Rick Carruba

I was living in Birmingham, Alabama when I was drafted into the Army in the summer of 1967.  My basic training was at Ft. Benning Georgia and then I was sent to Ft. Rucker Alabama for MOS training in aviation repair. 

 I arrived in Vietnam in late December of 1967.  I spent a few days at the 90th Replacement Battalion in Long Binh, picking up trash, cleaning weapons, doing a lot of nothing and waiting for an assignment.  Finally I was sent to the 54th Aviation Company located at a large airbase in Vung Tau which is on the coast in the Delta sector of Vietnam,.  The 54th was a utility aircraft unit that flew the Army’s U-1A 'Otter' – a single engine fixed landing gear aircraft with short takeoff and landing capabilities.  We were basically a support unit flying supplies and personnel to different location.  We were known as “Big Daddy” as we were big and slow.

I spent my early months as part of a team performing scheduled maintenance on aircrafts.  Once I gained enough experience, and a slot opened up, I became a Crew Chief and was assigned an aircraft. Now, I had taxi, warmup, and preflight duties in addition to maintaining that one aircraft.  As I was now part of the flight crew I got that extra flight pay.  Most of our pilots were Warrant Officers and noticeably older than me – I turned 21 in Viet Nam!

Except for two rocket and mortar attacks on the airfield during the Tet Offensive of 1968  my time there was basically uneventful.  We flew a lot of missions but seldom into hostile areas. Also, Vung Tau was an in-country R and R Center with an accessible beach area.  However, I will share two stories that stick out the most.

Story # 1.

 One day, one of our planes had engine trouble in a resupply flight to a remote outpost and was unable to fly out.  The next morning I was part of a team sent to get the plane back in the air.  When we landed the commanding officer told us if the plane was still there by night fall we would be staying and spending the night on the perimeter as he expected the NVA would attack.  We could not make the needed repairs so we called in a Chinook helicopter to airlift the plane out.  On the way back to home base the plane began to sway so much the chopper had to cut the cord and the plane was destroyed.  Crash reports indicated that the plane was packed with equipment and supplies that were lost. In reality, there was nothing in the plane. The report was used to get new and better equipment.

Story #2.  

I was selected as part of a three man flight crew, two pilots and a chief, to spend one month TDY in Bangkok, Thailand assisting MAC Thai.  We flew missions out near the Thailand borders.  The two pilots did not want to fly every day (we only flew 4 days a week) so they alternated days and I occupied the copilot seat- my regular place was in the back of the airplane next to the door. I did get in some stick time – “chief just follow the railroad track and keep it a 2000 feet”   On one mission we landed at a small outpost in an open field and as we got near the end of the field and was turning around the plane just sank down into the mud !  Trucks were brought in but they were not able to pull us out.  After a few hours three elephants appeared out of the bush.  They were harnessed up and they pulled the plane out of the mud.   That day I got to spend about twenty minutes riding an elephant.  We had to spend another day there before it was dry enough for us to take off.

I extended my time in Viet Nam so I would not have to be assigned duty state side; as I said, I had rather easy duty.  My CO made me get three haircuts before he would sign my papers.  I had saved my stateside fatigues and I was planning on wearing them out but they didn’t fit. I had gained weight!