Abandoned in Hell : The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate (9780698144262) (30 page)

This terse summary of five days of almost constant combat against overwhelming numbers of well-armed, courageous, and determined enemy troops, followed by a seemingly impossible escape through their lines, may seem to fall short of describing the scope and hazards described by the firsthand accounts of this book.

The men on Firebase Kate were thrust by circumstance into a life-or-death struggle. Volunteer or draftee, American or Montagnard, each man rose to confront every challenge, to overcome every obstacle before him, and did so in a selfless and courageous manner. The opportunity to lead such men under our nation's flag was far more of an honor than any that this citizen soldier can imagine.

The Spooky Chronicles

S
pooky aircraft were equipped with a tape recorder to record air-to-air and air-to-ground radio transmissions sent or received during a mission, as well as internal crew communications via intercom. The following transcript of recordings over and near Firebase Kate was provided by Major Al Dykes, USAF (Ret.), who served as Spooky 41's navigator and mission commander. The original transcription was made by US Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Pries (Ret.). For clarity and brevity, it has been severely redacted.

Dates of tapes:
31 Oct 69, 1 Nov 69, 2 Nov 69, and 30 Nov 69.

Location:
FSB Kate (YU581548), Republic of Vietnam.

Transcriber's Notes:

• No effort was made to correlate time of transmissions with elapsed time on the recordings, nor to account for pauses between transmissions.
  
• Although stations identified themselves phonetically in the audio, phonetic pronunciations were deleted.
  
• Ellipses denote pauses or portions of the tape that were unintelligible.
  
• When multiple stations transmitted simultaneously, only the first intelligible transmission was transcribed in its entirety.
  
• Due to atmospheric conditions, individual personnel speech patterns, multiple simultaneous transmissions on the same frequency, or recording issues, some portions were unintelligible. This transcription was made from tapes recorded more than forty years earlier; portions have deteriorated into unintelligibility.
  
• Conversations between the mission commander with other Spooky crew are indicated as
  PILOT
  or
  GUNNER
  or
  LOADER.
  

Night of 31 October—1 November

MAKING CONTACT

Chicken Hawk:
   Spooky 41 this is Chicken Hawk.

Spooky 41:
   Roger Chicken Hawk, this is Spooky 41, go.

Spooky 41:
   Chicken Hawk are you on Victor [VHF radio], over?

Chicken Hawk:
   Spooky 41 this is Chicken Hawk.

Shadow 61:
   Spooky 41, Shadow 61, Chicken Hawk is on Fox Mike (FM radio).

Spooky 41:
   Roger.

Chicken Hawk:
   OK buddy, is he in our area?

Spooky 41:
   We heard him talk to you once, called him back, couldn't get an answer.

Spooky 41:
   Chicken Hawk, Chicken Hawk Fox Mike

Chicken Hawk:
   Aww, roger, Spooky 41, are you picking me up?

Spooky 41:
   Roger, loud and clear.

Chicken Hawk:   
. . . how far are you from my location?

Spooky 41:
   Stand by one.

Spooky 41:
   About 15 minutes out, over.

Shadow 61:
   (
Unintelligible)
 . . . I don't know if they advised you but we left a Lulu for you to help mark the camp. It's about 200 meters 080 bearing from his camp.

Spooky 41:
   Roger, sir, appreciate that much.

Spooky 41:
   Sir, do you have contact with Chicken Hawk at this time?

Shadow 61:
   Roger, we do.

Spooky 41:
   OK he's talking to me and he comes in sometimes, sometimes he don't. Uhh, can you ask him if he reads me please?

Shadow 61:
   Chicken Hawk you reading Spooky aren't you?

Chicken Hawk:
   This is the Hawk, I can read him loud and clear, loud and clear.

Shadow 61:
   Roger . . . reading you loud and clear Spooky 41.

Spooky 41:
   Roger, I read you that time Chicken Hawk. How do you read me now, over?

Chicken Hawk:
   Lo . . .

Spooky 41:
   Chicken Hawk you were broken, I'll give you a call back in a few minutes.

Shadow 61:
   Can you flash a landing light?

Spooky 41:
   Roger we just flashed landing light.

Shadow 61:
   Roger we're almost due west of your position.

Spooky 41:
   Roger we have you in sight.

Chicken Hawk:
   I'll be putting out a strobe for you, right on our firebase here. We've only got one, ahh, and its low on batteries, so I'm going to put it in and let's get a real good adjustment and then I gotta turn it off. Is this OK with you?

Spooky 41:
   Roger that, and Chicken Hawk, Outlaw 25 said that he'd kind of like us to just fly around a little bit before we start expending or dropping too many flares so we can, ahh, so we can extend our time with you, over.

Chicken Hawk:
   That's a roger roger roger on that buddy. Like I was telling the 61, I've worked him before, real good people there, and ahh, as long as they hear you up there, you put out a little bit here and a little bit there, they're not going to try a hell of a lot because . . . they know you can shoot up every time they move with you people up there.

Spooky 41:
   Roger that and by the way, Happy Halloween, the Spookies are out.

Chicken Hawk:
   
(Laughing)
Roger that. Listen, have I ever worked you before?

Spooky 41:
   I was over here the other night buddy.

Chicken Hawk:
   OK, real fine, real fine, I'm glad you're familiar with the area. Give you a little update, this has been heaviest yet, we took all kinds of shit today. I ain't kidding you, every time we turned around we were getting it. So that's why when I'm directing you all around the perimeter, believe me it's all there.

Spooky 41:
   Roger buddy, and I got a question to ask you. Is your position on top of a scraped-off hill with about 50 meters from your position a tree line starts and just north of your position another bald hill with a clump of trees right in the center of it?

Chicken Hawk:
   That's us baby, you been here before.

Spooky 41:
   Roger, I know where you're at.

SHOP TALK

Spooky 41:
   Ahh, roger on that and ahh, I hope it stays cool down there for you.

Chicken Hawk:
   Hey buddy, another day like today and ahh, I tell you, I don't know.

Spooky 41:
   What all did they hit you with today, over.

Chicken Hawk:
   Everything from 57 recoilless to 82 mortars to small arms and ahh, what the hell did I leave out, oh yeah, how the hell could I forget the good old B-40 rockets.

Pilot:   
. . . he left out the kitchen sink.

Spooky 41:
   Go ahead, Hawk.

Chicken Hawk:   
You're up in world news a little bit, who's ahh, who's in the limelight here in country, who's catching the most shit right about now?

Spooky 41:
   You boys are catching it, believe me.

Chicken Hawk:
   Is that right, ahh, we're the ones that are catching the most right now in country?

Spooky 41:
   That's a roger on that old buddy.

Chicken Hawk:
   I don't know if that makes me feel good or not.

Spooky 41:
   Yeah, I just hope this doesn't turn into another Duc Lap like last year.

Chicken Hawk:
   Old buddy, I'm with you on that.

Spooky 41:
   Roger, they, ahh, had a big rice cache down here on the border of II and III Corps on one of the in route things, I forgot, it was something like 9 tons of rice that they had brought in there.

Chicken Hawk:
   Roger that, roger that, ahh, I know that area. Ahh, I'm from Unjust Chaser's location which is not too far from here, ahh, I think you boys know it by a different name or something but this, ahh
(unintelligible)
 . . . I'm in now. And it's been quiet and all of a sudden, my God, overnight it just turned into, ahh, well what it is now.

Spooky 41:
   Roger that, we were talking about before we got over here that it kind of reminded us of Duc Lap last year when we had 4 Spookies overhead all the time.

Chicken Hawk:
   Roger that, hey listen, I heard Duc Lap caught a little bit the other day.

Spooky 41:
   Yeah, they took a little bit, seems like, ahh, from our intel reports they were kinda coming in between you there down here and they're kinda spreading out. Its hard to tell what they're gonna do.

Chicken Hawk:
   Yeah, it sure is, it sure is. I don't know what it is they want with this firebase but, ahh, we'd better get some stuff in here tomorrow or they just might get it.

Spooky 41:
   Roger, it, ahh, suits all the Spooky boys if we could get to stay over here in the day time too, but they just won't let us.

Chicken Hawk:
   Roger, I understand that, ahh, I do understand that. But I tell you one thing, the most important thing we got going for us at night is you guys upstairs. Let me tell you. . . . and they know you're up there like I said and they're going to stay down and they're not going to mess with us too much, well it's good to get some sleep now and again and have some peaceful time. We got a lot of wear and tear here on the boys, ahh, they all holding up pretty good but, ahh, I don't know, ahh, that battle fatigue gonna get to a lot of people here pretty soon if, ahh, this shit don't slack off.

Spooky 41:
   Roger that, I know what you mean and you tell all those guys down there we're pulling for you and we're going do what we can from up here.

Chicken Hawk:
   I don't have to tell them, they already know it. Ahh, oh shit ever since the first night and it really didn't take no building up because you've been living here with me like I said and more.

Spooky 41:
   We're gonna try. We were just talking saying we wish we had everything in the book that we could stay here and drop on those guys, but all we got is beaucoup miniguns, so we're gonna use what we got.

Chicken Hawk:
   Roger that buddy, as long as you got those, we'll keep their heads down and we'll keep this area safe tonight.

Spooky 41 Internal:
   Man those guys got it rough down there.

Spooky 41:
   Carbon Outlaw 25, this is Spooky 41 Victor.