Ymarkasar, who’s a frequent commenter at Cassie’s and a sometime commenter here, asked me if I had an example in mind. Does a bear By an odd quirk of fate, I did.

Long-time readers (and avid archivers) might recall me mentioning my buddy Norm on a couple of occasions -- Norm was a Loach-driver with the First o’ the Ninth in RVN. He flew in III Corps and I stomped around in IV Corps, but we both worked the Cambodian border along the Parrot’s Beak and I've seen the area which generated this TINS!*. One day, Norm got called into the Sector TOC at Tay Ninh for a mission brief…

“Here’s where we want you to go.” The Captain indicated a point on the Cambodian border approximately in the middle of the northeastern slope of the Parrot’s Beak. “We have confirmed intelligence that two NVA companies will be crossing into III Corps at this point *tapping the map for emphasis* at 1845 this evening. We want you right there, at 500 feet directly overhead. No lower. No higher.”

Now, being in a helicopter 500 feet directly over the heads of almost 100 people who are armed with automatic weapons and who have undergone How To Shoot Down Helicopters 101 is not the best place in the world to be unless you’re really, really curious about what it feels like to get ripped to shreds in mid-air. With that prospect firmly ensconced in his cerebral cortex, Norm asked, “I'm a Scout. I go out and look for them when we don't know where they are. If you *know* they’re going to be there, why do you need *me*?”

“Because we’re going to hit them with a TOT the instant they cross.”

Oh-kaaaay, the plot has thickened. Not only did the Dai-uy want Norm on station, he wanted him on station *when the artillery arrived*. If the little bullets don’t get’cha, the big ones will. Norm asked, “If it’s a TOT, there’s no need for an adjustment, so why do you need *me*?”

“Because we need to confirm the hits.”

“I could go in there *after* the artillery goes boom. Why do you want me overhead *when* it goes boom?”

“We want them bunched up, not spread out in a line.”

Oh-kaaaay, the plot has jelled. *Someone* obviously thought that the NVA would cluster together to gawp at Norm rather than doing what they always did when they spotted a helicopter -- scatter for cover and commence mass-firing or go to ground in-place and commence mass-firing. Norm was still ruminating on this when the Ops NCO tugged his sleeve and whispered, “He’s so new, he’s still p*ssing stateside water. He heard the artillery guys talking about “distant aiming points” and thinks they actually need to *aim* the guns at something in order to shoot. He wants *you* to be that aiming point.”

Norm’s never been close enough to the turnip truck to even see it, let alone fall off it.

“What about the intel?”

“Sensors. Been tracking this group for three days and timing their advance. It’s a safe bet they’ll be there on time.”

Actually, this is a dirt-simple Mission. The bad guys are heading for the border, they’re gonna get whacked and TOC wants to know the results.

What’s *not* dirt-simple is The Order.

If Norm followed The Order, the Mission wouldn’t get accomplished, because even though The Mission was based on good intel, The Order was based on false assumptions. And following The Order would *blow* The Mission, because flying a recon over the area would alert the target, and they’d halt prior to entering the kill zone. Finally, Norm would be extremely likely to get dead while he was not-accomplishing The Mission, which would be a poor tradeoff for a posthumous Air Medal.

“Excuse me, Captain, but it isn’t really a good idea to put a --“

“If you’re afraid to go, I can get another pilot.”

“It’s not that -- it’s just that you seem to believe -- “

“If you don’t want to do this mission, say so and get out.”

“Oh, I can do the mission. It's --”

“Good. Get going.”

Norm headed out and applied some enroute judicious stupidity.

He didn’t fly to the target area and loiter at 500 feet -- he flew three klicks north of the target area, which placed him to the right of the gun-target line, and climbed to 3,000 feet. He could now observe the kill zone without being seen or heard (a Loach at 3000 feet looks like a dust mote at ten feet and the low-pitched engine noise fades to a whirrrr above 2000 feet).

If anybody asked him why he was where he was instead of where he wasn't, ooops -- he got misoriented and climbed to get his bearings.

He spotted the NVA as soon as he got to altitude. He watched as they continued into the kill zone and watched as the artillery hit and watched as the few survivors ran deeper into the region we called AO Keep Out, where they’d run afoul of more sensors, scatterable mines and mechanical ambushes. He then flew a recon into the kill zone to assess the damage.

The Mission got accomplished without obeying The Order.

Which is not the end of the story.

Norm has a flair for melodrama.

When the first rounds were fired, Norm keyed the mike on the TOC frequency and hollered, “Hey, Captain, they’re shooting over the *top* of the helicopter -- tell them to aim about ten feet below my skids!”

Norm has no idea what transpired after the Captain relayed that particular message to the battalion firing the TOT, but he never again saw him in the Sector TOC at Tay Ninh...