Some of Bill Crawfords Photo Mapping Tales

That is CPC corrosion preventive compound on the nose. We painted all the seams & chipped paint because we operated off the LST & it helped to keep the corrosion off the chopper. One day my pilot, Dick Bourne ask me if I could paint an 8 ball on the nose & I said heck yeah. We had 2 crews working off 2 LST's & we both had engine changes so we pulled into Naha port & towed the choppers down the highway with a truck to Naha AB. The base commander had a really nice H-19, all painted up real pretty & we took it & painted a big cherry on the nose & used the call sign CHERRY. Then we went over to rescue & took one of their H-19's. The CO said I can't keep you from taking the chopper but you have to paint over the RESCUE on either side of the nose so people won't think it belongs to us. So we painted out the rescue on both sides & also painted a black bar across the front of the nose like the 3 bar jackpot on a slot machine & called that one JACKPOT. Ah it was great back then when the photo mappers had such a high priority, we could get anything we needed from anyone. I'll send a couple more, 8-Ball the morning after a typhoon hit us off Okinawa & me checking for damage & lifting the other chopper off the ship to tow it to the base.

The main land Chinese & the Taiwan Chinese were fighting over to islands of Chiemoy & Matsu. We were operating near that area & we wanted them to know that we were Americans, so we painted the biggest flag that we could get on the chopper. This is the radio operator painting the 50 star flag even though there was only 49 states at the time. We had 1 pilot, 2 mechanics,1 radio operator,1 medic,1 cook & 3 ground station guys that we put up on the mountain on board a navy reserve LST operated by 47 Japanese. We told them where we needed to go & they would take us there & we put the guys on the hill, the B-50's would fly their photo & electronic missions & if every thing was good, we took the guys off the hill & moved them to the next place. I was stationed at Misawa AB Japan & went TDY to the photo mapping outfit at Clark for 90 or 60 days at a time, I spent a total of 11 months on the ships, from Sandakan Borneo up through all of the Philippines, Taiwan, Okinawa & all the islands in between. I used to leave my clothes in the barracks at Clark when I rotated back to Misawa because most of the guys at Misawa didn't like that TDY but I loved it, so I would be my own replacement & go right back to the PI get my stuff & fly back out to the ship. What & adventure.
(Bill Crawford)

H-21 Tales

The Christmas tree was the hydraulic servos that were under the cockpit of the H-21. They were accessed by removing a panel under the nose. I think there were four of them & they were criss crossed over top of each other & a bear to work on the top ones. I remember tapeing a socket to the end of my finger to get a bolt in one of them.

After our H-3's went to Vietnam we got two H-21B's for drone recovery at Tyndall AFB. When mine went in for periodic inspection John Gledhill would say do you want me to do the flight control cables & I would tell him John if you'll do those cables you won't have to do anything else. He was really good at that, everyone else hated it. (Bill Crawford)

Bill, you are so right about the Christmas tree. They were a bugger to work on. I crewed one at Tyndall which we used to recover drones from the gulf. We worked out of Appalachicola Municipal airport which it is called now. Back then it was just a dilapidated airfield with some run down buildings. I also crewed one at the 74th AARSq at Fairbanks Ak. Were you stationed at Tyndall also? Being short also I remember one time jumping in the back door and the drive shaft door panel was down. It caught me right across the bridge of the nose. I still have the scar. I really enjoyed my time on them especially the drone recovery. We used a long fishing pole affair with a hook like affair to hook the cargo cable latch to a loop on the drone then lifted them out of the water. When the seas were rough we would get the wheels in the water sometimes. The boys from South Carolina who had come down to help on one of the William Tells lost one in the bay when it swallowed a valve. They were picked up all sitting on top of it and it sitting on the bottom of the bay in shallow water. The cafe we used to eat at ( mouth watering oysters) is still there. (Bob Runninger)

Prairie Fire Emergency Exfil – 18 Nov 69

One Prairie Fire emergency exfil that I vividly recall occurred on 18 Nov 1969. Jerry Kibby was my co-pilot two FE's /door gunners were SSgt Jim Burns and SSgt Charle Hill. The SOG team had come into contact with the NVA close to "The Trail" during the night. After a running battle, they were surrounded and under attack. Of the six team members (two Americans & four indigenous), one had been killed and two others were wounded. Unfortunately, the weather in the area was terrible; low clouds, poor visibility and severe turbulence. We launched ASAP from NKP with three CH-3s and four A-1 escorts. On arrival in the area, we made contact with the NAIL FAC who had a Heavy Hook (SOG) rider with him. I was pleased to discover that the NAIL was 1/Lt Hank Haden, an outstanding young FAC from NKP with whom I had worked other emergency exfils. Hank was below the overcast and, despite the fact the clouds were almost on the karst tops, was directing air strikes against the enemy. He advised us that the turbulence in the area was quite severe and that our planned approach route to the team was unusable due to the low clouds. The good news was that there was a small hole in the undercast that we could descend through.

The bad news was that the hole was over a known 23 mm NVA gun.

Obviously, there was no choice and we went through the hole. Once the
formation was below the cloud layer, following standard tactics the other two
helicopters held clear (while keeping us in sight) as we followed the FAC
into the team's location. We spotted the team's smoke on a steep ridge line that was covered with tall elephant grass. They were under small arms and automatic weapon fire and our escorting A-1s were delivering protective ordnance. The steep slope of the ridge prevented a landing so we hovered with the nose wheel on the ground and the main gear in the air over
the precipice. The wind turbulence coming over the edge of the ridge was indeed severe and the CH-3 was bucking wildly as we hovered.

Despite the 30 years that have elapsed, I clearly recall my initial glimpse
of the team as they came into the area of elephant grass blown flat by the
rotor downwash. The first two team members were dragging their dead comrade by his boots. With the helicopter bucking like a rodeo bull, the team had difficulty getting the body on board and it seemed like an eternity before
all were finally on board. The A-1s continued to lay down protective fire as
we came safely off the ridge line.

After the exfil, we had the privilege of having a beer with the surviving
team members at the SOG Heavy Hook compound at NKP. At that time, I asked the Heavy Hook commander, Major Bill Shelton, why, since they were under fire, didn't the team leave the body. He explained to me the importance to the Nungs/ Vietnamese of returning the body of the team member to his home village for a proper Buddhist funeral. That the SOG Special Forces members would go to that extent (recovering the body while under fire and managing to get it aboard a nearly out of control helicopter) to assure the loyalty and future support of their indigenous troops, made me respect them more than ever! Those guys were unbelievable! (Bob Arnau Pilot)

Hi Jim,
Yep! I remember the mission well .... I think I got my 5th DFC for this mission. I'll have to check my records to be sure. What you sent me is Bob Arnau's story from the pilots seat and here is Jerry Kibby's side from the co-pilots seat. (Jim Burns FE)

If you don't mind my "view from the other seat", I would like to add a little to the below. The A-1s which were providing close air support for the mission were unable to work in their usual way, i.e., near vertical descent firing/dropping weapons followed by a near vertical climb-out and turn back for another near vertical pass at the target area. The combination of low clouds and high terrain forced them to stay under the clouds in order to be of use and they had to make long horizontal passes at the target area, during which they strafed with their 20 mm cannons for as much of the pass as they could. After passing the target area, they had to remain under the clouds with the ground still in sight and fly a horizontal loop back to the target area for another pass - and while they were doing this, they had to avoid the high terrain, each other and the two other CH-3s on the mission. The result of this was a lot less supporting fire on the target than would have been possible in different meteorological conditions.When the team came into sight (popped up out of the elephant grass, by my observation), they were (as you said, Bob) dragging the dead team member. This was my first time as copilot in the "low bird", and I was backing up Bob on the controls in a non-interfering way. He was having to fight the winds to try to keep the nose gear on the top of the peak, and I don't think he noticed that the heavy head winds had resulted in the rotor blades being so low in front of the helicopter that they were almost at belt-level with the approaching team members. There was not time, as the team approached, pulling their dead mate, to tell Bob about the problem. I pulled back on the collective slightly, which caused two things (maybe three, if you count pissing off Bob to an extent), it raised the path of the rotor blades and it caused us to back-off slightly. But it also allowed the team to move under the blade path while it was higher than it had been initially. When we had the team on board, Bob turned us to face down-hill and we accelerated just above ground level down the hill as fast as we could go. As we went down, and prior to pulling into the clouds, we passed right over a manned anti-aircraft position - which did not have time to come to bear on our aircraft. I also recall a sudden sickening feeling as we ran down the hill - smoke in the aircraft. I recognized the source within a second or less as the smoke from our own machine guns. Our FE's were putting out all of the fire they could from our M-60s, and the shape of the CH-3 causes a reverse airflow, pulling air (and gun smoke)from the back up to the front and out the windows.I met one of the team members we pulled out that day at a bar-b-que at the NKP Heavy Hook detachment some time after this mission. He sat across from me while we ate and told the story of his last mission as a team lead, the one which made him decide he had had enough of that for a while. As he described the mission, I thought it sounded familiar and I asked some specifics that confirmed it was the mission which Bob described. That Special Forces NCO, once he knew I was part of the crew that got him and his team out, tried to give me anything and everything of value that he had - which in the situation of the day was mostly weapons. I declined his offers, as we were all well provided with personal firearms. He did tell me something's I had not known about the mission. One was that the wounded in their group were wounded by their own grenades, which they had to lay down in a short-long pattern to try to keep the enemy off of them. The other thing he told me that I did not know before was that our helicopter, as it sat there with the nose gear on the karst to pick them up, was actually on top of some of the NVA surrounding them.I sure hope he made it through the rest of the war.Anyway, these are some of my recollections about the day in addition to what you wrote already. Use them or don't use them as you see fit. (Jerry Kibby C0-Pilot)

I remember well the difficult time Bob was having keeping the bird in a hover, fighting the winds coming across the ridge line. As Jerry says, the A-1's were make the strafing passes along the top part of the ridge line and on one of the passes, I remember us backing off a bit and then getting back into a good 'bucking' hover where we could get the team and their dead on board. Just at the time we backed off, one of the A-1's opened up on a strafing pass and at the time I thought Bob must have thought we were taking ground fire, I didn't realize the reason we backed off was because Jerry was trying to keep the team from getting hit by the blades. I also never knew we were hovering on top of some of the NVA troops, until I got Jerry's story.
Later,
Jim Burns FE.

Laotian Evacuation 1970

Hi Guys
Here's some pictures of the evacuation of refugees in northern Laos. I think that most of us were envolved in this one.5 Jan-15 Jan 1970, we moved 6,105 people & a lot of animals.The guy in the center of the picture of all the people who is staring me down had an AK-47 wrapped in a cloth when we pulled him in the front door & I took it away from him, he didn't like that. I gave it back to him when he got off the chopper. The pic of the H-3 heading for the valley was so over loaded that he was diving to get enough airspeed to fly.They were lucky to keep that one going.
(Bill Crawford)

Bill Crawford's H-43 Crash

Jim B & Jim H
Yes that was the H-43 that I crashed in. It happened 25 OCT 66 at the fire fighting practice field at Grandfield Oklahoma.When I got orders for Vietnam on the 43 the Air Force had the idea that it would be good to have the flight mechanic double as an airborne firefighter. I was sent to the school at Sheppard & had about two more flights to finish the course when the crash happened. The IP was Maj. Ed Duschene(spelling), I can't remember the student pilot's name, he was taking a check ride & was in a hover with the FSK attached when the engine blew, we came down on top of the FSK & the IP rolled it onto it's right side. My partner was a real fireman his last name was Blaze (spelling)& was sitting in the seat behind the pilot, he went over the pilots seat & out through the broken plexiglass nose.I was setting in the rear next to the step & I started to exit through the rear doors but the rotor blades were beating them selfs to death back there & what looked like turbine wheel buckets were flying around also, the fire started about that time, I reached for the fire hood that you wear when you go into a fire & the durn thing had fuel inside of it & was burning so I couldn't use it. I also didn't have the heavy firefighting gloves on at that time.That's when the inside of the chopper filled with thick black smoke & I didn't know up from down. I had one arm over my face & was feeling for the side door but because the chopper was on it's right side I was actually feeling the top of the cabin.At that point I was burning & thought to myself, your not going to get out of here,then I heard Blaze hollering my name & I lunged toward his voice & he grabbed my wrist & pulled me through the the opening behind the IP's seat & out the nose of the burning chopper. He & one of the pilots pulled me away, they were saying get the boot off get the boot off.it was burning & I slung my left leg & the boot went flying.There was another H-43 refuling at the other end of the field & when the pilot heard the engine blow he started his chopper & flew up to the crash & was outside opening the rear doors on the 43 when they got me out so they got me in the chopper & a medic sat in the seat by the side door, if he hadn't closed the door I would have jumped out before we got off the ground, I didn't want any part of another H-43. My face,neck & ears were burned,the back of my right hand was burned pretty bad.My left foot was really hurting,so I motioned to the medic to pull my sock off,since the sock wasn't burned he just reached over & jerked the sock off & the top of my foot came off with it. The rubber boot had fuel on it & burned for a longer time & held the heat long enough to cook my foot without burning my sock. I was the first patient to land on the new helipad at the Sheppard AFB hospital, I had an 8x10 color photo of them getting me off the chopper. The wing CO came to the hospital to visit the 4 of us & ask if he could do anything for us, I ask hin if he would get me some photos of the crash. In a couple of days I had large envelope full of 8x10 color photos. All of them were lost when I returned from Iceland in 1973. The next day the fire alarm went off in the hospital, they had a small fire, I didn't like that. A couple of days later a guy from the pysch ward got outside & dove under the back wheels of a big truck & died. This was getting to be crazy place.One day the IP's wife came to visit him & I had my left leg out from under the covers & she said you have red streaks moving up your leg,I started pushing the call button,I had blood poisoning & they had to get that under control. When I got well enough to get a wheelchair, I could go downstairs to the library. I had to keep my foot elevated all the time or it became very painful. Well I was sitting in the wheelchair with my foot up on one of the book shelves & the whole bookcase came away from the wall & fell on top of me books & all. I was glad to leave that place. I better stop all this, it's getting way to long.
(Bill Crawford)

H-19 Oil Servicing

I guess I never had much excitement during my chopper days. I don't even remember so much as getting a chip light!!! I do remember one night at Stead I was servicing the H-19 with oil. As I remember I couldn't see in the tank from the ground. It was a windy cold night and I ran the tank over. Oil everywhere down the outside and down under the oil tank. I spent most of the night cleaning up the mess. (Jim M)

The oil tank story has happened before. When we got old hopalong to the point that we could run the engine, the fuel & oil trucks were called to fill tanks. We were starting with empty fuel & oil tanks. The oil trucks were used for all the B-25s & were large. Well none of us had ever serviced an H-19 before & I was putting the oil in & using the dip stick to see if the tank was getting close to full, well you know the rest, the tank filled so fast that it looked like an oil well gusher. I never used the dip stick on an H-19 again.

We would pump oil from a 55 gal drum into the jerry can & then pour & look,pour & look. That's what we worked in when it was hot,swimming trunks & jump boots. Thats what I had on when the fuel tank that came from the salvage yard at Clark caught on fire, fighting a fire dressed like that is not fun. (Bill Crawford)

Choppers & Wires Don't Mix

Bob R, I have a simular story about wires & the chopper. While flying down the railroad tracks in the H-19 at Misawa Japan in 1958 or 59 we hit a telephone line between two hills. There were two pilots on the chopper, so I was down in the box & saw the wire just before we hit it. I keyed the mic but didn't even get the word out when it hit the nose & slid up to the windshield wiper & broke. We went back to the base to check for damage. The only thing we had was black marks from the covering on the wire all over the nose of the chopper. We had some A/2C from supply or something like that flying with us just to get a chopper ride, I took him aside & said you didn't see anything. The pilots went back to the office to talk it over. I went to the BX & bought two spray cans of silver paint & painted over all the black marks, you couldn't tell where they were. One of the pilots ( someone that we both know ) came out to the chopper after I had finished painting & ask me if there was any way that I could fix it so no one would know about it. I said take a look at the nose & he couldn't believe that I had fixed it that well & that fast. He said come to the office with me, he showed the other pilot my silver fingers & said it was already taken care of. I don't know if anyone ever new about it or not but nobody ever mentioned it. We were very lucky that the wire broke & didn't get into the rotor blades.
(Bill Crawford)

Jerry Bucknall Shoot Down of CH-3E 67-14702

On 15 January 69, I was flying with Maj. Henery and Capt Adams on a fateful mission. As I remember it, we were coming out of Nam from an over night stay due to a long mission the day before. We were a three bird gaggle and we were the low (lead) bird. We had no real data pertaining to angels or anything ---- no current codes because we were not on a mission, only dead heading home. It might have been a FAC but not sure who flagged us to help out in a pick up of a downed pilot. Understand, we were just RTB, when we got a call to assist. After minimal coordination we decided to give it a try and we wound up in a trap. VC machine guns were at the spot we were vectored into. Within seconds our number two engine, control tubes and hydraulic accumulators were gone. I remember the red mist in the cabin from the compressed air and hydraulic fluid. Rounds came up through the floors and in through the door. Everything seemed to be coming from the right side. We banked up and to the left (uncontrolled flight) did a 360 and went in hard. I remember everything flying around the cabin it felt as if we were almost inverted. After we hit we exited with our weapons and gear and set up a perimeter off the nose of the ship. Maj Henerey got on the radio and started calling for assistance. Since we were in direct sight of our sister ships we had no trouble correlating our position. We all had our radios out but only Gerry talked. If I remember correctly, Capt Adams was badly hurt. I remember I had my M-60 and the M-79 grenade launcher along with ammo. I looked back at the ship and it looked like a big spider with smoke coming out of the engine areas. The tail boom was broken and leaning off to the side, the front cockpit windows shattered and the electronics compartment door was pushed up to the window areas. The spider effect came from the blades, broken and hanging down. From the front it looked like a big dark spider smoking from its head. That particular sight remains in my memory till this day. Anyway, the attempt was made to get a Jolly Green to assist, they seemed to be in the area, not sure why. It was determined the area was too hot, VC were said to be on the ground and coming our way, Jolly Green did not want to come in at that time. Number two bird (I believe it was Capt Shetter, not sure about the name) said we are not leaving our own down there and came in and picked us up. An experience I'll never forget. Things could have been quite different had it not been for the courage of our brothers on the number two ship. Evidently we did everything right as we were referred to at the jungle school in the P.I. after that as part of the references of what to do in the event you get shot down. Anyway, memories do flood back with the appropriate stimuli, sometimes vague but always there. If my recollection is inaccurate in any way, it's mine and I'll stay with it.
(Jerry Bucknall)

NOTE: Hernand "Willy" Wilson was the other FE on this mission/Jim M
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I remember the day well. I was on a mission hauling drums of fuel from Ubon to the FOL. We heard a radio transmission concerning a Knife being down, nothing else. There was a lot of radio chatter going on with words on the Jollies but we then heard Dave Shetter say that he was going to go and get them. We still had no idea what the tail number was or the crew makeup. After what seemed like an eternity we again heard Dave radio "we got them and we're heading home". We had no crew identity until we returned to NKP, but we knew whoever it was they were safe and would fly another day. (Jim Moore 21st FE)

Runaway Rustlick Cart

The Rustlick Cart by Buck and Jim M: While Jim and I were at Kadena we kind of were running the flightline but that's another story altogether, part of our duties was to wash and rustlick the engines during postflight. This was a pretty laborious task as we had two levels of flight line to work at. Literally two levels, if you have ever been to Kadena there was a lower line and the upper line with a good sized hill in between. One evening Jim and I, as industrious as we were, were washing the birds on the lower line and when we finished that task decided we would take a short cut with the rustlick cart and rather than go around the flight line to get to the upper line we would just pull the cart up the hill using the bread truck. Well...the ground was damp and muddy and we were inclined to use a rope rather than anything substantial. So we backed the bread truck up to the edge of the top ramp and tied the rope from the truck bumper to the rustlick cart at the bottom and proceeded to pull the cart up the hill. The little wheels were not meant for the mud slope and the cart tipped over about half way up snapping the rope, the rope snapped up and hit the truck and the cart tumbled back down to the lower ramp. We had rustlick and water everywhere and it didn't do well for the cart either. Fortunately we did not damage the truck but had a hell of a time getting everything right again to finish the job on the birds on the upper ramp. The shortcut turned out to be one hell of a job. Jim and I were so clandestine with the complete operation not one knew but us what had transpired. So goes the story of the Rustlick Cart endeavor at Kadena...We still have a good laugh about it to this day...Actually you had to be there!!!....There you go Jim I spilled the beans...Buck
(Jerry Bucknall)

Jerry Bucknall Gored By A Bull

You guys reminded me of an incident that took place at Minot on the H-19's. Must be all the H-19 talk that jogged this one from the back room. We were in Missile Command, actually a base flight operation supporting the newly installed missile sites there. We would be tasked to transport the missile crews to the sites and back when their tour was over. The land the missile silos were on originally belonged to the farmers. Some farmers were really upset with the military coming in and taking over the land. They were compensated but we constantly had problems with obstacles and such being placed on the helo pads trying to prevent us from landing. One morning we arrived and found a bull on the pad. We hovered in and tried to scare him away, we eventually got close enough to where he was able to attack the front of the chopper and punch a hole in the clamshell door. Common sense overruled testosterone and we immediately backed off. We eventually landed elsewhere and had the crew trucked in. We wrote the damage up in the forms as "Gored By Bull" Hey Guys....that's no bull!!! We got all kinds of attention when we got back to base. We also found out later the bull was tethered to a stake right in the middle of the pad, he couldn't move if he wanted to. To my knowledge no action was ever taken against the farmer. (Jerry Bucknall)

Jim Burns Wild Huey Ride

My Huey went down in Cambodia due to the speed-decreaser gear box blowing up and catching on fire (this gear box reduced the engine speed and had a drive shaft that reversed the engine output shaft back to the front and into the main transmission). We had a team on board and were on the way to an insert. Capt. John Fiser was the pilot and he made a beautiful auto-rotation into a soft marshy area. As we were gathering up our gear and getting out of the bird, one of the SF team guys grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the engine compartment. The six man team, co-pilot (can't remember his name) and my left door gunner (Sgt. O'leary) all got out the left side and went to some downed trees for cover. I grabbed my M-16, survival vest, got my M-60 off it's mount, and wrapped a bunch of M-60 ammo belts over my shoulders and started out the right side, but only got about a foot when I discovered I had forgot to un-buckle my gunners belt. So I turned around and set the M-16 and M-60 down to free up my hands and get loose from the bird. As soon as I got loose I picked everything back up and started to head for a big bush at about the 2 o'clock position for cover, however I looked back and saw that Capt. Fiser was still in his seat and was struggling to reach around the seat armor plate and reach the door handle. So I went back, set down my gear again, and opened the door for him. Then we both headed for the big bush for cover. After a few minutes (it seemed like hours) I saw the rest of the guys off the left side of our bird so I went around the bush to get Capt. Fiser, so we could join up with the rest of the team and crew. I went all the way around the bush .... and no Capt. Fisher!!! Well then it was 'oh shit' time .... I'm all by myself!!!! So I started back down to the bird and was going toward the nose to get around to the other side when I saw one of our other birds setting a few yards off of my birds nose. Our gun-birds were orbiting over us and making a lot of noise and I didn't see or hear the slick come in, but when I saw it I turned and headed toward it. When I got there, Capt. Fiser was already there sitting in the cabin floor (thanks for the heads up Capt.!!!). I pilled in and we sat there for a while waiting for the team, co-pilot and left gun to show up, but after a bit we took off without them. I found out a little while later after I got on the intercom, that a second slick had came in right behind us and flew right over the rest of the troops so they could see them, and landed and picked them up. But in the mean time (before I got on the intercom an figured out what was going on), the high bird sent us back in to pick up the remaining two crew (which was Capt. Fiser and me). After we landed and was sitting there is when I got on the intercom an could hear the pilots talking to the high bird, that I figured out that someone had not counted us as already being picked up .... after I pointed out that one slick had picked up the co-pilot, left gun and six man team, and the bird I was sitting in had picked up the Pilot and the right gun.... that we were all accounted for and it was probably time to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!! Later, back at FOB II, the gun ship guys were telling me how 'cool' it was following us down .... "it was just like in the movies .... flames and smoke coming from our bird as we went down", I did point out that it was not as 'cool' inside the bird and that I had to go get a change of underwear!!! By the way this was about 3 or 4 days before Jackie Kennedy was paying an official visit to Cambodia, Saigon would not let any fighters go in an destroy the bird (didn't want any craters to cause any kind of incident with Jackie's visit), so they called up a CH-47 crew to go recover the bird. I was told later that when the CH-47 pilot found out where it was located he refused to go, but soon got a personal call from Gen. Westmorland who told him he would go get that bird that day, and bring it back across the fence. He told him he didn't care what the did with it once it was back in country, but that he would get it back. While all of this was going on the earth was rotating .... and it was almost pitch dark by the time the got it on the sling. We were listing to the recovery on the radio and there were a couple of times they though it was swinging to much (but couldn't see it because it was dark), and were about to pickle it off, but weren't sure it was in country yet so they hung onto it and got it back to Plaku. The next day they brought it up to FOB II and literally dropped it off (from about 10') causing it to hit the tail skid first (miss-aligning the tail boom), the skids (bending them outward to where the belly was almost touching the ground) and then to add insult to injury, when they released the strap, the buckle came down an knocked off the pitot tube.
(Jim Burns)

Jim Burns C-124 Tale

The C-124 was pulled out of the mud by a couple of local Thai CAT drivers (I think they were D-8's, but I'm not positive of this), that we hired to pull it up onto the ramp. After we got it moved to the ramp ... we started lobbying for it to be scrapped .... we thought it would make a good club house!! But alas, the AF sent some crews in from it's home base (Hickam AFB, HI) to repair it. It was still there when my TDY ended in Nov. 64, but I heard that they flew it out shortly after I had left. A little side note that I always saw as BS, was that the unit that owned this C-124 (don't remember their number right now...but it's on the nose gear door in one of the pictures) had flown some um--teen gazillion hours accident free. I kinda thought this would end their record .... but they got is classified as an incident ... and kept their record going .... sure looked like an accident the me!!
(Jim Burns)

Bob Runninger on Tracking H-19 in Vietnam

Thought I was gonna get fired one time in Nam when Ferguson and I were tracking the blades on my bird. I was in the cockpit running the chopper and Ferguson was on the pole. I had just pulled in about 25 Inches ( if I remember the settings right) nodded to Fergy to put the flag in and Capt. Hitte (sp) came over. We just went on doing the tracking. He stood there for a few minutes and then walked back in the office. Never heard any more about it. We always had a hard time getting one of the pilots down to run the birds so we just did it ourselves.
(Bob Runninger)

Bill Crawford and H-19 53-4410

Hi guys
Here's a few more pictures from the old days.This old H-19 & I crossed paths many times in many places. We first met in the Philippines in 1959 in the photo mapping outfit. The picture on the LST was at Naha port Okinawa in early 1960. That's a big yellow lemon painted on the nose, it says I AM AHH LEMON. The shadow on the LST is from my ship.The pic in front of the hanger is at Showa IRAN depot in Japan, we picked it up sometime in 1960 & took it back to Misawa.The pic in the school yard was somewhere south of Misawa after a tidal wave hit Japan in 1960. The pic of Me & Bob Mills was at Tachikawa Japan sometime between 1963 & 1965. When I went to the jungle survival school in January 1967 I was picked up by Curley Killough in none other that 53-4410. That was the last time I ever saw the old girl, right back where we first met eight years earlier.
(Bill Crawford)