Medal of Honor
Page 33
Old Man. A term applied by members of a unit indicating the commanding officer. Usually applied when the commander is not present but used as a term of endearment and respect.
Pax. Military term of passenger
PX. Post exchange, the military version of Walmart.
PZ. Pickup zone, a location to pick up passengers or supplies.
QSY. A term used to denote one is changing his radio frequency.
RLO. Real live officer, a term applied to commissioned officers, versus warrant officers, who are appointed officers.
RMI. Radio Magnetic Indicator. Provides heading of the aircraft similar to a magnetic compass but is very stable in flight.
R&R. Rest and Relaxation. Abbreviated term for personnel leaving country for about seven days.
SF. Special Forces.
S-2. The title for the officer responsible for the overall planning, coordination, collecting and analysis of intelligence information.
S-3. The title for the officer responsible for the overall planning, coordination and execution of actions by an organization.
S-3 Air. The title for the officer responsible for coordination with aviation elements to support the actions of an organization.
Sitrep Situation Report.
Slick. Another name for the UH-1 assault helicopter.
Thermite grenade. A grenade that is designed to destroy objects through heat rather than explode; burns at approximately 4,000 degrees.
TOC. Tactical operations center.
Top. A common term use to designate a First Sergeant. Generally used with affection and respect.
Translational Lift. The improved rotor efficiency resulting from directional movement in a helicopter. The efficiency of the hovering rotor system is greatly improved with each knot of incoming wind gained by horizontal movement of the aircraft or surface wind.
UHF. Ultra High Frequency radio. Operates on frequencies in the 300 megahertz to 3 gigahertz range. Primarily provided communications between aircraft and those ground bases with UHF capability.
VHF. Very High Frequency radio. Operates on frequencies in the 30 to 300 megahertz range and use primarily for air-to-air and air-to-ground communications, such as military airfields and aviation unit operations, if so equipped.
WO. Warrant officer, junior to CWO.
Warrant Officer Protection Association. A fictitious organization consisting of warrant officers, which allows them to complain about RLOs and Army policy.
XO. Second-in-command of a unit.
Some Gave All
The following individuals gave all during the period 1 August 1970 until the final elements returned to the United States in 1972. They will be remembered for eternity with their names on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC.
Date Rank Name PanelRow
Company A
3/31/71 WO1 Roger Reid 04W54
5/25/71 MAJ William E. Adams 03W54
5/25/71 CPT John Curran 03W54
5/25/71 SP4 Dennis C Durand 03W54
5/25/71 SP4 Melvin Robinson 03W55
Company B
02/20/71 CPT David N. Head 05W124
02/20/71 SP4 William Malone 05W125
02/21/71 SP4 Robert Cononado 05W128
Firebase Six Losses
HHB 1st Battalion 92d Artillery
03/31/71 PFC Randolph L Marthe 04W 96
03/31/71 SSG Charles W. Sterling 04W 98
03/31/71 SP5 Philip B. Terrill POW/MIA
MACV Advisor Team 22
03/31/71 SFC James Salley Jr. POW/MIA
I have attempted to identify the three advisors that were killed by a satchel charge the evening prior to the ground attack. I have been unsuccessful in that endeavor.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to the many men who provided me with the necessary information so I could write this account of Chicken-man’s actions. I know for some, it was painful recounting events that happened so long ago. I would like to especially thank Adan Salazar and Frank Salazar, Alston Gore, Mike Patterson, Mike Kelly, Jim Guidone and Bruce Sinkey as well as Bill Hess for the details of several events. Thanks to Chuck Stevens for giving me a history lesson on the early years and the deployment to Vietnam for the unit. I hope that I have told their story and done them and others justice, especially those that gave all. I wish I would have gotten to know them. Thanks to Momir Borocki at momir.borocki@gmail.com for the exceptional cover design. Give the man an idea and he creates covers that instantly tell the story. My words are inadequate and therefore maps are needed to adequately portray locations and distances. Thanks to Infidum, LLC (www.infidiun.net), who took my hand-drawn maps and turned them into incredible pieces. I have yet to figure out how to format a work, so I have turned to Polgarus Studio to dress up the final product and they have done it very well. As ever, thanks to Ms. Eliza Dee for editing and suggestions. I should have paid better attention in English class. To Pattie Christesen, Mike Boswell, Jeff Thermond and James Cloore for proofreading and pointing out what was written versus what I was seeing. Thanks to my mentor, James Rosone, whose own works got me moving in the right direction, and Desire Holt for her encouragement. A very special thanks to Colonel John Adams, USMC (Ret) for sharing insights about his father. As always, thanks to my wife for putting up with me all these years and through all the rewrites.
Notes
1 The Medal of Honor is erroneously referred to frequently as the Congressional Medal of Honor when in fact it is just the Medal of Honor because it is presented in the name of Congress.
2 Aircraft commanders, ACs, flew left seat in our unit.
3 Dorsey didn’t know it at the time, but he had a relative who worked in the Division personnel office who was looking out for him and had him placed in this aviation assignment. Before Dorsey’s tour was over, he would get to serve in the infantry.
4 In Volume 1, I misspelled Ritchie’s name and wish to make that corrections here to honor his memory. Sorry, Owen.
5 It is very common in the military for last names to be used amongst equals.
6 A hover hole was an opening in the triple-canopy jungle about the diameter of a helicopter’s rotor blades and tail rotor. The helicopter could maneuver down at a hover to bring supplies to the infantry. Frequently a hover hole in this area was 200–300 feet deep, and the aircraft often had to be maneuvered under tree limbs to complete the mission.
7 Each piece of equipment in the Army has an operator’s manual, which is referred to as the -10. For the UH-1D and UH-1H helicopters, it is formally known as TM55-1520-210-10. TM stands for Technical Manual.
8 US Army Field Manual 6-30 outlines the proper procedures for making a call for artillery fire request.
9 Danger close is called when the rounds from artillery will be impacting with 750 meters of friendly troops.
10 In the 1960s, the dangers of Agent Orange defoliant to the human body were not known.
11 The Stars and Stripes newspaper did not have obituaries.
12 Willie Pete is a white phosphorus artillery round that on impact makes a large white smoke cloud and indicates that the artillery has fired its last round.
13 J.D. Coleman, ed., The 1st Air Cavalry Division: Vietnam, August 1965 to December 1969 (Tokyo: Dia Nippon Printing Company,1970), 26.
14 Vietnamese beer.
15 Mr. Spade was honorably discharged for his service at the end of his tour. He retired as a CEO for a computer company.
16 Pronounced as “Die We.”
17 Mike Kelly would go on to become a warrant officer pilot and commercial jet pilot.
18 Contour flight is flying as fast as possible while hugging the terrain. Low-level flight is constant airspeed, constant altitude.
19 Peter Pilot was a slang term for right-seat pilot or new-in-country pilot.
20 Pogey bait is a term for junk food.
21 Europe was receiving soldiers from Vietnam that still had time on their enlistments, and their morale was less than satisfactory. In some locations, duty officer
s carried sidearms.
22 Night of the Living Dead was the classic zombie movie and scared all of us.
23 Table of Organization and Equipment, a detailed document that spells out exactly what type and amount of equipment each unit is authorized to have as well as the number of personnel by rank.
24 Sam got out of Vietnam before it fell to the North Vietnamese. As of the author’s last contact with her, she was living in Enterprise, Alabama.
25 Frequently nine was pronounced as niner.
26 The OH-6A was given to US Army National Guard units through the 1970s. Today, it has the designation of MD or MH-6 and is manufactured by Boeing Aircraft Corporation. Although similar in appearance to the OH-6A, the MD/MH-6 aircraft should be considered an OH-6A on steroids. It is only found in special operation aviation units today.
27 The bodies of those flight crews were never recovered and are listed today as missing in action.
28 The South Vietnamese police were referred to as the White Mice due to their all white uniforms. Many were North Vietnamese sympathizers if not current Viet Cong.
29 Stand-to is a common Army term to denote that everyone should be fully equipped and ready for action just prior to sunrise.
30 Dai-uy translates to Captain and is pronounced Di We.
31 SITREP acronym for Situation Report.
32 Mike returned to civilian life and became a Captain on the Sacramento Fire Department.
33 WO1 Roger Reid’s body, along with those of the three US advisors from the 22 MACV Advisor team, were recovered several days later.
34 The AN/PRC 77 radio replaced the AN/PRC25 radio in Vietnam for US forces in 1968.
35 Lieutenant Brian Thacker would remain in the vicinity of Firebase Six for several days, adjusting artillery fire on the overrun firebase. For his actions, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
36 Lieutenant Thacker stayed eight days around Firebase Six, hiding from the NVA and adjusting artillery fire.
37 Depending on the source, the number of pilots killed varies as deaths from both Dewey Canyon and Lam Son 719 are sometimes combined. It is sufficient to say that the death toll was much higher than anything that had been experienced in the past.
38 An excellent book that covers the events prior to and during the operation in Lam Son 719 is Invasion of Laos, 1971: Lam Son 719 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014) by Robert D. Sander.
39 Lieutenant colonels are referred to as colonel, although they are a step below colonel.