Word: choppers
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Crowded Helicopters. One of the 1st Division's three regiments-the 3rd-returned with only 450 of its original 2,000 men still in fighting condition. For those troops at least, the orderly retreat had become a rout. Choppers that ordinarily accommodate eight men carried 14, some clinging precariously to the helicopter skids. Several lost their holds in mid-air and fell to death; others seemed barely able to hobble, apparently suffering from their days of marching through Laos' jungled mountains. One unconscious soldier had one arm wrapped around a machine-gun mount, while his comrades held...
Mission Accomplished. In mid-afternoon the first chopper, a Cobra gunship, swinging low to check the landing zone, came under heavy fire from the ground. It tried to roll out, but nosed into the jungle and exploded. The second, a Huey troop carrier, managed to land and evacuate 17 men. The third was hit by machine-gun fire and crashed. Two hours later, two more helicopters landed and rescued the downed chopper's crew and the last ARVN troops...
First stop for would-be chopper pilots is sere Fort Wolters, Texas, where they spend 16 weeks learning to handle light training helicopters. Then come 16 weeks of more advanced work at Fort Rucker, Ala. For the first eight weeks, Rucker students fly only under hoods, learning to maneuver their prized Hueys on instruments alone...
...Chopper pilots earn every penny they get. In one company at Khe Sanh called the Lancers, the pilots have organized a pool; the pot-$5 from each aircraft commander-goes to the ship with the greatest accumulation of bullet holes when Lam Son finally ends (choppers that crash are disqualified). Says soft-spoken Huey Pilot John Oldham. 22, of Peculiar, Mo.: "If you think about getting killed, it will screw you up. You just do the job you are trained for." Over Laos, where the elaborate Communist antiaircraft system is especially potent, the pilots fly high-but not on grass...
Despite such kinks, U.S. commanders are convinced that their new brand of airmobile warfare is a success. In fact, there is some concern among the brass that "the other side" is all too appreciative of the chopper's virtues. Soviet pilots, they note, have been flying Russian helicopters, including rocket-firing gunships, in support of the little-noticed guerrilla struggle in the Sudan (TIME, March 1). When the allies went into Cambodia last spring, Hanoi's General Vo Nguyen Giap himself hastened to one of Cambodia's eastern provinces for a look-see. His means of transportation...