Larry Brassell
Three 51's Opened Up On The Aircraft
Jack, I would like to relate a day you might remember.
I had a down day one day and was in the scout lounge when I was called to fly a mission for II Corps. I was told to get an observer and report to II Corps HQ at Pleiku for a briefing. I found Bart Burns and we went to II Corps HQ. I was briefed by LTC Rose and told I was to insert an American advisor into Polie Klang. The 361st was going to provide gun cover for me since B troops Guns were all occupied. I picked up an American Cpt with a radio and off we went. We got on site at just about dusk and I did a high overhead into the Fire Support Base (FSB). On my last turn to final at about fifty feet above the Landing Zone (LZ) three 51's opened up on the aircraft. There was a 51 on each point of the FSB. I took hits but landed. With tracer rounds going by from every direction I had to turn around and yelled at the Cpt to get out. I was not about to spend the night at the FSB especially under those conditions. I was sure they were going to be overrun. I took off and as I was leaving the guns hit the 51 that was on the point I flew over. I joined up with the guns and they looked over the aircraft and all looked OK.
I went to Kontum and landed to look at the aircraft damage. Jim Stein landed shortly after and came running up and asked me what I was doing and who told me to do what I had done. Possibly you will remember this day and incident.
Larry
Larry Brassell <lbrassell@bellsouth.net>
USA - Monday, July 28, 2003 at 06:59:51 (PDT)