Dropped a can of whoop ass. Man came to show Charlie how it's done back in the hood where the real drillas be from. That Charlie ain't him, cause he's him!
Brings back a lot of memories!! I served as crew chief/door gunner on loaches with HHC 3rd Brg 9 th Inf Div at Tan An air base Nov 68/69. Welcome home to all my fellow vets!!
Welcome home, bro! I flew scouts and LOVED that airplane! Only crashed once, but walked away and was having a beer in the club 3 hours later! I know it wasn't designed to go inverted, but in the trees trading fire we did some sh*t that's for sure.
Love the Story, his competency and courage! His humility, and humor. America needs more people like him! Mr Johnston, as always great videography, and thank you for sharing this with us!
Thanks Erik! I've been waiting for you to get around to an OH6. I'm an old BLM Helitack guy. I flew Fires for a good number of years in a wide variety of Helicopters. I have my favorites and my not so favorites. The OH6 is the only one though that I absolutely love to fly in. With the right Pilot flying in a Little Bird can be the most fun you will ever have in your life. There is truly nothing else like it.
My flight career was brief but not dull, flying scouts with the 11th ACR Air Cav Troop at Quan Loi. I really enjoyed flying the OH-6 and had the course at Rucker. I was very good with the mini gun and always had one installed. I was surprised to learn that many scouts did not like the gun. On my first flight into Cambodia, a familiarization ride, that gun saved our lives. We were crossing a large open area when a 12.7mm opened up from directly ahead. The gunner was firing low, we could see the tracers going under us and we could hear the gunfire. With icy calm I immediately dropped a smoke grenade. Then realizing that I had not pulled the pin, I dropped another. Then I armed the mini gun. The guy in the right seat, who had never fired it, pulled the trigger, and all the power we had. The gun was still in the stowed position, so he fired a lot of rounds more or less straight down. The NVA gunner stopped firing and we moved out fast. Then we discovered that our Cobra had lost sight of us in the broken low overcast. What a morning!
@@ErikJohnston And it's a true story. Looking back, I have to think that we were all off our heads. It was stupidly dangerous work, but every scout I knew loved it. In one of those twists of fate the flight surgeon grounded me. I came home safe, but I never flew again. Good for you, keeping that great OH-6 flying. Allons brother.
Thanks for the walkaround. It's a beautiful bird. I was very fortunate to get to fly in several OH-6's during my time working for the federal government in the 1990's. I was lucky enough to even get some stick time courtesy of the pilot I was flying with. What a hotrod the OH-6's were. The pilots I worked with preferred flying the OH-6's over newer MD-500's.
Happy Veterans Day, fine Sir. Thank you so much for your service to our great Country. Thank you to all our Veterans and Happy Birthday to all our Jar Heads.
Cool tour ! Easy to follow and understand. If i was lucky enough to get trained on this great little bird then I'd be lucky twice if you were the instructor .
Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Erik. There's not a lot of material between a low level Loach pilot and an angry AK or SKS round. My strongest recommendation for the book, "Low Level Hell."
I love the walk-around, but I have to say this isn't flight school because I flew these also for the Marine Corps. There is some forgetting about the weapon systems we used. I'd love to fly it again, but it's like riding a bicycle, no problem.
In D trp 3/5 Cav we never got to enough flight hours to change out a tail boom. Our average shot down height was 5 feet at 50 knots. It was a very survivable aircraft in most crashes.
There's no such thing as legal or illegal wars. Additionally the war in vietnam was a war of communist aggression, so there's not even a ground to call it immoral. Worst you can say is that it ended up being pointless as the communists won the propaganda war, which is true.
@@jimmydesouza4375 Vietnam wasn't a war of communist aggression, it was of US aggression. They invaded a country that wanted equality and nothing to do with US capitalism. It was immoral, just not seen that way if you are one of the United Sociopaths.
@@jimmydesouza4375 I've read, watched and spoken to enough people from north and south Vietnam to know that the US was the perpetrator. Maybe do some research other than what the US tells you. Ignorance is a choice.
@@chippyjohn1 " I've read, watched and spoken to enough people from north and south Vietnam to know that the US was the perpetrator." First off, don't lie. Secondly even if you weren't lying, this would be meaningless. Now I would run you down on the basic history of the war (and of course the history leading up to the war) but since you don't seem to be functional it likely isn't worth my time. Here's the issue in the shortest way I can put it. If the Republic of Vietnam (North) ramps up its guerrilla war in the State of Vietnam (South) and then crosses the border with soldiers (and also invades Laos at the same time) is that the US being the "perpetrator"? If the justification they use for their invasion is that the South doesn't hold a rigged election that the south never agreed to, is that the US being the "perpetrator"? You keep screeching about propaganda when you yourself are the one who has been propagandised.
I was with the artillery, we use to fly the mail out the batteries the kid I flew with wasn't over 21 was crazy we would fly about 20 feet above the ground over mountains scared the s#$t out of me !!!
