Excerpted from the book Fire From The Sky by Richard C. Knott Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland Reprinted with permission of the author. 6 March 1969 was a difficult day for HA(L)-3. It began shortly after midnight when Viet Cong forces began a heavy motor attack on Dong Tam, from which Det’s 4 and 6 were staging. As crews attempted …

Rockets Our rocket system is very simple. There are two seven-shot pods, one on each side. It must have been originally designed to fire one type of rocket, a 10-pound high explosive warhead (HE). With the advent of a variety of warheads and fusing, it had outgrown its control box. Our system control box has four positions, OFF, SINGLE, SALVO, …

The staging down to Solid Anchor to cover for Det One gave me a chance to visit with my HT-8 buddy, John Gana. John was one of six of us jaygees who had come in-country together; me, John, Mike Reid, Det 7, Dave Quick, Det 2, Tony Ortiz, Det 3, now dead, Joe Love, Det 3. John had just recently …

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY MORNING . . . It had been raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock for two days. The monsoon was definitely here and nothing was flying. Even the ducks were walking, as they say. The only good news was that the radios had been silent. Apparently the VC weren’t in the mood …

Dark as the Inside of a Well Digger’s Ass “It is not the critics who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better.The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marked with sweat and dust and blood who …

Seawolf Det Nine was out visiting the neighbors again. This time we were down at Solid Anchor hob-nobbing with our brother Seawolves of Det One. Solid Anchor was a thorn in the side of the VC. They really hated it; much more so than the run-of-the-mill U.S. base. The reason was that it was on what they long had considered, …

It was a dark and moonless night. . . . . No it wasn’t. It was a bright and moonlit night. A big moon, a bright night, clear skies washed clean by the pure monsoon rains of the day. We were running a night patrol, looking for trouble, spoiling for a fight, name your cliché. . . . Soon after …

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MIKE “CHOO CHOO” CANNIS LTJG USN AND SEAWOLF 30 AND THEN MAJOR OF MARINES A FELLA COULD GET KILLED AROUND HERE WITHOUT EVEN TRYING As if this combat stuff isn’t dangerous enough, Vietnam offered myriad ways to get killed without the enemy laying a glove on you. Some ways involved friendlies, like “friendly” Vietnamese, some …

This is the continuation of a story begun in “Scramble Seawolves!” part 7. The preceding half of this story should be reviewed before reading this one because this concluding part is not written to stand alone. For a more detailed description of tactics, equipment, and concepts of operations for HA(L) – 3, the NAVY’s only attack helicopter squadron, you might …

A DECISION I SHALL ALWAYS REGRETThis article is another reminiscence of operations of the Seawolves of HA(L)-3, Navy Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 3, during the Vietnam War. For a more detailed description of tactics, equipment, and concepts of operations, you might read the “Scramble Seawolves!” articles which have preceded this one. After the excitement at Hoa Binh outpost, (related in …