The most beautiful sound you will ever hear
May 10, 2019 14:35:28 #
Oops! Don’t know how the “Finger” got in there?! Sorry! No disrespect!!!! My bad texting. My fingers are too big for this little keypad.
May 10, 2019 14:42:51 #
I also am familiar with the thwump, thwump of the Huey, however, I was crew chief on C-130E #877 and it's the sound of 4 Allison T-56-A-7 turbo props that is unforgettable for me. Love that "Herk"!!
May 10, 2019 22:30:01 #
I had frequent flyer miles in Huey's some seated and one horizontal to the hospital. Later I ran our Brigade chopper pad, got in some stick time. Considered flight school but transfered to MI instead when I returned stateside. Then back to Nam for another 18 months. Fit in VN language school in D.C. also.
May 11, 2019 00:12:40 #
tinwhistle wrote:
I also am familiar with the thwump, thwump of the Huey, however, I was crew chief on C-130E #877 and it's the sound of 4 Allison T-56-A-7 turbo props that is unforgettable for me. Love that "Herk"!!
Fellow “Herk” crew chief. Mostly C-130E and AC-130E Spectre Gunship. Also WC-130E.
May 11, 2019 00:24:09 #
My C-130 frequent flyer miles got me a Bangkok roundtrip flight . Another heartbreaker, didn't count as an R&R.
Derry
Derry
May 11, 2019 15:38:15 #
I was in the 82nd Airborne. We used to jump Huey’s. It was like stepping off of a dinning room table.
May 11, 2019 16:18:42 #
May 11, 2019 16:52:17 #
May 11, 2019 17:04:55 #
May 11, 2019 17:38:18 #
My other post I spoke to the "Welcome Home". This one is about the sound of the "Huey". At our base they were constantly going over or by us. I rode in UH-1s twice, one an "E Ticket Ride"*. I also rode in Chinooks. Here where I live there are a couple of nearby small military bases, a reserve airbase and a couple of National Guard bases in a 30 mile circle so every so often we get military copters going over. When I am outside and the sound is that "Huey whup" I look up and once or twice a year it is not the UH-1s, it is AH-1s.
An Army Reserve copter pilot who I worked with on weekends in the operations department of the Railway Museum about 5-10 years ago loved flying the "Snakes". He had flown every copter in the Army inventory since the 80s but his true love was gunships. He said if he went back into combat (he was in both Iraq go rounds) he wanted the Apache, but his real love and best memories was the AH-1 Cobra. He loved those things.
*My "E Ticket Ride". I didn't get out on outpost, patrol etc much, not even for a support trooper. I was in the Tac Ops Center of the 1st Log Qui Nhon Sub-area Command and held 4 jobs - office clerk typist, classified documents control clerk, classified reports clerk and Alternate Custodian of Documents (got that job from a Major and gave it to a Captain when I left-I was an EM Sp4/Sp5 when I had the job) so they did not like to let me go out anywhere I was at risk. Well in two years I did get to go on outpost duty twice and a couple of remote one day guard posts. One of those guard posts the Colonel sent his driver to get me when he needed a safe opened and everyone who knew the combos was off base. But the other time I was at a mountain outpost (7 day TDY assignment) guarding a pass and it just so happened that of the three people besides me who knew the combos-one was on R&R, one was off to Saigon delivering some classified documents and the other (a Major no less) hadn't opened any of the safes in so long he had forgotten the combos. Normally it didn't make any difference because our office worked 24/7 and the safes were seldom locked. But someone on the over night shift who was fresh from duty in the Pentagon automatically closed the main safe and spun the dial as per security routine. Then first thing on the day shift the Colonel wanted a document - they couldn't open the safe. He had a meeting with a General after lunch (the document was for the meeting) so he called the General and "borrowed" his Huey and pilot. They radioed the Platoon Leader at the outpost and I was told I had 10 minutes to pack my stuff (only the 3rd day of my 7 days) and be at the chopper pad on top of the mountain. The copter came in dumped off my replacement and a group of 6 replacements for guys whose 7 days was over (why waste a chopper ride when they were due to be replaced in a couple of hours anyway), the 6 other guys got on first (they had been waiting a while when I got told to pack) I arrived and the only place that wasn't already taken or filled with gear going down off the mountain was sitting on the deck next to the door gunner with my legs out the door and my arm through a cargo net and one restraining strap around my waist. The gunner saw I had an M-14 with selector and bi-pod and told me to lock and load. If he opened fire I was to shoot at anything that looked like it needed to be shot. The mountain side was about 2-3 miles down to the valley floor with several ridge lines and forested the whole way. The pilot lifted up to about 30' above the trees and then hugged the terrain at top speed down that mountain like a demented roller coaster and at the bottom he pulled a tight turn and followed the road to the base, still at low altitude with that huey going flat out. Like I said, an E Ticket ride. Not the kind of thing a classified documents clerk got to do often. That was when the Colonel took the Alternate Custodian title away from the major and gave it to me. That title became his justification to never send me on any TDY assignments again.
An Army Reserve copter pilot who I worked with on weekends in the operations department of the Railway Museum about 5-10 years ago loved flying the "Snakes". He had flown every copter in the Army inventory since the 80s but his true love was gunships. He said if he went back into combat (he was in both Iraq go rounds) he wanted the Apache, but his real love and best memories was the AH-1 Cobra. He loved those things.
*My "E Ticket Ride". I didn't get out on outpost, patrol etc much, not even for a support trooper. I was in the Tac Ops Center of the 1st Log Qui Nhon Sub-area Command and held 4 jobs - office clerk typist, classified documents control clerk, classified reports clerk and Alternate Custodian of Documents (got that job from a Major and gave it to a Captain when I left-I was an EM Sp4/Sp5 when I had the job) so they did not like to let me go out anywhere I was at risk. Well in two years I did get to go on outpost duty twice and a couple of remote one day guard posts. One of those guard posts the Colonel sent his driver to get me when he needed a safe opened and everyone who knew the combos was off base. But the other time I was at a mountain outpost (7 day TDY assignment) guarding a pass and it just so happened that of the three people besides me who knew the combos-one was on R&R, one was off to Saigon delivering some classified documents and the other (a Major no less) hadn't opened any of the safes in so long he had forgotten the combos. Normally it didn't make any difference because our office worked 24/7 and the safes were seldom locked. But someone on the over night shift who was fresh from duty in the Pentagon automatically closed the main safe and spun the dial as per security routine. Then first thing on the day shift the Colonel wanted a document - they couldn't open the safe. He had a meeting with a General after lunch (the document was for the meeting) so he called the General and "borrowed" his Huey and pilot. They radioed the Platoon Leader at the outpost and I was told I had 10 minutes to pack my stuff (only the 3rd day of my 7 days) and be at the chopper pad on top of the mountain. The copter came in dumped off my replacement and a group of 6 replacements for guys whose 7 days was over (why waste a chopper ride when they were due to be replaced in a couple of hours anyway), the 6 other guys got on first (they had been waiting a while when I got told to pack) I arrived and the only place that wasn't already taken or filled with gear going down off the mountain was sitting on the deck next to the door gunner with my legs out the door and my arm through a cargo net and one restraining strap around my waist. The gunner saw I had an M-14 with selector and bi-pod and told me to lock and load. If he opened fire I was to shoot at anything that looked like it needed to be shot. The mountain side was about 2-3 miles down to the valley floor with several ridge lines and forested the whole way. The pilot lifted up to about 30' above the trees and then hugged the terrain at top speed down that mountain like a demented roller coaster and at the bottom he pulled a tight turn and followed the road to the base, still at low altitude with that huey going flat out. Like I said, an E Ticket ride. Not the kind of thing a classified documents clerk got to do often. That was when the Colonel took the Alternate Custodian title away from the major and gave it to me. That title became his justification to never send me on any TDY assignments again.
May 11, 2019 17:54:57 #
Good story, I had a number of E ticket Huey rides. During one the AC took a round thru his throttle tube, it twisted so we ended up taking a slow ride back.
During my second Nam sabbatical I was North of you at Quang Nghai for a while, Phoenix Program, extended to get out of there and to MACSOG then out.
Seven years, seven days, 30 months in Nam.
During my second Nam sabbatical I was North of you at Quang Nghai for a while, Phoenix Program, extended to get out of there and to MACSOG then out.
Seven years, seven days, 30 months in Nam.
May 11, 2019 18:36:11 #
Derryg wrote:
Good story, I had a number of E ticket Huey rides. During one the AC took a round thru his throttle tube, it twisted so we ended up taking a slow ride back.
During my second Nam sabbatical I was North of you at Quang Nghai for a while, Phoenix Program, extended to get out of there and to MACSOG then out.
Seven years, seven days, 30 months in Nam.
During my second Nam sabbatical I was North of you at Quang Nghai for a while, Phoenix Program, extended to get out of there and to MACSOG then out.
Seven years, seven days, 30 months in Nam.
Gee, with 2 yrs, 2 months and 2 days time according to my DD 214 I now feel like I just visited as a tourist. Of course that was out of a 3 yr RA enlistment, but I only did 2 yrs 10 months, they sent me home the day I got back to the states. No use sending me anywhere when I was being discharged in 2 months.
My oldest has done a fair amount of time sitting in choppers. But more time in C-130 s and C-17 s or floating under a chute after leaving said plane. He did 6 years active duty as a combat engineer, one tour in Iraq. Two years with the Ft Bragg Special Operations HQ engineer unit. Trained for Civil Affairs while he was there and went straight to an Airborne CA Reserve unit here in CA. Now he is a jump master and path finder. He goes off on short duty assignments a few times a year, training etc. He even got to invade Australia. His unit teamed up with some Canadian troops, got them up to speed on US gear in Alaska then they joined up with a bunch of paratroops to fly to Australia in US and Australian C-17 s and jumped over a big base as the aggressors in a large war game. How many can say they were part of a US-Canadian Invasion of Australia?
May 11, 2019 18:47:04 #
Invade Australia, tuff job butt someone had to do it. I've known, worked with some Pathfinders in a previous life.
When I returned I spent about seven years in Kalifornia, Riverside County., San Diego then Orange County. Then got recruited by Bob Brown, SOF magazine and off to the peeples repubic of Boulder CO. Saw a lot more of the world with SOF than while in the Army.
When I returned I spent about seven years in Kalifornia, Riverside County., San Diego then Orange County. Then got recruited by Bob Brown, SOF magazine and off to the peeples repubic of Boulder CO. Saw a lot more of the world with SOF than while in the Army.
May 11, 2019 20:53:28 #
Derryg wrote:
Invade Australia, tuff job butt someone had to do it. I've known, worked with some Pathfinders in a previous life.
When I returned I spent about seven years in Kalifornia, Riverside County., San Diego then Orange County. Then got recruited by Bob Brown, SOF magazine and off to the peeples repubic of Boulder CO. Saw a lot more of the world with SOF than while in the Army.
When I returned I spent about seven years in Kalifornia, Riverside County., San Diego then Orange County. Then got recruited by Bob Brown, SOF magazine and off to the peeples repubic of Boulder CO. Saw a lot more of the world with SOF than while in the Army.
Yeah it took him a few months, several trips to a Laundromat with oversize machines and a lot of "words" to get the smell of kangaroo poop out of his gear. Seems the one area they did simulated combat it was nearly impossible to go prone without landing on some.
May 11, 2019 21:02:51 #
That's one type I haven't encountered, so far. I considered an R&R to Australia, heard it was expensive so I went to Bankok again.
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