I'll bet you got stories that would go great with beer and BBQ.
My father use to entertain us with his 101 Airborn shenanigans.
I'll bet you got stories that would go great with beer and BBQ
I recall a H13 Sioux [Bell 47H *bubblenose*, like the evac birds on the old MASH TV series] in Germany tasked with delivering a replacement tank battalion commander to his troops in the field. Upon spotting the M577 command track of the battalion TOC, the LTC directed the pilot to land *as close as he could* to it, which happened to be directly on top of the thing. When asked if he had mistaken the tracked armoured vehicle for an aircraft carrier, the pilot cheerfully replied that he didn't want to see the Colonel get his shiny boots all mussed up...nor his own skids, I reckon.


During less friendly times there was an instance of a LOH pilot who served as a Forward Air Controller against a reinforced NVA tank platoon that included PT76 amphibious tanks after the 02 Mixmaster sent to do the job took a few too many hits in his fuel bladder. Having expended all of his smoke rockets and even the smoke grenades carried aboard, the LOH driver was horrified to find that one vehicle had found concealment beneath a tree and missed out on the treatment shared by his brethern. Getting as close to the enemy vehicle as the nearby tree would allow, one of the vehicle's crewmen opened the vehicle's turret's hatch, either to see what all the racket was or to man the 12,7mm heavy machinegun mounted topside. Whereupon the LOH pilot shot the guy twice in the chest and dropped the thermite grenades carried aboard for destruction of the chopper's radios down the open hatch.
The Special Forces recon team on the ground watching wrote him up for a Medal of Honor. The guy's squadron commander downgraded it to a Silver Star, on the grounds that that was the expected routine performance expected of all scout helo pilots in their squadron.

