After spending a pleasant April day (1970) across the fence in Cambodia with some 5th SFG HQ and MACV guys I crossed back into VN and climbed to 2000 ft. to cool off. I tuned on AFRN so we, the crew could listen to some music. Now, at that time there had been rumblings in the American press that there had been incursions into Cambodia by U.S. troops which had been denied by the administration. On the other hand, I had been taking these folks across the border, low level, for several weeks, in secrecy, with my special CEOI (code book), encrypted radio cover and NO gun cover. Totally by coincidence, a recording of President Nixon's statement that "There are no U.S. combat troops in Cambodia." came out of the radio right after I crossed back into Vietnam. My first reaction was "Wow Dick. Good timing!" As I mentioned, the statement was a recording and it was purely coincidental that it came on at that time, but the irony stuck with me.
The mission that I had been flying was to take my passengers to various Cambodian villages to gather intelligence by talking with village chiefs and elders about NVA activity in their area. The mission was successful in that by the time U.S. conventional forces went into Cambodia in the beginning of May we knew quite a lot about their operations.
On a sadder note, the one day that things did not go well also stuck with me. In the advanced stages of preparation for the invasion several outposts had been created along the border, manned by Cambodian recruits, led by SF (Green Beret) and others. These outposts were generally in the Dog Face, Angel Wing and Parrots Beak area of the border. This particular day, a large recon group went in to examine what was thought to be an NVA listening post. I was providing aerial cover, circling from about 100 ft. above what looked like just a big pile of logs. The troops were crawling all over the thing when a large explosion occurred. I started inbound when an American voice come over the radio requesting MedEvac. I told him I was on short final, look up. The casualty was loaded in the back and I headed to the hospital at Chu Chi. The explosion had blown off both legs above the knees with just bone stumps remaining. Now the hospital Corpsmen were used to MedEvac birds bringing patients in on stretchers, but this day the guy ran up to the helicopter and grabbed the bones thinking, I guess, they were stretcher handles. His jaw dropped and he let go. Immediately another guy showed up with a stretcher and they loaded the wounded on it and departed for the emergency room. Of course, I don't know the disposition of the casualty. I always thought of that corpsman. Those guys saw the worst of the worst, along with the MedEvac crews that brought in the wounded.
The mission that I had been flying was to take my passengers to various Cambodian villages to gather intelligence by talking with village chiefs and elders about NVA activity in their area. The mission was successful in that by the time U.S. conventional forces went into Cambodia in the beginning of May we knew quite a lot about their operations.
On a sadder note, the one day that things did not go well also stuck with me. In the advanced stages of preparation for the invasion several outposts had been created along the border, manned by Cambodian recruits, led by SF (Green Beret) and others. These outposts were generally in the Dog Face, Angel Wing and Parrots Beak area of the border. This particular day, a large recon group went in to examine what was thought to be an NVA listening post. I was providing aerial cover, circling from about 100 ft. above what looked like just a big pile of logs. The troops were crawling all over the thing when a large explosion occurred. I started inbound when an American voice come over the radio requesting MedEvac. I told him I was on short final, look up. The casualty was loaded in the back and I headed to the hospital at Chu Chi. The explosion had blown off both legs above the knees with just bone stumps remaining. Now the hospital Corpsmen were used to MedEvac birds bringing patients in on stretchers, but this day the guy ran up to the helicopter and grabbed the bones thinking, I guess, they were stretcher handles. His jaw dropped and he let go. Immediately another guy showed up with a stretcher and they loaded the wounded on it and departed for the emergency room. Of course, I don't know the disposition of the casualty. I always thought of that corpsman. Those guys saw the worst of the worst, along with the MedEvac crews that brought in the wounded.
