I'm Hit In The Head
After about a week and a half in country my first tour I had my first experience at being really close to death. We were sent out as a scout team which consisted of a scout helicopter and a gunship to look for the enemy. I was the scout and I had a UH-1C Huey gunship for a cover ship. My job was to hover down trails and streams and look for indications of enemy activity or the actual enemy. The gun ship's job was to watch over me, keep track of where we were, and call in reports.
We went west towards the Cambodian border. I started following a trail and the further I went the easier it got to follow. I made a radio call to the gunship and told them that any fool should be able to follow this trail. It didn't appear like they were trying to hide their tracks at all. Being somewhat bold I kept following it even though I thought it might be a trap.
After a bit I came around a bend in the trail and found an enemy soldier walking down the trail at “sling arms”! (“sling arms” is when the weapon is carried on the sling over the shoulder.) You certainly don't walk in a combat zone at sling arms. Doing that could get a person killed. He was too slow turning around and getting the weapon off his shoulder. It was a fatal mistake on his part. We started hovering around the body and looking it over. We were describing what he was wearing, how he was equipped, and how fresh and strong he looked. And again I said that I couldn't believe how stupid he was for carrying his weapon at sling arms and not being ready.
At this point the gunship called me and said he knew why the guy was carrying his weapon at sling arms. He said “We are in Stormy Weather.” “Stormy weather” is a code phase meaning that we are in the wrong country. The gunship had allowed me to travel too far west and we had crossed into the country of Cambodia! In 1968 we were not supposed to be in Cambodia! We both turned east and headed back for where we were supposed to be.
I stayed low and was going about as fast as I dared. Just about the time I was passing back into Vietnam I was about one hundred feet above the ground which was higher than I should have been and it was almost a fatal mistake for us. We were fired on and two rounds came through the canopy in front of me. The bullet holes were exactly in front of me. I must have been leaning to the left or I should have been hit. Both of my crew members started returning fire.
As soon as we were away from where we were fired on, my crew chief who sits in back of me, spoke to me on the intercom. He said, “Mister Karn”. I answered with, “Yeah, what do you want Brady?” He replied with, “I'm hit!” I asked him where. He said, “I'm hit in the head.” I turned to look and could see the blood running out from under his helmet. The visor was smashed and I could tell that the bullet had entered just left of the center of his head.
I told him to hang on and we were going to to Tay Nihn where there was a hospital. I called the gun ship and told him what had happened and that I was going as fast as I could to Tay Nihn. The aircraft I was flying had an airspeed limit of 121 knots. At this point I didn't care because a man's life was at stake. We reached speeds of 150 to 155 knots. During the fifteen minute flight Brady said he couldn't see anything. I told him that it was probably dirt or something in his eyes. I really thought he was a “goner!” I asked him if he could “clear” his M60 machine gun. He said he could do it by feel.
I called ahead and told Tay Nihn that I was inbound with a man shot in the head. They cleared me directly to the hospital. As we landed I told Brady to just stay put and we'd get him out of the aircraft. And I told him not to take his helmet off. I was afraid his brains might fall out! But as we landed he started unbuckling himself and getting out of the aircraft. I quickly put friction on the controls and jumped out and helped Brady towards the hospital. There were a bunch of off duty “GI”'s hanging around the hospital with their 35 MM cameras hoping to get get some good gory war pictures! They didn't help Brady but just wanted to take photos of him. Just before getting to the hospital doors out came a couple of orderlies with a stretcher. They took him away and I returned to the aircraft.
After refueling and rearming the aircraft I did a post flight inspection. Upon inspection I found a chunk missing from the rotor head. The rotor head is what holds the blades on and keeps everything together!! Had the head come apart we would all have been dead. And at 155 knots I had really put a great deal of stress on the head!!
The gun ship finally landed and told me that because I was aircraft commander I would have to make a report about what happened to my crew chief. I returned to the hospital to see what had happened to Brady. When I told the hospital people that I brought Brady in and wanted to check on him they told me that he wanted to see me! I was stunned. I went into the operating room and he was sitting up on the operating table. He had a bandage all the way around his head. The bullet had gone in through the front of the helmet and left a couple small pieces of fragments in his forehead and then had bounced back and forth from his head to the helmet about three times as it went around his head. There were about four places where they had cut the hair and put in about four stitches and that is all he needed. Well, he did have a pretty good headache.
When service members arrived in Vietnam they were required to fill out a form that determined whether or not their family would be notified if they were wounded. Brady had filled it out and had said he did not want his family notified if was wounded. But a telegram was sent to his wife telling her that he was shot in the head. That was it! Your husband was shot in the head! 'Nice work Army. 'Scared her to death. Brady stayed in country and was only grounded for about a month. He completed his tour flying.
There is safety in being where you are supposed to be and taking a safe course of action. There is an old aviation saying that goes like “There are bold pilots and there are old pilots but there just aren't any old bold pilots!” Fast drivers and high risk takers normally run out of luck pretty quick.
We went west towards the Cambodian border. I started following a trail and the further I went the easier it got to follow. I made a radio call to the gunship and told them that any fool should be able to follow this trail. It didn't appear like they were trying to hide their tracks at all. Being somewhat bold I kept following it even though I thought it might be a trap.
After a bit I came around a bend in the trail and found an enemy soldier walking down the trail at “sling arms”! (“sling arms” is when the weapon is carried on the sling over the shoulder.) You certainly don't walk in a combat zone at sling arms. Doing that could get a person killed. He was too slow turning around and getting the weapon off his shoulder. It was a fatal mistake on his part. We started hovering around the body and looking it over. We were describing what he was wearing, how he was equipped, and how fresh and strong he looked. And again I said that I couldn't believe how stupid he was for carrying his weapon at sling arms and not being ready.
At this point the gunship called me and said he knew why the guy was carrying his weapon at sling arms. He said “We are in Stormy Weather.” “Stormy weather” is a code phase meaning that we are in the wrong country. The gunship had allowed me to travel too far west and we had crossed into the country of Cambodia! In 1968 we were not supposed to be in Cambodia! We both turned east and headed back for where we were supposed to be.
I stayed low and was going about as fast as I dared. Just about the time I was passing back into Vietnam I was about one hundred feet above the ground which was higher than I should have been and it was almost a fatal mistake for us. We were fired on and two rounds came through the canopy in front of me. The bullet holes were exactly in front of me. I must have been leaning to the left or I should have been hit. Both of my crew members started returning fire.
As soon as we were away from where we were fired on, my crew chief who sits in back of me, spoke to me on the intercom. He said, “Mister Karn”. I answered with, “Yeah, what do you want Brady?” He replied with, “I'm hit!” I asked him where. He said, “I'm hit in the head.” I turned to look and could see the blood running out from under his helmet. The visor was smashed and I could tell that the bullet had entered just left of the center of his head.
I told him to hang on and we were going to to Tay Nihn where there was a hospital. I called the gun ship and told him what had happened and that I was going as fast as I could to Tay Nihn. The aircraft I was flying had an airspeed limit of 121 knots. At this point I didn't care because a man's life was at stake. We reached speeds of 150 to 155 knots. During the fifteen minute flight Brady said he couldn't see anything. I told him that it was probably dirt or something in his eyes. I really thought he was a “goner!” I asked him if he could “clear” his M60 machine gun. He said he could do it by feel.
I called ahead and told Tay Nihn that I was inbound with a man shot in the head. They cleared me directly to the hospital. As we landed I told Brady to just stay put and we'd get him out of the aircraft. And I told him not to take his helmet off. I was afraid his brains might fall out! But as we landed he started unbuckling himself and getting out of the aircraft. I quickly put friction on the controls and jumped out and helped Brady towards the hospital. There were a bunch of off duty “GI”'s hanging around the hospital with their 35 MM cameras hoping to get get some good gory war pictures! They didn't help Brady but just wanted to take photos of him. Just before getting to the hospital doors out came a couple of orderlies with a stretcher. They took him away and I returned to the aircraft.
After refueling and rearming the aircraft I did a post flight inspection. Upon inspection I found a chunk missing from the rotor head. The rotor head is what holds the blades on and keeps everything together!! Had the head come apart we would all have been dead. And at 155 knots I had really put a great deal of stress on the head!!
The gun ship finally landed and told me that because I was aircraft commander I would have to make a report about what happened to my crew chief. I returned to the hospital to see what had happened to Brady. When I told the hospital people that I brought Brady in and wanted to check on him they told me that he wanted to see me! I was stunned. I went into the operating room and he was sitting up on the operating table. He had a bandage all the way around his head. The bullet had gone in through the front of the helmet and left a couple small pieces of fragments in his forehead and then had bounced back and forth from his head to the helmet about three times as it went around his head. There were about four places where they had cut the hair and put in about four stitches and that is all he needed. Well, he did have a pretty good headache.
When service members arrived in Vietnam they were required to fill out a form that determined whether or not their family would be notified if they were wounded. Brady had filled it out and had said he did not want his family notified if was wounded. But a telegram was sent to his wife telling her that he was shot in the head. That was it! Your husband was shot in the head! 'Nice work Army. 'Scared her to death. Brady stayed in country and was only grounded for about a month. He completed his tour flying.
There is safety in being where you are supposed to be and taking a safe course of action. There is an old aviation saying that goes like “There are bold pilots and there are old pilots but there just aren't any old bold pilots!” Fast drivers and high risk takers normally run out of luck pretty quick.
posted by Bruce | 2:58 PM
1 Comments:
Well...I know you're not old yet, but you are bold and you did survive, so that's pretty close. Amazing you lived thru that one!! Another excellent story.
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