A rope extraction story
From Bill Brown's compilation of 100 soldiers' stories: "Our Vietnam Wars"
Dr. Ed Schein was an Army MD and the Flight Surgeon for the 52nd Combat Aviation Battalion, the "Flying Dragons" at Camp Holloway. In an unusual move, he started relieving a door gunner with PTSD on occasion, not something a doctor was supposed to do.
His story:
It was in January [1968] when the legend of "That Crazy Doctor" was born. I was on one of my usual flights as a door gunner on a Huey, when we received an Emergency Notification that a four-man Special Forces team was in trouble over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Our bird and another one immediately went "nose over" and headed west. We located the Green Berets in a clearing too small for us to land in, so we had to hover and drop Maquire Rigs from the side doors for them to get into. We didn't have hoists, so they were supposed to sit down in the rig and we'd take off, hopefully pulling them straight up, and not banging them into too many trees on the way.
Anyway, just as they got into the rigs, we began taking incoming fire. You could see the tracer rounds coming at us from the jungle on my side, and the pilot screamed in his mic to me, "Goddamnit Doc, shoot!" I screamed back, "Shoot what? I can't see where they are!". The pilot replied, "They don't know that!". So, I opened up and blazed away at the edge of that jungle clearing, from one side to the other. That was the first time I had done that, and holding an M-60 in your hands when it's firing full automatic is an amazing feeling. I have no idea if I hit anything, but the NVA stopped shooting, and we got away.
We flew to Dak To with the four Green Berets dangling under the two helicopters and set them down on the runway. After we landed, they came running over to shake our hands and thank us. One of the Special Forces guys saw me, looked at my uniform, saw the insignias I was wearing, and asked in an astonished voice, "You're a Captain? And a Doctor? Flying as a door gunner? What? Are you crazy?"
To my surprise, it took three to four weeks for our colonel to come storming into my infirmary, glaring at me. "Doc, if you ever fly again, I'm gonna put you in jail! We need you here!". I tried to look chastened. "But we have plenty of help" I answered. "I don't care! Don't you ever fly again!". Well, of course I kept flying, once a week, at least, but I told the pilots not to put me on any manifests or put me up for any Air Medals. As it was, I think I got seven or eight.
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Dr. Schein's story is included in the book, "Our Vietnam Wars, Vol. 1" by William F. Brown. It is used here by permission.
For more from William F. Brown, go to
https://billbrownthrillernovels.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WilliamBrownAuthorPage
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079P35BT5/
From Bill Brown's compilation of 100 soldiers' stories: "Our Vietnam Wars"
Dr. Ed Schein was an Army MD and the Flight Surgeon for the 52nd Combat Aviation Battalion, the "Flying Dragons" at Camp Holloway. In an unusual move, he started relieving a door gunner with PTSD on occasion, not something a doctor was supposed to do.
His story:
It was in January [1968] when the legend of "That Crazy Doctor" was born. I was on one of my usual flights as a door gunner on a Huey, when we received an Emergency Notification that a four-man Special Forces team was in trouble over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Our bird and another one immediately went "nose over" and headed west. We located the Green Berets in a clearing too small for us to land in, so we had to hover and drop Maquire Rigs from the side doors for them to get into. We didn't have hoists, so they were supposed to sit down in the rig and we'd take off, hopefully pulling them straight up, and not banging them into too many trees on the way.
Anyway, just as they got into the rigs, we began taking incoming fire. You could see the tracer rounds coming at us from the jungle on my side, and the pilot screamed in his mic to me, "Goddamnit Doc, shoot!" I screamed back, "Shoot what? I can't see where they are!". The pilot replied, "They don't know that!". So, I opened up and blazed away at the edge of that jungle clearing, from one side to the other. That was the first time I had done that, and holding an M-60 in your hands when it's firing full automatic is an amazing feeling. I have no idea if I hit anything, but the NVA stopped shooting, and we got away.
We flew to Dak To with the four Green Berets dangling under the two helicopters and set them down on the runway. After we landed, they came running over to shake our hands and thank us. One of the Special Forces guys saw me, looked at my uniform, saw the insignias I was wearing, and asked in an astonished voice, "You're a Captain? And a Doctor? Flying as a door gunner? What? Are you crazy?"
To my surprise, it took three to four weeks for our colonel to come storming into my infirmary, glaring at me. "Doc, if you ever fly again, I'm gonna put you in jail! We need you here!". I tried to look chastened. "But we have plenty of help" I answered. "I don't care! Don't you ever fly again!". Well, of course I kept flying, once a week, at least, but I told the pilots not to put me on any manifests or put me up for any Air Medals. As it was, I think I got seven or eight.
-----------------------------------------------
Dr. Schein's story is included in the book, "Our Vietnam Wars, Vol. 1" by William F. Brown. It is used here by permission.
For more from William F. Brown, go to
https://billbrownthrillernovels.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WilliamBrownAuthorPage
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079P35BT5/