Outskirts Press, INC.

Huey crew chief memories of Vietnam

Nobody completely escapes the effects of Viet Nam…There was more than one enemy in Viet Nam.

There was “Charlie,” who wanted to punch your helicopter full of holes with his AK-47 and bring you and the aircraft crashing down to the ground, down to your death.

There was your own malfunctioning equipment, like the faulty flare that went off inside your helicopter, knocking you out and almost sending your whole aircraft and its crew to a fiery death.

EMPTY TUBES AND BACK SEAT MEMORIES is the fascinating and true tale of Russ Warriner’s year and a half tour in Viet Nam serving as Crew Chief and Door Gunner on an M3 Rocket System equiped Huey in the U.S. Army Aerial Rocket Artillery (ARA).

It is a fascinating chronicle of the day by day activity of a young soldier who comes from a conventional life in a small town in Massachusetts, but who wants to serve his country and ends up doing so and being awarded a Purple Heart, more than a dozen Air Medals, and three Army Commendation medals for his heroism in battle.

It is a story of unconventional life in a controversial war.


As Russ Warriner says: “The permanent physical injuries from this war will always be apparent, but Russ shows us in his vivid narrative way the mental injuries can go unnoticed for years. These injuries are better know as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

I never had pulled wounded out of an area before and I was glad that I was not a MEDEVAC Crew Chief. The only time I had been on one of their birds was when I returned to Tam Ky after the flare incident. They had landed to pick up wounded and it had not given me a good feeling, even though the wounded they picked up that day were not badly hurt. I did not even want to think about how badly these guys were injured from our rounds and tried to stop thinking about it.

Leaving station and getting out of the valley was a good feeling, until we were about to clear the mountaintop. That is when I heard that dreadful sound no Crew Chief wants to hear. This time it was coming from inside my aircraft, “Mayday-Mayday-Mayday, Blue Max Six Nine Romeo One, engine failure”.

Summerfield was on the radio and both of my pilots were working hard to keep control of the aircraft. They were trying to maintain an altitude that would put us over the top of the mountain and trying to keep the main rotor speed up enough with the engine out. The pilot was watching the gauges and talking to my AC while both were trying to find a spot to land. We were too close to the mountain to change direction and all there was on this side of the mountain was trees. We needed to make it over the top and into the flat area on the other side or we might not survive.

Just as we were about to cross the top of mountain, I looked down to see the skids clearing the rocky ledge of the mountain. That was close. I was positive that I could not have even placed a small box between the skid and the ledge. Then I felt the aircraft drop as Summerfield bottomed pitch and went into full auto-rotation. He was trying to speed up the main rotor that was starting to slow down causing the low RPM warning to scream through the head set. We needed to build the rotor speed up again or crash. Summerfield picked a spot and headed for it. Trying to land without hitting the trees was not easy. There were no rice paddies or open areas to land. The best we could hope for was to walk away.