Tet (Vietnam Ground Zero Military Thrillers Book 11) by Eric Helm

Author:Eric Helm [Helm, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2021-02-20T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

HIEP HOA, SOUTH VIETNAM

It was a short chopper flight from Duc Hoa to Hiep Hoa. The aircraft landed on the short red dirt runway at Duc Hoa near the large pond and sat with its rotors spinning. Gerber, Fetterman, Albright and two Vietnamese strikers moved to it in a slow run, ducking their heads as if they believed the rotors would suddenly flex and lop them off.

They leaped up into the cargo compartment. The crew chief looked around from his well, saw that they were all seated and then rocked back. The chopper lifted up in a swirling, dense cloud of dirt and began to race along the runway, leaving the din and whirling debris behind it.

They climbed rapidly and then broke to the northwest. Below them was the shimmering shape of the Oriental River, known as the Song Vam Co Dong. An expanse of light green sparkled in the afternoon sun, marking the Plain of Reeds. They stayed close to the river. Gerber saw sampans littering the bank. It appeared as if the occupants had heard the chopper and rowed ashore, abandoning their boats so that the Americans wouldn’t shoot them. There were dozens of little tributaries off the river, many of them weed-choked and partially overgrown. The scattered bush and tough grasses would make travel through the swamp difficult but not impossible. It was exactly the terrain everyone would avoid, which made it perfect.

To the east was another swamp, but there was more dry ground in it. Large clumps of trees hid farmers’ hootches — three or four hootches to a cluster, with water buffalo pens and family bunkers. There were people in the fields, working without looking up, except for the young men who stared defiantly into the sky. Gerber expected them to flip him the finger, but they only stared, their faces glistening with sweat and hate.

The chopper turned east then, just south of the sugar mill, which was a wall-enclosed plant. Gerber suspected that at one time it had actually been a sugar mill, but as far as he knew no sugar was being processed there now. They came up on the camp at Hiep Hoa and crossed at altitude. Suddenly the chopper rolled onto its side and dived toward the ground, its nose pointed at the center of the camp. Gerber grabbed the edge of the troop seat, figuring that the pilot had suddenly gone insane. At the last possible instant, the helicopter leveled out and the nose rose. They seemed to be lying on their backs, the snout of the aircraft pointing straight up. The forward motion was arrested, and as the nose dropped and the aircraft started to settle, the pilot sucked in pitch. The touchdown was so gentle that Gerber wasn’t sure the skids were on the ground.

As soon as they made ground contact, Fetterman and Albright leaped out. The Vietnamese followed and then Gerber. Almost before his feet hit the dirt, the chopper lifted and began a racing takeoff, climbing into the sky rapidly.

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