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Narrative for Operation Pirous:
Operation 5-67 was named Pirous. The first "named" operation since
Leaping Lena in 1964. This operation was in support of the 3rd MAF
(Marine Amphibious Force). It started with the FOB at Khe Sahn and we
were there about a week. My recollection was that we were to recon the
vicinity of Khe Sahn but the Marines changed the AO and we had to move
further south to launch around and into the A Shau valley. The FOB was
built on a hilltop just out of the village of Phu Bai on the coast.
The Marines had an airstrip and aid station there.
When we weren't actually preparing for or conducting recon missions,
we flew radio relay flights. It was usually, as in this case, an
DeHavelin Otter. They were slow, had a lot of lift, and could hover in
a strong wind. Radio relay was on a rotational basis, Andy Sheppard
and I flew a lot of hours out of Phu Bai.
Narrative for Aerial photos:
Early morning over the coast, in the Otter, on radio relay duty,
sometimes called Satellite. The Otter would climb to cruising altitude
and out of 51 cal range (hopefully), while over the coast, before
heading inland and orbiting over the teams on the ground. It would
stay on station all day, except for one trip back to Phu Bai for fuel
and a "pit stop". This was not desirable duty because it was very
boring unless a team made contact. If this happened, the tension could
be cut with a knife until the team was out safely. The radio relay
isn't always necessary. In this case, the teams were a long ways out
and almost always in a valley, so they could not transmit directly to
the FOB. |
