War Stories

The Seawolves, HA(L)-3, a little known gunship outfit in the Delta, was the only helicopter attack squadron ever commissioned by the Navy. It was also little known within the Navy itself and depended on the Army supply line for support, since the Navy had no other Huey’s at the time. Given that system, you can imagine the priorities assigned to out requests for supplies by both the Army and Navy. The Seawolves were a shoe string outfit for sure. We operated out of about a dozen detachments scattered across the Delta and supported the SEALS and river patrol forces, mostly …

Our fire team (Det8), was staging off the Hunterdon County (LST-838) and out of the Rach Gia short strip. We had been flying combat ops between Long Xuyen and Rach Gia and had spotted about a half acre of (VC) watermelons growing on a flat spot above a village which was along a river. George Decker(GT) and I were the gunners on the heavily armed lead gunship. After checking the area for enemy, our pilot took us down, landed at the edge of the patch, while the trail bird flew high cover for us. GT, being from Louisiana, knew his …

Come one, come all, for you must see the great Seawolf Air Show from Dets one, Two and Three no sleight of hand from Dets Four, Five And Six, but with our weapons ,we do lots of tricks. gunners on rocket pods like trapeze artists so fine, you can see this all at Dets Seven, Eight And Nine. So come on now Charlie, for we’ve got a date we’ll be there soon, so don’t be late. The paddies are dark as you well know, so come on out Charlie for the Seawolf Air Show. You’ve got our troops surrounded and …

In the Seawolves, we had many heros, of one I will write His name was Jim Wall, from Texas, he was full of fight Hit in the chest, the round went through this happened at Nha Ba, while on Det Two He could have gone home, but fought to stay Two long months healing, then back in the fray He I knew, for many times we had met He just couldn’t wait to get back on a Det He loved his job and just couldn’t wait Gunners short, he went to Det Eight Eight was in for maintenance that day …

After reminiscing with Bill Rutledge about some of the things that happened to me while attached to HELICOPTER ATTACK (LIGHT) SQUADRON THREE, DET-1 in Vietnam, Bill suggested I write about them. I had always told my wife Tracy that I was going to write a book about my experiences on DETACHMENT-1, but I’m sure you all know how that is. I will give some background for the squadron to help readers to understand what we were all about. HAL-3 was the only armed UH-1B Navy Helicopter squadron to serve in Vietnam and was disestablished in March 1972. HAL-3 provided valuable …