I joined Blue Ghost in Chu Lai in Dec 70. I was a young captian and on my 2nd tour. I was only there a few weeks when we were all called out of the Americal O club at 10 PM and ordered to the flight line where we were to paint out all the aircraft markings for a trip that was going to go off in the morning. It was two days later when we were on the flight line waiting to go, and still did not have any idea where that was. We got maps and SOI's on the flight line and were told that we were going to the Quang Tri on the DMZ, and the flight would be in radio silence.

When we got there we were given an old Chinook pad, near the ammo dump as our flight line, and Blue Ghost set up operations working with the 2/17th air cav. We were one troop with an air cav squadron. Blue Ghost was given the area of recon of all areas west of the mountians, in the area of Khe Son, and this was the opening of Lam Son 719. We were the first Air cav to go into the Khe Son in over six months and to say the least it was a target rich enviornment. Some times we were the target, but we learned,adapted and overcame with only some minor damage to a couple of the little birds.

A couple of the highlights from Quang Tri,we took a rocket in our maintenance hut, and lost two of our PE teams. They sent us replacements from the Corpus Christi,a team that was doing overhauls of cobras and the upgrade program. As a result of that they brought with them 8 of the upgrade packages, and each of our cobras came out of their 100 hour inspections with the full upgrade of 20 mm, tractor tail rotors, and all new instruments. The team said our ships were so bad that they could upgrade faster than doing the 100 hour.

Four days later we covered the opening of Khe Son and the begining of Lam Son 719. Many of the pictures I will send was of those days. After the operation was over we were sent back to Da Nang and Marble Mtn.,an old Marine airfield, and I spent the rest of my tour there.I left in Dec 71 so that gives you an idea of the time line for the operation.

These photos were taken by one the Blues who found my camera(it was ejected upon impact) and returned to me later. The official after action report said that we were hit by small arms and .30cal. fire at an altitude of fifty feet. I may be wrong, but I thought we higher. I was told later that we had lost the tail rotor and gearbox making the aircraft virtually uncontrollable. One of the guys said we spun 8 times before I got it somewhat stabilized prior to impact. 39

I was a SP/5 working on the Cobra's Maint. teams. I got to Blue Ghost when we were at Chu Lai It was only a few months later when we moved off the beach and went to the hanger. That was where we swapped some aircraft with (if I remember right) D troop. At that time I was staying in the little hooch behind the hanger.
I remember playing a few hand of spades down there. Anyway, was in the convey that went up the road to Quang Tri and was there until the night that the rocket hit the building and I got medavac'd out.I never got to thank the trooper that helped me that night. I remember some of the guys first names but not their last. Hopefully others will know them. Maybe these can bring a smile to some of their wives and kids.

Photo's from Quang tri, Danang Jan 1971 and on

Robert served in Chu Lai 1968-69 with F Troop 8th Cavalry. His second tour was Da Nang with the 1st Aviation Brigade, 4th Cavalry, 62nd AVN Company and F Troop. He passed away in 2005. His photos are shared courtesy of his daughter Joni.