Dueling A New Enemy

By

Ray H. Janes Jr.

USAF FAC Phuoc Vinh 1969

 

After clearing into the 504th Tactical Air Support Group, new FACs were sent to Phan Rang to attend the in country check out program in the OV-10 at the FAC U. School. We arrived late in the day after standing around for eight hours waiting for transportation. When the C-47 taxied up we learned the REMFs, who logged a combat mission, were upset because they were going to be late for a party at the Officer’s Club. They drew the short straw at the office. This was our first obvious clue about the support we could expect from the desk jockeys controlling the war.

 

I flew my four missions there in January 1969. One evening several of us were invited to the Air Liaison Officer (ALO) BOQ for a drink before dinner. Now that I look back I think they were selecting us for assignments. The ALO assigned to the 1st Air Cavalry Division for the conversion from the O-2 to the OV-10 took me aside and said he was looking for somebody to be an ALO/FAC for the 1/9th Air Cavalry Squadron. He told me they had a lot of helicopters and often needed air support because their job was to find the enemy. I had heard the 1st Air Cavalry Division was a good one and I thought of the offer as a chance to be an ALO. So I agreed to do it. Little did I know what the job really required? I could tell many stories of daring operations but this isn’t one of them. I think a little humor should be included in the FAC Book to show that even our sense of humor could become warped in the war. I know that we enjoyed our fun when we could find it and sometimes we considered weird things hilarious. This story was one of those times.

 

The Air Cavalry Troops operated in “Pink Teams” which meant an OH-6 Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) with a call sign of White, affectionately nicknamed “Loach”, flew just above the treetops. The Loach crew’s job was tracking the enemy as best they could by following footprints or bicycle tracks on trails through the jungle until they saw the enemy or enemy bullets started flying. They were as skilled at tracking as their ancestors, the Buffalo Soldiers in the Indian Wars. A Cobra AH-1 “Snake” with a call sign of Red, thus the Pink name, loaded with rockets plus a mini-gun, a grenade launcher or both provided cover for the Loach from 1500 ft. above. Usually the Loach would receive ground fire and the Snake would attack while the low bird cleared the area. Then the information would be reported to Headquarters (HQ) so a decision could be made on how to continue exploiting the contact. If it was suspected to be relatively small and some intelligence could be gained the “Blue” Platoon would be landed using UH-1 “Huey” (Slicks) for insertion to find out what was there. Obviously sometimes they walked into some very hot fights, sometimes the Landing Zone (LZ) itself was “hot” and sometimes as a FAC I was fortunate enough to get them out of trouble. Otherwise some other method, possibly escalating to include air strikes, would be used to attack the target.

 

I quickly learned that to gain their respect and cooperation I would have to fly with them periodically. So I started flying all three types of helicopters in each of the three Troop’s Areas of Operation (AO) as co-pilot, observer or gunner. I was instructed in how to fly the SQ helicopters but I was never qualified in them so I believe all I could do was to make a controlled crash in a dire emergency. A Troop “Apache” was with the 1st Brigade at Tay Ninh, B Troop “Saber” was with the 2nd at Quan Loi and C Troop “Cavalier” was with the 3rd at Phouc Vinh. When I wanted to learn the areas where they were working I would ride shotgun in the Loach and learn to recognize the kind of activity that was going on in a particular AO. Then I would fly in the other types of helicopters to learn how the teams in each Troop operated. That way I knew exactly what was going on when I was called for support and perhaps more importantly, who needed the help.

 

At one time C Troop was assigned an AO of it’s own in War Zone D as a free fire zone. This was the first time I know of that an Air Cavalry Troop had been given sole responsibility for an AO, in addition to supporting the 3rd Brigade. Usually they only covered their Brigade’s AO. Naturally I wanted to learn the area as quickly as possible because I suspected they would be very diligent in locating the enemy. While responsible for the AO they found caches of 100 lb. bags of rice, sampans sunk to hide them, even a dud 2,000 lb. bomb ready to “cook” to retrieve the explosive. So I flew several missions with Cavalier Troop in the low bird over the first week they operated in the new AO. On one of these early missions in the area that we found ourselves dueling a totally new Viet Cong enemy, which shocked the whole division. We reported the situation with a humorous slant, which was fully exploited.

 

The Loach crew entered the AO fully prepared to take on any Viet Cong we encountered. We all three had our pistols. I had my CAR-16 with two bandoliers of ammo clips instead of one. I also had a wire strung with hand grenades readily available. The crew chief had a full box of M-60 linked ammo, a 40 MM “chucker” grenade launcher and both smoke and hand grenades stung within easy grasp. I was riding shotgun in the Loach covering the port side as usual when suddenly a black ball streaked by the helicopter from our blind spot and flashed above us. The pilot reacted quickly by jinking and asked the crew chief if we were taking fire. Then as it wheeled over us and dove to attack us again the crew chief said in an awed voice, “Sir I think we have a VC duck attacking us”. As he franticly maneuvered trying to keep the duck in sight so it could be avoided he yelled, “You’re right, anybody got any ideas?” Utter silence reigned in the cockpit as he operated the Loach like an amusement part thrill ride. He changed directions vertically, horizontally, banked, came to a full stop, backed up, twirled around and around. The pilot used every maneuver a helicopter can do as fast as possible. The crew chief and I just hung on for dear life. It seemed as if we couldn’t avoid a disaster.

 

The Helicopter must have looked like the pilot had gone berserk because the Snake asked if we were taking fire. The pilot answered, “No”. Red said, “Then you must have lost you’re mind because you’re jinking around so much I can’t keep track of you.” White replied, “We’re being attacked by a VC duck”. There was a period of silence and then Red called, “Well shoot it or something because I can’t help you if I can’t keep you in sight and I sure don’t want to report you KBA (Killed by Air) by a duck!”

 

The heavily armed “Yankee Air Pirates” were scared to death by a duck! We flew without doors on the bird and if the duck got inside the cockpit, was hit by the rotors or was sucked into the engine, we would crash. The violent maneuvers by the pilot were barely able to avoid the duck’s attacks. The pilot frantically ordered the crew chief to shoot the duck. The crew chief hesitated and then said, “I’ll try sir but I don’t know about hunting a duck with an M-60. Is that legal”? “Just start shooting”, screamed the pilot. I hung on for dear life as a vicious dueling dogfight; I guess I mean duckfight raged for about ten minutes. The crew chief couldn’t get a good shot and he was using ammo fast. The duck appeared to be slowing down as it tired and the attacks were further apart. Finally the pilot was able to fly parallel to the duck for a few seconds and the crew chief got a good shot. One feather flew off and the duck began spinning and tumbling down until it disappeared into the trees.

 

While we slowly circled the area where the duck disappeared the pilot asked the crew chief if he saw the duck hit the ground. “No sir”, he answered, “He just disappeared into the trees. Do you think he could have faked it?” There was another moment of silence and the pilot said, “Naaaa you must have got him.” By this time the Snake wanted to know the results. The crew chief said he was low on ammo so we would have to return and rearm. White reported this to Red.

 

Red told us that the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) wanted to know what we had found as a target. The pilot and I looked at each other. I shrugged my shoulders and grinned. The crew chief said in an excited voice, “Sir, I must be the only guy in the world who can claim an air to air kill of a duck with an M-60.”

 

The pilot was flying straight and level, which was a big “NO NO” for the White bird and staring straight ahead. The Red bird called and said, “White I need an answer and you need to start maneuvering before you get shot!” Our pilot began jinking, keyed the mike and replied, “Red this is White, please report us returning to base for rearming after an attack by a VC duck and one VC duck is reported KBA.” There was a long period of silence and then Red called chuckling, “The TOC wants to know if a Blue Platoon reaction is required and any further sightings”. “Report that we see no additional activity by the VC Duck Regiment at this time and further action is not warranted. We will continue scouting after we rearm and report any activity by the regiment that we find,” replied the pilot.

 

When we landed two crew chiefs came running toward the Loach lugging a box of M-60 ammo and as they threw it on board and picked up the almost empty box they were grinning from ear to ear. So we knew the story had already spread over the whole firebase. As we flew back to the AO Red reported an order to us from HQ to “Continue searching for the elusive VC Duck Regiment and report any sighting or any massing for an attack so the alert status on the firebase can be increased if necessary.” We completed our VR mission and landed without reporting anything else. Frankly we weren’t looking too hard because we highly trained war fighters had enough excitement for one day.

 

For several weeks after our encounter with the duck every briefing contained a reference to the vicious VC Duck regiment and every helicopter, ground trooper and FAC operating in the area were reporting things like, “VC Duck spoor spotted but no trail to follow. An empty VC Duck nesting area was sighted but no recent activity could be determined. Movement of the VC Duck regiment in V formation sighted but the team was unable to bring it under fire.” Finally the AO was given to another unit and the last flight reported the VC Duck Regiment had been successfully driven out of the area.

 

I don’t know how far up the chain of command the story was transmitted. I only know that when I was tapped to report Air Force activity for the day at the Division Commander’s daily briefing at 5 P.M. I was told to be certain to include a comment about our efforts to support the division regarding the VC Duck Regiment because every other unit was doing it. I was politically savvy enough to end each report with a statement that Air Force visual reconnaissance was unable to report any VC Duck activity. That we knew the Army was better equipped to spot its movement but we stood ready to coordinate action and provide full air support to any Troops in Contact (TIC) involving the VC Duck Regiment. Each time I finished the briefing the general grinned and gave me a thumb up sign as he got up to leave.

 

The story only lasted two or three weeks but it gave us all something to look forward to each day. Everybody was trying to come up with something silly to report to keep it going because we didn’t have much to laugh about. We were all sorry it ended. I guess we sort of felt like the war was useless if the VC could even recruit the ducks against us. It was replaced in the 1/9th with The Amorous Adventures of the F_ _k You Lizard, but that’s another story.