Hi all, I hope that this is the correct place to ask such a question.
My father flew OV-10 CAS in the Vietnam war from 67-69 or so, though he has more stories about firing his M16 and patroling through the jungle than he does about flying (which he has a lot of in their own regard). I never really understood that but I guess he did what he had to do.
As a prying kid who loved war stories of glory and explosions, I would milk him for anything that he would tell me. Lots of things were just too hard and to this day when he's drinking he tries to tell them but can't. There is one story though that he has told me and I can see the non-closure pains him a lot.
He flew a number of missions providing ground support for special operations, and was in contact with the Rangers a lot. I shouldn't be saying he flew: he was the communications/weapon officer and co-pilot. Well he told me that he was flying one day doing some kind of combat air patrol, just being available to forces in the area. I believe he was flying out of DeNang (please excuse the spelling). Suddenly he started getting urgent coordinates and was in contact with the radio operator of a pinned down and grossly outnumbered Ranger platoon. They were far away but his crew was coming as fast as they could to provide support. He was working out all of the coordinates and such, frantically trying to come to aid. He was almost there when all of a sudden the last radio communication came through: "Negative on the air support Helix4 (their callsign), we're hand to hand." Through screaming and yelling and crackling in the background, my dad says the radio message was calm and cool. Then, although he tried time and time again to re-establish comms, there was nothing.
Again, every time he tells this story I know that he still feels responsible. He's spent a lot of time trying to find out what happened to them. All he knows of the unit was that they were patroling Rangers. I know that this is a needle in a haystack scenario, and there were probably hundreds of the same exact radio transmission made, but now I can't say I didn't try.
Maybe somebody remembers Helix4, but again I'm sure remembering the callsign of the CAS would be the last thing on that brave soldier's mind.
Thanks,
AJ
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Rangers in Vietnam
Experiences of those who wear/wore the scroll.
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