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Recently, Mac shepherded a group of trapped Vietnamese soldiers back to Route 19 at night with his landing lights guiding them along a path between intense Viet Cong fire 100 ft. on either side. Last week he was in the air for the better part of five days. North of Quin-hon he flushed a battalion-sized Viet Cong contingent and called in the Skyraiders. The result: about 50 dead Communists. McAllister has had some other interesting experiences. "Have you ever seen a tree walking?" he asks. "Well, I sure as hell did. There it was, walking down a hill in the middle of V.C. country. I nearly flipped. I followed it and found more walking trees. Then I swooped down, and they became stationary trees real fast. I called in an air strike and we had ourselves a forest fire."
The Volunteer
SPECIALIST 5TH CLASS LARRY C. NIEDRINGHAUS, 22, serves as the demolitions expert for a twelve-man U.S. Special Forces team at Suoida, a bleak, wire-enclosed camp at the base of Black Virgin Mountain, 60 miles northwest of Saigon. Niedringhaus first came to Viet Nam in 1962, at his own request is now serving his third tour of duty. Says he: "Damned if I can think of any place I'd rather be or anything I'd rather do."
To Niedringhaus, things are looking up in Viet Nam. "It's hard to believe how much this war has changed," he says. "We used to have to scrounge damned near everything we needed, including weapons and ammo. And I'll tell you something else: We didn't kill a helluva lot of V.C. either.
"But look at us now. We've got every weapon we ask for. We've got a scientifically laid-out camp with clear fields of fire and plenty of wire. When we ask for air support, we get it. We've even got a dispensary and an icebox. This time we've got what we need to do the job."
Like all U.S. Special Forces men in Viet Nam, Niedringhaus serves as an adviser to a Vietnamese Special Forces counterguerrilla team, averages four three-to five-day patrols a month. Such patrols are exhausting, nerve-racking work. Why volunteer for more? Says Niedringhaus: "I guess what it comes down to is that you always want to try yourself, to prove something to yourself.
You made it once and you made it twice, but then the question is: Can you make it again?"
Egg Dropper
CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER MECKIE I. KEYS, 33, is a greying, 16-year Army veteran from St. Petersburg, Fla., where his wife and five children live. Twelve years ago, as a 1st sergeant in a tank battalion, Keys decided to move from turret to cockpit, enrolled in the Army's aviation school. Today he flies a lumbering Caribou transport out of Vungtau on the South China Sea, 40 miles southeast of Saigon.
Since his arrival in Viet Nam last October, Keys has logged enough air mileage to circle the earth nearly two times. His plane has been hit five times by enemy fire, and he got a Purple Heart when glass from a bullet-blasted windshield cut his face.