Bruce Karn (Centaur 13 June 1968 to June 1969 Bio)
I grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York and attended school with 23 other farm and rural kids. (I knew everyone of my classmates by name!) Out of high school I stayed on the family farm for a year not knowing what I wanted to do. Then I decided to get some more education so I went to a two year college and got AAS degree in Agricultural Engineering. From there I transferred down to the University of Georgia (who was having a great year in football) and continued my studies. My “friends and neighbors”, (AKA my local draft board) observed that I soon would have four years since high school and reclassified me as “1 A“. Not having any choice in the matter didn't seem like a great plan so I went home and joined the Army.
But before signing up I took the battery of tests, the regular physical, a flight physical, and the flight aptitude test so I could sign up for flight school and got a class number of “67-25”. So in March 1967 I was sent to Fort Polk, LA for basic training and then on to Fort Wolter, TX for flight school. On a two week leave between basic training and flight school I married my sweetheart, Pat. After Fort Wolters I was sent to Fort Rucker, AL. Upon graduating from flight school my orders were to attend a six week course to transition into the new OH-6A with an instructor pilot qualification.
Upon arrival in Vietnam I was assigned to D Troop, ¾ Cav, 25 ID in Cu Chi. ( “CENTAUR 13”) After surviving a year as a scout pilot I went to Fort Wolters to be a flight school instructor pilot. In 1971 I returned to Vietnam as an AH-1G pilot and instructor and was assigned to D Co. 229th Bn (3rd Bde Separate) 1st Cav Div. (“SMILING TIGER 32”). In 1972 I left Vietnam for the last time.
For the next twenty five years I alternated between being in the Army flying Cobras and working in the agricultural business. ( I took three breaks from the Army and just kept going back – flying Cobras was kind of an addiction for me. It is especially fun when you blow up targets down range and they don't shoot back at you! And besides, never “growing up” is really the fun life!) In 1997 I retired from the Army.
Just a couple of months after attending a ¾ Cav reunion in 2002 Pat, my beloved wife of 35 years, passed away. In 2003 I met a darling lady (a veteran's widow), Pam, who agreed to marry me! (I am still amazed at that!) Since our marriage we have served three full time missions for our church (Paraguay, Germany, and Illinois), travelled, and enjoyed retirement together! We continue to spend our days traveling and spending time with our families as we watch them grow. We now call Brigham City, Utah home.
When folks start talking about wild things that went on in the scout platoon let me tell you some other things we did much wider than than broomsticks.
There was at least one LOH that had a siren on it for a while. The theory was that when shot at the siren would be turned on and that would startle the VC and they would stop shooting at them.
Then there was the short period of time that we had two experimental 40mm systems. They worked super but if the pilot failed to elevate it before firing it the rounds impacted right in front of the aircraft and normally take out the chin bubble on the left side. (The XM-27 mini-gun on the left side would do it too if not elevated prior to firing.)
Then for a short period of time we had two aircraft equipped with a mini-gun door gun for the crew chief. A frame was made for the gun and then it was mounted on the right jacking point and braced back inside. At 2,000 rounds per minute it wasn't too difficult to hold onto but at 4,000 it was a handful! Only adrenaline would enable the CE to handle the high rate. (I think I may even have a picture of the mini-gun door gun!)
Then there were the "bombs" the crew used to make. Some were 5 gallon pails filled with C-4, nuts, bolts, safety wire pieces, nails, glass, and hydraulic fluid. When some of those things were dropped the shock wave would hurl the LOH.
And then the personal weapons were just as wild. I still have no idea how some of those weapons ever got to VN.
Those were days of experimentation (as well as survival)! It's a wonder any of the scouts survived what we tried!! It's good we were young and foolish!