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Eyeballing?

by Fernando De Pierris - B Trp 2/17th Cav. Banshee 46


I believe the most famous line I herard in Vietnam was from Carl Cvitcovich down in III Corps, near Tay Ninh. It went like this:

Cobra pilot - "what do you see?"

Carl - "a gook"

CP - "what is he doing?"

Carl - "eyeballing"

CP - "what do you mean eyeballing?"

Carl - "eyeballing, like in OCS, you know... shifting the eyes from side to side without moving the head"

CP - "what is he doing now?"

Carl - "still eyeballing"

CP - "Shoot him"

Carl - "while he is eyeballing?"

Seconds later the gook disappeared. Later in the day on the way home Carl's LOH had an engine failure and he autorotated into a rice paddy. The aircraft investigation resulted in the finding "pilot error while eyeballing" I picked him up in my Huey and had never seen Carl so pale in my life.

Fernando, Banshee 46


In OCS we called it "dog eyein'", and it would get you 40 pushups. I guess that's better'n E & Eing in the Delta.

Marcus A. Pryor Stogie 43 B 3/17 1968 Banshee 16 B 2/17 1969

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