Don't Shoot at Crazy Bruce
My first tour in Vietnam I served with some interesting characters. One of the most interesting was a fellow we called “Crazy Bruce”. Crazy Bruce was the platoon leader of the “gun platoon”. The gun platoon had five Cobra helicopters and four UH-1C gun ships. Crazy Bruce flew Cobra’s and was known as a pretty wild and crazy guy who took some chances and feared little. Under Crazy Bruce’s leadership sharks’ mouths were painted on the Cobras. As soon as the sharks’ mouths were painted on he took one of the Cobras down to Vung Tau and hovered in front of the radar screen and growled on the radio to the tower operators.
My first experience with Crazy Bruce came about a week after I arrived in country when the Scout Platoon Leader, my friend, Chuck was shot down and crashed out near the Cambodian border. I was sent as the scout to go with Crazy Bruce and secure the downed aircraft and make sure the crew made it out. As we arrived on station the crew was being extracted and were on their way to the hospital. Our mission now turned into one of finding the bad guys and taking care of them.
About the time we started working the Troop Commander came on the radio and called Crazy Bruce. Crazy Bruce was very competent and well respected but the commander was not respected and behind his back he was called “Mad Mike”. The radio call sounded like this: “Centaur 40 this is Centaur 6.” (Centaur was the call sign of the unit and 40 was the Gun Platoon Leader and 6 was the Commanders call sign.) As soon as the commander had made his call to Crazy Bruce, Crazy Bruce called me and told me to change radio frequencies to “Scout Uniform” which I immediately did. He never answered the commander’s call but decided to change radio frequencies ignoring him. After a few minutes the commander came up on the frequency we had changed to and again made the same radio call. “Centaur 40 this is Centaur 6”. Again Crazy Bruce called me and told me to change to “Lift Uniform” frequency, which I quickly did. Each time it took the commander a couple of minutes to figure out what that frequency was and get on it, where as we worked with them every day and knew the frequencies well. But shortly there came another call from the commander and this time he said, “Centaur 40 this is Centaur 6, what are you doing?” This time Crazy Bruce answered him and said, “This is Centaur 40, I’m a gun ship and I’m shooting rockets. Out!!” Crazy Bruce had just told the commander that he wouldn’t take time to even talk to him. That is the kind of guy that Crazy Bruce was!! We continued with the mission and “Mad Mike” just observed and stayed out of the way.
There were a few routes that we flew in and out of Cu Chi on a regular basis. Along one of those routes there was a South Vietnamese compound. When we flew by in the daytime all was well but when we returned at night they figured that we were out of bullets and would often shoot at us. We were supposed to be on the same side but there were two sayings that pretty well described the situation. The first was, “What isn’t red is yellow”. (The South Vietnamese flag was yellow with three red stripes on it.) The saying meant that everyone that wasn’t “red” or communist was “yellow” or afraid to fight. The South Vietnamese military would rarely fight well. I only saw one South Vietnamese unit that fought well. The second saying was, “By day the are all South Vietnamese but at night there are only a few.” That meant that during the daytime many professed to be on our side but at night they would shoot at us.
Well, one night they hit one of our aircraft and killed one of our door gunners. Shortly after that Crazy Bruce was sent out one night with two Cobra helicopters on a mission. On some of those missions there would be confusion and you could end up orbiting for a couple of hours in the dark and not get to shoot. They would be frustrating nights when you are there to help save American lives and because of the confusion not be able to help. So Crazy Bruce headed home very frustrated!! On his way home he passed by the South Vietnamese compound and they made the mistake of shooting at him. It was the wrong time, the wrong place and the wrong person to shoot at!! Crazy Bruce rolled the Cobra’s nose over and rolled in on the compound. He fired his whole load of rockets, fifty to seventy six rockets, on them. It was a compound of only about one hundred feet in diameter!! He plastered the place! They didn’t know whom they were shooting – they were shooting at Crazy Bruce!
Crazy Bruce returned to Cu Chi, refueled and rearmed his aircraft and then returned to the Troop area. He woke the commander up and told him that, “I just wasted that Vietnamese compound that shoots at us!! They shot at me and I shot at them.” The commander stayed up all night worrying about what was going to happen. Crazy Bruce went to bed.
I flew by the compound the next morning. It was wasted!!! Many buildings were destroyed but there were people up and walking around. Days passed and nothing was said about the shooting up the compound. They didn’t shoot at us after that!! Crazy Bruce cured them of that bad habit. Ya’ just don’t want to shoot at Crazy Bruce!
One of the most important things you can do is know whom you are dealing with!!
When talking with people I like to learn a bit about them and their past. When we understand a person, where they have been and what they’ve been through, and then we understand why a person feels the way they do and why they say the things they do. I think if we all understood why others feel the way they do it would go a long way to working out our problems!
My first experience with Crazy Bruce came about a week after I arrived in country when the Scout Platoon Leader, my friend, Chuck was shot down and crashed out near the Cambodian border. I was sent as the scout to go with Crazy Bruce and secure the downed aircraft and make sure the crew made it out. As we arrived on station the crew was being extracted and were on their way to the hospital. Our mission now turned into one of finding the bad guys and taking care of them.
About the time we started working the Troop Commander came on the radio and called Crazy Bruce. Crazy Bruce was very competent and well respected but the commander was not respected and behind his back he was called “Mad Mike”. The radio call sounded like this: “Centaur 40 this is Centaur 6.” (Centaur was the call sign of the unit and 40 was the Gun Platoon Leader and 6 was the Commanders call sign.) As soon as the commander had made his call to Crazy Bruce, Crazy Bruce called me and told me to change radio frequencies to “Scout Uniform” which I immediately did. He never answered the commander’s call but decided to change radio frequencies ignoring him. After a few minutes the commander came up on the frequency we had changed to and again made the same radio call. “Centaur 40 this is Centaur 6”. Again Crazy Bruce called me and told me to change to “Lift Uniform” frequency, which I quickly did. Each time it took the commander a couple of minutes to figure out what that frequency was and get on it, where as we worked with them every day and knew the frequencies well. But shortly there came another call from the commander and this time he said, “Centaur 40 this is Centaur 6, what are you doing?” This time Crazy Bruce answered him and said, “This is Centaur 40, I’m a gun ship and I’m shooting rockets. Out!!” Crazy Bruce had just told the commander that he wouldn’t take time to even talk to him. That is the kind of guy that Crazy Bruce was!! We continued with the mission and “Mad Mike” just observed and stayed out of the way.
There were a few routes that we flew in and out of Cu Chi on a regular basis. Along one of those routes there was a South Vietnamese compound. When we flew by in the daytime all was well but when we returned at night they figured that we were out of bullets and would often shoot at us. We were supposed to be on the same side but there were two sayings that pretty well described the situation. The first was, “What isn’t red is yellow”. (The South Vietnamese flag was yellow with three red stripes on it.) The saying meant that everyone that wasn’t “red” or communist was “yellow” or afraid to fight. The South Vietnamese military would rarely fight well. I only saw one South Vietnamese unit that fought well. The second saying was, “By day the are all South Vietnamese but at night there are only a few.” That meant that during the daytime many professed to be on our side but at night they would shoot at us.
Well, one night they hit one of our aircraft and killed one of our door gunners. Shortly after that Crazy Bruce was sent out one night with two Cobra helicopters on a mission. On some of those missions there would be confusion and you could end up orbiting for a couple of hours in the dark and not get to shoot. They would be frustrating nights when you are there to help save American lives and because of the confusion not be able to help. So Crazy Bruce headed home very frustrated!! On his way home he passed by the South Vietnamese compound and they made the mistake of shooting at him. It was the wrong time, the wrong place and the wrong person to shoot at!! Crazy Bruce rolled the Cobra’s nose over and rolled in on the compound. He fired his whole load of rockets, fifty to seventy six rockets, on them. It was a compound of only about one hundred feet in diameter!! He plastered the place! They didn’t know whom they were shooting – they were shooting at Crazy Bruce!
Crazy Bruce returned to Cu Chi, refueled and rearmed his aircraft and then returned to the Troop area. He woke the commander up and told him that, “I just wasted that Vietnamese compound that shoots at us!! They shot at me and I shot at them.” The commander stayed up all night worrying about what was going to happen. Crazy Bruce went to bed.
I flew by the compound the next morning. It was wasted!!! Many buildings were destroyed but there were people up and walking around. Days passed and nothing was said about the shooting up the compound. They didn’t shoot at us after that!! Crazy Bruce cured them of that bad habit. Ya’ just don’t want to shoot at Crazy Bruce!
One of the most important things you can do is know whom you are dealing with!!
When talking with people I like to learn a bit about them and their past. When we understand a person, where they have been and what they’ve been through, and then we understand why a person feels the way they do and why they say the things they do. I think if we all understood why others feel the way they do it would go a long way to working out our problems!
posted by Bruce | 3:50 PM
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