Got Jacked | 21 June 1972, suppressing NVA artillery and troops besieging An Loc city - South Vietnam, Cobra "White 725" ( #15725 ) crewed by 7/79th AFA "Blue Max" Capt. Mike Brown (pilot) and Capt. Marco Cordon (weapons officer / gunner ) strafed enemy troop/artillery concentrations with rocket - minigun - mortar fire. Banking up from one of their runs & preparing for another assault, crew suddenly saw flash of SA-7 missile launch from ground below.

SA-7 Grail (Strela-2 in Russian) possessed flight altitude circa 1 mile (1500 meters), speed of 1/3 of a mile per second (430 meters/sec), thus it was mere seconds before missile hit. Painting depicts point of denotation, Cobra tail boom blown off mid-flight, but chopper's engine - propellers - crew compartment - landing struts still intact. Via instinctive piloting effort, Capt. Brown swung his Cobra into spirally arching turns from a 4,500-foot drop, first to "bleed" air speed, second to allow him and Capt. Cordon to visually sight any ground clearing among Vietnam's dense jungle (for collision into dense tree line just as fatal as straight skyward drop). As divine providence - good luck - or sharp eyes would have it... Capt. Cordon located such a site near Xa Tan Khai village south of An Loc.

Cobra belly-crashed into the ground and wedged next to a large tree, both men jumped out into a gully, preparing to evade NVA execution squads since Vietnamese Communists were infamous for murdering American POW Cobra crews (such as fate befallen his comrades 1st Lieut Shields & Capt. Northrup in Cobra "White-670"). But even in this stark situation, one's sense of humor did not escape military espirit d'corps, for Capt. Cordon noticed gully debris littered with used food cans labeled in Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian. Hence he surmised this region must have an invasion route of multiple foreign armies, a legacy he can now archeologically appreciate firsthand. After what seemed like an eternity, US rescue chopper arrived, but surrounding jungle was too dense for them to land, thus Brown & Cordon climbed on top of their wrecked Cobra propeller hub to get onboard.

In the crash, Capt. Cordon suffered spinal injuries and was dispatched to state-side hospitals for recuperation. The trans-Pacific journey was so quick, when his wife Mary Beth picked him up at the hospital 36 hours later, he was still wearing same Cobra uniform shot-down in. Thus Brown & Cordon now part of US military legend being first crew to survive a SA-7 missile hit and crash-landing from 4,500-foot drop.

BTW, "Got Jacked" is American slang for something in poor shape or bad repair, but in military slang it refers to enemy ambush resulting in personnel casualties or hardware destruction. English Slang Dictionary - Coolslang.com

Rollover : ( Rollover JPG link ) Cobra Heat | Before 21 June 1972 shotdown incident, Cobra crews got their share of jacking enemy armor. 13 April 1972, NVA launched 40 tank armor thrust with accompanying infantry into An Loc. ARVN troops and US Army advisors commanded by Col. William Miller defending the city responded with M72 LAW anti-armor rockets, but situation became desperate due to sheer number of encroaching enemy armor. Thus, Col. Miller called for radio help with famous request "Send Me Some Stukas" (in reference to German WW2 Junkers Ju-87 dive-bomber, Stuka is German abbreviation for Sturzkampfflugzeug or "dive bomber"). The Colonel was actually referring to late-WW2 Ju-87G version called "Kanonvogel" (cannon bird) since it mounted twin 37mm anti-tank guns as "Panzerknacker" (tank cracker). Junkers Ju 87G 'Kanonvogel' - kits.kitreview.com/ju87g32reviewbg_1.htm

• Junkers Ju 87 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju-87

• "Send Me Some Stukas!" - www.army.mil/-news/2009/04/05/18883-send-me-some-stukas/

Call was answered by two "Blue Max" Cobra gunships of Battery F - 79th Aerial Rocket Artillery - 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) crewed by Chief Warrant Officer Barry McIntyre / Major Larry McKay in lead ship, followed by 1st Lieut. Steve Shields and Capt. Bill Causey. Initially, Col. Miller thought USAF would send ground attack aircraft to destroy NVA armor, but upon seeing the "Blue Max", Col. Miller tried to wave them off for fear that slower moving Cobras would fall victim to NVA anti-aircraft fire. Maj. McKay replied "Negative! Negative! Sir; I’ve got HEAT!" (in reference to 2.75 High Explosive Anti-Tank missiles being chopper combat-tested for first time). High explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEAT

Painting depicts both Cobras in high-angle strafing run, McIntyre / McKay already firing upon T-54/55 in city square, to be followed by Shields / Causey. HEAT rockets were unguided, thus Cobra crew had to fly through enemy Triple-A (Anti-aircraft Artillery) gauntlet to point chopper nose at target direction. About 20 NVA tanks were destroyed during this engagement, thus petering out its armor momentum. NVA continued its armor thrusts coupled wit Communist human-wave attacks (akin to 1954 Dien Bien Phu battles), both were equally checked by ARVN/US defenders while NVA assembly points north of An Loc were pounded by B-52 saturation bombing. NVA finally gave up siege and retreated in June 1972. The Defense of An Loc - www.militaryartgallery.com/HTML/the_defense_of_an_loc.htm

• 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu

• B-52 Stratofortress - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52

Historical points worthy to note : 1) "Blue Max" McIntyre / McKay was first chopper crew to destroy an enemy tank, 2) Attack choppers became main aerial adversary of enemy armor due its loiter time and slower speeds, 3) On verge of French colonialists defeat at 1954 Dien Bien Phu, France secretly requested US President Eisenhower to dropped a nuclear bomb onto battlefield to wipe out both French colonialist forces and Vietnamese independence fighters, Eisenhower replied a tersely "No !".

Related Model and History : RAF Typhoon fighter rocket firing upon German Tiger Tank - UweMilitaria.org/3-Aerial/Tiffy/12.html