Lt Mike P. Kurtgis

I operated out of the 2/9th Battalion HQ while serving as AO at LZ Oasis and was the LZ Oasis nighttime FO (as an additional duty).  The tiger hunts were the best.  

MEMORIES

Lost Medivac
I remember a situation where we (I was flying with Cider Fac) were firing a mission in support of an Infantry Company (1/35th) who was hit pretty hard along a blue-line stream in thick cover.  They did not have radio contact with their Higher HQ and we acted as the radio relay.   Major Ferrel was in contact with the Brigade HQ and relaying the SITREP and requests from the Company.  Maj Ferrel relayed the request for the Medivac (Dustoff) and directed to the hot zone.   Fast Movers were on the way also and Maj Ferrel directed them when they got there.  While the Medivac was hoisting the WIAs, it took a direct hit from an RPG and went down in a fireball.  There had to be four or five guys that were hoisted onboard.  It seemed like I was flying the Chu Pa forever.  My last mission which was July 1^st, was high up on the big mountain (1,480 meters) in support of another Company when the OH6 Loach we were in took incoming round from a Radar-guided Chicom 41mm antiaircraft.  They beat a line directly to our aircraft and at our altitude and  it stopped about 200 yards away from my door and pounded the airspace.  I had a perfect GT  (gun-target) line back-azimuth and I looked up the range in my book (which as I recall was about 11 km) and it was inside Cambodia/Laos (don’t remember which).  I called an 8” Fire Mission, one gun, to adjust to my position (get around political clearance, don’t you know) and then Azimuth 4800 mils, 11 km, Battery 5 rounds, 100m grid (don’t remember the fuse or type round, etc., that I used) and went back to the Oasis.  That was my last fire mission and I left Vietnam arriving at Travis AFB on July 4^th 69. 

OH-23s Helos weren't worth a damn...I made two (2) auto rotations one week apart in the H23s as a result of engine failures.  I got several air medals but without "V" devices for the combat hours I flew.  I flew with Air Force Cider FAC Major Tarr, Major Farrel and Capt. Himmelburger flying combined Artillery and Fast Mover missions; we would occasionally swap roles. Capt. Himmelburger  was wounded during the Night Rocket attack on Pleiku and Enari the night Lt Steve Huffstutler was killed.  It was the night that I guided my pilot back to Oasis by shooting flares and flying the instruments while the pilot maintained visual with the ground.  I got to fly both the helicopters and airplanes, but I was a non-military-rated civilian pilot.
  

My Support
I gratefully acknowledge my two Recon Sgts, George Bishop and Lance Cayne, who were with me when I served as FO for "B" 2/35th and Sp4 Ray Plunkett who was with me at The Oasis out of the 2/9th TOC.

The Russian Helicopter
{exchange of notes with Lt Donnie Blankin}
The  UFO (occurrence) might have been the night I fired a mission against a Russian helicopter that we had been tracking over Plei Me just west of the Oasis.  Q4 radar at the Oasis and the Hawk Missile radar was tracking the aircraft.  I fired the mission from the TOC at Oasis.  I don’t’ remember which battery fired, but I called for air bursts, fuze time, as I recall.  They sent a Company out the next day to search the area and found a bunch of aluminum confetti.  And small pieces.  It went on for about six weeks including a conclusion at Oasis on Mothers Day, 1969 when the Oasis was attacked and the Hawk Radar was destroyed.  The whole mission was top secret at the time. 

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