Helicopter Marine Medium (263) 1st Assignment

Sometime in August, 1970 I requested re-assignment to serve as a gunner with a Marine Corps helicopter squadron. My request was granted about 30 days later after passing the briefest of eye exams. At the time I was concerned that my limited vision (I wore glasses) would preclude me from being reassigned. The corpsman was very "helpful" and made broad allowances for me allowing a passing grade as long as I could see the chart on the wall (not the letters)!!! The only other crew member requirement was a .50 caliber machine gun familiarization flight over the South China Sea that required us to shoot at a yellow dye marker.

The day after my qualification I moved in to a bug/rat infested hootch very close to the squadron's runway and was ready/excited to begin my new assignment. I found out that crew members were to report early each morning to an "assignment shack" to find out which ship (helicopter) they would be on, with whom they would fly and what their their mission designation would be e.g. recon insertions, medevacs, troop lifts, re-supply etc.

My first mission involved the medevacing of a number of South Vietnamese civilians who had been accidently wounded by Marine artillery. We flew a number of kilometers away from Marble Mountain and arrived at the outskirts of a small village with a number of thatched huts. I was surprised to find out we were picking up about 20 to 25 wounded women and children. Most suffered from shrapnel wounds although there were 4 or 5 amputees.

The crew members and I proceeded to load the wounded on our aircraft. I carried 2 or 3 people on to the aircraft but will always remember carrying/holding a 2 year old girl whose left leg had been blown off. She was whimpering slightly but otherwise never said a word. It was a very sad moment for me especially as I thought of my 2 year daughter back home. I can remember wondering what the other crew members were thinking but as I looked around everyone seemed busy an unaffected.

There was an older women in the group of wounded who seemed to be dying from the many wounds all over her body. She was swathed in gauze, almost from head to toe, that did very little to staunch the blood that was seeping on to the stretcher. Once she was identified as a vc sympathizer she received no medical attention especially since the corpsman was so busy treating the friendly civilians.

After everyone was aboard our helicopter we flew to the USS Sanctuary, in the Danang harbor, where the ship's medical staff helped us off loaded our wounded passengers.