Big Fireworks

Sometimes trying to cover up our mistakes by making false accusations can cause quite a commotion and can be very expensive. Here’s a case that resulted in a good show, but probably resulted in grounding a pilot.

Big Fireworks

 

In June of 1970, when I was in Vietnam, I was watching a Huey Helicopter practicing auto  rotating west of Artillery Hill over a clearing in the jungle. Auto rotating was used when the helicopter was damaged and the rotor blades were used to allow the helicopter to drift down slowly in a rotating motion instead of falling out of the sky. He had done it four or five times and on the last time he didn’t come back up. In about 20 minutes a large helicopter came and picked up the pilot of the Huey and then lifted the Huey and took off. By now it was almost dark and I saw 2 “Loach” helicopters ( small fast helicopters)  flying into the area. They both had miniguns mounted in them and they began to fire on the jungle west of Artillery Hill. The miniguns have a tracer every fifth round so the fire works were quite spectacular. They continued tearing up the jungle for about 20 minutes and then they left.

 

A Huey helicopter like the one that was practicing auto rotating west of Artillery Hill that evening in June.

 

The small fast Loach Helicopter like the ones with the miniguns mounted in them that tore up the jungle that night.

 

The minigun  firing at 2000 plus rounds per minute.

 

A minigun firing at night with a tracer round every fifth round makes an awesome fireworks display. It was extremely entertaining.

 

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As soon as they were gone the artillery on the hill began firing air burst artillery shells in the same general area that the Loachs worked over. The air burst shells explode at 100 feet or so above the ground and throw shrapnel over a large area. The show continued for about two hours. I have never in my life seen such a display of fire in the sky. I had climbed to the top of our air field observation tower and what a view I had. It was simply awesome. The next morning I heard that pilot that was practicing auto rotating had hit the ground too hard flattening the skids and damaging the rotors so he took out his 45 pistol and shot the Huey a few times and called in and reported he had been shot down. I guess after they investigated and figured out the shots were from the side and not the bottom. They probably wasted $300,000 worth of ammunition and artillery shells because the pilot tried to blame his mistake on enemy action. But I got to see the best fireworks display I have ever seen or probably ever will see again.

 

Artillery shell  exploding above the ground makes for a good fire ball display.

Air burst artillery shell exploding above the jungle makes a beautiful visual display.

Thanks for reading Big Fireworks,
Hawg Jaw Bill