Special Operations.Com

By Sherman Batman, MSG RET, MACVSOG
Edited by: Robert L. Noe, Cpt, MACVSOG 

In a letter written by Sherman Batman to Gerald Denison of ST Ohio and a Covey Rider, December 6, 1999, Batman writes about an insertion of ST Illinois:

I don't remember the target area of that insertion you spoke of, I do know that it was one hot LZ. It was a hover LZ and we were hovering down through the trees. I had gotten onto the step (Helicopter's Skid) and was holding onto the stanchion by the door gunner, ready to get off. I happened to look out to the tree line, Jesus, Oh Lord! I have never seen so many North Vietnamese Army troops in all my life moving toward the helicopter! Seems we were not welcome and they were a bit pissed that we stopped in, but since we were in the area, they wanted to keep. I fell back into the chopper and opened fire along with the door gunner as the Chopper started to pull pitch and get the hell out of there. I had taken Ranger Joel Haynes along as one-one since ol' (James M.) Tramel was goofing off pretending to have a toothache (that's not exactly true, he really did have a dental appointment in Pleiku the next day and was riding the chase ship watching us get the shit shot out of us). As we were lifting out, I could see a tree platform with a .51 Machine Gun on it. That Machine gunner was firing on us and doing his very best to bring us down for that visit but before I could change magazines and fire on it we were directly above it. The helicopter was taking direct hits, you could hear them impacting all over the helicopter and zing through the open spaces and hitting something else. In an effort to suppress the enemy fire, the pilot, WO2 Mehlman, called in fire to be placed on the LZ directly below our aircraft. The exploding 2.75 inch rockets boosted our ship skyward. Sometime during the period, I had sat back in the chopper and as we started to ascend Ranger Haynes, who was seated in the middle of the chopper, stuck his M-16 out the door and fired one round. The hot case went down my shirt and scared the shit of me. I started jerking at my shirt to get to the hot brass when I saw one of my anti-contact gloves floating in the breeze down toward the ground. This doesn't sound like a serious matter, especially in the heat of battle and the helicopter becoming like a sponge with holes all in it, unless you consider I had gone to the Supply and gotten the gloves just before I launched. When I got the gloves Bob Howard told me, "Batman! That's the second pair of gloves I have given you in two weeks. Lose these and I'll kick your ass!" All I could think of was, "Holy Shit, Howard will kill me." I was more worried about Howard's pending promise to kick my ass than I was about getting hit or shot down in this bird. Now that I think about it, it sure does seem funny that Howard was on my mind at a time like this and not the whole North Vietnamese Army.

The story doesn't end here, since we still have the flight back to Vietnam to the B Medical Helipad at Dak To. The flight which was about twenty meters over the treetops was conducted (flying) at approximately 125 knots. Doesn't sound too bad up to this point, does it? Well about two minutes into this flight the door gunner hits me on the head and shouts,"he's hit!" I had checked all my people and ascertained that although the Chopper had several holes in the deck, none of my people had been hit. So, "Who's hit?", I shouts back. "The pilot!", shouts the Gunner. "Fuck-a-Bear," says I, drop my ruck sack and head for the cockpit. When I got there, I found the Peter pilot (Co-pilot) , WO2 Gagnon, going into shock with a small caliber wound to his right calf muscle. It wouldn't have been so bad but the bullet was distorted from passing through the floor pan and had really made a mess of the leg. I patched him up with a field dressing and stopped the bleeding but he refused a shot of morphine, since he felt he might be needed to fly the aircraft. I didn't know exactly what he meant until I turned around to check the pilot, WO2 Mehlman. In violation of the 52nd Aviation Battalion's Standing Operating Procedures, he had gone in on an LZ with his visor up, and as a result had received multiple face and head punctures from flying plexiglas as the windscreen was shot out by the aforementioned .51 caliber anti-aircraft Machinegun. His most serious wound was a couple of pieces of plexiglas that had penetrated the left eyeball that was bleeding and preventing him from closing or blinking his eye. I cleaned up his face, wiped the blood from his good eye washing it with saline solution, and told him he was in great shape. I told him this because our airspeed was still around 120 knots and our altitude had not increased. Sure the hell did not want to add any more uncertainty to our predicament. We finally arrived at Dak To and both pilots were carted off to B Med to have their wounds attended while Sgt Haynes, the Yard team members, and I waited for a Chopper to take us back to the FOB. I didn't count the holes in the Chopper but there were Many! Many! Many! I have been in contact with Steve Mehlman for some time and tells me that the Chopper was salvaged due to 137 holes in various and sundry places. I will not say that this is correct because I did not count them but considering the volume of fire and the number North Vietnamese Army troops I observed on the LZ, it is entirely probable.

SSG Gerald Denison replied: 

Damn, Two (stories) in as many days, My ticker can't stand so much excitement. Your recollection is either very good or mine went down the tube. I can help a little though, the target area was I-6, it was a rush operation, you did not have a chance to do a V-R (Visual Reconnaissance). You requested that morning, just before I left to get the Covey at Kontum airport, to "pick me a good LZ." I was flying covey that day, I picked that green hover hole because it gave us a straight in shot for an approach. I knew it was going to be a little tight but I didn't think it would be as tight as it was. We looked that potential LZ over very close prior to you arrival, we didn't draw a single round. We bingoed (identifying the area when the lead ship was directly over the site) the LZ for the lead slick and the guns set up a figure eight pattern for cover. Your slick went in and as soon as it hit a hover all hell broke loose as you are well aware. Your ship took, according to the crew later at Pleiku, 139 hits and 59 of them were fifty one Caliber Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun hits. Oh wasn't it exciting.