The 581st ARC in Korea

The above pictures are courtesy of Ensley Sisk. The top picture is the 581st crew, the next picture is one of the unit tents that burned when an oil heater overheated. The two on the bottom are of Ensley.

I left the states in May 1952 came back home in 1953. We were the 581st Air Resupply & Communications Wing (ARC). Our H-19s were the first in Korea. The Army 3rd Air Rescue Unit had some Bells. We were all stationed at K-16.

When we left Mt. Home Idaho our orders stated that we were going to Hawaii with 5,000 from our outfit. We loaded on the ship in San Francisco California in the evening. By midnight half of the troops were seasick. We left the bay the next morning.

When we arrived in Hawaii our small group of helicopter mechanics was called aside and was told that our orders were changed and we were not to unload. We went on to Japan and was told the same thing there by the Captain and we proceeded to Korea where the Captain said he had no orders for us, but the ship was picking up Army that was returning to the USA and we were not going.

We caught a ride to K-16 knowing they had helicopters. The 3rd Air Rescue welcomed us but we still had no orders. We worked on Bell Helicopters, and SA-16 Seaplanes. In about two months some Air Force Officers (our pilots) showed up. We still had no H-19's.

Finally we received word that we were to fly to Japan and pick up four H-19s and returned to K-16. Our work at K-16 consisted of dropping spy's and picking up spy's; dropping leaflets and picking up downed pilots behind the 38th parallel (our H19s had instruments where the Bells was flown by the seat of the pants. Nine of us enlisted guys spent about 10 weeks with no orders or no supervision. No wonder it took us so long in Korea. (Ensley Sisk)

To read more about the 581st check here
http://www.arcassn.org/581-helicopters.html

The HH-3E in Desert Storm (AFRC)

These pictures are courtesy of Chuck Ruth. He received them from his friend, Frank Gambale. Frank (FE) is in the picture taken inside the aircraft. Jack Mann, a weapons troop is standing outside the aircraft. (Chuck Roth) (Click on picture to enlarge)

"You're Not Gonna Believe This..."

We'd gone down to F.E.Warren to deliver a peanut light bulb. A high priority supply mission. It's beside the point that it didn't take up much room in the aircraft, as you can imagine, so with all that space coming back, we, as luck would have it, were able to fill that puppy up with brand new Flight Line Parkas, Parka Pants, and Mukluks. Enough for our entire Detachment of 42 people or so, to get a brand new set. Did I mention I was also the supply officer? Seems there was this budget money left over from the prior fiscal year, that had to be spent prior to 60 days past the end of the year or it would be lost forever, and there were these available parkas....the rest, as they say, is history.

The return trip to Ellsworth is the interesting part.

My only claim to fame was being the Training Officer and Instructor Pilot, along with the Unit Stan/EVAL pilot when we, along with our CMSgt got lost between F.E. Warren and Ellsworth one foggy day; landed in a field beside a highway to pull out the maps and prepare to go IFR right into the teeth of an oil burner route, knowing we'd have to get up to 9,500 ft (MSL was 4,600) in order to reach Denver Center.

Not something you want to do when the ceiling is basically "0" and visibility less than that, and BUFFS could be flying where you're about to go. Anyway, Chief Rickey (can't remember his first name), says, "Hey, there's a car coming down the road. Do you guys care if I go flag it down and ask where the Hell we are???"

As I said, my only claim to fame is embarassing myself, our Stan/Eval pilot, a fine Air Force Chief who didn't like officers anyway, and some old farmer who still laughs to this day when he tells his buddies, "You're not gonna believe this..." To the chief's credit, he never mentioned the expedition to us in anything other than an "It could happen to any of us any time" manner.

(Tuck Kemper)

The Recovery of a "Jolly"

I have a story that after it was over, we all had a good laugh. I can't remember the date, but I think it was some time in June of 68 at the 37th Da Nang. The day started out with a FAC being shot down in Happy Valley.

When the Jollies arrived on scene they found the pilot was trapped in the aircraft. They put a PJ down to see if he could get the pilot out of the aircraft. While he was trying to get him free, they were taking small arms fire. The PJ radioed he needed something to cut the pilot out of the aircraft. The on scene commander radioed back to Da Nang and asked someone to check with the Fire Department to get one of their cutting tools. A PJ checked with the Fire Department and they had the tool, but the PJ wasn't sure he could run it. So, a heavy set fireman offered to go and run the cutting machine to cut the pilot out. Well, the PJ neglected to tell the fireman what he was getting into.

When they arrived on scene and lowered the fireman to the ground, he had to wade in mud up to his waist to get to the downed aircraft. All the while they were working on getting the pilot out, they were taking small arms fire. Finally they removed the pilot from the aircraft and called for the low bird to come in and pick them up. When the Jolly landed to pick up the people on the ground, he sucked up elephant grass in the engine and it flamed out. At that point the high bird came in to pick everyone up. When everyone ran over to the high bird, Capt Billy Winfield went to climb into the Jolly and was hit by a AK47 round right in the center of his back. This was his lucky day because he had his parachute on and the round stopped in his chute. He had that round around his neck for the rest of his tour.

And now the rest of the story. Back at the 37th they were talking about blowing up the Jolly so the bad guys wouldn't get it. As they were planning on how to do this, I asked Col Devlin if we could crane it out. He told me they had bad guys in the area.

Now is when I get stupid. I told him I was willing to go out there and get the bird ready to crane out if he could get us some Army troops to give us some security. I checked with the maintenance troops and had plenty of volunteers. We got the okay to go ahead and see if we could get the Jolly back. I had about six maintenance people with me as we headed out to the scene.

While we were on our way to the scene, they put about eight Army troops on the ground for security. We were given the okay to come in and get the Jolly ready. We drained all the fuel on the ground and took off all the blades. We also took out all the equipment inside the bird. Now we waited for the crane. As we were waiting for the crane, some A1E pilot started coming toward us and fired off a rocket that went over our heads and landed about fifty yards from us.

The Army sergeant on the ground called up to the pilot and asked him what the F--k he was doing. He said he saw a bad guy moving up on us. The sergeant said you dumb s--t, that's my man. From now on you don't do anything without me telling you what I want from you.

Well, now it was getting late and no crane. We finally got a call that they were picking the Air Force people up because they didn't think the crane would get there before dark. As we started back to Da Nang, Maj John Robbey called me on the intercom and told me the crane was on scene and ask me if I would go back and hook up the Jolly. I told him lets do it.

The plan was to land and let me and one PJ jump out and hook up the Jolly. I thought the Army was still on scene, so I thought it was no big thing. When we landed I jumped out of the Jolly and looked back for the PJ and he never got out of the aircraft. Off went the Jolly, no problem, I got up to the Jolly and yelled in a quiet voice, Lt. are you there? Well little did I know the Army had come in and picked his team up.

I was okay until this point when I realized I was on the ground by myself. Now, I had to climb up to the top of the Jolly to hook up to the crane that was on final. As he made his approach he turns on his landing light and lit me up for all the bad guys to see. I must have made the fastest hookup ever made. I made the hookup and jumped from the top of the Jolly to the ground, a long way down, but never felt a thing.

Now, I'm trying to call the Jolly to come in and pick me up, if any of you remember the old radios we had that you needed to pull out the antenna to make it work. I didn't pull it all the way out and it wouldn't work. I called numerous times before I pulled the antenna so hard it almost came out of the radio. I finally made contact and the Jolly came in and picked me up.

It is a terrible feeling to be on the ground all by yourself. In the end we got the Jolly back and everyone came out of it okay. Even the fireman became a hero. We all had a good laugh at me calling out for the Army Lt. and his team that I thought were still on the ground. My knees started knocking when I realized I was all by myself. Too this day, I can't figure out the reason the bad guys didn't shoot at me, God knows I was a great target at the top of that Jolly with the landing lights on me. (Jack Watkins)

Don't Tell Me We Are Lost!!!

While stationed at Suffolk County AFB, LI, NY in early 1961, I was part of a H-43B crew that was task to make a cross country lobster run......scratch lobster run....make that....training flight, by the base commander, to Loring AFB.

Weather was predicted to be scattered clouds after we crossed the Long Island Sound and headed on North. Every thing was going as predicted and since we had climbed to around 8,000 feet to cross the sound, we continued on inland at that altitude for a while.

However we soon realized the scattered clouds had became a solid overcast and we were on top of it. We continued on for some time until we finally spotted a hole in the clouds, which we took full advantage of and descended down below the cloud layer. We chugged along for a bit and came to the conclusion that none of us knew where in the hell we were at.

We spotted a gas station along a rural road and landed in the field behind it and I went inside to get a road map and ask for directions. With some guidance from the station owner and our road map we again took off heading for Loring AFB and flew into the next town, circled the town water tower and confirmed our location....then followed the road map the rest of the way into Loring. The next day we headed back, flying down the Hudson, (scenic route) cabin loaded with crates of Maine lobster, for the CO's weekend cook out, and had an uneventful trip back to SCAFB. (Jim Burns)

The Fairbanks Flood of 1967

During the Fairbanks Flood of 1967 I picked up a man on his roof downtown Fairbanks and he told me his wife was in the house.

I lowered the rescue basket down and the Chena River was much swifter than I realized. I saw nothing in the water to indicate current and did not even think of the water as moving. Well as soon as the basket touched the water it went around the corner of the house and being a log house it caused me great concern. I hit the up switch and it immediately came back around the corner, clearing the protruding logs there.

We were operating among hot power lines and it was imperative that I kept up a continuous stream of audio informing the pilot of his position, how he was doing, and our conditiond.

The lady waded out from the front door, through the water and got in the basket with a small dog. I took out the slack in the cable and as soon as I did the lady, standing up, fell out of the basket and threw the dog over her shoulder and the last time I saw him he was swimming downstream as fast as he could go.

I motioned for her to sit down, and she did. I brought her up in the basket and I guess she was in shock, she just looked at me, sitting in the basket after I pulled it inside, with a great big smile. I looked back at her and yelled as loud as I could, knowing the transmission and rotor noise would have to be overcome for her to hear, "GET OUT". Well I was on hot mike and the pilot lowered the nose and did a max performance take off. I then said "No, I was not talking to you. We blew the roofing off the house - down to the wood.

This rescue was done in an H-21B, the Pilot was Capt Alread, and the Co-pilot was Silver and he may have been a Major - he came up from Elmendorf to help. We also had an official Air Force photographer taking motion picture film of this event.

It appeared on at least two network stations and some of you may have seen the shot of the dog paddling for his life to escape the monster that had just taken his master away. The rescue operation got so hectic later that I put the photographer to work, and made him lay down his camera. (Bill Lyster)