Jungle Fatigues and M-60 Cartridges

(This photo is from the same era as the following story. This is in Cu Chi, Vietnam, and Bruce and his crew chief are standing next to an OH-6 Alpha Scout helicopter, also known as a Cayuse. Bruce is wearing jungle fatigues)


During the early part of my first tour in Vietnam in 1968 we flew in jungle fatigues. In basic training we wore the regular Army fatigues and in flight school we had flown in cotton flight suits. They wanted us to wear jungle fatigues in Vietnam because they were cooler and we could hide better in the jungle. Then near the end of my first tour in Vietnam we received Nomex (fire retardant) flights suits.

The jungle fatigues were both good and bad. They were a sloppy looking uniform but were loose enough to allow air to move around. The neckline was low and there were a good number of pockets. The shirt did not have to be tucked in and that was comfortable in the heat.

In the Scout helicopter we flew with two people in the front seats and one in the back. The pilot flew in the right front seat and an observer flew in the left front seat. In the back right seat was the crew chief. There was no co-pilot.

The crews in the Scout helicopter carried a variety of weapons. It was pretty standard that the crew chief carried a M-60 machine gun although there were a few exceptions to that. The observers chose a greater variety of weapons. Some liked to carry a grenade launcher, the M79, while others liked the M-16. Then there were a few wild cards that liked a captured Chinese 7.62 mm machine gun or a Russian AK-47 or a Swedish K or a pump shotgun. There were lots of options. Despite all the options I think the most common for the observer remained the M-60 machine gun.

When the observer used the M-60 machine gun in the Scout helicopter they had to put a C-ration can over the area where the expended cartridges were ejected. If the modified can was not on the M-60 the hot cartridges flew all over the cockpit. They would be bouncing off the canopy and dropping down on the flight controls and the instruments.

A single pilot normally flies Scout helicopters. One day when I was out on a mission we got into a fight with some VC. My crew chief and observer were firing back at the guys shooting at us. Bullets were flying outbound and inbound. There was no chance for taking a timeout.

In the middle of this shootout the C-ration can came off the observer’s M-60. Hot cartridges started flying all over. In a flash three hot cartridges went down that low-neck line of my jungle fatigues. And just as quickly they started to burn. There was no one to pass the flight controls to and we were just a few feet off the ground zipping around trees in a firefight. Breaking contact with the VC was not a good option because if we turned our back to them they would have by far the best chance of killing us.

I did the natural thing and sucked in my gut to stop the burning. The hot cartridges just went further down. I sucked my stomach in further and again they started burning in a new spot. At that point I decided I didn’t want the hot cartridges to go any lower so I decided the only option was to endure the heat.

We finished our shootout and headed home. By then the burning was over. When I landed I pulled up my shirt and found threes cartridges and three red burned spots where the cartridges had been. There were other spots that the stomach was a little tender where the cartridges had been momentarily but they weren’t anything like the spots where the cartridges had remained.

There are things in life that really hurt and there are times there just aren’t any ways around those things. Some times we have to just sit in there and gut out the pain. We may get a bit burned but that may still be the best choice we have. And some times we can’t let go of the controls no matter how much it hurts. If we let go we crash so the best choice is to hang on. A few burned marks will go away but a crash may not be survivable. So when the heat builds up and there is no way to safely get away from it just hang in there and take the heat.