His Third Attempt to Complete a Tour

When I went to flight school in the Army, a three-year commitment to the Army was incurred. In those years virtually every flight school graduate faced a combat tour in Vietnam. Almost without exception that combat tour of combat came immediately after flight school.

If an aviator went to Vietnam and was injured badly enough to be sent home, the time he had in Vietnam might or might not count as a full tour. If the aviator had more than three months in Vietnam when he was injured then he was given credit for completing his tour. If, however, he had less than three months in country when he was sent home then he still owed the Army that one combat tour and would likely be sent back pretty soon.

We had a fellow join my unit during my second tour that was there for his third time and had not yet completed a tour. Twice he had been sent to Vietnam and wounded before having three months in country. Both times he was wounded while flying helicopters. So he was back for a third attempt to complete a tour. For him, to be sure that he would be in as safe a job as possible he chose to go to maintenance officers course and returned to Vietnam to be a maintenance officer. Maintenance officers normally stayed at base camp.

On one occasion we were short on Cobra pilots to fly combat missions. The maintenance officer there on his third attempt at a tour was qualified in the aircraft and thus he was qualified to fly combat missions. To that date, on his third attempt at a tour, he had successfully avoided flying any combat. He really did not want to go out and play in combat.

So on the day that we were short on copilots, the maintenance officer was assigned to be my copilot. Any missions that were given to us on that day included him as copilot. Getting him to help get the aircraft ready to go was about like dragging a cat across a screen door. During the preflight inspection he was hoping any little thing would keep our aircraft from flying. He hung on to every thread of hope to get out of flying combat. He tried hard to find some reason not to fly the aircraft. He checked the book with a fine toothcomb looking for a reason not to fly. He kept checking with his boss hoping he would tell him he had to do something other than go on the missions. Nothing worked for him.

Soon we were called out on a mission and off we went for an adventure. When we arrived in the area of the combat we were told to orbit and wait to shoot in support of the ground guys. Already orbiting overhead were two command and control aircraft and a flight of lift helicopters. The command and control helicopters were two layers of commanders trying to run the show. The flight of lift helicopters were there to extract the guys on the ground if necessary. And another flight of two Cobras was shooting in support of the ground troops.

When that many aircraft are all orbiting above one sight the air is really being thrashed by all of those thumping rotor blades. We were all in right hand orbits above the combat sight and separated by about one thousand feet. Sometimes when passing through the disturbed air made by other aircraft our aircraft would shudder.

Every time our aircraft shuddered the maintenance officer just about jumped out of his skin. He asked if we were hit. He asked if something fell off the aircraft. He asked if there was something wrong with the aircraft. And every time he felt something, he said he thought something was wrong and that we had better return to base. He was a nervous wreck and soon he was driving me nuts. Each time I tried to assure him that everything was fine and to just relax.

After about a half an hour of orbiting we got to shoot and then were released to return to base. In total we had flown about one and one half hours. I am sure it seemed like a year to the maintenance officer. He was about as happy as anyone I have ever seen to be back on the ground. By then there was no stopping him from finding something that he had to do on the ground. I don’t believe he ever flew another combat mission while I was there.

On the surface the maintenance officer may have seemed to be a scaredy cat but when you understand what had happened to him before you also have to appreciate his anxiety. Twice before he had been severely wounded and almost died doing that job and that would make most of us pretty nervous. It was really a very impressive thing to get him to even go down the road of combat one more time. When we understand what others have been through we understand why they have some fears or anxiety or why they do or don’t do some things. ‘Get to know where people come from first. This fellow was a good hard working maintenance officer and that’s where he belonged. He just didn’t belong flying combat any more. When assigning jobs it is always best to assign a person whose talents and interests fit the task.