Charles Black Reports from Vietnam,
September 27, 1968

Maj. Luck Has His Share

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Black, Enquirer military writer, is on his fifth reporting assignment in Vietnam, and en route to the war zone has visited various military hot spots in the world. This is another of his daily articles about combat missions on which he accompanied U.S. troops.)

DI AN, Vietnam - There may be men in this war who live up to their name more than Maj. Gary Luck, but they would have to produce some fantastic proof of it.

After another year in Vietnam filled with almost unique military adventure, Luck will be back at Fort Scott, Kan., about Oct. 16 to visit his parents.

He has never had an easy tour in this war. He has never had one in which he didn't make his personal and professional mark.

The official citations tell part of the story of Luck's war. He has been singled out for gallantry while flying helicopters and while serving in a variety of combat jobs on the ground to the list of three Distinguished Flying Crosses; two Bronze Stars for valor; 15 Air Medals with a "V" device for valor; an Army Commendation Ribbon, and a Purple Heart.

The Vietnamese government has recognized his service here by presenting him that nation's Medal of Honor.

He also holds the National Defense Medal and the Vietnamese Campaign Medal. He has U.S. parachute wings, Vietnamese parachute wings, the Ranger tab, Army aviator wings, and [text missing] . . . the coveted Combat Infantryman's Badge.

In Vietnam for his first time on Nov. 25, 1964, Luck was a Special Forces soldier when they were the only Americans confronting the Viet Cong and the advance guard of the North Vietnamese Army which would pour into the conflict in later months and change the course of the war.

Those were the times of "advice and support" activities with a force of 16,000 Americans being built up to an unprecedented strength of 21,000 during the months of November and December 1964.

Luck was given an assignment which still is one of the most colorful military jobs in Vietnam - to command a Special Forces "A Team." His particular team of several officers and 10 NCO's had a colorful assignment even in 1964.

Luck's camp was located at the Hai Yen "down South" in the water-logged Mekong Delta, where he advised the famous "Sea Swallows," an irregular fighting force headed by the priest-soldier Father Hua.

It was a war in which guerilla fought guerilla, in which small parties of fighting men in sampans ambushed or raided each other. His camp fought off one savage onslaught by Viet Cong in which 167 enemy were left dead in a tangle of barbed wire protecting one side of the little fortress, a strip of about 50 yards long.

Luck was wounded there, but received treatment only in the camp from the team's medic, who had to leave a piece of shrapnel in the calf of his leg simply because he didn't have the facilities to take it out. He finished that tour Nov. 26, 1965 after serving his full time as A Team commander and then becoming an S-1 Officer for the Special Forces. He went to Fort Carson, Colo., as operations officer for the 4th Squadron, 12th Cavalry.

[text missing] . . . Beckwith, of Atlanta, now a lieutenant colonel, and commander of an Airborne-Air Cavalry battalion in the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) in Vietnam, picked men capable of going deep into enemy-held territory and outwitting the enemy on his own ground. The little patrols of five men called "Delta Teams" tracked and spied, radioing back intelligence which was used to launch infantry attacks or air attacks on the enemy and to supply information of what he was doing, planning, and where he would try it.

After working with Project Delta, Luck went to helicopter flight school at Fort Wolters, Texas, and from there to Fort Rucker, Ala. where he graduated as an Army helicopter pilot - the Vietnam fighter pilot breed - on July 13, 1966.

Luck had already held a fixed-wing rating, earning his civilian license while attending Kansas State University. (He entered the Army from the ROTC there after graduating with a BS in industrial engineering on May 25, 1960. He graduated from Fort Scott high school in 1951, where he had been a star in football, baseball and track.)

Luck's Army skills drew attention when another kind of special unit was formed at Fort Knox, Ky., in 1967. He had attended the Officer's Advance Course there. He had been a tank unit commander, helicopter pilot, Special Forces officer, armored reconnaissance unit commander, and had tremendous experience in Vietnam combat in both the Mekong Delta and the mountainous central highlands.

The new unit, the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry, was being formed at Fort Knox on a concept of fighting born in "air assault" tests at Fort Benning in 1964-1965, and then proved by the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam in battles in which Luck had played a part with Project Delta.

One of the fighting trademarks of an Air Cavalry Division is its "air cavalry squadron." It is a unit which has scout [text missing] .

"The little brother goes out and starts a fight with people five times his size and hollers for big brother to come and finish it. Big brother has to be fast, though," this officer explained. "We never really know just how big the force we're picking on can be until we get the fight started."

It works like this.

An infantry division, since Luck has been with the squadron it has supported the 25th, 9th and 1st Infantry Divisions, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade and numerous Vietnamese units, is assigned an area of operations.

The squadron, in III Corps which has been the center of fighting since the Tet raids - when it rocketed into more fame than any similar size unit in Vietnam because of its exploits - patrols and screens in these areas until enemy activity is found and the area "probed." The war's biggest battles have come from this process.

The "probing" is really a form of taunting and harassing performed by young pilots in fragile looking OH-6 scout helicopters with an observer carrying an M-16 and a mini-gun on ready. The little choppers bob and buzz, poking under bushes, looking under trees, darting around like hummingbirds, hovering inches off the ground to look into enemy bunkers.

Often as not, it all starts when some bedeviled Viet Cong becomes frightened - or exasperated - at this and shoots at the helpless looking little helicopter. Often as not he actually hits it. The amazing part of it is that he very seldom seems to hit the occupants.

Instead, he receives bullets back and an aggrieved little helicopter calls upon the shark-nosed cobra gunship to come down and take over. A smoke grenade marks the offending position. Big rockets thunder in and either finish the shooting, or stir up a bigger hornet's nest than ever.

The edgiest part comes when it is time to put the infantry platoon on the ground from the "slick" helicopters the Troop has on call. They are charged with moving on in, getting documents, weapons, prisoners, searching out the area, developing a ground fight if one is there to get into.

The scouts and guns keep working with the riflemen, but a platoon is very small and lonely, poking right into what is known to be a hot area, looking for trouble. If it gets into more than it can handle - the rifle platoon has actually accomplished a big part of its job. It has started the fight its big brother was looking for.

After that the process is well known. Helicopters pour in men, artillery and jets pound at the enemy, the kind of fighting which has given the Vietnam war its special trade-mark of isolated, violent battlefields linked to the outside world by helicopters. It is the kind of warfare which has made "lines" a meaningless term except when applied to a local defense perimeter for a base or a jungle night stop.

Luck drew the infantry platoon, of Troop B's Aerial Rifles, as his command in the squadron. The responsibility and pressure of this kind of command has shown - by past combat lessons here - that it demands at least an experienced captain, capable of scouting for himself in a helicopter and then of leading men into this special mission on the ground.

Luck's record on this tour is best documented by his citations and the fact that since becoming a major he served as Troop B Operations officer, then as commander of the squadron's Troop C.

The troop commander of an Air Cavalry unit has tremendous responsibility. He must understand intelligence and how to get it, he must be able to manage helicopters and see to their maintenance and employment, he must be able to command a unit which uses every variety of tactics in any single small engagement. An entire infantry division depends on his skill and judgment in producing the information it uses to plan its operations.

"Every pilot, every mechanic, every rifleman, every cook and baker, and especially every commander and staff officer, is a picked man. He didn't get assigned to an air cavalry squadron. He was picked.

"To be a standout in such a unit and to be picked for promotion and responsibility in a picked unit is a little tougher than in any other outfit in Vietnam," Phillips has said in discussing his squadron.

Luck was picked for every command from platoon to troop, for tough staff assignments, and finally made the squadron adjutant after it came time to turn his command over to another picked officer and get ready to return to the United States again.