Another old war story

Punomatic.. Well in your case I do agree PUNS are often Pollitically incorrect. However it never hurts to be polite to others, To not cause them needless pain.

For example.. If I speak of a "Bitch" Odds are it is one like Isis (Innafree's Isis, and AKC Registered Grand Champion Siberian Husky Bitch)  DOG, denotes a MALE did you know that.

But many,, Well they use that term differently....

(it was fun when Isis won her first Blue... Her master posted the win, including the class, and one of my co-workers went ballistic over the class name (Bitch pupplies six months to 1 year).)

But though I do agree there are some conditions where... Well you got to say what has to be said. But for the most part.. Better to be polite.

I might add Isis is well named, She is one beautiful Canine.

Well I must say the thread has evolved from an old thread with some great chopper 'war stories' to the derivation of canine names with a bit of PC inserted. What a brew huh? LOL.  But, for Bill, thank you very  much for those stories and keep them coming as you recall them. I am sure all of us military vets could drop in a story or two about their experiences and I would hate to see them devolve into something not intended. The term 'racism' is used too frequently these days. Reminds me of the old story about yelling fire in a crowded theater and yelling wolf too often.  I won't go further with that but as this thread hits it's six year anniversary I hope we can continue it on a positive note.

Bill (the missileman, not the Huey pilot. lol)

HueyPilotVN said:

Sorry if I started a political discussion here.  That was not my intent.  Just part of the story.

Again I encourage anyone to jump in with their Old War Story.

For me it is kind of like therapy.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm quite sure that was the reason for the author to write that Hornet 33 book I mentioned before. 
He had a fragging story too, for what it's worth....

Bill N said:

I can't tell of how many times I heard of this from a couple of Army friends who served in Vietnam.  Didn't they call it 'fragging' or something to that effect Bill?  Vietnam was not the finest hour for some of our drafted ground troops but most others did their duty and even gave their lives for a suspect cause.  Today's vets and active duty troops are given the utmost of respect and I am so happy to see that in my lifetime.

Bill

Click to expand...

"Fragging" was a very small part of it. War is a very dangerous business. Many accidents, "Friendly fire" and such. We had 13 killed and twice that wounded in my own infantry (11B)  company (Army B-3-8 4h Inf, Div, 1969-70) in a few seconds from one of our own heavy artillery rounds. That was our largest accident during the year, there were several others.

In fact, the accident rate in Vietnam was quite close to the combat KIA rate. Perhaps not unusual in any war.

-Don-  Reno, NV

I have been reading thru my old posts and I am going to resurrect this group of stories in the hope that someone that wants or needs to tell their stories will add to the thread.

I also hope that it stays true to the original intent of telling positive stories and not getting sidetracked by such subjects as racism or politics.

That was never my intent when sharing the stories but rather as a kind of therapy for me.

HueyPilotVN said:

I have been reading thru my old posts and I am going to resurrect this group of stories in the hope that someone that wants or needs to tell their stories will add to the thread.

I also hope that it stays true to the original intent of telling positive stories and not getting sidetracked by such subjects as racism or politics.

That was never my intent when sharing the stories but rather as a kind of therapy for me.

Click to expand...

) )Go for it Bill.  I may be able to dredge up one or two that would stand your hair on end.

Bill

While Steve and Jackie, "Jackiemac" were visiting us last month I told them a few old stories.

I am bumping this thread for them.

HueyPilotVN said:

While Steve and Jackie, "Jackiemac" were visiting us last month I told them a few old stories.

I am bumping this thread for them.

Click to expand...

I did read them all after our visit Bill but of course they are better told in person!!

jackiemac said:

I did read them all after our visit Bill but of course they are better told in person!!

Click to expand...

Did he take many pictures? For you, I hope not.

Rene T said:

Did he take many pictures? For you, I hope not.

Click to expand...

Only of my best side Rene 

I find this thread fascinating having worked in the helicopter industry for 13 years. My dad was an RCAF airframe and hydraulics instructor during WWII. He would drive five days before flying five feet. When I asked about it he said he was always afraid of seeing one of his former students on the ground crew, after some of the stunts those guys pulled he wouldn't take the chance. I laughed at the time but now see what he meant.
We had a number of Viet Nam vets flying for us in the 90's, some became very good at civilian tasks but others .never got over the combat mode. Normally they would fly at a maximum of 90% full power to leave a safety zone and conserve fuel. We had a Vietnamese who flew b***s to the wall at 110% 50' off the tree tops, scared the daylights out of the passengers. He was released before he killed anybody.

After chatting with Bill it sounded like the skills of these pilots was incredible. They had to do manoeuvres that would frighten the life out of you but they practiced and could do them in their sleep.

Most of the pilots I experienced in RVN had a very high B/B ratio. I say that with the utmost respect for their courage and skill. They flew so much and on the edge that they became one with their machine.

Tom

They flew so much and on the edge that they became one with their machine.

Click to expand...

Those that didn't do so didn't last very long in a combat environment.

I just reread a lot of this thread and will comment on one where Bill was made the Test Flight Pilot for his unit along with a couple others.

I worked in a General Support/Depot company in VN.  After being there for six months I was assigned the job of going over aircraft after they came out of rebuild.  We did a lot of rebuilds.  What I would do is take the tech manual and spend hours going over every detail of the ship.  Check all the nuts and bolts were safetied, check pitch settings for main and tail rotor blades, make sure all fluid levels were full, and in general that the AC was flight worthy.  Then I would go get one of the test pilots, I think we had three as well,  together we would run the AC up and check all voltages rotor blade tracking and such.  That took several more hours.  Once satisfied we would hover the AC for a while or until the test pilot was happy with it, and then test fly it.  The company rule was that if I was not willing to fly in the left seat, the pilot wouldn't fly it either.  I did a lot of that.

One day we had a ship that I deemed ready for test flight, but the pilot who I flew with a lot said I should get a hair cut, as I was getting scraggly, and he would take some mechanics on the flight with him.  Worked for me.  I came back from my hair cut to find a very angry test pilot.  He asked me if I was sure the 45 degree gear box was full of lubricant.  I replied I was.  He then showed me the box and sight glass was devoid of any fluid.  In a few more minutes of flight it could have failed causing severe problems.  I assured him it had been full.

I had a mechanic fill it up again and we ran the AC up on the ground.  In fifteen minutes the gear box was dry.  The seals were bad and I was forgiven.

It's little things like this that kill people.

Another time I was test flying with a new pilot that I really didn't know.  He was one of those that liked to get the most out of the AC.  We were contouring a mountain which was very steep.  In fact we were climbing almost vertical just a few feet from the trees.  As we went over the top and he dropped the Collective to descend down the other side something went through the rotor blades with a clang, clang.  Scared the bejeebers out of us and we returned to base immediately.  I spent hours inspecting the rotor blades as well as the entire ship and never found any evidence of what caused the noise.  I originally thought maybe a mechanic had left a tool someplace and when we went negative Gs it had flown up through the blades, or I was looking for bullet holes.  Never found anything.

Heli_av8tor said:

Most of the pilots I experienced in RVN had a very high B/B ratio. I say that with the utmost respect for their courage and skill. They flew so much and on the edge that they became one with their machine.

Tom

Click to expand...

B/B??

Balls to Brains

(Did I say that out loud?)

Heli_av8tor said:

Balls to Brains

(Did I say that out loud?)

Click to expand...

Ha ha, not when its written down.

Cindy's Uncle Tom was a helicopter mechanic in Korea.  One of the stories he liked to tell was the time he was on a flight with a green Second Lieutenant and groundfire hit a rotor blade, forcing them down in enemy territory.

The pilot successfully landed the chopper, Tom got out and saw there was about 6 ft. missing from the end of one of the rotor blades.  He then proceeded to shoot off a similar amount from the other blade, told the pilot to take off and they flew successfully back to base.

When they got there, the SL was livid about Tom destroying the second $10,000 rotor blade and brought him up on charges of intentional destruction of government property.

When it got to the Base CO, he called both of them into his office and asked each of them what happened.  When it was Tom's turn he explained he had field-balanced the rotor blades with the only tool available.  The CO then looked directly at the SL and asked if he seriously intended to court-martial the Sergeant who just saved his life.

The charges were dropped and Tom got a commendation for his ingenuity. 

Lou I think I would ask Bill our Huey Pilot VN to comment on the likelihood of that story.  I see it as only a enlisted man makes officer look dumb fabrication or maybe just a stretch.  But I stand ready to listen to any chopper pilots view.

Bill