people here have hope for a better future, free from terror. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. that's tonight on "war stories." >> good evening, i'm oliver

north and this is an engine of war, the helicopter known by the nickname the hughie. ask any soldier, sailor and marine who served in vietnam and they will tell you the wof, wof, wof of that rotar is the most welcome thing you can hear. when we were wounded it carried us out. i was medivaced in vietnam. 2.75 inch rockets and a machine gun that would fire over 4,000 round as minute, a virtual shower of steering lead. tonight on war stories, the men that pioneered warfare, warriors that risked their lives in a strange, dangerous land called

vietnam. april 29th, 1975 the end of the vietnam war and as they had throughout the long and bloody conflict, helicopters provided some of the most memorable images. the frenzy evacuation of the u.s. embassy in saigon, being pushed into the sea destroyed to make room for south vietnamese. it was a conclusion to a long and costly war. ten years earlier, a very different time and image. formations of hughies sweeping in for the beginning of the world's first helicopter war. >> we were the fighter pilot of ore service and we were a proud and daring bunch. >> i had been in the artic and flown in the deserts and it was fun. it wasn't work, it was fun.

>> he dreamt of something like the helicopter. >> breaking the ground was incredible. >> mike piloted a helicopter in vietnam and is co-arthur of a book on helicopter warfare. >> this thing hoovers. >> he called it an air screw. the helicopter became a reality, sort of. there were a lot of attempts and failures and in 1940 igor unveiled the es 300, the open pilot seat that showed off the sunday best and famous fadora hat. after some improvements, it was renamed the r 4 hoover flight and became the first production

helicopter. >> seen here for train school have proved ideal for recognizance work with that amazing power of hovering in the air and cruising at almost incredibly slow speeds. >> the u.s. military had a new bird, oh 13. it was used for observation in the battle field at first. in 1950 they started using the ox 13 to medivac. they had two litters. >> it was a wild ride but greatly improved survivability on the battle field. the army still wasn't using army helicopters to wage war. >> i think the marines were the real forrunners on the use of helicopters in battle. >> the general was a tough and respected battle field commander. he would go on to co-arthur the book we were soldiers once and young that became a hollywood movie starring mel gibson.

>> in 1952 and '53 they were not using helicopters, as far as i know, for any kind of battle field tactics. >> but a revolutionary new concept was about to be created called air possible. >> it's real genesis in about 1962 and secretary of defense directed the army to aggressively build on and know how to use helicopters in the army. >> he's a legendary soldier. in world war ii he was one of the youngest colonials with the paratroopers and would become known as the father of air mobile and in 1962 he was learning how to fly. >> in world war ii you were one of the youngest battalion commanders at age 28 and at 48, 49 you are going to become one

of the oldest pilots in the army. >> i thought it would be important for me to talk to the pilots in their own language. >> he got that chance in 1963 and given chance of the air assault division to test the air mobile concept. >> we did a lot of leaps across rivers and things using helicopters. >> john heron was an infantry commander. >> it was very intense. we trained hard. >> and flew low. >> at 30 bruce was already a seasoned chopper pilot when he took the man in the helicopter. >> we probably knocked more power lines down than any other source. >> in late '64 the assault division faced off against the highly respected airborne division from the largest military maneuverers in the united states since world war ii. called air assault two, it

involved 35,000 men spread over 6,000 square miles of the carolinas. >> it was excitement from the very beginning. all the helicopters in the world. >> moore was one of kinard's commanders. >> they would fly and the horses would jump the fences and the kids would holler and the windows would rattle. those were great days. >> by late '64 he and his men had shown the pentagon helicopter warfare works. >> air assault two, it was real. >> by early '65 lyndon johnson stepped up u.s. involvement authorizing defensive ground combat by troops and decided to send in this new experimental helicopter division. >> the day president johnson got on tv in 1965.

>> i have today ordered to vietnam the air mobile division. >> what did you tell your wife and five children before you left? >> after dinner i told my kids i was going off to vietnam. why? because of war and i was reading a book to my little five-year-old daughter and she looked up at me and said daddy, what's a war? i really couldn't give her an answer that made sense. and i got up at 1:30 in the morning and went to war. >> some call it the valley of death, in november 1965 is where air mobile troops faced a battle it shocked people from d-day. that's next on war stories.

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vietnam was over 8,000 miles from the united states but with the cold war going full tilt, kennedy offered helicopter companies to help the south vietname vietnamese. the helicopters were nicknamed flying bananas. >> in 196 we bring the uh 1 a

into vietnam and the transport. >> these were the first armed hughies but until the armies first air division arrive in 1965 there was no real plan for waging war with a helicopter. by then, u.s. troops went to vietnam and shot up to more than 150,000. >> when the unit deploys, to vietnam it redesignated to the cale vary division in air mobile. >> the division had received the first cavalry colors in a meeting ceremony in july. >> it was a famous unit. >> the seventh regulimine and se sported mustaches. >> cab patch is one of the most

recognized in the world. >> general canard sported it on an eye patch he had to wear after an injury. >> i took a colored pencil and doodled it in. >> that part of vietnam is where the north voeeotietnamese tried cut the country in half. >> they tried to kill them. we thought was attempting to seize the central house. >> on november 14th, 1965 army intelligence said up to three were operated. >> it was selected on their rek recr recon early that morning. >> he called it landing zone

x-ray. he flew the lead chopper. >> he would bring me a scar. >> saved my teeth. i would break down, and i swallowed this cigar. pretty exciting. >> artillery pieces were dropped about ten miles away. >> of course, on the first chopper. wanted to be there and i was on the second chopper or third chopper. >> first landing, we went in and there was no contact. >> they could carry about 100 men. the troops started off loading before the choppers hit the ground. >> it was our time perfectly and it was meant to minimize the amount of time that the enemy had to fire on the infantry as in the coming aircraft. >> the infantry deployed in the perimeter and in seconds, the

choppers were on the way to get more men. >> i looked up at that moment and i had a feeling we are under observation. within an hour, we were. there's like an explosion of fire. >> among then, there were veterans of d-day. they were shocked. >> you get dropped off and 170 guys and it turned out they were firing maybe 1300. >> it became too hot and another pack earned the medal of honor volunteered to fly ammo. >> as much fire going on, there was no way they were going to be able to survive or carry him on high back. >> on the ground, captured enemy

soldiers. >> this kid with three battal n battalions on the mountain, my frie frie friends, they want to kill americans. >> colonial moore told me. >> the three platoons moved out, one lead by second lieutenant henry eric went past the others as they pursued enemy soldiers. they called lieutenant eric el torro the bull. >> he was ambushed by a large force of north vietnamese. >> he was killed. another sergeant was killed and he had the radio. >> his name was earnie. >> i told my men i would bring you-all home. some of us will be killed.

>> the enemy fire was too intense. >> we ran right into them and then we got up in trees, on about hills. we took away his company, took a number of casualties. >> all he and his platoon could do is hunker down and talk to his company commander on the radio. >> he was very calm and collected. he understood the situation, i think. i told him the whole battalion is there. >> 22 of us total. i remember that night. we finished up at 9:30 at night and we had been in the air 14.5 hours. >> worried about the platoon

surviving, he wasn't worried about himself. >> i wasn't worried about our chances. >> it crossed my mind fittingly that a predecessor of mine had been in a similar situation once some years previously and i was determined that what happened to costner wouldn't happen ton us. never once did it cross my mind we would go down. >> with helicopter operations shut down for the night, the troops dig in and the much large enemy force creeps forcer. how did the americans survive the night? that's next on "war stories."

. a lot of smoke. it was terrible. the noise was terrible. >> for the first day, november 14th, 1965 dozens of americans were killed or wounded and for sergeant earnie salvage, that night became a grueling game of cat and mouse. >> if you were moving and he heard whistles. >> the platoon was out numbered by the enemy 5-1.

>> and all through that night we kept that platoon protected our artillery fire and fire bomber strikes. the next morning we were supposed to go in at 7:00 with the rest of the second. i was sitting on the ground loaded. we got the word to stay where we were. the enemy hit us at 6:30. >> it was like another explosion. >> that's when we were almost over run. >> this was a very, very difficult time. >> in that short time more americans were killed and wounded. >> the war craft came in, attack air came in and worked over that area and just felt beat off. >> then disaster struck. a u.s. f 100 dropped an eight bomb canister right on top of the americans. two were severely burned, one

died. >> the guys have got it where they are engineers working for me, as well as the war. >> about that time colonial morris said there is a battalion coming in by foot. when they get in here, go ahead and get that platoon and we went out very methodically and got the platoon. >> the surviving men of the cut off platoon held on for more than 24 hours and most were in very bad shape. >> they all were in shock. they sort of froze in place covered with dust and dirt and dead people all around. an officer sitting on the tree. he was dead. it was quite a sight. >> they brought that platoon back every man dead, wounded, all of them. >> it took my whole company to

take the wounded and head out. >> the seriously wounded were thrown out but others were patched up and rejoined the fight but the afternoon of the second day, several hundred americans were deployed. >> so we had a pretty vulnerable force there. i figured we were in good shape at that point. of course, the north voietnames attacked the next morning. >> this time the enemy was stopped cold. having gained the upper hand, moore's battled platoon was airlifted out and they marched to another landing zone so they could blast the enemy. >> i'm going to say right now that we probably could not have survived without the helicopters. they brought us ammo, they brought us water, took out our wounded, took out our dead.

a lot of my men would have died that were wounded had it not been for the hughie helicopter. the most brave pilots. >> the americans prevail at landing zone x-ray but the battle isn't over. the first air cab takes heavy he casualties for the fight in the landing zone. that's next on war stories. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping.

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at ally bank no branches equalsit's a fact.. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. power to prosper. the battle at landing was a clear victory. though 79 of his men were killed and 129 wounded, the north vietnamese lost ten times that many soldiers. >> i was the last man out on the last helicopter. >> he flew back and went to the

officer's club. >> apparently, there was a reception that was not all together, but you expected it to be at the local watering hole. >> i showed up at this bar, my m-16 ripped you have uniform, dirty blood on it. >> they had a sign on the wall, off limits to dogs, first captain, not necessarily in that order. >> i said i want a gin and tonic, a lot of ice. the guy looked at me and said sir, this is not your club and you're too dirty. we can't serve you here. >> so we weren't welcome. >> i took off my m-16 rifle and i said you got two minutes to serve me and these two officers. every or every bottle behind