Hueys

Doc145thCAB · #1 06-30-2002, 10:38 PM

The Minnesota Air National Guard "inherited" some Hueys from the Army about eight years ago (give or take a couple of years). They had to fetch them from a base in Colorado. I knew one of the pilots. They flew them back in the middle of winter. Cold, very cold. They are still flying today. I see them fly over my house on weekends sometimes. Probably on thier way to Camp Ripley. It makes me feel good to know they are still in the air and ready to defend us. Seeing them fly in a perfect stagered formation assures me that we have some good pilots.

I have lots of memories about Hueys. I was in the door gunners seat once on a milk run. The gunner didn't show up, so I said I would take it. The pilot said OK, but don't tell anyone you did. As a medic I couldn't be a door gunner. We flew to an outpost where we had some advisors, but it was mostly ARVN. As I recall, Doc Robertson had to check up on the ARVN CO's daughter who had surgery a week earlier. Thing were different then.

Hueys! They're still out there for us.

Doc O

39mto39g · #2 07-01-2002, 03:39 AM

Whop, Whop, Whop, Whop. Ya didn't even have to look up.
Ron

SEATJERKER · #3 07-01-2002, 04:05 AM

...by my house...
...I live close enough to Albany International to spit, and usually twice a day, they come over in a formation of 8 flying their sorties,.... 2, and 2, and 2, and 2 flying about 500 to 700' , and there is no mistaking them for anything else, they head to the Hudson river , and head South... sends a chill up my spine for the first few seconds, and later in the day, the same whop, whop, whop on the way home...

colmurph · #4 07-03-2002, 09:54 AM

Those things are soooooooooo old! Once the Jesus Nut comes apart they don't fly too well. I saw too many round burnt marks with rotor tips sticking out of them up in I Corps. Never liked to fly in them (had 27 Combat Air Assauts) and the ONLY times I wasn't nervous in them was when I was at Bragg Skydiving and the thing had gotten above 2,800 feet. I figured once we got to that altitude I could get out in a big hurry if anything went wrong. (once we were jumping a U-6A Beaver and the engine quit at 8,500 feet...I was farther away from the door than anybody else, but the first one out!)