JUST ANOTHER SLICK PILOT
                                                                                                     a book by
                                                                                Ronald Ream
Chronicles
                                                                CHRONICLES 
factual written account of important or historical events in the order of their occurrence.


Year 1968 was the peak of the Vietnam War. It started in January with the Tet Offensive. The North Vietnam Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (VC) launched an offensive attack on every major city throughout the entire country.   

The US First Cavalry Division’s operational area was in the northernmost provinces of Vietnam. Hue and the city of Quang Tri sustained massive numbers of an enemy that overwhelmed the defenses in place. US forces took the city of Quang Tri back in ten days. An additional surge of NVA soldiers to Hue caused the bloody battle to continue all February. The Tet offensive cost the NVA 32,000 lives.

This northern corner of Vietnam was the bloodiest place of the war. Of the 44 provinces in Vietnam the 4 northern most provinces accounted for 52% of all American deaths during the entire war.  
The short distance to North Vietnam made supplies and equipment more abundant than southern provinces. The NVA could retreat into North Vietnam or Laos. Other Vietnam providences did not face enemy weapons found here. Tracked vehicles like tanks and radar controlled antiaircraft weapons amplified the danger to ground troops and aircraft. Later in the war Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) shot at helicopters in this area.

The Ho Chi Minh trail was the major supply route that ran along the western mountains of Vietnam and Laos. The A Shau Valley 30 miles southwest of Hue was one of the largest NVA supply and staging areas of the entire war. Khe Sanh another key deadly area was a Marine outpost constructed to stop NVA movement from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and North Vietnam. But its location was a liability. It sat surrounded by mountains. The NVA occupied the mountain tops and hammered the Marines day and night with mortars and artillery. After a relentless aerial assault for weeks by the US Air Force the First Cav launched combat assaults to the mountain tops and provided relief to the beleaguered Marines.

In the first 4 months of 1968 the Cav operational area sustained multiple losses of helicopters and crews, at the time it was the most dangerous place in the country.  
I completed the US Army Flight training program in April 1968 and graduated as a 19-year-old helicopter pilot. My first assignment and a new home was this contentious corner of Vietnam. This is my story.

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