Word: gunship
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...units like the 101st, they decorate their machines like so many jalopies-or minibuses. Wicked-looking to begin with, Cobras are even more fearsome when shark's teeth, skulls or lightning bolts are painted on them. And naturally, there are names. One Huey sports THE GRIM REAPER. A gunship is emblazoned with KILLING IS OUR BUSINESS AND BUSINESS is GOOD. Then there is the black pilot, possibly mythical, who flies a UH-1 named-what else?-FREE HUEY...
...drove confidently, foolishly, toward Skoun, not looking for the other signs that were all around me. Six kilometers from Skoun, my eye caught a South Vietnamese gunship making lazy circles over what had to be the city. I watched carefully now, but saw only the plane. Then I saw them, out the left window, standing in the heavy underbrush by the side of the road...
...Then the soldiers invited me to show them how Americans crawl. I got down on all fours and promptly split the seat of my pants, and the evening solitude dissolved in laughter. But the humor was short-lived. In the southern sky, a blinking red light told of a gunship's approach. The light from our cai-dens and our laughter died at the same time. Silently we watched the plane pass and then went into our house...
Friends fell away. Some were killed in action; others, like Major General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the fearless, ruthless, but highly effective National Police chief, were wounded in street fighting in Saigon. Two weeks ago, a malfunctioning rocket fired from a U.S. helicopter gunship smashed into a forward command post and in one shattering blow wiped out virtually the whole top level of Saigon's city administration, including four of Ky's most powerful backers. But by far the greatest damage was caused by President Thieu's gradual consolidation of power: without consultation, he fired Premier Nguyen...
Elsewhere, the action was equally violent but less prolonged. In an unsuccessful attempt to capture Tarn Ky, the capital of Quang Tin province, 40 miles southeast of Danang, the Viet Cong lost 210 men to withering fire from South Vietnamese troopers and the "Miniguns" of a U.S. C-47 gunship called "Spooky." Near the DMZ, a battalion of North Vietnamese regulars ambushed a tank-escorted Marine convoy on its way to the "Rockpile" strongpoint that overlooks infiltration routes from North Viet Nam. Two Marine companies barreled up the road 'from either direction, catching the North Vietnamese in between. Result...