Later that afternoon we were summoned back to Camp Evans, so we said goodbye to our new friends. We were told that a major operation was being planned and every 1st Cavalry aircraft will be involved. The OP was called Pegasus (https://1cda.org/history/relief-of-khe-sanh/).
About three weeks after we left the SOG unit at Phu Bai their Commander contacted our Company Commander and requested that we attend a celebration/party at the SOG Enlisted Men’s Club. Our commander recognized that there would be adult beverages involved and was really not keen on sending an aircraft down there unless a teetotaler was driving and as far as he knew there were none among the two crews who flew the mission in the A Shau Valley. One of us (I suspected Ron “Guts” Gutwein) suggested me as the pilot as I rarely drank alcohol, gambled, or hung out with wild women. I did smoke, however, but apparently that was not a deal breaker.
Off to the SOG pad at Phu Bai we went with every crew member available and me flying. We were greeted by the team we pulled out of the A Shau. The four of us who were Warrant Officers became honorary Enlisted Men as Officers were not allowed in the EM Club. There was a Filipino Country and Western band playing some soap tune and all our drinks were on the house, including my Cokes. They did a great Johnny Cash. War stories were being swapped, each louder than the last. The air in the club kept getting bluer and people we didn’t know offered us one drink after another. After about an hour I finally caved thinking one drink wouldn’t hurt me. I’m famous for nursing a drink until well after the ice has melted and it’s easy to fake a Cuba Libre with a Coke.
The downside of being a lightweight sipping rum hidden in a cola at even one drink an hour puts you on your backside after three or four hours. On top of that there is no taxi service in a combat zone in the middle of the night and no one to hand the keys to the Huey.
I remember taking off and climbing to cruise altitude and speed then waking up at about 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, in a fog, in my tent, in my cot, and in my clothes, including boots. The time between those events was obliterated. I suddenly got a burst of adrenaline and busted out of my tent heading to the flight line at a dead run. I imagined seeing my aircraft upside down or crossways in the revetment, it’s hulk smoking and pictured myself in jail somewhere.
What I saw was a perfectly good helicopter sitting squarely in the revetment, properly brushed and relaxing in her stall with a blanket over her back munching on oats. I realized once again that there is a God and he had wrapped me in his full armor.
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