Jim Burns Wild Huey Ride

My Huey went down in Cambodia due to the speed-decreaser gear box blowing up and catching on fire (this gear box reduced the engine speed and had a drive shaft that reversed the engine output shaft back to the front and into the main transmission). We had a team on board and were on the way to an insert. Capt. John Fiser was the pilot and he made a beautiful auto-rotation into a soft marshy area. As we were gathering up our gear and getting out of the bird, one of the SF team guys grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the engine compartment. The six man team, co-pilot (can't remember his name) and my left door gunner (Sgt. O'leary) all got out the left side and went to some downed trees for cover. I grabbed my M-16, survival vest, got my M-60 off it's mount, and wrapped a bunch of M-60 ammo belts over my shoulders and started out the right side, but only got about a foot when I discovered I had forgot to un-buckle my gunners belt. So I turned around and set the M-16 and M-60 down to free up my hands and get loose from the bird. As soon as I got loose I picked everything back up and started to head for a big bush at about the 2 o'clock position for cover, however I looked back and saw that Capt. Fiser was still in his seat and was struggling to reach around the seat armor plate and reach the door handle. So I went back, set down my gear again, and opened the door for him. Then we both headed for the big bush for cover. After a few minutes (it seemed like hours) I saw the rest of the guys off the left side of our bird so I went around the bush to get Capt. Fiser, so we could join up with the rest of the team and crew. I went all the way around the bush .... and no Capt. Fisher!!! Well then it was 'oh shit' time .... I'm all by myself!!!! So I started back down to the bird and was going toward the nose to get around to the other side when I saw one of our other birds setting a few yards off of my birds nose. Our gun-birds were orbiting over us and making a lot of noise and I didn't see or hear the slick come in, but when I saw it I turned and headed toward it. When I got there, Capt. Fiser was already there sitting in the cabin floor (thanks for the heads up Capt.!!!). I pilled in and we sat there for a while waiting for the team, co-pilot and left gun to show up, but after a bit we took off without them. I found out a little while later after I got on the intercom, that a second slick had came in right behind us and flew right over the rest of the troops so they could see them, and landed and picked them up. But in the mean time (before I got on the intercom an figured out what was going on), the high bird sent us back in to pick up the remaining two crew (which was Capt. Fiser and me). After we landed and was sitting there is when I got on the intercom an could hear the pilots talking to the high bird, that I figured out that someone had not counted us as already being picked up .... after I pointed out that one slick had picked up the co-pilot, left gun and six man team, and the bird I was sitting in had picked up the Pilot and the right gun.... that we were all accounted for and it was probably time to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!! Later, back at FOB II, the gun ship guys were telling me how 'cool' it was following us down .... "it was just like in the movies .... flames and smoke coming from our bird as we went down", I did point out that it was not as 'cool' inside the bird and that I had to go get a change of underwear!!! By the way this was about 3 or 4 days before Jackie Kennedy was paying an official visit to Cambodia, Saigon would not let any fighters go in an destroy the bird (didn't want any craters to cause any kind of incident with Jackie's visit), so they called up a CH-47 crew to go recover the bird. I was told later that when the CH-47 pilot found out where it was located he refused to go, but soon got a personal call from Gen. Westmorland who told him he would go get that bird that day, and bring it back across the fence. He told him he didn't care what the did with it once it was back in country, but that he would get it back. While all of this was going on the earth was rotating .... and it was almost pitch dark by the time the got it on the sling. We were listing to the recovery on the radio and there were a couple of times they though it was swinging to much (but couldn't see it because it was dark), and were about to pickle it off, but weren't sure it was in country yet so they hung onto it and got it back to Plaku. The next day they brought it up to FOB II and literally dropped it off (from about 10') causing it to hit the tail skid first (miss-aligning the tail boom), the skids (bending them outward to where the belly was almost touching the ground) and then to add insult to injury, when they released the strap, the buckle came down an knocked off the pitot tube.
(Jim Burns)