David E. Bush
483rd TC Det.
12/65-12/66
I served with the unit from the time it started forming
at Fort Benning, GA in late 1965 until approximately December 1966 when I
transferred to the 223rd Avn Bn (Qui Nhon) while in country.
When the unit was forming up, I believe I was one of
the first fifteen or so members on board. We flew to Oakland, CA where we
boarded the USNS W.S. Gordon and went to Nha Trang, RVN. The aircraft were
shipped by an aircraft carrier (or) carriers. I remember many of the personnel
were seasick before we even left port. Off the coast of Okinawa we hit a
typhoon which created even more personnel suffering being seasick. As I recall,
when we left the ship in Nha Trang it was similar to the landings of World War
II. We went over the side of the ship into LSTs and then on to shore.
At that time, the unit consisted of the 281st Assault
Helicopter Company and the 483rd TC Detachment of which I was a member. Our
quarters consisted of cement pads with screened walls and I believe GP medium
tents stretched over them. Showers were made from 55-gallon drums, although
some people showered in the company street areas when it rained. Initially,
personnel kept their rifles in the hootchs, until some got liquored up at the
5th Special Forces Club (Playboy Club) and started trying to have western style
gun fights with each other in the company streets. Shortly thereafter, weapons
were locked in a conex unless either on guard or during alerts.
The first sergeant was 1SG Cooley who made first
sergeant during the trip by ship. He was still an SFC when we left Fort
Benning. The 483 TC Det had a separate first sergeant (whose name I can't
recall). He and Cooley didn't get along, and once I witnessed them come to
blows. Cooley wasn't particularly liked by anyone in the company that I am
aware of.
I recall our company being levied for personnel to aid
in building a handball court for the 5th Special Forces commander. It was
located close to the area were the 281st was billeted. I still have black and
white photos of the unit right after they basically got settled in in Nha
Trang. Some consist of 1SG Cooley conducting a guard mount and others are just
of the unit area and some of the personnel at the time. We had the
responsibility of guarding the airfield were our birds were located. At times
however, we were farmed out to stand guard at such places as the PX warehouse
and other locations.
I somehow got assigned as the Unit Mail Clerk prior to
leaving Fort Benning. When we arrived in country, no one bothered to tell me
that we had absorbed another unit that was basically all in the field. When
their mail started arriving, I was sending it back as "unknown" or something or
other. I remember that HQ in Saigon contacted the unit and wanted to know what
happened to all these people. 1SG Cooley was hot over that one.
I was an SP4 when I was assigned with the 281st and
made SP5 with the 223rd Cbt Avn Bn prior to returning to the states. I finally
was medically retired in January of 1985.
Reference a question on G. W. Whitaker, I don't know if
it's the same guy or not, but there was a young black door gunner killed shortly
after we arrived in country. I believe he was from the unit we absorbed. It's
been a lot of years, but the story comes to mind that he was short and didn't
want to fly. 1SG Cooley refused to not let him fly and he was killed.
I do remember, or think I remember a SFC Lewis and a PFC Jordan. Lewis
was white and Jordan was a very small black guy.
Vietnam was my second overseas tour. I was originally
assigned with the Army Security Agency in Ethiopia during 64-65. I was only
back in the states for several months (assigned to the 4th Army Field Hospital
at Fort Dix), when I volunteered to RVN (or a restricted area overseas as they
called it at that time). Oddly enough, I found the 4th Field Hospital in Nha
Trang after being in country for about six months.
In the early days when we were forming at Fort Benning
there was a PFC Ferguson who served as the unit scrounge. He would be turned
loose with a "want list" and a truck in the morning, and you never knew what he
would have acquired by evening. I remember the commander going nuts one day
when he showed up with a conex full of camo ascots. He ended up trading them to
someone for something that the unit actually wanted and was a hero again. The
last I ever heard of him was that he was in jail in Delaware. Seems he never
got over acquiring things.
I remember many of the soldiers fatiques dry rotting
while we were on the ship. I remember the sleeves fall off of my blouse as
happened to many others. I remember before we off loaded in Nha Trang that
there had to be a deck watch going around the edges of the ship all night for
fear Charlie would blow up the ship while at anchor. I remember that there was
a SP6 that had to be taken off ship in Hawaii due to not being able to go to the
bathroom for almost a week. Never saw him again.
The trip on the ship was a nightmare. I still hate
boats of any kind to this day. We hadn't even left the port in Oakland when it
started. I had a bottom berth with two guys over top of me. The first morning
aboard ship when I awoke, my arm was laying in the floor and felt extremely
heavy when I lifted it. The two guys above me had thrown up over it all night
long without me being aware of it. Vomit was all over the ship on what seemed
to me like a continual basis. The typhoon off of Okinawa made even the strong
minded individuals (sailors included) give it up.
I didn't even have a civilian ride when I DEROS'd.
Flew home to Fort Lewis on a C141 flying backwards in cargo style seats.
I remember some of our young pilots dropping a bird in
the river in front of 5th Special Forces one day. They banked it too sharp and
dropped it right in the river. Some old Vietnamese woman in a boat saved the
crew which couldn't swim. They gave her a job on base and a crane flew in and
got the bird out of the water.
I remember an alert one night in which we were
positioned along the road next to the air field facing the river on the other
side. I seem to remember watching red and green tracers zooming around, but not
an actual assault.
I remember 1SG Cooley getting a new jeep. I was driving
it to the APO in Nha Trang to secure the unit's mail and was too close to the
truck in front of me when he applied the brakes. He had some long pipes or
something hanging out the back of the truck which I didn't see until too late.
One went in the radiator of the jeep and put Cooley on my back again.
I seem to remember some white helicopters (company
operated) that visited off and on. I remember that they used to interrogate
prisoners by blind folding them and placing them in a copter which would hover a
short distance off the ground. They would ask a prisoner a question. If he
refused to answer, they would push him out and he would scream. This got most
of the others talking. Some died apparently from fright of the relatively short
drop. As I said, its been a lot of years, and its not overly clear to me
sometimes.
I seem to remember going on a flight one night to
deliver mail to some SF team out in Indian country. My memory seems to recall
that they had built some sort of signal fire. We landed and I walked out toward
the fire. Someone from the dark told me to drop the bag, get back on the copter,
and get the hell out of the area. I know that was the only trip like that that
I ever went on. I never could figure out why they had a fire in Indian country,
but I know the incident took place.
I remember right after we got in country and were using
the "Playboy Club" as the local watering hole that the 281st guys and the SF
personnel used to get into a lot of fist fights. I also remember that on Friday
evening at the SF messhall that they always had all the steak and beer that you
could handle.
The unit mailroom (conex office) started out in the
first company area off from the hand ball court. Later it was moved up next to
the front gate of the SF compound, and then eventually down to the flight line.
I remember as the helicopters came in and took off that it created a sand storm
and blew mail all over the place. PFC Jordan worked for me and was afraid to be
in the conex when it stormed for fear that lightning would be attracted to the
metal frame.
I was involved in a unique experience while walking guard along the flight-line at the 281st. There was a dirt road that ran along the back of
the area, between the flight-line and the unit motorpool. I was about midway along the route walking my post when a 3/4 ton army truck loaded with
drunken GI's almost ran over me as I was quickly yelling "dung lai" (not sure of the spelling) and "halt" three times as was specified when trying to
stop someone. After I caught my balance, I put a round through the truck, at which point my M14 jammed. Unable to kick the jam loose, I went after
the vehicle with my bayonet on the end of my weapon. I caught them at the guard shack on the flight line. They didn't want to give the Sergeant of
the Guard their ID's, so he handed me a new unjammed weapon and asked if I would shoot them if they didn't surrender the information he needed. I
locked and loaded, and they spewd forth every form of ID in their possession. Later that night, I caught a captain and a nurse making it on
the flight line. After embarrassing them, I later caught another captain passing through the area and put him in the front leading rest position
since he was under the influence and trying to badger me.
I probably should point out that after I fired my shot at the vehicle, the whole of the 5th Special Forces compound went on full alert. Their OD, a
second lieutenant, came roaring down the road shortly after I had starting walking my rounds again. I was on my second dung lai/halt when he came
screaming to a halt. "Did you hear a shot," he asked. I advised him that I not only heard it, I fired it. I further explained to him that if he would
have failed to stop as directed, I was fully prepared to put lead in his vehicle. He reversed his vehicle and it was the last I saw of him that
evening. I should add that prior to my shooting at the vehicle that refused to stop at my command, I had almost been run over on my
previous round and ask the Sergeant of the Guard what I should do if vehicles refused to stop. He said, "shoot them." I was just following
orders.
The next morning, the company commander called me into his office just after I had finally got to bed. He queried me about the night's events and said
that I was going to be "ED" (exempt from duty) from future guard mounts. He found nothing wrong with what I had done, and even said that he thought I
had done an excellent job. He went on to say however, that the troops had been scared to go down to the flight-line to go to work that morning, and
that many of them who had used the area to stagger back drunk from Nha Trang had stated that they would give up drinking before trying to come through an
area guarded by me. The only other guard I had pulled while with the unit was the PX warehouse on base in Nha Trang. That tour of guard duty had been
uneventful.
While I can't verify the truth to the story, I do know that every Friday evening at the mess hall at 5th Special Forces, we had all the steak and
beer you could eat and drink. I was always told that the steak was actually water buffalo killed weekly by 281st door-gunners. I believe that the story
was probably true, for I never tasted any other steak that tasted exactly like that meat before. It was really good.
I also remember that right after arriving in country, everyone had to report to the medical clinic to receive what I believe was called a hemoglobin
shot. This shot was supposed to prevent you from suffering any serious side affects from eating in the villages. There was, as I recall, a series of
two shots. The needle used looked like something that might have been used to give a horse shots. You could only get one of the shots at a time, and I
believe they were scheduled for like a week apart. I remember that first shot. One could not believe the pain this thing caused in the hip area. It
didn't stop hurting for several days. The bone in my hip still hurts just thinking about it. At any rate, it was during the week right after we got
the first shot, that it was determined that these shot only provided protection for something like twenty-four hours, and were being
discontinued. If only they could have discovered that information a week earlier, how much nicer my tour could have been.
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