TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Second Platoon
311, Chu Lai, trucked back to the tarmac to catch
chopper ride, and after about 2 hours and 37 minutes
in country was standing at attention at the desk of C.O.
of the “Tomcats”, former Blue Angels flyer, Lt. Col.
Chuck Hiett. Next reported to Aircraft Maintenance
where I was assigned OIC Flight Line. The Aircraft
Maintenance Officer was Major Jim Skinner, a softspoken
Texan who I knew right away would be a good
influence and a pleasure to work with. (Fast-forward
another year and a half he was killed on his next tour,
NATO, in a chopper he was riding when it impacted a
mountain.) Over the next 3 days, briefings, flight
equipment checks, sidearm issued, M1911A1 and 4
extra magazines. If I was going to have to make a nylon
landing in gook territory I wanted a substantial
weapon. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Came close once,
but will leave that for a bit later.
During tenure with the Tomcats (March thru mid-
September, ‘69) I was fortunate to be teamed up with a
bunch of real attack pilots who took their job “Marine
Serious”. My hooch-mate was Pete Oatis. We’d met at
TBS before moving on to Flight Training at NAS
Pensacola. There was also Bobby Light, product of the
West Virginia hills and another TBS grad. I should also
mention both of these men were Naval Academy grads
and considered them “Lifers”, as in staying active duty
in the Corps until they couldn’t anymore. Excellent
“sticks” and straight shooters to boot. Bill Good was
another friend I met during flight training in
Pensacola. He went on to become a commercial pilot
after his stint in the Corps. Majors Miles Mixon and
Dick Upchurch, steady and serious attack pilots I
looked up to and learned immense stuff for both. Major
Bill Wilson who had been one of my instructor pilots in
flight training, and a serious, hard-working one to boot.
(Wilson died at MCAS Cherry Point, after returning
from Vietnam, while transitioning to A-6 Intruder.)
Lt.Col. Dave Kelly joined the Tomcats midway through
my time there and took over as CO relieving Col Hiett.
Other fellow A-4 “sticks” are so many and so many
years ago I’d be foolish to tell you I remember. But
having recently attended a “Skyhawk Reunion” in
2018, I got “The LIST” and will mention several I had
good memories with, starting with Pat Blackman, Larry
Wood, Pete Hanner, Dick Bishop, Roy Edwards, Ron
Hellbusch, Homer Palmateer, Larry Hutson, Bob
Hickerson, Kit Wells, and who could forget Wally
Bishop (of the Hazel Bishop clan)?
Flying missions in Vietnam during my tenure there
were mostly limited to I-Corps North to the DMZ, South
into II-Corp around Pleiku, and West to the Laotian
border. Missions were predominantly CAS (Close Air
Support) for Marine Grunts, the ROK Marines, some
Special Ops units snooping in the jungles when they
asked for help, or US Army units in II-Corps to our
south. Typical ordnance load out was six 500 lb. bombs
and 2 Napalms; or two Zuni Rocket pods (4 rockets per
pod) instead of Napalm. In addition we had 2 internalmounted
20 mm guns and maybe 300 rounds of ammo.
Our typical attack was coordinated by an airborne
Forward Air Controller (FAC) in radio contact with the
ground command unit. Sometimes the FAC was Air
Force or Army, but mostly they were Marines, aviators
like us but on “special” assignment, in single-engine
spotter planes or twin-engined OV-10 Broncos.
Occasionally we’d have helo airborne FAC but seldom
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