Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, this the Hawk, go ahead.
Spooky 41: Roger, Hawk. You know how the trees come up behind your position to the north [and] kinda cut off those two little bald hills, the one you’re on and the one just north of you?
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, only too well.
Spooky 41: OK, we’re gonna work that over a little bit if that’s all right with you.
Chicken Hawk: Fine, fine, go ahead.
Spooky 41: OK, and where else would you like for us to move? We’re trying to work over all the little peaks and ridgelines around you.
Chicken Hawk: Listen, if you hit the peaks and ridgelines around here that’ll be fine.
Spooky 41: OK and, ahh, we’re going to try to stay out about 200 or 300 meters from your November Whisky, we’re not going to get much past that.
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, roger.
Spooky 41 Internal: Looking good. You can work all that tree line then.
Spooky 41: Hey Hawk, this is Spooky 41.
Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, this the Hawk, go buddy.
Spooky 41: Roger, can you tell me if my bullets are hitting the ground?
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, wait one.
Spooky 41: Hey Hawk, I’m just kidding you.
Chicken Hawk: Goddammit buddy, you had me going on that one, I’ll say that.
ON TO OTHER BUSINESS
Grand Palette Juliet: Spooky 41, Grand Palette Juliet over.
Spooky 41: Roger, Juliet, this is Spooky 41. Go ahead, over.
Grand Palette Juliet: I understand you’re very busy, sorry to bother you, ahh, higher request to know if Kate is in contact with Mike Strike Force element northwest of location, over.
Spooky 41: Roger, stand by.
Spooky 41: Kate, Kate, Spooky 41.
Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, Spooky 41, this the Hawk. I’m taking stuff, what do you need?
Spooky 41: OK, ahh, Juliet wants to know if you’re in contact with Mike Strike Force to the north, over.
Chicken Hawk: Roger.
Spooky 41: OK, break, break, Juliet, that’s a roger.
Juliet: This is Juliet, roger, thank you much. No further. Out.
Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, this is the Hawk.
Spooky 41: Go ahead Hawk, Spooky 41 over.
Chicken Hawk: Hey, ahh, are you hearing those explosions, explosions? They sound like they’re coming from the Whisky, the Sierra Whisky, over?
Spooky 41: Negative, I haven’t heard a thing. What’s it sound like, ahh, ahh, gunfire?
Chicken Hawk: No buddy, it sounds like an Arc Light, like a distant Arc Light.
Spooky 41: Ahh, OK roger, you got one down here about 10 miles from you.
Chicken Hawk: Roger, that’s probably what it was then.
Spooky 41: Roger, if they get to firing on us, we’ll shoot at them.
Chicken Hawk: (Laughing.) OK.
Spooky 41 Internal: Vin let’s see how much ammo we got left.
Gunner: Approximately 9,000 left sir, half a load.
Spooky 41 Internal: OK, we got about an hour and ten. Why don’t we hold off a while.
Pilot: Roger . . . We can hold off until about 0100 [hours] and then fire out 30 minutes and, ahh, hope to stay with them another 15 to 20 minutes.
Loader: . . . 14 flares . . .
Spooky 41 Internal: OK.
Spooky 41: Hawk, this is Spooky 41.
Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, this the Hawk, go buddy.
Spooky 41: Roger, ahh, we’re down to about half a load right now. What we’re gonna do is . . . stay up here for about, ahh, 40 minutes and just orbit the area and then we’ll come back in and work off the other half of our load and stay with you up to about, ahh, pretty close to one o’clock, ahh, pretty close to 2 o’clock.
Chicken Hawk: Ahh, roger, roger that buddy, OK, when you come back in to work off that other half, ahh, don’t work it all off, in case they, ahh, something happens.
Spooky 41: Ahh, you know it, we’re gonna save some.
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, on that buddy, ahh, sounds real fine. I’ll let you know if something happens here, we get a target here and I’ll bring you right back down.
Spooky 41: Ahh, OK, and if you want to rest a little bit, we’re watching for any muzzle flashes or anything else, so we’ll keep you posted if we see anything.
Chicken Hawk: OK, certainly appreciate that.
Spooky 41: Roger, and I’ll leave you alone for about 20 or 30 minutes and then I’ll have a little commo check with you.
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, if you don’t get me the first time, give me a couple of calls, OK.
Spooky 41: Roger, and if I don’t get you then, I know what your coordinates are, we’ll wake you up.
Chicken Hawk: (Laughing.) Ahh, I’ll tell you what, I think I better stay awake for this.
Spooky 41: That’s OK.
Chicken Hawk: OK, buddy, ahh, I’ll be waiting to hear from you.
Spooky 41: Roger.
Carbon Outlaw 25: Be advised Shadow 48 will be, ahh, relieving you and, ahh, he should be up here around Zero Zero Four Zero, they are launching him at 15 past, over.
SHIFT CHANGE
Chicken Hawk: Ahh, this is Chicken Hawk’s buddy.
Spooky 41: OK, ahh, Chicken Hawk’s buddy, we’re ready to shoot.
Chicken Hawk: Pour it on there buddy.
Spooky 41: OK, we’re gonna work the general areas we were working a while ago, if you wanna move us, let us know.
Chicken Hawk: We’ll give you a skinny as soon as we get any over.
Spooky 41: Roger. OK, buddy let’s go.
Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, Spooky 41, this the Hawk, over.
Spooky 41: Hey, Hawk, welcome back.
Chicken Hawk: Hey buddy, I’ll be back only for a little while, I gotta get some shut-eye here. Hey listen, ahh, I’ll talk you in. And when you come back, I hope you do, with this new guy coming in, will you brief him on what you been doing and shooting, because you’re doing an outstanding job there on your own putting it in where you think its good and that’s exactly where we need it, ahh, could you brief the new guy coming in too? Over.
Spooky 41: Roger, I’ve already given him, ahh, a small rundown, but we’re gonna wait and show him the area and brief him real good and, ahh, we’ve put in a request to turn us around as soon as we get back and we hope our highers will let us come back and spend the night with you.
Chicken Hawk: Well I do too buddy, I do too. OK, buddy, listen, I’ll be on the floor here and if you got anything for me, ahh, feel free to ask for me, OK, buddy?
Spooky 41: OK, and, ahh, I’ll just call you Chicken Hawk, buddy, huh?
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, that’s affirmative.
Spooky 41: OK.
Spooky 41 Internal: Might not hurt to put a little fire around those fires burning down there, they might be cooking up fish heads and rice with them.
Pilot: OK.
Spooky 41: Chicken Hawk buddy, Chicken Hawk buddy, hey, how’s things going?
Chicken Hawk: Ahh, Spooky 41, this is Hawk’s buddy, ahh, really going fine there, really doing an outstanding job, just keep moving it around, ahh, that’s all we can ask of you.
Spooky 41: OK, ahh, if you have no special area, we’re gonna work up and down the east side and, ahh, the Sierra side and the Whisky side a little bit.
Chicken Hawk: That sounds real fine, ahh, that whole, all the way around us we get shit all day long, over.
Spooky 41: Roger, ahh, we’re also working over these little fires, I guess, out here, we figure they might be cooking up rice and fish heads and we wanna cut a little of that out.
Chicken Hawk: That’s it, we’ll starve them so and so’s out.
Spooky 41: I’m with you buddy. Break, break, Shadow 48, this is Spooky 41, you copy on my Fox Mike?
Shadow 48: Roger, Spooky 41, Shadow 48 here. Break, break, Chicken Hawk, Shadow 48.
Spooky 41: Shadow 48, you’ll be working Chicken Hawk’s buddy, B-U-D-D-Y,
Chicken Hawk’s laying on the floor getting some sleep so we just call him Hawk Buddy.
Shadow 48: Roger that, Chicken Hawk’s buddy, Shadow 48.
Chicken Hawk: Spooky 41, this the Hawk’s Buddy, over.
Spooky 41: Go ahead, Hawk Buddy.
Chicken Hawk: This the Hawk’s buddy, we decided to change my call sign, here, to, ahh, we, ahh, call me the Beak, I took a piece of shrapnel through the nose, ahh, we thought you’d get a kick out of that, over.
Spooky 41: You took a piece of shrapnel through the nose?
Chicken Hawk: That’s affirmative, ahh, so from now on, you can just call me the Beak.
Spooky 41: OK, Beak, we’ll be calling you that then and, ahh, how bad was it?
Chicken Hawk: Oh, it just made a nice little neat hole clean through, over.
Pilot: Hey, I got a flash!
Spooky 41: Well, maybe the boys can fix you up. Hey and be advised, we just got a flash on the ground.
Beak: Pour it on, pour it on. Get that son of a bitch!
Spooky 41: Roger, he’s to your echo on the ridgeline, over there, we’re pouring it in on him now.
Beak: Roger, roger, OK, that’s a point, where you’re putting on there is where we’ve been receiving a lot of the stuff from today. All over the echo side is where we’re getting the bulk of it.
Spooky 41: Roger that, we’re fixing to put it on him.
Beak: Go ahead, bring some smoke on his young ass.
Spooky 41 Internal: Flare on the (unintelligible) spot here. That looked like a mortar tube flash to me.
Copilot: Yes sir, that’s what it looked like to me.
Spooky 41: Hey, Beak, did you all take any incoming coming in?
Chicken Hawk: Hey, Spooky 41, this the Hawk, listen, ahh, negative on that, we didn’t take anything incoming, so I think you got a secondary.
Spooky 41: Might have, ’cause it sure looked like a mortar splash.
Chicken Hawk: That’s real fine, I hope so, buddy, I hope so, that’s one more crew served we won’t have to contend with tomorrow.
Spooky 41: Roger that and, ahh, old Shadow’s coming along with some equipment on board that he might be able to pick out some of this stuff a little better than we can.
Chicken Hawk: Well, he’ll have to show me.
Spooky 41: He’s got, ahh, he’s a second-generation Spooky.
Chicken Hawk: OK, buddy, OK, I’d say he’s got some real fine sophisticated stuff and, ahh, the country boys are going to have to take a backseat sometimes, but I don’t know, I’m from Missouri, Show Me, right?
Spooky 41: OK, he’s going to do you a fine job, so no sweat.
Pilot: We got a flare.
Chicken Hawk: Ahh, I’ve no doubt of it, no doubt whatsoever.
Spooky 41: We’re all trying to do the same thing.
Chicken Hawk: Roger that. OK, I’m going to turn you back over to Beak.
Spooky 41: Roger that.
Shadow 48: Spook, this is 48, how about you being our PR man for a while?
Spooky 41: Hey, ahh, I don’t know if I can handle that or not, you know I’m getting short.
Shadow 48: Doing a pretty good job, babe.
Spooky 41: Well, I hope you can use that equipment you got, these boys need some help.
Shadow 48: We’ll do our best.
Spooky 41: Ahh, Beak, this is Spooky 41.
Beak: Spooky 41, this is Beak, over.
Spooky 41: OK, we’re fixing to drop a flare, we got one out right now, ahh, we’re going to go ahead and expend our ammo, we’re getting pretty short and, ahh, we’re going to try to get Shadow to come up here in just a minute real quick and show you this and then we’re going to have to pull out of the area for just a few minutes, over.
Chicken Hawk: Ahh, roger that, Spooky 41, ahh, hey, if those guys are going the other way, let them go, over.
Spooky 41: OK, ahh, they’re not going to be able to stay where they’re going very long.
Shadow 48: Ahh, Spooky 41, 48, we’re going to hold here north and we will, ahh, we seen the base down there, so we’ll be working with you after this other activity is over.
Spooky 41: OK, we’re going to have to be pulling out as soon as we expend because of, ahh, fuel. Ahh, you say you see the base under our flare?
Shadow 48: Roger that we got a good copy on the base.
Spooky 41: OK, this thing looks like a big brassiere down here is, ahh, bald area to the north of their camp and we be getting most of the activity of the eastern slope over here and Beak down there can work you after we leave, over.
Shadow 48: Roger that, is this a complete perimeter here on top of the hill?
Spooky 41: That’s a Charlie, and they got about a 50- to 75-meter radius from their perimeter down through the tree line on all sides.
Shadow 48: Roger that.
Night of 1 November: The Escape
Unknown Station: Tell them we’re circling right 8,500 right above them . . .
Unknown Station: That’s a lot of shit out . . .
Unknown Station: . . . understand we’ll be cleared to drop flames right above . . .
Chicken Hawk: (Unintelligible) . . . we’re going out buddy, we’re going out.
Spad Zero Two: OK, Hawk, this is Spad, you’re going to have to talk slower if you want these people to talk to you.
Spooky 41: Hey Spad, Spooky 41, stand by just one second.
Spooky 41: Listen (unintelligible) . . . circling at 8,500 right above them . . . you can see it out your window they’re taking incoming and the (unintelligible) is on the other side. Tell them to move out and we’ll go down.
Spooky 41: Spad Zero Two, Spooky 41 is in orbit above you now, and if you move out, we’ll go down and get the situation under control if we can, over.
Spad 02: OK, Spooky, do you have that flare at this time?
Chicken Hawk: OK, Spooky good buddy.
Spooky 41: Hey there, Chicken Hawk, take it easy there, my friend. We’re right here, we’re coming in right now. What’s your sitch, Hawk?
Chicken Hawk: (Unintelligible) . . . the tree line, coming down the valley.
Spooky 41: Roger, roger, you’re down in the tree lines in the valley in the north west of the figure eight down there, is that affirmative?
Chicken Hawk: OK, listen, OK you’re going to have to hold up on that, ahh, our people are getting a little bit ahead of me.
Spooky 41: Spooky 41, tell them we are descending to 7,000 over the target area.
Spooky 41: OK, Chicken Hawk, calm down, get your information down there and just pass that up to me and we’ll help you out my friend.
Chicken Hawk: (Unintelligible) . . . hold your fire, hold your fire.
Spooky 41: Spad, Spook Spooky 41, go.
Spad 02: Roger, they’re moving from the firebase, ahh, to the November about 800 meters and, ahh, you can just watch Hawk here for about a few minutes and see where those lume [illumination] mortars are coming from and they’re not friendly.
Spooky 41: OK, understand those lume mortars are not friendly, right?
Spad: That’s affirmative, they’re from the bad guys.
Spooky 41: OK, now, who’s moving the 200 meters to the November, the good guys?
Spad: The good guys are to the November, that’s affirmative.
Spooky 41: Thank you much.
Spooky 41 Internal: OK, Lloyd . . . keep them behind us. Tell them I’m going let down in front of them, keep me in sight, I’m going down to 1,500 . . .
Pilot: (Unintelligible) . . . behind you, right?
Spooky 41 Internal: Got 2 airplanes behind me . . . too God damn many planes . . . for us to . . .
Transcriber note: [Multiple stations transmitting at same time; too numerous to decipher individual stations accurately. Spooky 41 is trying to get control to clear out some of the stations.]
Unknown Station: (Unintelligible) . . . we and a couple of other aircraft out here . . . (unintelligible) and the other is Zero Two. We’re going to start dropping down t
o 5,500 here, appreciate it if you’d keep an eye on us so we can both get down there.
Unknown Station: Thank you much.
Control: Five Zero Two this is control over.
Spooky 41: OK, pilot, they’re going to clear out for us.
Pilot: OK.
Spooky 41: Chicken Hawk, Spooky 41, go ahead, my friend.
Chicken Hawk: (Unintelligible) . . . one of our people popped a trip flare . . .
Spooky 41: Chicken Hawk, you’ll have to talk a little slower, take it easy, work with me up here. Now what’s your situation, go ahead.
Chicken Hawk: OK, buddy, one of our people . . .
Spooky 41 Internal: Roger, roger, have a flare at my nine o’clock position at this time.
Chicken Hawk: OK, a ground flare, ground flare to our November our November, over.
Spooky 41: Roger, flare to your November, we’re looking now . . .
Spooky 41: . . . ground flare there, Chicken Hawk?
Chicken Hawk: OK, buddy, why don’t we put it to the, ahh, November to the tree line, in the tree line . . . move this strobe, over.
Spooky 41: OK, I understand you want us to start working to the November, with that flare up into the tree line, is that right?
Chicken Hawk: Roger, roger, right to the front, right to the November the tree line, right there in the valley.
Spooky 41: OK and, ahh, Four One Zero to drop its own flares.
Chicken Hawk: OK, OK . . . ahead of me, my people . . . got ahead of me.
Spad 02: Spooky 41, this is Spad, target . . .
Chicken Hawk: Spooky, Spooky this is the Hawk.
Spooky 41: Roger, Hawk, Spooky 41.
Chicken Hawk: OK, my people got ahead of me a little bit, they’re moving out.
Spooky 41: OK, real fine, ahh, is Spooky 41 cleared to drop light Chicken Hawk?
Spad 02: Negative Spooky 41, this is Zero Two, hold the light. Hold the light.
Spooky 41: Roger Zero Two, Spooky 41 to hold.
Spooky 41: Hey, ahh, Hawk, understand you’re moving out now, is that affirmative?
Spooky 41 Internal: Pilot do you have that ground flare identified?
Pilot: Yep.
Spooky 41 Internal: OK, can you take it 100 or 200 meters north of the tree line?
Chicken Hawk: That’s affirmative, buddy, that’s affirmative.
Spooky 41: OK, good deal, how about moving on down . . .
Chicken Hawk: . . . affirmative, affirmative, that’s what we’re doing.
Abandoned in Hell _The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate Page 31