Centaur Flights
PLUNGING INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH . . . EVERY DAYAfter being mortared his first five nights in Vietnam during Tet, 1969, Richard D. Spalding was ready to fly Cobras with the Centaurs, Buffalo Bill Cody's old outfit as part of D Troop, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division.The Cobra *an AH-IG gunship helicopter armed with rockets and machine guns and cannon *was the first U.S. Army helicopter designed as an attack helicopter, and Spalding soon found himself pitched into a fierce new kind of aerial warfare. When not providing support for dicey LRRP missions, the Cobra became the killer half of hunter-killer teams. Once the enemy was spotted by a low-and-slow-flying observation helicopter, Spalding used his Cobra to turn Victor Charlie into Ground Chuck.But the VC were often ready with their deadly .51 caliber machine guns, and Spalding had plenty of wild rides in bullet-riddled gunships. This is his story--bloody, graphic, and raw *filled with all the fear and fearlessness, danger, tension, brotherhood, and sacrifice that comprised America's heroic hell in Vietnam.