 
I was a helicopter pilot for the 187th
Assault Helicopter Company, in Tay Ninh, 1967, and we
were supporting everything from the Special Forces to the
Arvn units. This is a story that is really about my crew
chief, SP4 Green. Green was from West Virginia.
I hate hot Landing Zones, when the formation starts to
take fire and the gunships respond, the chaos is
unimaginable. Smoke, fire, tracers everywhere, my
25th Infantry, Manchu troops, were in for it today.
A green oasis surrounded by towering trees, long grass
flattened by my rotor wash, Green has been shooting up
the tree line, but just as I get our D model on the
ground he yells over the intercom, "keep her on the
ground" and jumps out. In only a few seconds
he is half in and half out of the helicopter and he nods
for me to pickup, and up we go with the rest of the
formation, trailing a 10 foot long King Cobra, held
firmly by Green. I knew Green was crazy, after all,
he was my gunner, and that
was proof enough. We had landed on a Cobra pinning
it down so it was easy for green to capture it. I
am sure green was suprised with the size of the snake,
most of it was in a hole in the ground when he grabbed
it.
Green and the Crew chief wrestled the snake into the
aircraft and proceeded to safety wire the mouth
shut. They did a fancy wiring job on
this beautiful Cobra and put it in a fifty cal ammo box,
right under Greens seat.
I must admit that I am not too fond of snakes, but this
one was absolutely beautiful, and huge. When Green
would open the square top of the ammo box, that snake
would come out of there like a shot from a gun, hood
open, hissing, totally awesome sight. Green would
let out about five or six feet of snake out of the box
and then hold on to it and it would look totally cool,
and very convincing.
"Just what are you going to do with that
snake," I ask? Looking over my shoulder at his
smiling face. His response was classic Green,
"I'll get the goddamn dinks off the chopper faster
than anyone in the flight!" I now under stood
the true genius of this flying warrior from West
Virginia.
When we inserted troops into a hot Landing Zone, the
American troops would jump off the plane before it hit
the ground, running hard. The Vietnamese troops
would not get off the helicopter, and it was fairly
standard to be mobbed when we went in for medevac
missions to some Arvn units. Some units like the
Arvn Rangers with the red scarves were American trained
and good as any one out there, but, they were the
exception not the rule.
Green and I had already had problems with the Arvn
troops, you could see the hate in their eyes as we would
head for the landing zone. In one hot Landing Zone
in the parrots beak area, Green had thrown several Arvn
troops off of the helicopter and one of them had turned
around and shot a M-79 right at me, hitting the sliding
armor panel on the side of my seat making a huge dent,
slamming into my arm, almost knocking me out of my
harness. The projectile had not armed, it
was spinning around on the floor, right beside my
collective pitch control. I grabbed the hot
grenade burning my fingers through the gloves, and threw
it out the open window it had came in, and pulled pitch
as Green killed him with his M-60. My left arm
turned black and blue from the shoulder to the wrist, and
looked horrible, and felt worse, but healed fine.
After all, I was only nineteen. One other night
medevac we landed at the hospital with 26 Arvn troops,
only a few of them wounded. I still am amazed that
my helicopter would fly with people hanging on the skids
and each other, several fell off along the way making the
approach easier.
It was our first operation with Arvn troops since
acquiring the Cobra. I told Green "keep that
snake in its box unless they start sticking to the
helicopter," Green nodded and flashed me a peace
sign.
Artillery, fast movers, smoke ships, (we were using the
Smoky Baron) and our very own Rat Pack on guns, what a
sound. Smoke and fire, tracers everywhere, I could
see the troops were scared, and on short final they were
grabbing anything they could hold on to including, the
seat I was sitting in. They were crawling between
the seats in front, and trying to get under the seats in
back. Chicken shit bastards.
My helicopter is still fifteen feet in the air and I have
picked my landing spot when the helicopter starts to
swing from side to side. I look over my shoulder
and the helicopter is raining Arvn troops, Green has his
snake out, one hand on the M-60, one on the snake.
As I come to a hover, I can see the helicopters around me
having trouble getting their ARVN troops off, and the
flight pulls pitch, with Arvn troops on
many of the helicopters.
We had that snake for a long time. Finally the
snake was so weak from all the troop entertaining he had
done, he could hardly spring out of the ammo box
anymore. Green and I took the snake far out in the
jungle, cut its safety wire away and let him go.
Green bought another Cobra at one of the markets, but it
was a little one, it was not much of a show, and was
almost more trouble than it was worth.
Wayne R. "Crash" Coe
187th Assault Helicopter Company 67-8
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