Michael C. Ash

Nickname: Mike

Rank: First Lieutenant

Mike Ash Mission 1

01/late/70 – A Newbie Recon Lieutenant Survives His First Mission. RT AWL 1-0 Frank Oppel and 1-1 SGT Robert J. Graham, 1-2 1LT Michael C. Ash

1LT Mike Ash had been in CCS since late October ‘69. He was assigned as XO and 2nd Platoon Leader for the Recon Company under CPT Steve Spoerry. Spoerry was not thrilled that both Ash and 1LT Troy Gilley wanted to run recon missions and be assigned to a team. He finally relented and let Ash go to the 1-0 School in early January. When Ash got back, he was assigned as a “strap- hanger” on Recon Team (RT) AWL with SP4 Frank Opel and SGT RJ Graham. Ash was finally going to be able to prove himself and indeed the mission was memorable, as he recalls, “I had trained with RT Awl for this mission that was strictly to search and recon. The team leaders got great satisfaction out of trying to scare the hell out of me on my first mission over the fence, and as much as I tried to hide it, they were being somewhat successful.”

“We were sitting at some remote launch site waiting for the weather to improve and these two were telling me that I was going to have to stand on the skids of the 195th insertion helicopter to provide firepower for the front of the chopper as we came in low level for final approach to our Landing Zone (LZ). The pilot, co-pilot, and crew were just loving this harassment of this new LT, and they did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves. “Yeah.” I said, “I’ll do that when I see Opel standing on the left side doing the same thing.” This was a tough-guy statement, by me, as my knees were turning to Jell-O!”

“The ride into the Area of Operations (AO) was one I’ll never forget. The team crammed into the chopper with 2 of us sitting on the edge of the deck with our legs hanging out into thin air 3,000 ft up and I’m seeing Cambodia for the first time. The radio contact there is slim to non-existent much of the time; there isn’t any artillery; and … we are only a team of six guys! But I had a lot of faith in Opel and RJ, these guys were hardened recon men. They’d seen it all and would help me through my first mission jitters…. RIGHT! Well, the 195th chopper suddenly dropped down, down and down to treetop level as it zoomed along at probably 70-80 knots, being directed towards our LZ from the Command and Control (C&C) above. Then a tap on the shoulder I can still feel to this day, RJ tapped my shoulder and pointed to the left side of the chopper. There in all his glory and with a smile a mile wide was Frank Opel, standing on the skids with his .45 cal grease gun giving the pilot and copilot cover for when they decided to set the bird down. OK, this is it. I grabbed onto a hold in the divider behind the co-pilot and stepped onto the skids on the left side and knew this was the end! The chopper flared up and tried to sit down into a small LZ the C&C had picked out.”

“Then all hell broke loose as I heard what sounded like shots popping by my head. Now it was time to do my job! I cut loose with about half a magazine (one-handed mind your, because I was hanging on with my left hand.) I looked into the co-pilots window with what I am sure was calm expression, and motioned him to get the hell out of there. He motioned that we were going in. Then there were a few more cracks by my ear. I cut loose with the rest of the magazine and of course the last three rounds were tracers so that I knew when I was empty, and these tracers alerted the co-pilot that I had been shooting. Unbeknownst to me, he hollers over the intercom to the door gunner that this newbie LT standing on the skids has been hearing rotor blades making contact with light vegetation and thinks he’s getting shot at…(GET HIS BUTT BACK IN THE CHOPPER!) The door gunner unhooks and reaches way forward to grab my rigging to haul me in. He was a bit harsh and his slap on my back felt like I got shot…and hit hard. I reacted like anyone would who has taken a fatal round to the back. I fell off the skid 20 to 30 feet to the ground, flat on my back. As I lay there trying to contemplate my situation, the chopper flew off, leaving me there to died. The fall had knocked my breath away and I hurt quite badly but my worry now was that they had left me. I managed to reload another magazine but couldn’t move at that moment due to severe back pain (obviously from being riddled with an AK47 across my back!!) Then I heard some noise coming my way. Just about the time I was ready to make my last stand, I heard a faint call, “Mike, Mike, are you alright?” I whispered back, “I’m over here and hit in the back.” Over come Opel and RJ, asking me where I had been hit. They rolled me over and reported that I hadn’t been shot at all. They carried me back to the waiting chopper some 50 to 60 yards away. It was a long ride back to the launch site. I was pronounced OK and healthy, and we went back in later that day. But for a while, Opel and RJ kept referring to me as LT Fuzz. I have no reason why!”

Mike Ash Mission 2

Recon Co Policies Changed To Let Officers Be One Zeros.

The month of February was a month of rebuilding and retraining, with a few RT missions. We were short of recon teams and had some Recon Company changes. LTs Troy Gilley, Mike Ash and John Hawkins were recon platoon leaders. We needed them running teams. Gilley vividly recalls, “In early February, LTC Lindsey came down to Recon Co. Mike Ash, Steve Spoerry and I were in the Orderly Room and you ask me when I was going out again. Steve replied that I could go out on a mission again after you let him go out. I very specifically recall that you got very terse with Steve and told him, in no uncertain terms, that we were too short of qualified 1-0s and volunteers, and we were becoming very over extended in our mission demands, AND you ordered him to give a team to me and any other officer who was 1-0 qualified.” Ash adds, “I was also in that little huddle with LTC Lindsey and Steve Spoerry when the Boss pretty much laid down the law that Troy and I should be able to be on a team, and not just be strap-hangers. I know that Spoerry had his own reasons for holding us back, but Troy and I had been “chomping at the bit” to have our own teams. We were in heaven when the Boss came down and had some words of influence on the situation. I immediately got invites as a strap-hanger with Opel on RT Awl. I think I ran four or five missions with Opel, RJ Graham and Mike Crimmins and Alan Waggle I believe.” It was about this time that we had to send two 1-0s SGTs Donnie L. Hawkins and John F. Burkhard to be C&C Liaisons – Donnie at Cam Ranh Bay and J. Frank to Nha Trang.

{Ed. Note – Jim Brawner of the 195^th AHC (3/69-10/70) on Mar 4, 2010 remembered: “40 years ago, the crew chief that did not fly that day was me…Jim Howell took my place. The door gunner was Jimmy Lawson, and Smitty took his place. Lawson and myself were given the day off. Jim Howell and Smitty loved to fly. Always asking us to let them go up. There was no Recon Team being extracted in trouble that caused this mission, as earlier reported. Two months later, LT Troy Gilley and LT Mike Ash combined their CCS teams out of Quan Loi and went in for the recovery. Troy said, “Then, while waiting for our next insert, Mike Ash and I combined our teams to do a one day Body Recovery mission on a Gunship that got shot down just north of the Parrots Beak about several months earlier.” (Actually it was only TWO months earlier, as Gilley and Ash went out on that recovery mission on 05/05/70.)}

Mike Ash Mission 3

Recon, Mission RT AWL 1-0 SP4 Frank A. Oppel; 1-1 SGT Michael I. Crimmings; 1-2 1LT Michael C. Ash, 0-1 SCU Laun Lai KIA; Air Support By 195^th AHC.

Mike Ash explained the incident leading to the KIA SCU. He said, “I know exactly what that mission was, but it’s a very difficult one to have to write about. Recon Team (RT) AWL was Frank Opel’s team and I had been strap-hanging with him for three or four missions before this one. I had a special relationship with this team and was probably closer with some of the SCU on this team than I ever was with any other SCU in Recon. I believe we had a seven-man team on this particular mission. Opel was 1-0, I believe Mike Crimmings was carrying the radio, and I was 1-2, and there were four Nungs (Laun Lai was the point man, Hoa was the interpreter, Phuc was carrying the M79 and I forget the name of the tail gunner but I think it was Ho). We had been on the ground in Cambodia for a couple of days trying to do area recon and kept bumping into the bad guys and having to change course. On the final morning we started moving through some vegetation so thick that we had to crawl on our hands and knees, which really concerned us because it seemed we were making so damned much noise and the “fire ants” were all over and biting the hell out of our necks, backs and arms that we wanted to stand up and scream. We broke out of that really thick stuff and tried to move quickly to a spot where we could set up and listen and observe.”

“Laun signalled the presence of a small river to our right flank. We all set up and as Laun moved forward to investigate, Opel sent Phuc and I to the left and he, Crimmings and the other three Nungs stayed in place. A few seconds later all hell broke loose and all of us tried to provide cover fire for Laun. There was some return fire and I think at least one grenade because I received some shrapnel through my left ear. Then it was quiet. Opel started moaning and was on his knees. I quickly moved to his side and he pointed to Laun who was about 30 meters forward laying on the ground but moving slightly. I crawled forward and grabbed hold of Laun’s Stabo rig and pulled him back to Opel’s position. He had been shot at least twice in the chest and was having severe trouble breathing. We tried to administer immediate first aid but we were having enemy movement all around us. Crimmings was on the radio calling for air support and extraction. Laun was really struggling to breath, but we thought we were getting set up for a rush by the bad guys and we had to immediately get out of the killing zone. We put Laun over my shoulder with his wounds against my shoulder and he seemed to be able to breath better. We started rapidly evading (this means running) towards an Landing Zone.”

“I don’t recall that we actually took any additional fire as I was doing all I could carrying Laun. It was more like they were “chasing” us out of there. As we ran, we stopped several times to re-adjust Laun on my shoulders and we had constant noise and signals being produced to our sides and rear. When the gunships arrived we were still running and we started laying out smoke so that they could tell where we were and where to lay down fire. They did a damned good job of that and C&C was able to get us to a Stabo extraction site where we stopped and set up a defense perimeter and got set for the Stabos. Opel and I tried to get Laun’s wounds sealed but weren’t having much success. He seemed best when I could hold him from behind with my hands over his chest wounds and putting pressure on him. We had movement all around us and had gun ships making constant runs. I recall there was sporadic fire towards the choppers and although we were putting out some fire towards the bad guys, I don’t recall that we were taking much directly.”

“When the first chopper came in for Stabo pick up, we decided that Laun would go out first with me holding/squeezing him from behind. The chopper came in and we hooked Laun and me up, but when the chopper lifted up, my rope was about five feet longer than Laun’s and slowly gravity prevailed as he slowly slipped from my grasp and I ended up below him. I grabbed his feet over my head and held on to his feet so that he wouldn’t spin around in the wind as we headed toward Ban Don (I believe). Shortly thereafter, Laun stopped struggling. I knew he was dead and the last 15 or 20 minutes were the longest of my life. The chopper set down and the medics were there to catch us when we got to Ban Don. The Stabo rig had cut off the circulation in my legs and when I hit the ground I collapsed from my legs being asleep and I just crawled to Laun, only to see that this had been Laun’s last mission. I’ve had 10,000 dreams about that Stabo ride out.”

“The next chopper brought out the rest of the team. I can’t recall if they came out on Stabo’s or otherwise. We were all in total shock. Opel was an absolute basket case. Laun Lai was a tremendous warrior and had lead Opel and team in and out of some very difficult situations. We went from Ban Don to BMT where the rest of RT AWL was waiting for us. What a loss!!!!!!!!! Opel couldn’t even complete a briefing on what had happened without breaking up. I do remember that he spent some time with LTC Lindsey, whom he really respected. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have given you two words. It seems we never did do a complete debriefing because of the grief that Opel was going through. The whole team (me included) were sent down to Cholon to escort Laun’s body back to his Chinese family. The whole community was in mourning as we brought one of their heroes home. This Chinese community gave their warrior such respect that I cannot describe. We were treated with the absolute utmost dignity and respect that I will never forget it. This was a tremendously humbling experience. Frank Opel was never the same after that. I don’t even know if he even ran another mission.”

Rest in Peace Laun Lai.

Mike Ash Critters

1LT Mike Ash (One-Zero RT Auger): “I had an opportunity to go on mission with Carl Vencill and 2^nd company when Mike Marsali (Platoon Leader) was on leave. Originally an infantry officer, I was extremely impressed with the professionalism of these troops. They operated as a highly disciplined unit and knew their military tactics well. But the most memorable was the time we came upon a large open area with a dense tree line along both edges. My platoon was clearing the tree line for our passage, when all of a sudden, two of the Cambodes took off at a dead run like they were headed for the end zone during Superbowl II (yep, it was that long ago). I’m not sure I was more concerned about what they were chasing or that they may have blown our security. Soon they were on the ground wrestling something. When the dust cleared, they had a large iguana lizard with a rope around it’s neck. They proceeded to walk him on this “leash” for the rest of the day. That night as I was making my rounds to their perimeter area, they proudly handed me a piece of meat on a stick and made it obvious that there were other portions of the iguana’s body to be eaten. I put the small piece of meat into my mouth and moved along. I’d go to the field with these warriors anytime!!!”

Mike Ash Montagnard Entertainment

Montagnard villages loved to entertain 1LT Mike Ash (One Zero of RT Auger): Several of my visits to my team’s village, were quite memorable, but one in particular was when a water buffalo (or cow) was sacrificed in my presence and while it was placed on it’s back and split open, the tribal members were proud of offer me the first drink from a cup of warm blood that they scooped from it’s insides. I am certain I was not the first American to have gone through this experience as they were surrounding me and had eyes trained on my response, which was to stammer a bit and try to find an excuse to pass on the opportunity. In the end, I bravely (sort of!!) sipped the contents, thought about throwing up, thought better of it and then received approving smiles from my Yard team members. I think it was on the same visit that I was graciously invited to a “Nampe” party and being the guest, was treated to the first seat at the row of urns (full of fermenting rice and banana leaves and whatever else) that each family proudly provided. I was told that I “may have three cups full”. My team interpreter let me know that this meant I would offend them if I didn’t complete three glasses!! I went along with the offer and when was holding back the contents of my stomach from exiting the same orifice they entered, it appeared as though I was thanking the wine-maker for his mastery. This prompted another offer that I “may have another three cups!” I can barely remember that after about one more cup I had to scramble to puke out a side opening in the longhouse. The family cheered as this meant that I was enjoying myself, it meant that the pigs and chickens would have a great meal … and most importantly it meant that I “may have another three cups”. The next recollection of any form of life in my body was the next morning Troy Gilley woke me and told me he drove us home.”