“Will You Lead The Next Flight?”: Combat Aviation In Vietnam And Desert Storm

Johnnie B. Hitt was born in June 1946 in Texas. His father was a dairy farmer who had lost an arm in a cotton gin accident, and his mother was a housewife and seamstress. Johnny remembers helping out on the dairy farm. In high school, he was involved in 4H and FFA (Future Farmers of America), and he raised a Grand Champion show cow. He had a good work ethic in high school and was proud of his football jacket. When he was a senior, he met his future wife, a junior, and they were married in September 1967. In 1964, he started college at East Texas State. His dad died during his sophomore year, and Johnny was working three jobs to pay tuition. He was drafted and went to the recruiter, hoping to improve his lot, and enlisted as a clerk typist. Basic Training at Ft. Polk was “a rude awakening.” The work ethic his dad taught him “paid off” and he found that he could avoid KP by being an “Acting Squad Leader.” During basic, his First Sergeant pulled a few promising privates out of the ranks to take an OCS test, and on the recommendation of his First Sergeant, he went to OCS (Officer Candidate School). He completed two months of Pre-OCS training at Ft. Ord, followed by six months of OCS at Ft. Benning, where commissioned as an Infantry Lieutenant. Truth be told, throughout OCS he kept thinking about quitting. A week after graduation, he married Ila, his sweetheart, and they drove his 1960 Impala back to Benning. He recalls, “It was tough, but we were in love.” He took a test for flight school, the draw being an extra $100 of flight pay per month. He completed training at Ft. Wolters, Texas, and Ft. Rucker, Alabama. Flight school was tough, but his wife helped him study, and he graduated in October 1968. Wanting to understand what her husband was going through, Ila took flying lessons on a grass runway in Enterprise, Alabama, and earned her wings the day before Johnny did. He soon came down on orders for Vietnam, but they were changed to Ft. Hood, where he received orders for Vietnam anyway and became the Movement Officer to facilitate shipping the 17th Cav to Vietnam. He recalls flying an OH-6 Light Observation Helicopter (Loach) across the country to California for shipment to Vietnam. A month before he deployed, the United States landed a man on the moon. When he arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to the 71st Attack Helicopter Company (the Rattlers) in the Americal Division. On September 14, 1969, he was promoted to Captain as a Platoon Leader. He describes “Black Monday,” September 22, 1969, when he was piloting the lead ship and he lost two people in a helicopter ambush. He remembers seeing “guys shooting at me,” and his helicopter returned with 100 bullet holes. Everyone on his aircraft was wounded. The next day he was flying again. On December 2, 1969, he was flying the lead helicopter in a 10-ship combat assault. CPT Mike Callahan was the lead of the second flight of 5. For some reason the LZ was not prepped with artillery, and as Johnnie was coming in, he was shot in the engine, resulting in a hard landing. The helicopter disintegrated as he hit the ground, and he describes his co-pilot jumping out over him, having the mic cord nearly choke him, and jerking the M-60 off its mount to return fire. CPT Jim Duke, “the Snake Doctor,” rescued Johnny and his crew. When he got back to Hawk Hill (their base), he grabbed a hot dog and a carton of milk at the mess hall, and MAJ Tommie James asked him to lead the next flight into that LZ because the infantry was in trouble. When his crew found out that Johnnie was going in again, they all volunteered to go with him, and they flew two more turns into that LZ. Before he was done, he picked up another crew that had been shot down. All told, Johnnie and his crew spent 13 hours flying that day, and he returned to base mentally exhausted. The next morning, he was awakened with orders to report to the Flight Surgeon, who chastised him for flying after being shot down without first getting checked out by the doc. He recalls another incident that occurred when he and a new Warrant Officer were picking up a new aircraft in Saigon, and it suffered mechanical problems on the way back to Chu Lai. He was able to meet his wife in Hawaii for R&R and later he was took R&R to Tokyo, where he saw the Worlds Fair in Osaka. By the late 1980s, he was stationed in Germany and was serving as the VII Corps Aviation Officer, responsible for 400 helicopters. Later he served as the Commander of the 11th Aviation Brigade and the Illesheim Installation Commander. He remembers firing Hellfire missiles from Apaches with the Israelis and going on a special mission to introduce the UH-60 to the Lebanese military for foreign military sales. On August 2, 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait and occupied the country within two days. The immediate response from the United States was to send over the XVIII Airborne Corps before the VII Corps was alerted for deployment. He recalls staff planners starting to ask subordinate units for information, and Johnnie remembers when General Fred Franks called to say, “You’re going!” A reconnaissance to Saudi Arabia followed, and by Thanksgiving 1990, the Brigade started shipping equipment. During the reconnaissance, he met up with the XVIII Airborne Corps Aviation Brigade Commander and began exchanging information. He recalls how crowded the port was. Needing a hardstand for his aircraft, he set up at Iraqi Pump Station 3, which had an asphalt runway. He remembers going to a bunker when the air war started on January 16, 1991, feeling that rockets were landing close and seeing the sky “black with airplanes.” Communication between commanders was outstanding, and there was a tremendous feeling of teamwork. He recalls how much their training paid off when it was time for execution. In preparation for the ground war to begin, supplies were moved forward, as were fuel and ammunition. Even so, after 48 hours, they outran their logistics. At home, his wife was meeting with the spouses of subordinate units and keeping everyone informed. He remembers defending a two-corps sector with less than one corps as redeployment began. When the Soldiers returned from the desert, everyone was greeted by a General Officer, which was a stark difference from the “welcome home” he received coming back from Vietnam, when nobody cared, or worse, Soldiers had eggs and tomatoes thrown at them. At the end of the interview, he notes that service to the nation “became my life.” He and his wife loved the lifestyle and he concludes by saying, “We’d do it again.”