European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Playing Dodge Ball with the enemy a ref "3s-Tikh-wi to pieces of the Dovil i act relaxing alter a Day of training. By Dontate staff writer ast snaky slim menacing. A cobra rising Over the Trees to share you in Tho Ace is a scary sight. It s called cobra but from far Oil you could mis Lake ii fora praying mantis or doom Laden Wasp whirring darkly through the Mist to put some final Sling on you. Under a Gray shy. Swoosh. We re humming Down Over Tho Trees Anri then in s swiftly Back up the Earlh tilts the stomach turns and we re roiling away suddenly sharply to the right. Gravity drags the head of this front seat observer heavily irresistibly Eft hunk like a Pool Ball falling in a pocket then the aircraft known As the cobra gunship makes a swooping hissing 360 and in seconds again squarely faces its target. Returning to target after evading enemy fire is what this Heady Man Euver is about. Now chief warrant officer Stuart Jensen the Piot with the Mustache the Stow Grin the sure hands the unflappable voice in he Back seat takes the ship Down Low very Low until we re just Over the Earth creeping sneaking Forward toward some Trees. It gels a Little eerie this slow motion attach almost As if we re skulking along on foot Rotor wound infantry. But these Are the new survival tactics close behind lha Trees now Jensen hovers the cobra in place. Then snakes it slowly sideways to the left until we re peeking out my behind the Trees at the target. But Only for a second and he slides us Back right until we re just nosing around the right Hank of the Trees. The cobra in a 33-Inch-wide piece of the Devil s work plus stubby wings like chapped Oil arms. Blink and you might miss it. But in s Noi Likely to miss you. It packs a 20mm Cannon a Bunch of 2.75-Inch rackets and Tqw-2 anti tank missiles. Ii weighs 8,000 pounds stripped but when dressed for Battle it can upscale to 11,000. This hiding and seeking we re doing is called if there were enemy tanks or troops out there the cobra would Likely fire on the left mask skulk Over fire com the right and mask again. More like infantry or Armor tactics than old Lime helicopter ing. And that explains Jensen Back in his Lent after demonstrating the Creepy crawly gunship tactics is the Way Well stay alive on the modern Battlefield. Slaying close la the ground sneaking and peeking ambushing taking cover fire and move tire and move. Never set Thorn get us in their sights never let them know where we re coming Tho tactics o Vietnam the old Boom Boom diving from the sky Days Are Over says Jensen himself a Veteran of Grenada. There s a saying Over Here if it flies High it Dies " he Means helicopters which Are so much More vulnerable than streaking jets to sophisticated surface to air misses and other air defense weapons. In Vietnam sometimes called the helicopter War a few thousand feel up got you out of Range of most of the bad news the enemy could How up. In Europe at that Altitude a helicopter is a just a helpless whirl Bird asking to become a steel Sandwich begging la be fire balled out of the sky. So instead of gun runs ripping Down out Al the Blue. Today s pilots talk of How tactics have evolved to play Dodge Ball Wilh the inching or barrelling along a Low level of Cort Lour and Nap of who Earth Hying of firing from a hover then scooting for cover of keeping our bulls Down Jensen says it again now this Lent of the 3rd attack helicopter in gels crowded noisy. Two kinds of music Are playing Worris rip Back and Lorth a flyer dips and zooms with his hands the Way he had Wilh his chopper Over Tho lining Range Al graft Wohr Tho Day s Derning do is done no Iho Day s talking a s Saler talking about it than doing it. But you can almost still hear rotors whining and rockets thumping sometimes it s like we re nol real says a Pilot of today s tactics it s like we re hopping Trees Oul the main thing to remember is that virtually anything can kill a reminds another oven a Guy Wilh a Rifle. A Guy will a pistol if he s close enough " so can wires. Irons sudden Hills hard objects especially in the Mist and gloom of German weather. Dangerous work. So dangerous the even the Way the gunships work Wilh the scouts Iho Little observation choppers has changed. In Vietnam there were Hunter Kisier teams. Scouts buzzing around Low Over the Jungle baiting the enemy daring them trying to draw fire. Ii was cheating deals Lime. And he gunships might be up High and away just circling just waiting when the enemy squeezed off. Here came the cobras or the hogs guns grinding turning the sky to technicolor rockets smoke trails tracers coming and going. Not anymore not Over Fiore says chief warrant officer Pete o Halloran. Who Flics a oh-58 Kiowa observation chopper. Scouts sure Don 1 try to draw lire anymore. And Don t give it we iry to be invisible. We sneak hide inside Trees hover Down in Little hollows we might Fand on one Side of a Hill walk to the other 5 de and take a took. Yeah we certainty Dolly Low i moan tree to tree belly of the aircraft scraping free branches Low. We be really got to watch it be careful when to spot the enemy we Tell the guns who. What and where they Are and they go in and say hello raise a Riillo cobras a e still used to prep Landing zones with suppression fire when troops Are being inserted and to keep enemy Heads Down when they re being extracted they also can be used As flying artillery pieces Able with a Little rocking chair Man Euver to Arch rockets at la gots 9,000 meters Oul or zing them in like smoking line drives on enemy troops bunkers and vehicles but it s no secret what the cobra s main Mission is in Europe to Hill Lanks with their tows Ell Active up to 3,750 meters cobra pilots Leel they re equal to any two or three Lanks they can see. They d better be because according of defense Depar Lenl figures Ine soviets have 52,600 main Bathe tanks Ablo to Roll far outnumbering nato s Armor. That s what All the hiding and sliding sneaking and peeking is really Aboul stresses the sri s commander i col. Jim Mowery. We train everyday Mowery says like the russians Are coming i was i ring More rockets in one Day Ihan these kids lire All year. Would i Fly Wilh these Young Guys in combat yeah no doubt about ii. If anything this is a More professional army today More disciplined. The kids Are Sharp they follow the rules. In Nam we Hurt a lot of our own people by not letting them rest. Out of my class Only half of us made in through the whole tour. Some of them just got so tired Hurt themselves got shot Down. Some just Flat killed themselves. It was nothing Lor us of Fly until our eyeballs turned red maybe two months in a Row without a break. That can t happen today. But the spirit is Aboul Ine same he s the same kind of dude now we had then. Young or old. Same kind of dirty cobra preparing to oat Tow-2 antitank met tote on chopper it Ort Fangohr. The stars and stripes Page 15
