Army Reporter information
for 611 TC BN
34 GS GRP
164 CAG
For date 710301
611 TC BN was a US Army unit
34 GS GRP was a US Army unit
164 CAG was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
South Vietnam
Location, Vinh Long
Description: 01Mar71- Delta riggers definitely for the birds
VINH LONG - "Helicopter: a bird native to the Republic of Vietnam, sometimes found roosting in the tops of palm trees, hiding 60 feet beneath the ocean waves off the coast, or resting peacefully under 15 feet of rainwater in a monsoon-flooded rice paddy. Sound a bit fishy? Ask Sgt. Anthony M. Jackson whether that definition is correct, and he'll tell you it's true. Jackson, an aircraft recovery specialist with the 611th Transportation Bn., 34th General Support Gp. (Aircraft Maintenance & Supply) at Vinh Long, is the NCOIC of a recovery team known to aviators in South Vietnam's Mekong Delta as the Delta Riggers. When a bird (rigger terminology for aircraft) goes down anywhere in the Delta's vast expanse of swamps, jungles and rice paddies, the Delta Riggers are the men who bring it back to a secure area. Any man among them can tell you the birds find some strange places to roost. For instance, during one unscheduled landing, a helicopter on its way down chopped the top of a palm tree, flipped over and got stuck upside-down on the stump. The Delta Riggers harnessed it to a Chinook lift bird provided by the 164th Combat Aviation Gp. and pulled it out. At times the wind from the Chinook's huge twin blades threatened to blow the downed helicopter off its perch before a successful extraction could be made. There was another mission when no one could find the bird they'd been called out to recover, even thought there was nothing in the area to hide it but very wet and muddy rice paddies. The riggers spotted it, finally, sitting in the middle of a flooded rice paddy under 15 feet of rainwater. It took the team nearly two hours of underwater acrobatics to get that one started home. Fortunately, not all their assignments are that exciting. Most are routine maintenance extractions, which involve moving inoperable helicopters and other heavy equipment from one secure area to another by slinging them beneath a lift bird. Most of the 517 extractions made by the team during 1970 were of this type. Since the riggers are the only professional recovery team in the Delta, their time is too valuable to waste on simple assignments. To free themselves for more difficult missions, the men conduct training classes for Army, Navy and Vietnamese Air Force aviation units in the area, teaching the men of these units to take over the complicated jobs. However, unscheduled classes somehow have a way of just happening, such as the time the Delta Riggers were called out to teach Navy divers the finer points of underwater helicopter rigging, enabling the frogmen to make a successful recovery. Though the Delta Riggers aren't the largest aircraft recovery team in Vietnam, only having nine permanently assigned personnel, all volunteers, they claim to have broken at least one record in the recovery field. The event: field recovery of an Army Huey helicopter; the time: one minute and 45 seconds for rigging and one minute and 15 seconds for extraction. The reason for such fast work? "Heavy ground fire."
The source for this information was 7103AR.AVN supplied by Les Hines
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
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Last updated
04/12/2005
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023