DOES THIS QUALIFY?

AS A HELICOPTER BOMBER!

COURTESY OF JIM BURNS
CLARK AIR BASE

Are there any instances of the bomb (FSK) hitting something other than the ground?

H-43 BOMBER

When we were with Det 3, WARC at Kirtland we worked a lot on projects with the Special Weapons guys. They'd have us fly weapons shapes up and down their range every now and then for testing. Whenever we asked what we were doing, the slip-stick guys would just tell us we didn't have the need to know! But one of the strangest was when they came over in 64 and asked if we could fly with the clamshell's off. When we said yes, they measured the back with the same don't ask attitude. They came back in about two weeks with an apparatus you wouldnt believe! It was an aircraft seat made to fit over the back step with an old Norden Bomb sight attached to it. After we took the clamshells off, they fit it in with the seat facing backwards-(also attached was a rack for 5 finned smoke bombs and a toggle lever). I was the lucky guy who took them out over the range and try it out. The learning curve of the bombardier??? in giving me heading corrections in reverse from the bombsight was a hoot! When we finally got some what close to the target from 3000 ft AGL, we went back to base. When I told them one of our Flight mechs could do better out the side of the door with Kentucky windage, they took it out and we never heard from them again. So I guess that's why we never got to drop bombs with the H-43.

(Joe Ballinger)

"BOMB RECOVERY"

Flew a mission into Laos on an emergency basis one afternoon. We went to an" old Japanese Landing Strip" because an A-1E had made an emergency landing.

Only one small problem - there were weapons including a BLU-76B still loaded.

We needed to fly troops out, download the bomb and fly the weapons back while maintenance troops fixed the aircraft. They unloaded the 20mm cannons and downloaded the bomb. We then picked up the bomb with the external hoist and flew it home. I was on the escort CH-3 and watched this white weapon swing under the other helicopter without having a clue as to what it was...ignorance was certainly bliss as I would have been much more concerned about it had I known what it was.

All this because we were not supposed to have an armed aircraft in Laos overnight...

We'd have been a "bomber" if they needed to punch it off...

(Jim Henthorn)