ARE
YOU KIDDING ME!!!
Keith Morin, Secretary/Newsletter Writer
Connecticut Chapter, First Cavalry Division Association
It was Saturday, January 17, 2009. The time was 1300 hours. The First Cavalry
Division Connecticut Chapter meeting was about to start its meeting at the
American Legion Post in Manchester, CT. I walked into the room with a couple of
members and noticed a new face talking and enjoying a cup of coffee. Steve
Carter helped me haul the sale items into the room. We put the typical Cavalry
logo shirts, drinking glasses, hats and other items on the table for display and
to sell to the members. We greeted each other and found our new guest was COL.
(RET.) Kipp O. Miller. He was the FNG of our group.
Kipp was quick to inform us, now that he was retired; his rank is back to PFC
Miller like any enlisted man. Well, OK, but we did have questions for PFC
Miller. Keith Moyer, our chapter president, called the meeting to order. We
recited the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting progressed right through to the
end of the meeting agenda. Old and new business was the topic and our
fundraiser was the main issue. Col. Miller did help with some ideas about our
raffle prizes.
The meeting was adjourned and members started to enjoy adult beverages, coffee
and conversation. We found that Kipp O. Miller is a helicopter pilot and served
with the 229th AHB in Vietnam 1968-1969. Kipp answered various
questions about the Airmobile assaults and combat flights that most of the
cavalrymen and chapter members took part in during their Vietnam tours.
Steve Carter started talking about his time on LZ Grant when he was a trooper
with 2/12th Cavalry. Sgt. Stephen A. Carter started talking about one night that
LZ Grant got hit, for the third time in a few short weeks. Well, LZ Grant was
locked in battle with over perhaps a thousand NVA. The NVA was determined to
overrun the LZ. Kipp Miller listened to Steve's remembrance of that night and
the Huey pilot that come to the rescue of the WIA'S. They needed medical
attention in a hurry. Steve explained how the LZ was being decisively attacked
by the NVA. Enemy mortars, rockets, small arms fire were rushing into the
American defense positions and into the artillery positions with fierce
determination. The American fire power was slamming back at the NVA and their
firing positions. The night was filled with flares being dropped from Hueys and
the artillerymen's cannon fire wiping out the enemy positions. Carter remembers
the call came in that a chopper was going to medivac the wounded. Steve helped
to bring the wounded out to the landing area on stretchers. The only guide the
pilot had was a Cavalry trooper with two flashlights to signal his approach.
The pilot came down through all the ordnance to the pick-up area. Steve covered
the soldier's face on the stretcher from the dirt and debris that the rotor
blast kicked up. Just before the chopper skids hit the ground the landing light
washed over the LZ. The wounded were loaded and the pilot hauled ass out with
the tail rotor high and the nose low. Steve said the man was like a God to the
guys on the ground. Steve stated that he had thought about this pilot for all
of the forty years since he has been home.
Steve asked Kipp Miller if by any chance he knew who that hero was so many years
ago. Kipp O. Miller stood with what looked to us a stoic expression. He looked
at Steve and with their eyes locked; he shocked Steve by saying "Steve, that
pilot was me". "Are you kidding me" Steve said. "I can't believe it, are you
kidding me. For forty years I thought about that crazy night. You're the
hero". Kipp and Steve fought back the tears. Kipp told Steve and all within
ear shot all he did was his job that night. To him the real heroes were the men
on LZ Grant. They were troopers of the 2/12th Cavalry and the artillerymen of A
Battery, 1/30th Artillery and C Battery, 1/77th Artillery. It was March 11, 1969
and they were fighting for their lives.
Steve Carter and the other Cavalrymen on the ground loaded the wounded, fought
the NVA and prevented the LZ from being overrun. Col. Miller was right. Steve
and the men on the LZ are heroes. Kipp O. Miller was awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross for his actions that night. His chopper, a UH-1H and his crew
answered the call for assistance from LZ Grant. He directed artillery fire that
eliminated an anti aircraft position. He directed artillery fire on enemy
rockets and mortar sites. First LT Miller also voluntarily flew onto the LZ and
extracted the wounded that Steve Carter and the others loaded, exposing
themselves to hostile ground fire.
Steve was right. Kipp O. Miller is a hero. That night,
March 11, 1969, both men met each other briefly halfway around the world. For
forty years they both wanted to know who the other man was. Forty years,
halfway around the world and back to where they both live in the same town, in
Manchester, CT. They finally met at a meeting of the First Cavalry Division
that they both are members of and the same town in Connecticut. Are you kidding
me? I can't believe it! But it is true. They received the affirmation from
each other that it did happen forty years ago. Even if at times it seemed like
a dream. "Are you kidding me"?
Keith Morin was a Sergeant with the 1/7th Calvary RVN 1970-71 and he can be
reached at nriinc@sbcglobal.net