F Battery, 79th Aerial Rocket Artillery Unit

F Battery, 79th A.R.A. Patch Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson	The last days of Blue Max Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson	In memory... Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson
I served with F/79th ARA from Jan. '72 to the end of Aug. '72. My call sign was Blue Max 24. I was with Blue Max through the entire Easter Offensive in '72. During that time Blue Max was among the first Cobra units to engage and destroy Russian-built tanks. A mission the Cobra was originally designed to perform, but prior to that time had never had the opportunity to do. During the offensive in '72 Blue Max lost 10 of the original 13 Cobras they had in inventory when it started. Among the lost Cobras were eight dead pilots including my roommate, Lt. Steve Shields (see picture of us together). Additionally, we also had the first and only Cobra crew that survived being blown in two by a SA-7 "Strella". They were at 4,500' AGL and fell out of control into a giant tree that broke their fall. The pilot was Cpt. Mike Brown and his copilot was CW-2 Marco Cordon. I got > to ride one in at Lai Khe with CW-2 Barry McIntyre the first pilot to engage a tank at An Loc. Luckily we both survived without a scratch. Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson		Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson
Reactivation of "Blue Max" Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson	Reunion - 4/97 Image courtesy of "Jet" Jackson

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