TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Stories‐Air America
said we'd be taking off in a few minutes. A piss­call later we
walked out to the weird plane and got in..no flight walk­around
that I remember..he fired it up, gave me an headset to wear (it was
noisier by far than the 01), checked in with the "tower" and
launched the thing off the runway in what seemed like 20 feet.
(years later I saw one of them at an airport in Norfolk, Va and was
told it was a Helio Courier)
The guy didn't talk much..fine with me, nothing on the radio
once we were in the air, he seemed to know where we were going
without much reference to the map...I was absorbed with the
upcoming mission..didn't need a lot of chatter.
To make this short....this guy flew me low and slow...like he
almost stopped the plane in the air above some of the LZ areas that
I wanted to see...it was actually too low...I couldn't see a big
enough "picture" to orient the map a lot of the time. We flew up
valleys, across the ridge lines at treetop level..across the border
over into Laos...sometimes lower than the trees on either side. I
was scared and thrilled at the same time.. this was real flying and I
saw exactly what I needed to see...not that I liked it, but at least I
saw it. We didn't receive any fire that I am aware of...we probably
were in and out of there so quickly that NVA on the ground didn't
have time to react or didn't choose to. He said to let him know
when I had what I wanted...I did...and we flew back to Hue. I told
him “thanks”..he said "good luck" or something like that (this may
be my imagination...I’d like to think he said it)...and I got out..he
taxied off..I watched him climb out for a minute and then returned
to the jeep and Phu Bai.
That was some real flying!
At the time I had a hell of a lot on my mind. I was really scared
about this patrol from the start and it lived up to my worst fears. I
wish I had gotten his name. I didn't know anything about Air
America at the time­­I presumed he was Air America..but I'm not
certain. Much later, I related this to Allan Cates (Air America
Association) and he passed on the names of two guys he thought it
probably was...one was killed a while back as I recall.
Postscript...A couple of weeks after the patrol I had a visitor. It
was some Air Force guy wanting me to write up a statement for
some award for the pilot who flew me on the useless stratospheric
cruise the day prior to this flight, and had apparently done some
heroic deeds from on high when our asses were in big trouble on
the ground...I refused.
Partyline One, Out!
USAF U­10B Helio­Courier VN 1967
A‐49