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A story for Gary - Part Four. 9/24/2006

The helo came over a clearing in the jungle. We looked down, and saw nothing amiss, just a clearing in the jungle. The thing was, the road lead right to this clearing. I motioned to the crew chief to ask the driver to do a slow recce of the place. The pilot did so, and I sat there for moment, looking down at the clearing. The sarge and I were really curious, but cautious at the same time. This was not a good place to be if things went pear shaped, which they could do very quickly.

Everything looked above board, and I asked the crew chief if he saw anything amiss. Suddenly, the sarge tapped me on the shoulder, pointed to his eyes, and then pointed out towards the edge of the clearing. I could make out some figures standing in the shade under the trees at the edge. They didn’t seem to be doing anything, just standing there, looking up at us.

I made a decision, and gave everyone the signal for arming their weapons. I told the crew chief we were going to make a “touch and go” exit from the helo, and wanted the pilot to stay overhead. The crew chief relayed the request to the pilot, and gave me a thumbs up. I signalled the sarge, and he got everyone ready for a quick exit from the doors of the chopper.

The pilot rolled in, and I stood at the door, looking down. I looked back into the hold of the helo, and saw that the guys were ready to roll. Except the nugget. He seemed to have managed to make a right mess of getting out of his ruck sack, and unslinging his weapon. For a “touch and go”, we would dump everything, except weapon and a light ammo load, and maybe a canteen. The R.O. would have his radio. Everything else stayed on board, and if we needed anything else, the crew chief would quickly bring the helo into a low hover overhead, and kick out anything we needed.

I sighed, and made a head motion to the sarge. He looked, and sighed back at me. He shouted to me whether we could leave the nugget behind, and I said to the sarge whether he wanted to have the nugget sitting thinking he was in charge of our only quick way out of here. The sarge smiled, and said the crew chief would probably give him flying lessons.

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