ROUND AND ROUND

We knew the LZ was hot as we made our fourth trip of the day. We had returned to base and offloaded and were returning to pick up some more grunts.  We were in a flight of six ships, so we would be covered as we picked up the grunts and took them back to safety.

We were the third ship in the flight and as I looked out the door I knew it was not going to be an easy task picking up those that remained. I kept my weapon firing as we started in to pick up the troops.

Everything seemed to be just fine until we were about two hundred feet from the deck. It was then we knew we were in trouble as we felt the rear rotor being hit. Without the rear rotor to stabilize us we began to rotate in a circle getting closer and closer to the ground.

We all hung on as the ship rotated. The only thing that was going to save us was the talents of the pilot as he fought to keep the ship from tipping sideways.

It seemed like forever between the time we were hit and the ship hit the ground. We were lucky, and the ship managed to land on its skids, then slowly tip over on its side.

I could feel the shots coming toward us and the next ship in line came in to pick us up.

For a few minutes it was hectic. Shots were being fired from both directions as we ran for the ship that had come in to pick us up.

We were lucky; all our crew received was a couple of minor wounds from the hard landing and the pieces of our ship that had come off during our "landing."

As the ship that picked us up went airborne the door gunner put round after round into our disabled ship until it finally caught on fire and we could hear it explode as we were being taken back to base.

Even losing one ship it was still a successful mission. All of the grunts had been picked up. There were few injured and none dead to be accounted for.

Sometimes as the night falls around me I wonder why I was so lucky. Why I was among those chosen to make it back home?  Then there were those times that I wish that I had not made it back - that, instead, I was one of those names on that big granite wall in Washington, DC. I am sure there were those more deserving then I to return, yet here I am. Why did whoever made the choice bring me home and leave them behind or brought them home in coffins?

©Tina Rice June 3, 2008