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Spooky and the Colonel
May 13, 2011 |
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Here's a funny for you: I was swapping war stories
with a friend named Andy and remembered this more or
less humorous incident that happened in my camp at
Trang-Sup. We Air Force types kind of ticked off an
Army colonel.
He started raising hell because
one of our controllers vectored a Spooky bird over
to us one night when we were under attack. Actually,
what happened was that Spooky was close by and could
see the action. So, he came up on frequency and
offered to mosey on over and lend a hand. Who would
turn down an offer like that? And the colonel used
ungentlemanly language, to boot: something about
‘undisciplined Zoomie assholes'. He said a lot more,
but there are ladies reading this. He almost
offended our delicate sensibilities.
The
colonel thought the controller, an enlisted puke,
had overstepped his authority. Of course, the
colonel was down in Tay Ninh at the time, and not on
Trang-Sup with us. Not being combat trained, I never
did know much about who was authorized to do what in
such circumstances, or when they were supposed to do
it. But, at the time, inviting a gunship to join in
the fun and games seemed to me like a perfectly
logical thing to do. It still does, and it didn't
much matter to me who issued the invitation. I do
know none of our Special Forces troops bitched about
it.
We were later shocked to hear that same
colonel somehow got himself shot during another
attack over in Tay Ninh – and not from the front. It
would seem he played his John Wayne act one time too
often to the wrong audience. Served the SOB right.
Fortunately, depending on how you look at it, he
only got a flesh wound.
He also probably got
at least a Silver Star out of it.
Andy is a
bird colonel, too, but he's a Mustang who came up
through the ranks. His father was a sergeant in the
cavalry – I'm talking horse cavalry – and Andy grew
up in the Army. After he related one of his ongoing
duels with the brass, I couldn't help but tell him I
could see why he never made general. His mother was
Irish and his father was Italian, which Andy claims
makes him both a lover and a fighter. Curiously
enough, he started his own military career as a Navy
seaman, but apparently decided he liked tanks
better. Must have been the cavalry in him. |
 By
Thurman P. Woodfork
Copyright 2009
About
Author...
Thurman P. Woodfork (Woody) spent his
Air Force career as a radar repairman in places as disparate as
Biloxi, Mississippi; Cut Bank, Montana; Tin City, Alaska; Rosas,
Spain and Tay Ninh, Vietnam. In Vietnam, he was assigned to
Detachment 7 of the 619th Tactical Control Squadron, a Forward Air
Command Post located on Trai Trang Sup. Trang Sup was an Army
Special Forces camp situated about fifty miles northwest of Saigon
in Tay Ninh province, close to the Cambodian border.
After Vietnam, Woody remained in the Air Force for nine more years.
Visit
Thurman P. Woodfork's site for more information |
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