/Portals/0/EasyDNNRotator/508/News/aid2Larry Wright Oct 1965 with his Lucky Helmet 2sm.jpg Taps for another one of our Brothers

Taps for another one of our Brothers

The Kid is Gone  Matthew Brennan wrote three books about the First of the Ninth Cav.  The first was “Brennan’s War” but the next two were about other men’s wars—compilations of the memories of other squadron veterans, edited and introduced by Brennan.
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Apache 34

/Portals/0/EasyDNNRotator/508/News/aid11WO1 Samuel G. Bosenbark.jpg Remember Our Fallen

Remember Our Fallen

45 years ago, on June 6, 1969, B Troopers 1st Lieutenant Joseph Breski, Jr., WO1 Samuel G. Bosenbark and SP4 John D. Sharp were shot down by hostile fire south of Quan Loi and the Saber Troop Air Strip in the Binh Long Province in Vietnam.
Bullwhip Squadron

The Bullwhip Squadron Association was a Patriotic non-profit war veteran’s organization dedicated to honoring all Combat Veterans who served with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry between 1965 through 1973, (Headquarters and Troops A, B, C, D, E, F, LRRPs, Combat Trackers) and Troopers that were serving and veterans that served with the 1st Battalion and 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division fighting the Global War on Terror.

Anyone can view the website pages but only Former Bullwhip Squadron Association Members can access certain membership pages.

 



Click the image above and you be redirected to 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry's Facebook Page at Fort Hood, Texas

Website Contacts
The website is not being updated as of 2016   

Taps for another one of our Brothers

Larry Wright September 17, 1946 to December 9, 2013

The Kid is Gone 

Matthew Brennan wrote three books about the First of the Ninth Cav.  The first was “Brennan’s War” but the next two were about other men’s wars—compilations of the memories of other squadron veterans, edited and introduced by Brennan.

Tom King wrote about his war in “Headhunters.”  Tom was already a high-time pilot when he reported to the squadron at Fort Benning in July 1965.  He was assigned to A Troop’s gun platoon, and sailed to Vietnam on the USS Boxer.  What follows is from Tom King’s account:

I was originally assigned to fly copilot to the section leader, but I had spent too many years as an aircraft commander and I wanted my own aircraft.  Captain Allen gave me one.  [Dave Allen, the gun platoon commander, would go on to be a general.]  We had an outstanding crew chief, nineteen-year-old Larry Wright, who later won the Distinguished Service Cross.  The door-gunner was a para­trooper, SSG Jim Grady. 

Our first real operation was called Shining Bayonet.  We took in early morning dark, in the rain and clouds.  I lost sight of my lead ship after the first turn to the east and spent the next hour and a half unsuccessfully looking for any ship from our platoon.  Finally, we landed at the Special Forces camp in Binh Dinh province, from where we operated for the next few days.

Stockton [Colonel John B. Stockton, the squadron commander] took all three 1/9th gun platoons during Shining Bayonet into an area called Happy Valley.  He put C Troop gunships in there first, then B Troop, and by the time we got there, “Charlie” was pretty well stirred up.  I could see flashes on the ground and fired a couple of pairs of rockets at them.  Simultaneously, my chin bubble was shattered and Jim Grady said over the intercom, “The kid/s hit!”  Larry Wright was down and wounded.

We didn’t have doors on the gunships, the windows were open, and there was quite a bit of air flowing through the helicopter.  Grady pulled off the kid’s flight helmet and blood flew everywhere.  It covered so much of the instrument panel with small particles of blood that you couldn’t read the instruments.  Wright had a scalp wound.  I flew him to the aid station, and his only complaint was that his head hurt.  There were two bullet holes in his helmet.  One of the rounds had hit at an angle above his right ear, gone around inside the helmet, scalped him on the back of the head, exited the helmet above his right ear, and gone into the bulkhead above my head.

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1 comments on article "Taps for another one of our Brothers"

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9/18/2014 1:57 PM

Great Article

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