Square Dancing OH-13s
Sometime in late May or early June of 1968, when the Circus was based at LZ Betty near Quang Tri, the nightly repositioning of the Scout birds to the revetments inside the compound was regularly delayed by an impromptu "square dance" routine.
No one seems to recall exactly how the concept got started or who came up with the idea. It just began one evening and progressed from there. It seems that two pilots started the routine on a couple of evenings on the spur of the moment. After that, another two pilots joined in to make up the four.
It is not known how the group knew which manoeuvre to do next, but there must have been some routine. The OH-13's would all move in a circle with their noses pointed in to the center of the circle, and then go the other way with their tails pointed in. There was even a move where they would "doe si doe" their partner - they would pass their opposite partner, move to the right, and then back past their partner again.
These sessions continued for a number of days and were beginning to draw a regular crowd of observers. Some of the spectators brought their chairs to the berm overlooking the helicopter day parking area to watch the show.
Then one day, Maj Kuypers happened to step out of the Ops hooch to see what everyone was looking at. Two things happened all at once: First, the Major went into a good foot-and-a-half hover, without the benefit of an aircraft. Second, the crowd of onlookers -- vanished. The next event was audible -- Maj Kuypers got on the radio (though people could hear him plainly a good fifty feet away) and ordered that the birds be brought into the compound immediately and that the pilots report to him in Ops. Hours later, when he had calmed down somewhat, the Major remarked that "All I could see was fifty percent of my Scout fleet meshing rotor blades.".
And -- so ended that page in the history of the exploits of the Flying Circus.
footnote:
When one looks back on this with that bit of wisdom that age adds to the picture, two things come to mind:
Firstly - one can see why Major Kuypers did not view this activity with the same enthusiasm as did the crews involved. While Tom was responsible for the aircraft and people under his command, he would be the person who had to come up with a plausible story as to how half of his scout group ended up in one tangled mess in the parking area. On the other hand, the pilots flying those aircraft were Warrant Officers - civilians TDY to the Army.
Secondly - that same combination of enthusiasm, skill and luck that nature had dealt that group of aircrew which enabled them to perform that aerial ballet was the same formula that brought them through the many situations in which they found themselves in combat. After all -- who else was going to fly scout missions like they did?
compiled by Frank Vanatta and W. Sullivan