On their way from one mission to another, the crew members of an Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry LOH, members of a Pink (hunter-killer) Team, suddenly found their bird under small arms fire as they skimmed over the treetops northeast of Tay Ninh City.

The Jan. 21 action ultimately resulted in a total of eight of the troop's helicopters, reinforced by aerial-rocket-artillery-firing Cobras from Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 20th Artillery, weaving their way through heavy antiaircraft fire to attack enemy positions.

"It was a helicopter trap" stated Captain Paul Bagmon as he described the opening rounds of a battle that left 15 enemy dead at day's end.

"Initially they had two or three people firing AKs at my LOH," said the young pilot. "After my observer popped smoke over their position, they waited until the Cobra had completed its first run and was in the middle of its second, and then opened up on Lieutenant Justus."

The NVA missed their target, and the Cobra's pilot planted a 17-pound rocket square into one of the .51 caliber gun pits.

"Those guys have been shooting at helicopters for a long time and you get to know their tricks," said the Cobra pilot, 1st Lieutenant Steve Justus, "I was ready for something like that. The best thing to do is not attack on a repetitive pattern and just keep up the firepower."

When the heavy machine guns opened up on Lieutenant Justus' Cobra, he pulled pitch and gave his ship maximum acceleration, evading the deadly rounds while he prepared to attack the weapons.

As the Cobra's pilot brought the slender craft into a run on the enemy positions, the flash of small arms from at least 15 locations appeared among the area's 90-foot trees and tangled undergrowth.

With so many enemy in the area, and their own birds low on fuel, the Cavalrymen radioed for reinforcement. It came in the form of rocket-toting Blue Max Cobras and half-a-dozen of Alpha Troop's LOHs.

The Skytroopers had quickly dispatched the one heavy machine gun that the enemy had set up in the open. Overwhelming firepower neutralized the other two guns, one in a wood line and the other hidden in the bamboo. The gunships, LOHs and Blue Max then began the methodical task of silencing the small arms fire, making run after run, while directing in tube artillery from nearby firebases.

When an assessment was made of the late-afternoon exchange, 15 NVA were counted dead and one .51 caliber machine gun had been destroyed. The "helicopter trap" had scored nary a hit on the birds.