the Marines of HMM-165
1966 page 6


COMMENTS FROM BOB RUSE:

"My first bird that I was crew chief on was YW 14."
- photo courtesy of Bob Ruse -

- photo courtesy of Bob Ruse - 		"I told you about my last mission on that bird. We had just dropped off a recon team. As we were departing the zone, they were hollering on the radio that they pinned down in a cross fire. The pilot decided to circle around and go back and get them. We were taking heavy fire on the way back in. Both me and the gunner had our M-60's wide open. We were going in fast when the pilot said clear aft. I let go of my gun to look out, but we hit the ground hard before I got my head out the window. We bounced then hit again. MY gun continued to fire without me. When I reached for it, it jammed. The gunner's also jammed. The pilot was hollering at us wondering why we were not returning fire. We started firing out the window with our .38's. We sat there for a few seconds that seemed like hours while the recon team was running toward us. As soon as the last one was on the ramp, we were outta there."
"On the way back to Marble Mountain, my wingman told us we had a large hole underneath the bird near thew left stub wing and we were losing fuel. The airframe was damaged. We stripped the bird to ship it to O&R in the Philippines."
- photo courtesy of Bob Ruse -

- photo courtesy of Bob Ruse - 		"In the first photo, we are unloading grunts in a clearing full of bomb craters. Just as I was taking this pic, there was sniper fire from the tree line. You can see the grunts just starting to react and take cover. As we were getting the hell out of there, a Huey fired rockets into the tree line where the shot came from."
"In the second photo, we have gained altitude and you can see the smoke from the rocket explosions."
- photo courtesy of Bob Ruse -


This is 1966, page 6


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