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Thunderbird Lounge: An aviator's story about one early Transportation Helicopter company, along with its sister companies as they paved the way in what was to become "A Helicopter War"

by Robert Brandt

398 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0408; ISBN 1-55369-006-0; US$30.50, C$35.00, EUR25.00, £17.50

The story of one early helicopter company as it helped develop the helicopter into a viable weapon on the modern battlefield. Depicts daily life for early helicopter soldiers as they fought the Viet Cong.

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about the book      about the author      excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book This book nails it! The author deftly documents the fears, frustrations, frolics and foibles of these pilots and crews as they endure their moment in the muck of 'the only war they had.' There is a movie in here somewhere. To quote the late commander of the unit, 'Good job Brandt'." Chief Warrant Officer Fredrick "Fox" P. Cullen, Jr.     This is a story as seen through the eyes of one 1st Lieutenant Army aviator, during the early US military commitment to support the Republic of South Vietnam in its counter-insugency operations against North Vietnam's campaign to reunite Vietnam under communist rule. It depicts the daily life of these soldiers and aviation crew members as they went about proving the importance of the helicopter in modern warfare. Describes in detail how the helicopter was employed, puts you in the pilot's seat, death and humor, frustrations encountered, and a tribute to those soldiers and airmen who paid the ultimate price.

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About the Author     Major General Brandt retired in 1999 from the National Guard at the close of his 45th year of military service, including over 8 years of active duty. He rose to the rank of Sergeant as an enlisted soldier before graduating from Officer Candidate School. He served twice in Vietnam, first commanding a detachment and later a company. General Brandt is a Master Army Aviator with over 7,900 flying hours in over 14 fixed and rotary wing aircraft, which he accumulated during his 38 years of military and civilian flying. His awards include the Legion of Merit, Purple heart, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

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Excerpt

    This is the story of the United States Army's 33rd Transportation Company (Light Helicopter) (CH-21), and its attached units in the struggle that later came to be called the Vietnam War, also known as the "Helicopter War". Along with the 57th, 8th, 93rd, 81st, and the UTT transportation helicopter companies they took a scant and unproven airmobile doctrine based on the use of helicopters, tested the concept, and further development in combat the tactics that are generally employed even today. It also provides a brief history of how the United states became involved in what became the Vietnam War.
    Airborne operations came of age during WWII and played a significant part in the liberation of North Africa, Sicily and Northern Europe. Successful airborne operations were also conducted in the China-Burma-India and in the Pacific. Although the parachute and glider were the methods employed, they were far from satisfactory. Parachutes were relatively a safe method of getting troops into combat, however they were unable to provide cohesive organized units immediately after landing thereby providing the enemy the opportunity to immediately crush the airborne soldiers. WWII gliders on the other hand could land squads or sections better organized to immediately fight. Speed and proximity however were their downfall. A flimsy glider landing even at 40-50 miles an hour encountering obstacles such as trees, anti-landing stakes could and did wreak considerable damage and casualties.
    Following WWII the helicopter promised a new method of air-landing combat troops organized and better prepared to engage the enemy. However, many questions such as the survivability, reliability, lifting capacity, of the helicopter, not to mention the tactics to be employed needed to be further developed. The Korean War had provided the stimulus for the Marines and the Army to test on a limited basis helicopter operations. Based on the results in Korea, the Army greatly expanded its helicopter capability. Yet as the expansion was taking place, there remained many unanswered questions concerning the employment of helicopters in combat. These few initial pioneer U.S. Army Transportation Helicopter Companies provided many of the answers and paved the way for significant change in how land warfare is conducted.
    It is the story of professional army aviators, aircrew men, and the soldiers that supported them...real people; many probably just like those that live next door to you today. They were committed to fighting the Soviets or their surrogates anywhere and anytime. Many of the aviators and crew members in the unit had already fought in World War II and Korea. But for most of us, it was our first war, and some ended up make the supreme sacrifice.
    The origins of the conflict had roots reaching back many years. Most indigenous people in French Indo-China (now Vietnam) had been pressing for independence since the colonial days of the last century. Following the defeat of the French by Germany in 1940, the French Vichy government allowed the Japanese to co-occupy Indo-China in 1941. This placed Japanese military forces within easty striking distance of all of South East Asia. This event, along with pressure from Britain focused President Roosevelt's attention to Indo-China. This one event brought the United States into the Colonial affairs of Indo-China, and eventually into what became our role in the Vietnam War.
    The President, influenced by events in Europe was greatly concerned that Japan, like Germany, was attempting to pre-position troops into areas that would greatly weaken our defenses in the western pacific. (1) The co-occupation of Indo-China was a direct threat to the Philippine Islands. First, Roosevelt tried to reach a diplomatic solution suggesting that Indo-China be designated a "Neutral" country with Japan withdrawing her troops from it and joining with the United States, Britain, China, and the Netherlands in a guarantee of this"Neutrality." (2) The proposal went nowhere. On July 26, 1941, an Executive Order was issued freezing all Japanese assets and funds in the United states and thus declaring to the Japanese to either ease tensions or face the United states in open conflict. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese chose war.
    United States attention returned to Indo-China during 1943. President Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated a clear policy concerning Indo-China is "Not to go back to France." (3) James Burns wrote, "The President viewed the French record in Indo-China as an utter contract with the American record in the Philippines." To him [Roosevelt], Indo-China was Western Colonialism of the worst sort. (4) Roosevelt's policy went so far as to direct that United states forces would not assist French Forces within Indo-China. Clearly, Roosevelt intended to do everything possible to grant the people of Indo-China their independence from France. This policy placed the United states in the unique position of plotting openly against one of its allies.
    During 1944-45, at the dawn of the Indo-China revolution, the anti-colonialism of the Roosevelt era led some of General Wedemeyer's [he had replaced General Stillwell in China] units to collaborate for several months with the rising Viet Minh movement. First against the Japanese and later against the French forces in Indo-China. (5) Following the liberation of France in 1944 the question of Indo-China came to a head. Indo-China was, at that time, co-occupied by an armed Vichy French army and the Japanese Army. Trouble began early in 1945. On the evening of March 9, 1945, the Japanese forces in Indo-China, after being warned by a somewhat noisy anti-Japanese resistance movement, suddenly crushed the French administration with which they had coexisted since 1940. (6) In suppressing the French administration 4200 officers and soldiers were killed or massacred in the course of a fighting retreat to China.
    Although American forces commanded by General Wedemeyer were only 150 miles to the north in China, no aid was given to the French forces. (7) The British continued to support the French forces by flying supplies from Burma until the very end when the French surrendered.
    As the war came to a close and Japan surrendered an uneasy peace settled over Indo-China. The French had been crushed, the Japanese defeated and the Viet Minh revolution was launched. Aided by Japan and the United States the Viet Minh had been encouraged to seek independence. President Roosevelt's policy had failed to keep the French out of Indo-China, further it allowed the Viet Minh to grow and eventually challenge France and win. The President's policy left France so weakened within Indo-China the re-established her rule over the region had little chance of success.
    The ironic turn is that after President Roosevelt's death his Indo-China policy was apparently quickly forgotten. In September 1945, less than six months after Roosevelt's death, the State Department informed the French Government that it would do nothing to jeopardize French sovereignty in Indo-China. It took America four more years to move from uneasy neutrality to an attitude of active sympathy. (9) The French moved in to reoccupy Indo-China with an undermanned army equipped primarily with hand-me-down American equipment. It didn't take long for fighting to break out as the Vietnamese initiated their struggle for independence in December of 1946.
    In the meantime, the United States was caught up in what came to be called the Cold War. The relations between the United States and Soviet Russia had never really been one of trust. Not forgotten were Stalin's pact with Hitler and the partition of Poland in 1939. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union had never repudiated its goal of world communism under Soviet leadership. As the defeat of Germany approached in 1945, relations with the Soviet Union became increasingly strained, finally broken following the Berlin Airlift in 1948. The two great super powers soon faced off against each other at many points around the globe.
    The Cold War turned hot during the Korean War in the early 1950s. The United States was focussed on the conflict in Korea at the same time the French were fighting in Indo-China and appealing for assistance (and receiving very little) from the United States. The culminating battle in the first Indo-China War occurred when in 1954 the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu defeated the French. (10) That same year, president Dwight D. Eisenhower sent economic and military aid to South Vietnam. In 1959 he committed the United States to a free and separate South Vietnam, and send American advisors to work with the fledgling South Vietnamese army.
    In January of 1959 North Vietnam's Central Executive Committee's Resolution 15 changes its strategy toward South Vietnam from "political struggle" to "armed struggle." (11) In July of 1959, the first American soldiers, Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnard were killed in action in Vietnam. (12) At the end of 1960 approximately 900 U.S. military personnel were now in Vietnam. (13)
    In the fall of 1961 President Kennedy authorized the deployment of three U.S. Army helicopter companies to Vietnam. On 11 December 1961 the United States aircraft carrier USNS Core docked in downtown Saigon with 32 U.S. Army H-12 helicopters and 400 men. The 57th Transportation Company (Light Helicopter) from Fort Lewis, Wash., and the 8th Transportation Company (Light Helicopter) from Fort Bragg, N.C. had arrived in Southeast Asia. This event was the first symbol of United States combat power in Vietnam; and, it was the beginning of a new era of airmobility in the United states Army. (14)
    Just twelve days later these helicopters were committed into the first airmobile combat action in Vietnam, Operation Chopper. Approximately 1,000 Vietnamese paratroopers were airlifted into a suspected Viet Cong headquarters complex about ten miles west of the Vietnamese capitol. The paratroopers captured an elusive underground radio transmitter after meeting only slight resistance from a surprised enemy. Major George D. Hardesty, Jr. of the 8th Transportation Company and Major Robert J. Dillard of the 57th could report that their units had performed outstandingly under their first baptism of fire. (15) Following the 57th and the 8th, the 93rd Transportation Company (Light Helicopter) arrived off the coast of Vietnam in January 1962. Ten miles out in the South China Sea from Da Nang, the aircraft were flown off the carrier desk of the USNS Card to Da Nang Air Base. (16) These units operated without any members killed in action until July of that year. There were now 3.205 U.S. Military personnel in Vietnam. (17)
In September, the 81st Transportation Helicopter Company, and my unit, the 33rd Transportation Company, arrived in Vietnam. This is our story...

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Catalogue Information

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