Page 26 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021 - Online Magazine
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and it hit in that we had been covering was
the fuel cell. plodding along toward the An
Fortunately, Khe Pass. The MPs escorting the
there was no convoy called for Medevac, who
explosion. came and flew us to the hospital
However, in An Khe. Unbelievably, the
that bullet only injury, aside from the crew
hole was chief getting the wind knocked
sending out of him, was a scratch on my
JP-4 out at chin where it had hit my chest
an alarming protector. They told me at the
rate. My hospital that I could put myself
door-gunner in for a Purple Heart if I wanted
shouted, to. I declined. How could I tell
“Sir, we’re my grandkids someday, when
on fire!” I they asked me how I won my
thought, Purple Heart, that I’d scratched
“What, my chin. No thanks.
Vietnam 1969
exactly, does
of fire, which kept the bad guys he want me After my tour in Viet Nam, I
transferred to Germany where
from firing back. to do about that?” By then, the I spent my last two years in the
engine had failed, and I was
In March 1969, I was transferred trying to get that helicopter on Army as my unit IP (Instructor
to another unit. Two weeks later, the ground in one piece. Pilot). I didn’t teach anybody to
Rich and his co-pilot, along with fly; I just transitioned our pilots
two crew members, climbed into I had the aircraft in a near vertical into a helicopter that was new to
a plane that was not fly-ready. flare, trying to slow its forward our inventory, the Bell Jet Ranger
About 100 feet above the rice motion as much as possible – in Army parlance, the Kiowa.
paddies at the end of the Crap before impact. The tail stinger hit While there, I lived in a small
Table and about 100 yards out, the ground first, and the aircraft village called Mittel-Grundau
the rotor head simply torqued slammed into the sandbar of the and became almost fluent in
completely off the aircraft and Song Ba River and rolled over to German. I could carry on a
went spiraling off to the left. The the left. That pitched my crew conversation all day long (still
helicopter bellyflopped into the chief right out of the aircraft. can, but to a lesser degree
rice paddy and exploded, killing He told me later that, as he was because I don’t get to speak it
everyone onboard. Instantly. flying through the air, he could here in West Texas very often). I
see that rotor blade coming right
In June 1969, I was transferred at him, and he just knew it was could read a newspaper, listen
again – this time to the 238th going to cut him in half. But, in to the radio, watch German
Aerial Weapons Company that left attitude, the rotor blade television – mostly old reruns.
(AWC), an all-gunship company. hit the ground and righted the I wound up in the health
I was in Heaven – until, in July, I aircraft before it could hit him. insurance business here in
got shot down over the Song Ba Amarillo and the Panhandle
River just west of the port city I looked around to account for and found my calling. I have
of Qui Nhon. One of the bullets my crew. We made it over to the thousands of delightful clients, a
that hit my aircraft was a tracer, highway where the fuel convoy
26 Amarillo Senior Link
