DeWitt Lewis, Vietnam Vetern
DeWitt Lewis, Vietnam Vetern
J. D. Lewis’ early name was those initials. Later his mother called him DeWitt. In the service he was John D. He was raised in Barnesville in eastern Ohio as was his future wife, Gwen. He graduated from Barnesville High School in 1955. Gwen graduated from Columbian where she transferred her senior year. He then went to the University of Kansas and Gwen went to Heidelberg and graduated in January, 1959. DeWitt and Gwen, the daughter of Don and Geneva Shepherd, were married January 24th, 1959. They went to Kansas and DeWitt graduated in June, 1960 in mechanical engineering.
At K U DeWitt was in the ROTC and after graduation joined the Army Transportation Command as a 2nd Lt. He was assigned to Jump School, Fort Benning, GA and then to helicopter pilot training in December, 1960, at Camp Walters in Mineral Wells, Texas. For phase II helicopter training he went to Fort Rucker in Alabama
DeWitt learned to fly small planes in college and it was natural for him to enjoy becoming a competent pilot of the H21 helicopter. The H21 is a large double-rotor transport work- horse. It can transport 15 or more soldiers depending on their equipment. It holds 80 gallons of gasoline and may get 2 – 3 miles per gallon. It has up to 2-3 hrs of flying time, depending on the load.
In October, 1961 DeWitt and family were sent to Wheeler Air Force Base in Hawaii. He was a member of the 81st Transportation Company and he remained at the base for 10 months. Deanna, their second child was born there, Coleen, their oldest was born in Mineral Wells, Texas.
One month of his Hawaiian tour of duty was spent on Johnson Island. This island was being used by the Army to send off rockets with atom bombs which exploded in the ionosphere. One countdown was particularly memorable. The countdown continued 10, 9, 8, 7, and then there was a cry of Negative! Negative! The rocket burned on the pad. Observers were already behind a heavy metal shield and at the cry of Negative! They all hit the deck. After that, DeWitt and his crew made several trips in asbestos suits to carry personnel with Geiger counters out to the island to check for radiation leakage from the unexploded bomb. During his time in Hawaii, DeWitt also had the pleasure of landing his helicopter on an aircraft carrier deck.
In August, 1962. DeWitt’s unit was ordered to Vietnam and Gwen and the children came back to stay with her parents in Tiffin.
John D. Lewis, now a 1st Lt., was the equipment officer as the unit traveled, first on a merchant marine ship to Saigon, then on to Da Nang. Dewitt admits he was very naïve about Vietnamese culture. When they were unloading the equipment, he was surprised when the workers disappeared at noon and didn’t appear until siesta ended at 3 p.m.
From Da Nang they traveled over a mountain range and established a base at Pleiku. After a few months there, he was among 12 or 13 servicemen assigned to Ban Me Thuot. They lived in a hunting lodge and flew missions in support of special forces who collaborated with the Montagnards, a native people who were trying to defend their area from the Viet Cong. Helicopters brought supplies in and evacuated the Montagnards when their villages were overrun.
At first, orders came down that the helicopters were not to carry armament. Then orders allowed 30 caliper machine guns to be mounted in the door on a horizontal bar. They were to be fired only on orders of an officer. The helicopters had two pilots, a gunner and a crew chief. The pilots soon decided to let the gunners use their own judgment about when to fire. DeWitt knew of only one helicopter going down due to enemy fire in his 10 months in Vietnam. On one mission he is convinced that the gunner saved his life as they came down into a burst of small arms fire.
The gunner would shoot three rounds and the fourth, a tracer round, would indicate the line of fire. A most important member of the crew was the crew chief. He literally lived with the aircraft and all depended on his dedication and ability to keep the machine in great shape.
Another time he was on a search and rescue mission to find a downed B-25. His gunner saw smoke coming out of the jungle and a man waving frantically. They descended so low that the bottom of the helicopter was in the treetops. They lowered a cable but it was not long enough. So they attached a rope to it and the survivor hung on to it while a winch rolled him up. In July, 1963, DeWitt had served his time in Vietnam. DeWitt felt frustrated that the war in Vietnam was such a controlled war. For example, the first requirement that the helicopters carry no armament. Many such political considerations handicapped the whole Vietnam struggle for the American G. I’s . He does feel that the helicopter was used to good advantage there.
(Continued next week)
– Percy