Monday, May 1, 1972
Deadly Cobras Spit Destruction On Reds
BIEN HOA, Vietnam --The Cobra helicopter is like a snake. It is a deadly chopper that screams out of the clouds spitting a red hot venom of rockets and bullets. A Cobra's fangs are 17-pound rockets, a 40mm grenade launcher and miniguns that stick out of its mouth.Feared by the Communists because of the havoc it wreaks on men and material, the snakes" job today is to cover tiny light observation choppers that skim the treetops sniffing out the enemy.As an early morning sun climbs in a clear sky east of Bien Hoa, a team heads out to check a landing zone before a flight of Hueys thrusts in American Rangers on a combat assault.While the little, egg-shaped loach skitters along the treetops looking for tracks or a glint of metal, the Cobra hangs overhead, waiting to bite.After a 10-minute search which also brings into action two more cobras from the 229th Assault Helicopter Bn., which "roll in" and pound the LZ, the area is declared "clear."Now the Hueys pop into the landing zone and discharge their passengers.It was an easy mission. No ground fire. No balls of flak bursting around the choppers. No 51 cal. rounds whizzing past the cockpit like they did at An Loc, when F Troop, 9th Cav., did battle with the Communists there.Capt. Donald R. Gooch, the Cobra platoon leader, leans casually against his snake, his black cavalry hat pulled jauntily down over his eyes. It was an easy mission today. Maybe tomorrow will be different. Maybe it'll be An Loc again."Deadly Cobras Spit Destruction on Reds", by SPEC. 4 Allen Schaefer, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Monday, May 1, l972 and reprinted of European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.