No, I had two years of college and thought I needed a break. Wasn’t sure what I wanted.” Finally Zuccardi asked, “What have we got once we get to Song Be?”
“Not sure. We’re working for Third Brigade, so we’ll refuel and then go to the Ops center and see what they got for us. Why don’t you take it, and I’ll get us clearance to the refuel point?” Ritchie directed.
“Okay, I have the aircraft,” Zuccardi indicated.
“You have the aircraft,” Ritchie responded. Tuning in the frequency on the VHF radio for Song Be tower, Ritchie depressed his foot switch and made the call. “Song Be Tower, Chicken-man One-Two.” Song Be was the largest town in the area northeast of Quan Loi. About a thousand people lived there in mostly concrete block and stucco structures. There was a Catholic Church and a small hospital as well as a school located next to a civilian dirt airstrip. Song Be tower provided clearances at the military airfield which was separate from the civilian airfield in the town. The civilian airfield had no tower.
“Chicken-man One-Two, Song Be Tower, over.”
“Song Be Tower, Chicken-man One-Two is three miles south for landing POL. Over.”
“Roger, Chicken-man One-Two, you’re cleared for straight in.”
“Roger, Song Be,” Ritchie responded. Turning to Zuccardi, he asked, “Did you get that?
“Yeah, cleared for a straight in to POL,” Zuccardi answered.
“Roger that,” Ritchie stated and switched his radio to FM radio 1. “Badger Six, Chicken-man One-Two, over.”
After a short pause, he heard, “Chicken-man One-Two, good morning, Badger Six India here.”
“Badger Six India, Chicken-man One-Two is on final for POL. What do you want us to do? Over.”
“Chicken-man One-Two, someone will meet you at the base of the tower with your work for today. Initially you’ll be in support of the ARVN battalion at
…” And Ritchie plotted the coordinates on his map as Zuccardi hovered into POL and the crew commenced with a hot refuel. After Ritchie had the position plotted, he handed the map to Zuccardi who looked up at Ritchie with wide eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Ritchie asked.
“These coordinates put us about one klick from the border,” he said as he passed the map back to Ritchie.
“Yeah, that’s about right. Never been that close, have you? Don’t worry. Things have been fairly quiet since we went into Cambodia and cleaned out their supply bases. The Vietnamese airborne units are just cleaning up the remnants of the NVA that were south of the border when we crossed over back in May. How you coming on the refuel, Lovelace?”
“Sir, we’re just finishing up the top-off.”
Lovelace and Mondie came forward and closed the pilots’ doors and took their respective places.
“Clear left.”
“Clear right.”
“Clear up and back,” came the expected response from the crew.
Ritchie came to a hover and slid right before executing a pedal turn and hovering to the base of the tower, where two individuals were standing. One appeared to be a Vietnamese soldier and the other an American. On closer examination, both were officers, and it appeared that the American was an advisor to the Vietnamese unit. Upon landing, the Vietnamese officer jumped in and took a seat while the American came up to Ritchie’s door and stood on the skid.
“Good morning, are you Chicken-man One-Two?” asked the US captain.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Ritchie, and this is Mr. Zuccardi.”
“Good. We need to head to the ARVN battalion location and have you run some resupply for them, and then we have a six-pack for this afternoon.”
“Sounds like we aren’t going to get bored today. We have the location for the battalion, so anytime you’re ready,” Ritchie stated. With that, the captain climbed into the back and took a seat.
“Get us clearance for takeoff. Coming up,” Ritchie said to everyone who was monitoring the intercom system.
As Zuccardi got clearance from the tower, the crew cleared the aircraft to come out and depart. Climbing out over the town of Song Be, Ritchie took a heading of due north, flying over the US firebase at Bu Gia Map and continued on until he sighted the ARVN firebase just south of the Cambodian border. As he approached, he could see where a logistics pad was established, with cases of C-rations and water stacked neatly in three piles. In addition, each pile had some chickens and a pig.
“Hey, guys, guess what’s for dinner—fowl or pork?” Ritchie remarked.
