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161 Kensington Way
Aberdeen, NC 28315
Capture a part of your family's history with a commemorative
display for veterans. Displays accurately represent how the "rack"
of medals would be worn on a dress uniform of those who have served.
A wonderful way to keep the memories of service alive for posterity.
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Door Gunner by Thom Jefferson  |
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Door Gunner© Illustrated by George Cook
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| The Jesus
Nut |
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| In late 1966, operating near
the Bong Son area out of An Khe, I was working as a door gunner on
a Huey. I learned certain things about the choppers, like the big
nut with a loop in it that held the main rotor on. They said if it
came off, it was, "Oh, Jesus," everything would come off
and you'd fall to the ground like a rock. We were on a Combat Assault mission that day. Coming into the LZ, it was hot, i.e., enemy fire rained upwards as we approached. Tracers were visible in all directions. We, as many of the other birds, were taking multiple hits. I could hear them tearing into the skin of our craft, some coming apart and making that ringing noise traveling around inside various areas of the bird. We also took some in the rotor blades. You could hear the whistling noise of the blades as they rotated with the holes in them.  We
dropped our troops off and started to exit the LZ. The firing was
the most intense I had ever experienced. Some of the VC stood right
out in the open and fired at us; there were so many of them. We returned
fire as best we could, but being on slicks we had only the two machine
guns. The seat belt from the troop area was flying around in the wind.
It hit the decking and made a loud crack, like a close fired round,
then whipped back and hit me on my left knee, causing me to reach
down and grab it. I thought I was shot. At that same moment, a bullet
ripped a hole on the inside wall of the bird right where my head had
been a second before. I had no time to contemplate it; too much was
going on. We finally got far enough out of the area on our way back,
when we started to experience hydraulic problems. I looked inside
the main rotor housing and could see one of the survols leaking fluid.
Both pilots were fighting with the controls together to keep this
broken bird in flight. We had severe vibrations, noises, etc. We continued
to try to make it back to An Khe. Another chopper followed us back.
Then one of the pilots yelled, "The 20 minute fuel warning light is
on." The other responded, "Yeah, it's been on for a half an hour now."
 We
were almost home. Everyone on board kept an eye open for a clearing
in the jungle in case we went down early, so we could auto rotate
in. Finally, we could see the big Cav patch on Hong Kong Mountain.
We were home! We came into the landing like no other time. We went
to the first open area we could reach. Air control at An Khe had cleared
all fights for us. As we touched down hard, I jumped out, helped the
one pilot out, then ran to the side. I thought, "The pilot's shut
it down," but found out the engine had quit at that same instant;
no fuel was left. Ground crews were waiting and ran up to the bird,
ripping open cowlings etc., and examining all the damage. A. Major,
the maintenance officer, was beside himself, screaming, "This is impossible.
Nothing could have flown in this condition." While all this activity was going on, some officers with their 35mm cameras, were taking pictures. I went to the side of the nearby ditch and just sat down and watched. I started to recall all that had happened. I thought about the seat belt buckle that hit my knee at the precise moment a round tore into the spot my head was, all the hits the chopper had taken, and the fact it couldn't fly like this yet we had made it back. I noticed the rotor blades sort of seesawing in the breeze. I then looked up at the round Jesus nut and thought, "Someone was holding on to us 'till we got home." |
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| A Bad
Day |
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Think you're
having a bad day?
Extraction© Illustrated by George Cook I reached out and grabbed his backside, helping pull him in. I
could feel the heat from his body pouring out. He was soaked through
his tiger striped fatigues. I returned fire from my M-60 machine
gun. We flew at tree top level until we got out of range. Two of
the men were working hard on their wounded buddy, the others leaning
back with eyes closed, as if praying thanks or just exhausted beyond
belief. As we flew towards home, looking at these men who must have
been out in the boonies for days without any comforts, and after
going through nothing less than sheer hell, I stopped feeling sorry
for myself at that moment or ever again. |
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Thom
Jefferson was a door gunner from 1966 to 1967. He served with A
Company of the famous 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion. Door gunners
were a special breed that would stand, sit and sometimes hang out
of their choppers pouring machine gun fire into enemy positions.
Once on the ground a grunt could hopefully scurry for cover but
there was never anywhere a door gunner could hide as he fired his
machine gun fully exposed from the open door of his Huey. 
As
we flew at a fast clip towards our destination, the AC pilot started
to inform us of our mission. We were going to extract a team of
LRRPs that were trapped, running low on ammo and had a wounded soldier.
This alone was difficult, but at night even more so. As we got closer,
the pilot changed frequencies on the radio. I could hear them yelling
for us to get there fast, the fear in their voices, the heavy weapons
fire. It was awful and I just thought more sorry for myself having
to be here. 
Return
to Table of Contents ofFeatured 1st Air Cav Links
Cav Gear
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Don's Coming Home | 
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Ambush at An Lao |
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Masher/ White Wing | 
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Door gunner |
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Hospital Hill | 
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History of Air Cav |
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Cavalry |
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LZ Hereford |
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Pony Soldier Poems |
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Paddy Fight |
Stories the Pony Soldiers
Tell
2nd Bn. 8th Cavalry
(Airborne, Air Assault,
Air Mobile)
1st Cavalry Division Association
1st Cavalry Division
(Air Mobile)
75th Ranger Regiment
Association
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