H-19 Stories

I was assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB OH from 64-68. We had two H-19s and more than enough maintenance folks. I also flew on the birds.

We flew a lot of VIP support missions to Newark AFS near Columbus so we had this bird painted as in the photo and had the inside all plushed up, plushed up as much as an H-19 can be plushed up.

On one trip I remember were we taking this General to Newark. We had nice soft cushions on the seats and had new head sets for the VIPs and carried water and coffee.

The flight was uneventful and just before landing the pilot told the General he hoped he enjoyed the trip. The General's reply was "nice navigation skills, just follow the highway and railroads". That was his only comment. Oh well just another day. The most direct route was along the highway and the railroads.

I had the opportunity to fly on FCFs as co-pilot. One day we were hovering out in the big grassy area which is now pretty near where the Air Force Musuem is located. Any way it got to the point in the checklist to accomplish a servo off check. It was my task to switch the servos off and keep my hand on the switch just in case something went wrong so I could turn the servos back on immediately.

When I turned the servos off I swear the chopper jumped sideways about 20 feet. I immediately turned them back on. The pilot, and I don't recall his name, asked what the hell did you turn them back on for? I said I thought something was wrong. He said I would have told you if something were wrong besides I am not going to let this GD thing kill me.

He was the pilot that once told me that any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

As we phased out the H-19s I had the opportunity to ferry one of them to the Davis Monthan storage facility. It was a memorable trip and I realized how big Texas is as we spent three nights in Texas and not because of a problem.

There was one small airport where we needed to refuel that had instructions to buzz the small town and someone would come to the little airport to provide us the fuel we required. We did and they did.

The most pleasurable experience I had in the Air Force was there at Wright-Patterson. I was flying a co-pilot on a local flight and the pilot asked what I wanted to do. I told him my wife's parents lived about 30 minutes flying time from the base and I would like to fly over their house.

When we arrived at there home Carol's Dad was outside and as soon as he seen us he went inside and brought Carol's Mother with him. There wasn't any place to land nearby so we hovered for a few minute and waved at each other. Later Carol's Dad told me he told everyone that had seen us that his son-in-law was in the helicopter and he didn't know how it could sit still in the air but he knew they could. A very pleasant memory for me even to ths day. (Jim Moore)