Helicopter Wars

Episode 1

Vietnam Firefight

46 mins

Larry Liss (by his own estimation, nearly the worst helicopter pilot in his class), recounts the events leading up to & during a daring 7-hour rescue mission on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that he organized on Easter Sunday, 1967, involving his friend Tom Baca and hometown acquaintance Jack Swickard (also Huey pilots). Swickard's only passenger was an unarmed flight engineer who had planned to simply take pictures of the countryside that day. Previously, Liss had been harshly reprimanded for flying his unarmed Huey into a combat zone to rescue a downed crew. But when he heard about a company of soldiers surrounded and being slaughtered by North Vietnamese troops, he immediately agreed to help. He and Baca put their helicopter down in a bamboo forest on a path barely wide enough for its fuselage, mowing a 48-foot-diameter patch down to head-height using only its main rotor blades. They then loaded half a dozen wounded US & ARVN infantrymen under heavy fire and flew them out of danger. On the way out, they realized they would have to rescue the entire company, which was in danger of being overrun by a battalion of NVA. The only assistance available was a single Huey with only 1 pilot and a photographer passenger, both of whom also volunteered without hesitation. Both aircraft made repeated flights into the midst of the firefight, knowing that every return trip meant a progressively smaller perimeter, and a smaller defensive force to protect the notoriously easy-to-destroy helicopters. On their last run, both Hueys were so overloaded that they had to fly forward through the bamboo before gaining enough airspeed to lift above it and carry the last survivors to safety; one of whom would have fallen off if Liss hadn't held him on. When the engines were shut down that night, their flashlights showed the incredible robustness of the shredded rotor blades that cut down so many branches & bamboo shafts. Again, Liss suffered a blistering tongue-lashing by his commander (followed by a brief fistfight) before being quietly complimented by their general. Over a hundred soldiers owe their lives to these 4 heroes who rushed blindly into the battle without thinking of themselves, their aircraft, or even where they might land.