Word: zapping
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...kite was tangled in the power line behind his home outside Houston, and the impatient youngster tried to unsnarl the mess by poking at it with a rake. Zap, crackle, pop. The line short-circuited, burned through and fell, sparking and whipping, onto a chain link fence. That was a job for Superman -but he didn't show. Fortunately another stellar hero lived next door, and Scott Carpenter, 38, came to the rescue. While a second neighbor held the wires down with a board, the astronaut laid into the 120-volt cable with a wooden-handled ax, soon...
...objective was to destroy a guerrilla training camp and supply depot on the island, which was defended by a battalion of Viet Cong troops. As orange tracer bullets streaked into the sky from Communist foxholes, a turbine-powered, UH-1A ("Huey") support helicopter, laden with rockets, fluttered down to "zap" the enemy. Suddenly the Huey was hit, and exploded in a ball of flame; the four Americans aboard, and their Vietnamese crewman, never had a chance. As the battle blazed, the desperate Viet Cong poured murderous fire into the other whirlybirds. Fourteen more were hit but limped back to Saigon...
...pilots have a jargon of their own. They "zap" the Viet Cong on a good day, call Saigon "the ville," express fervent approval of everything from a girl to a chopper with the word"outstandin'." Top-ranking visitors often hitch rides on their flights to get in a few personal licks at the Viet Cong. Brigadier General Joseph Stilwell Jr., son of "Vinegar Joe," frequently rides shotgun in Slavich's own chopper. Once, with Stilwell aboard, Slavich had to make an emergency landing in a Red-infested area. "I was scared to death," said Slavich...