Woody Gardner's Driveshaft story w/photo

The story of what happened when the perfectly balanced UH-1C tail rotor drive shaft was hit by the perfectly placed .51 round in early (Jan-Feb) 1968

David Christiansen HOG Crew Chief, John McMurtry HOG Door Gunner, Woody Gardner HOG Crew Chief holding the tail rotor driveshaft section, and (?) McFarlin Door Gunner.

Just so you know. In AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Ft. Rucker, on the UH-1 the drive shafts have weight coupons (perfectly balanced) welded to the shaft and stamped by the tech that did the job. It's very critical not to mess with them and always inspect them. Ft.Rucker Instructors pounded that into your head, all day long.

One night we were scrambled for someone in dire straits we were a light fire team of one UH-1C Hog (Aero Weapons) and one UH-1C Heavy Scout Mini-Gun Gunship. We got ambushed by at least two .51 caliber machine guns, somewhere close to Cu Chi. You know, a .51cal. tracer looks really, really big when it's coming straight at you, and you always wonder where the other 4 rounds are going (only one in five rounds has the tracer element in them). A real bad gun for a Uh-1 Helicopter to engage.

It didn't take but a second for us to turn off the rotating beacon on top of the ship. Both the ships broke left, giving the .51cal. guns some distance. Pat Estes and the A/C of the other ship talked about a plan to kill those guns. It sounded real ballsy and it was good for the Hog, being slower. But packing 48 rockets plus the M5 Grenade launcher, we came in low. The Heavy Scout Gunship went high, maybe 500 ft. give or take a few hundred, it was dark.

When everyone was ready, the Mini-Gun gunship turned on it's lights. It didn't take but a second for one of the .51's to open up. The high ship turned off it's lights and Pat fired at the muzzle flash. Story over!!!

I remember seeing that gun still firing while it was turning over - shooting tracers in an ark away from the Heavy Scout Gun Ship. It looked just like a WWII movie as the gun turned over still firing into the night sky. John Wayne couldn't have made that shot. The high ship fired their Mini-Guns and their Rockets at the .51's. I don't remember what happened to the other .51 cal. I do remember seeing Puff (an Air Force DC-3 gunship) shooting their Mini-Gun to the west. But the DC-3 was so high that the tracers were burning out about 1000 feet above the ground. He was real high, they must not have done much close support for the infantry, HUH!

By this time it was getting light, and we were out of ammo so we headed back to Cu Chi to refuel and rearm the ship. I grabbed the JP-4 fuel nozzle and started fueling the ship while looking at the side of the ship for bullet holes.

I see this hole about middle ways in the first cowling. I stopped fueling and walked up to look at the hole, and then through the hole. I could see daylight. The .51 had gone through both sides of the cowling and smack through the Drive Shaft. I had Pat shut the ship down.

I opened the cowling with my trusty P38, and I saw the drive shaft with a big hole right through the middle. One side smooth and one side jagged. Now remember, that drive shaft is supposed to be perfectly balanced. According to Ft. Rucker, it was one of the most serious red X conditions I had ever seen. We were lucky the drive shaft section hadn't broken in half from being out of balance or being weakened by the loss of the metal which was lost when the .51 cal round made that big hole in it. At a minimum the tail rotor would have been lost and making a running landing in a loaded HOG at 60 knots wasn't one of my favorite things to do. It could have broken and tore the tail boom off, and thats another nightmare.

After a few pictures, Pat asked for the drive shaft and I gave it to him. I didn't like the .51's because I had seen an armored personnel carrier with a .51 cal. bullet hole through both walls of the APC. It's skin was a lot thicker than our aluminum, magnesium, thin skinned ship. The main rotor head was the only thing on a helicopter that might have slowed that bullet down.

We were hit twice. The other round hit the black box antenna (12X12X3?) on the bottom of the ship, just behind the gunner and the crew chief. One nice hole in and the other half of the antenna was gone. The PUCKER FACTOR was very high that early morning.

I might be wrong about some of this. I'm old now! If anyone remembers this differently I can always rewrite it. Hey, I was the Crew Chief and rode in the back and listened. I want my Grandsons to know the true story about what we did.

The Driveshaft - Woody Gardner