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RECOLLECTIONS: Cambodia Cover Up

By VVAW

"We Weren't Even There In'68 You Know?!?!"

I was on my way to the dispensary at Camp Torres one morning to pick up my regular supply of valium before the eight "Green Hornet" helicopters lifted off for Ducco, a Special Forces firebase located within a mile of the Cambodian border about 60 kilometers south of Pileku.

Recon Team 'Plane' was to be infiltrated that day forty kilometers across the line into Cambodia, just about the same time that LBJ swore up and down that there was no US involvement in Cambodia whatsoever. At any rate, we knew the area well, as we had been there many times before, and we knew that this area was heavily concentrated with North Vietnamese Regulars. There was another SF LRRP team within ten kilometers of where RT 'Plane' was to be "set in".

We left Ban Me Thout early and landed at Ducco an hour later, refueled, and went to the briefing tent. EM were only allowed in the briefing for the first ten minutes or so and I left after five minutes to prepare the McGuire Rigs and rope ladders on my Bird. A half an hour later, we were on our way to "set 'em in". The infiltration was uneventful, and we returned to Ducco to set 'strip alert' for emergency extraction, in case it should be a "hot one".

Several days went by, when the Prix-25 started squawking like hell. The other team that had been set in before RT 'Plane' had been compromised and all eight Green Hornet helicopters were airborne within minutes to recover the team that had made contact. They were successfully extracted, thanks to the sharp eyes and reflexes of the door-gunners on that slick. The eight Green Hornets were just pulling into formation to return to Ducco when the radio Squawked again. RT 'Plane' had been compromised and was backed up against a river bank by a company of NVA. We immediately turned back, low on fuel and ammo, to attempt the extraction of RT 'Plane'. We circled the approximate area of the team and finally spotted the foot-square day-glow marker panel directly on the river bank in an LZ that looked impossible to get into. With the team spotted, the gunbirds went down and hosed the area with minigun fire and rockets while our slick prepared to descent for the extraction. The radio squawked "come on down", and we fell like a rock toward the day-glow panel. Just as we were ready to pull into the undersized LZ, the radio squawked again. It was RT 'Plane'; they were not at the LZ, as they had been cut off and were 50 yards up river. We gunners talked the pilot back out of that LZ and took off up river to the new LZ location, only to find it smaller than the first one. We had to blaze our way out of the first one and knew that the second one was going to be twice as bad. It was. We gunners began firing out way into the LZ while giving the pilot directions and keeping him away from the big trees that would surely have brought us down. We entered the LZ, clipping small trees all the way in, when my M-60 jammed. The team scrambled aboard, as I frantically tried to clear the chamber of a bent round. We began backing out of the LZ, still trying to clear my gun, at the same time, giving the pilot directions to keep the tail rotor out of the trees. The fuckin' radio squawked again. One of the gunbirds was hit by heavy weapons fire and was down on the other side of the river. Another slick went in to pull 'em out, and finally, after what seemed like hours, we were able on our way back to Ducco. All of us arrived safely.

Several months later, the pilot of our helicopter was on his way home, with a medal of honor, while the rest of us expendable door-gunners remained in Vietnam/Cambodia to witness more glory-seeking officers win high awards at the expense of the door-gunners who made it possible for them to pull of their heroic acts. However, we did gain more than they, as we were more and more enlightened to the truth of what was happening as we vowed among ourselves to expose US involvement in Cambodia, when in fact, we weren't even there in '68, ya know?!?!