Disclaimer: I am not an expert on the Vietnam war…places and information may or may not be true ( it depends on how much research I am willing to do ) .Do not hold me responsible for my grammar and punctuation. Call Of Duty Black Ops is owned by Activision and its various associates. There will be racial remarks and slurs, and occasional foul language.
All this aside…its good to be writing again - T.D.F
" Dust-Off "
1LT. Rick Taylor
MACV-SOG ( Military Assistance Command Vietnam - Special Observation Group )
0900 Hours, August 12 1965
Quang Tri, MACV Firebase Silva
1LT. Rick Taylor walked over to the shot up piece of shit that barely resembled his Huey from yesterday.
A man elbows deep into the engine of his bird looked over at him and smiled.
" Something amuse you Anderson " Rick asked his Crew Chief and door gunner SSG Mark Anderson.
Andersons grimy face turned back to his work but still retained his smile.
" just cant believe after the shit we went through last night and the 127 bullet holes…yeah I counted, the only thing I can do for this dirty looking bitch is "
He walked over " Patch the fuel line, replace the carburetor, and change the oil "
" She takes a licking and keeps on ticking that's for sure " Rick said.
" Oh no sir…this is just a miracle, our lucks going to run out sooner or later "
Rick tossed Mark a water " Hopefully later rather than sooner Staff Sergeant "
2LT. Jason Lutz came running out to their helicopter with their other Crew Chief and door gunner MSG. Guillermo " G " Sanchez.
" MACV Unit got into some heavy shit a few miles form the Laos Vietnam border" Jason said.
" Shit " Rick grabbed his helmet sitting next to a M-60 door gun and noticed a piece of shrapnel sticking out of the side.
He pulled it out and placed the helmet on his head before climbing into the pilot seat of the Huey.
The Crew Chiefs scrambled tying down ammo and spare parts.
Jason ran down a checklist prepping the chopper for flight.
Rick made sure his service issue 38 revolver was in its shoulder holster and started flipping switches.
" Fuel pump, radio " Jason Mumbled under his breath as he stowed the clipboard and checked their equipment.
" Dust-off's 1 through 5 you are clear to fly… Head due west to grid Lima Victor 340 look for smoke "
Rick keyed up " Affirmative, lifting off now "
He pulled his Ray Bans sunglasses from his pocket and placed them over his eyes as the chopper took to the sky.
Rick adjusted his feet on the pedals leveling the chopper out at 3,000 feet.
After ten or fifteen minutes combat chatter came through the radio
" Repeat we need dust-off now! " gunfire crackled through the background
" This is dust-off one we read you " Jason Spoke.
" About fucking time!, Dust-off one can you spot red smoke "
" Affirmative we can spot red "
Green tracers flew through the clearings in the trees.
Red smoke popped in a clearing barely large enough to fit a helicopter.
" Dust-off one going in" Rick said he pitched into a shallow dive for the clearing.
" LZ is hot! " Jason advised
Rick quickly landed the chopper on the ground and a sharp groan echoed from the skids.
The door gunners started blasting away with their M-60's
Men scrambled aboard as bullets ricocheted around the cockpit.
When his crew chief screamed that they were overloaded and needed to go Rick floored the throttle.
The helicopter shuddered under the sheer weight of its load and seemed to hang suspended in the air.
Rick looked to see an RPG heading towards the chopper.
" Shit! " one of the soldiers inside the chopper yelled as he banked left and pitched the nose down to avoid the missile.
" We lost Halverson…he fell out of the fucking bird! " A man yelled
" Were losing altitude " Jason calmly noted as all the warning lights lit up on their display.
The cabin flooded with black smoke as the engine coughed and sputtered intermittently starting and stopping.
" I cant fix this…we must have thrown a rod…or blew up a cylinder" Mark Anderson yelled over the internal siren going off.
" Shit Rick thought guess it would be sooner rather than later "
This is Dust-off 1 one we are going down repeat going down…all Dust-offs contact SAR teams " Jason spoke on their radio band
Rick concentrated trying to find a soft spot to crash he saw a rice paddy and angled the bucking bird to land there.
He tried to flare and make the landing soft but before he could his engine dropped out and from like a 1 ton piece of metal falling from the sky he dropped…then the metal met the earth.
" We Are MACV "
Agent. Paul Conrad ( 1SG. U.S Army Ret. )
MACV-SOG
1023 Hours, August 13 1965
Quang Tri, MACV Firebase Silva
" What the hell happened out there ! " A marine colonel threw a clipboard across the room.
" We got the shit kicked outta us because you assholes wouldn't call in artillery!" Paul Conrad yelled back at the colonel.
" I'm tired of you pieces of shit breaking the rules…we cant fire that close to the Laos border " The Colonel walked over to Paul
Frank Woods grabbed Paul by the shoulder " Easy "
" No Frank this is bullshit, we lost half of our men to a main force NVA regiment !"
Paul turned to the Colonel " Just because you didn't have the balls to fire a single shell! "
Sitting in a chair in the corner of the room the CIA director for MACV stood up
"That's enough Colonel…you can put some marines on my squads when they go out on ops. "
The marine Colonel walked out of the room.
" Jesus Paul pull yourself together huh? " The director sat down and tapped on the table for them to sit down.
" Woods, Conrad, Wilson " The director handed the squad leaders documents.
" That chopper went down with a NVA intelligence officer and some of each of your men and two USMC pilots."
Woods lit up a cigarette " So you want us to get them out? "
Right… this will be a night ops, we have recon on a small North Vietnamese Army prison camp up in Laos"
The director got up " we launch at 2200 hours "
When the director left they got up and walked outside.
" We got a shipment of those new M-16's for us to use " Wilson said as he checked his watch.
" We're probably going to get the shit kicked out of us again " Paul said walking with them
" Of course that's why we're MACV " Woods joked
They each broke off to get ready for the upcoming op
Paul walked into his tent and grabbed a pen to write the letters to the families of his dead men.