The Dustoffer

THE DUSTOFFER

The DUSTOFF Association Newsletter SPRING/SUMMER 2020

In this issue: The Hero Project In Afghanistan’s “Valley of Death,” a MEDEVAC Team’s Miracle Rescue by Tony Dokoupil and John Ryan bc 1940s Burma, a New Kind of Flying Machine Joined the War: The Helicopter by Bob Bergin

The Last Sunset

Spring/Summer 2020 1 President’s Message

reetings, fellow DUSTOFFers, family, and friends. As always, please feel free to provide any insight and/or First, let me say how honored I am to serve as your recommendations at any time throughout the year, either to GAssociation President. I have been a member since me or a member of the Executive Council. I’m proud to be a I was a 2LT. I am also blessed to have my best friend, John member of our organization and look forward to seeing you McMahan, serving beside me as Vice President. John brings all at Fort Benning in 2021! a wealth of energy and ideas to the Executive Council. I know that everyone is saddened by the postponement DUSTOFF! of the 2020 reunion. The EC made the right choice in the interest of safety for all our members. We remain on glide path Dave Zimmerman for a re-check back at Fort Benning in April 2021. Please President, DUSTOFF Association stay tuned for details. Our world has changed forever. We all will have to adapt to a different way of day-to-day living. As we establish our “new normal,” my promise to you is to keep Dustoff at the forefront of my efforts and to build momentum for the As- sociation going forward.

DUSTOFF Association Officers & Leadership President: David Zimmerman...... [email protected] Vice President: John McMahan...... [email protected] Executive Director: Dan Gower...... ,[email protected] Treasurer: Dan Gower...... [email protected] Secretary: Jeff Mankoff...... [email protected] Historian: Patrick Zenk...... [email protected] Social Media: Christopher Wingate... [email protected] DUSTOFFer Editor: Jim Truscott...... [email protected] Web Site: https://dustoff.org Dan Gower...... [email protected] DUSTOFFer layout & design Suzie Gower...... [email protected]

Founder Thomas “Egor” Johnson Printing The Sorceror’s apPRINTice

2 The DUSTOFFer The Hero Project In Afghanistan’s “Valley of Death,” a MEDEVAC Team’s Miracle Rescue

The assault targeted a key Taliban training camp in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. The mission was failing. The wounded were dying. The medevac team took off on the perilous mission to save them ...

by Tony Dokoupil and John Ryan, published in Newsweek, November 12, 2012

he first bodies came on the first day of the opera- DUSTOFF 72—darted out of their tents, a rehearsed riot tion. It was a Saturday, hot and quiet, the wind spin- of belts and straps, buckles, and Velcro. Usually, going by Tning eddies of sand around Forward Operating Base the manual, it takes more than an hour to prep a Blackhawk Joyce in eastern Afghanistan. Out of the midmorning si- helicopter for flight. But both of these birds were airborne lence came the crackle of a hand radio. “Medevac! Mede- within five minutes, the pilots still blinking sleep from their vac! Medevac!” said the dispatcher, and eight camou- eyes. flaged figures—the helicopter crews of DUSTOFF 73 and The call came from a unit in Operation Hammer Down, a mission to clear Taliban training camps in the Watapur Valley, just over the border from Pakistan’s most dangerous tribal regions. The same terrain stymied the Soviets in the DUSTOFF Association 1980s, and controlling it was an elusive centerpiece of the Executive Council war against the. Taliban and al Qaeda. Every summer U.S. John Hosley (1981–82)...... [email protected] forces charged in by the hundreds, but every fall the bad Ed Taylor (1983–84)...... [email protected] guys were back again, and the cycle repeated. This mission Thomas Scofield (1984–85)...... [email protected] was meant to be the last dance, a crucial partnership with Donald Conkright (1987–88)...... [email protected] the Afghan National Army before the Obama administra- Gerald Nolan (1990–91)...... [email protected] Jim Truscott (1991–92)...... [email protected] tion began unwinding the war. Ed Bradshaw (1993–94)...... [email protected] It broke down almost immediately. Before dawn, a lum- Daniel Gower (1996–97)...... [email protected] bering Chinook transport helicopter clipped a tree line and Charlie Webb (1997–98)...... [email protected] crash-landed high in the mountains, stranding a platoon Herb Coley (1998–99)...... [email protected] of infantry Soldiers. At least two other platoons were am- Merle Snyder (1999–2000)...... [email protected] Gregg Griffin (2000–01)...... [email protected] bushed at dawn as they moved into the valley. By midday, Jeff Mankoff (2001–02)...... [email protected] the medic calls were stacking up like bids at an auction. Ken Crook (2002–03)...... [email protected] The most urgent came from Gambir, a village notched into Art Hapner (2003–04)...... [email protected] the mountainside, where 40 Soldiers dug in against the on- Garry Atkins (2005–06)...... [email protected] slaught. The first in command was already dead, shot in the Doug Moore (2006–07)...... [email protected] Timothy Burke (2007–08)...... [email protected] neck as he moved to higher ground to organize an evacua- Robert Mitchell (2008–10)...... [email protected] tion. Now a skinny black private was slowly choking on his Bryant Harp (2010–11)...... [email protected] own blood, his jaw shot away. Scott Drennon (2011-12)...... [email protected] Inside the cockpit of DUSTOFF 73, the pilot, Chief Johnny West (2012-14)...... [email protected] Warrant Officer Erik Sabiston, 38, stared out from behind Jonathan Fristoe (2014-15)...... [email protected] Brian Almquist (2015-16)...... [email protected] dark shades. Back at base he was known as a jokester, Ben Knisely (2016-17)...... [email protected] the guy who carpets a Red Sox fan’s locker with Yankee Mike Pouncey (2017-18)...... [email protected] paraphernalia. But not in the air. Now Sabiston talked ma- Chris Irwin (2018-2020)...... [email protected] neuvers with co-pilot Kenneth Brodhead, 44, one of the David Zimmerman (2020-2021)...... [email protected] most experienced fliers in the Army. Behind them were two relative rookies, 24-year-old Specialist David Capps, the Members at Large crew’s technician, and next to him the medic herself, Sgt. Chris Wingate...... [email protected] Julia Bringloe, one of the few women on the front lines. Hank Tuell...... [email protected] They were flying over a region where more than 100 Amer- Allen Rhodes...... [email protected] icans have died fighting, a many-named series of valleys Rob Howe...... [email protected] known among some veterans by only one: the “Valley of Dennis Doyle...... [email protected] Death.” There was no way to land in Gambir; the fighting around the gravely wounded Soldier was too intense. Spring/Summer 2020 Trees burned; buildings smoldered. Taliban reinforcements 3 streamed in from a network of caves the details of those days—the shark- once saved his wife and unborn twin and the homes of sympathetic locals. toothed terrain, thin air, and thinner sons, flying them from rural Califor- Over the next few hours, while Amer- margins—but the weirdly pedestrian nia to San Diego for a complicated ican gunships tried to clear Gambir nature of it all. The Army air ambu- birth, and he is the kind who believes for an emergency landing, the two lance corps is the only fully equipped he owes a debt. DUSTOFF helicopters knocked down emergency fleet in the military, and Then there is Bringloe, whose jour- their rescue lists elsewhere. There was heroism is inscribed in its basic job ney is perhaps the most roundabout a patient with shrapnel in his thigh, description. Its helicopters are on the and almost certainly the most inter- two patients with gunshot wounds, front lines of a parallel war effort, a esting. She is a former student-body and then two more with the same. Nei- mission not to take lives but to save president, the daughter of an engineer, ther helicopter landed; instead, Bring- them—and, almost unbelievably, it is and yet she dropped out of college and loe and the other medic were hoisted a mission that is working. ended up digging ditches and hauling down on hooks, and then hoisted back If you are wounded in action in lumber for a living. By her late 20s, up along with the stricken. No shots Iraq or Afghanistan, you have a more she was working as a contractor in Ha- were fired, no enemy engaged. It was waii, where she married and had a son. almost like a training day. Then there is Bringloe, But she tired of building houses Then Sabiston swung the helicop- for rich people. She also noticed that ter toward Gambir. The village came whose journey is perhaps when co-workers were hurt—dropped into view all at once. the most roundabout and from ladders, separated from fin- “It looks like a war movie,” Sabis- almost certainly the most gers—she had an uncanny ability to ton thought to himself, “like Apoca- stay calm and help them. So, why not lypse Now.” A hot tide of adrenaline interesting. be a medic? To pay for the training, rushed through him. she enlisted. “My family and friends Capps, who flew with an American than 90 percent chance of coming thought I had completely lost my flag wrapped beneath his body armor, home with a heartbeat. That is the best brain,” she recalls, and in a sense she thought of his son, just five months survival rate in the history of war: up had. It was 2007, and even the recruit- old. Bringloe, whose own son was 11, from 76 percent in Vietnam, 70 per- er said, “Ma’am, you do know you’ll hung I.V. bags and set up monitors, cent in World War II, and don’t-even- be going to war?” prepping the cabin for more patients. ask-because-you’re-dead before that. Under the Geneva Conventions, Then, as the chopper approached, she This new calculus is one of the only medevac crews are supposed to be im- dipped into a stash of gummy bears, consistent bright spots to come out mune from fire, but the Geneva Con- trying to steady her nerves. of a decade of bloodshed, the result venlions are often ignored. In the six Their sister ship made the first at- of a system that ferries Soldiers from months following Operation Hammer tempt at the rescue. The Soldier with wherever they fall to a field surgeon, Down, for example, Army medevac the missing jaw was positioned near usually in less than an hour, and home helicopters—which rescue not only a mud hut built into the cliff, sur- for even more specialized treatment, Soldiers but civilians—were shot at rounded by tall pine trees. As the heli- often within a week. But it all depends 57 times. There is a collective toll to copter moved in for a hoist, however, on that first response, the helicopter pay for floating around unarmed in the Taliban opened fire. A rocket-pro- ride nearly every wounded warrior has combat, an anecdotally higher rate pelled grenade arced over the tail and in common. “It’s almost sacred,” says of emotional problems and frequent into the rock face. A spray of small- Sabiston, the pilot. casualties. In essence the medevac arms fire was more accurate. It caused None of the DUSTOFF 73 crew mission has not changed since it was catastrophic damage to the hydraulic took a straight path to the job. Sabis- created—50 years ago this year. The system. As another day in the desert ton joined the Navy reserves as a teen banner outside the DUSTOFF 73 bar- turned toward a cloudy and moonless in Virginia, shifted to the Army after racks in Jalalabad says, “burning gas night, the sister ship peeled off for an the attacks of September 11, and qual- to save your ass.” But the patches they emergency landing. Something heavy ified for flight school after six tries. wear into battle are inscribed with a settled in the minds of Sabiston, Brod- Capps, a high-school wrestler from darker motto, the final words of Maj. head, Bringloe, and Capps, the crew Nebraska, enlisted as a teenager with a Charles Kelly, the first medevac com- of DUSTOFF 73: they were the only vague interest in learning a trade, and mander, shot through the heart as he medevac crew left in the sky. sharp memories of towers burning on refused orders to fly away from a dan- It was June 25, 2011, and what a basement television. Brodhead was gerous rescue site in Vietnam. “I’ll happened over the next 48 hours has a tuba player who left the South Flor- leave,” he said, “when I have your become one of the most decorated ida of Miami Vice for an Army band, wounded.” missions in aviation history. News- qualifying for pilot school a decade Back at the mud hut in Gambir, the week was able to re-create it in full for later. Since then, his flights have saved condition of the private with the lost the first time, drawing on military re- the lives of hundreds of Soldiers, in- jaw was deteriorating, and his pla- cords, interviews with the participants, cluding the first-ever quadruple ampu- toon’s first sergeant made desperate and other published reports. And yet tee. He could have retired years ago, calls from the ground. what makes the story so special is not he says, but an Army medevac crew “Just land,” he pleaded. “Get him

4 The DUSTOFFer off this mountain.” “Yeah, yeah,” she said. is not to land at all, but to just kiss DUSTOFF 73 was ready to try, but “You need to quit?” Sabiston add- the roof line with one wheel, light as the fighting was out of control, and at ed, with a half smirk. He knew she a pat on the head. All DUSTOFF pi- least for now, they obeyed orders from wouldn’t. lots practice this on boulders, testing base to wait for a clearing. The ghost It was now dark, and from the sky the mechanical limits of the aircraft of Charles Kelly notwithstanding, a Gambir glowed like a dying campfire. in the thin mountain air. But the air is dead medevac unit is pointless, and the While the average combat medevac never this thin, and the space is never loss of the last unit in the valley would mission takes just 39 minutes from this tight. There were trees growing have been tragic. With an electronic tarmac to tarmac, hours had passed, through the roof itself. ping another mission announced itself and the first sergeant on the ground Sabiston tried it from his side, but in the command center’s computer— was sure they were down to minutes could not find enough space, so he “the PTSD machine,” as some call before they lost the kid who had lost pulled up after three attempts. “You’re it. It was a comparatively minor call, his jaw. One of the darker realities of leaving us?” the first sergeant radioed. a case of severe dehydration, but the America’s 90-plus survival rate is the Brodhead took the controls to try from need to protect the depleted Soldier his side. With more than 5,000 hours was preventing his unit from joining of flight time, much of it under fire, the fight at the mud hut, so Sabiston The only way to land an Brodhead was in the region as senior accepted the mission. He guided the eight-ton helicopter on a flight instructor, a teacher of teachers. helicopter a few kilometers away and mud roof is . . . to just If he couldn’t do this, it couldn’t be several thousand feet higher, to where done. the patient was waiting amid a spiked kiss the roof line with one Down, down, down he descended, forest of 10-foot pine trees. It was wheel light as a pat on the solid high-pitched whine of the ro- windy and almost full dark, the hard- the head. tors blanketing the mountain. Afraid est time to fly. “The worst possible to lose another medevac, Apache and situation to do a hoist in,” he thought. Kiowa gunships created a ring of pro- Bringloe was behind him thinking unfathomable gore, the bullets to the tective fire. the same thing. She strapped herself face and missing limbs, the result of “The aircraft was shaking,” re- onto a yellow hook, leaned out over an enemy who aims where the body members Sabiston, “and it was beauti- the tree line, and stepped into air. She armor isn’t. Every fifth or sixth pick- ful, just like the Fourth of July.” was 160 feet up in the evening sky, up is so bloody that Bringloe and com- Because Blackhawks do not have and the wind spun her like a circus pany have to hose someone out in the rearview mirrors, Capps and Bringloe performer all the way down. On the helicopter. She braced for that kind of leaned their heads out the windows, ground she had to lie flat for a -min pickup or worse. coaching Brodhead into the parking ute to recover her bearings. Then she “In an honest assessment of my- space. crawled to the Soldier, a big guy, she self,” Bringloe later said in a sworn “Left two inches. Hold.” thought, although in truth they are debriefing, “every cell in my body “Right one inch. Hold.” Every few almost always bigger than her. She was against going back” to the mud seconds the concussion from a mis- secured him on the hoist, climbed hut. The location “was still out of con- sile rippled through the cockpit, as on herself, and signaled to Capps to trol with ground forces taking fire in at the other American helicopters tried reel them in—10 feet off the ground, least three directions,” she continued. to suppress the enemy. “It’s just the 20 feet off the ground, 30 feet off the Bringloe knew she had to control her Kiowas,” Brodhead yelled to calm ground .... fear to perform, but she had another everyone down. “It’s OK! It’s just the The wind gusted, sending her and reason: she is a woman in combat, one Kiowas.” Right about then a Taliban the patient swinging, and it did not of the few and, therefore, one of the rocket-propelled-grenade team ap- take a Ph.D. in physics to see what scrutinized. Some people still argue peared on a nearby roof, aimed, and would be waiting for her as she swung that women are not outfitted emo- was blown away by a blast of a 30mm back past the center line: the spiked tionally for combat, and Bringloe has American machine gun. club of a dead pine tree. From above, always tried to prove such naysayers Moments later they were trading Capps could see Bringloe twist her wrong. “I try to conduct myself in the weight with the hut. Bringloe later body, absorbing the collision with her military not as a woman but as a Sol- said she felt “a bit like being under wa- left leg, and pushing off, lest she end dier,” she later explained, “because ter for too long and finally accepting up snagged like a lure in tall grass. She we’re talking about a job, not a gen- the fact that it’s time to take that first succeeded, but the tree took a divot of der.” breath of water into your lungs.” She flesh out of her shin and sent a spidery It was too dark to perform another threw open the bay door and stepped crack through her bone. The nurse hoist. Brodhead and Sabiston talked into a firefight. The dust stung her who met them on the ground thought through maneuvers. “Land on the nose and burned her eyes. She yelled Bringloe was the patient. But she sim- roof!” urged the first sergeant below. for the wounded. Three men climbed ply washed out her own wound and This was not a sane idea, even in per- on board, two of them propping up limped back to the waiting helicopter. fect conditions. The only way to land the third, the young black Soldier, his “You okay?” Capps asked her. an eight-ton helicopter on a mud roof eyes rolled upward as if in prayer.

Spring/Summer 2020 5 He was eerily quiet. Most seriously pened. In a matter of seconds clouds female president of Lockheed Mar- wounded patients scream louder than enveloped the aircraft, blinding every- tin, Marillyn Hewson. But the biggest the engines. In the blue light of the one on board. Looking up, she could prize was yet to come. cabin, Bringloe threw a breathing tube only see her cable disappearing into a At ceremonies at Fort Drum and into one of the private’s nostrils, open- wet gray nothing. “Hold on,” she told Fort Rucker last month, Bringloe, ing up a breathing path, and ran an the patient. “They’re going to fly out Brodhead, and Sabiston were given I.V. into his arm. She is trained to IV of it.” Sabiston and Brodhead radioed the highest prize in aviation, the Dis- any available limb, drilling into bone in about the emergency conditions, a tinguished Flying Cross. Major Kelly, if needed. She stanched the bleeding total whiteout, and flew up through the the original Mr. DUSTOFF, had won with gauze soaked in a clotting agent, canyon on instruments alone. For sev- his own for a similar mission, “a- but even as she worked, she thought it eral minutes they rose, long enough tricky mountain rescue, landing on was pointless. for Bringloe to be cabled into the hold, a spot between trees [with] one skid “We’re too late,” she said over the and then all at once they popped up off the ground,” according to a report intercom. above the clouds. in his hometown newspaper. He was The next morning the crew awoke killed a few weeks later, before he back at Forward Operating Base Joyce even knew he was nominated. These in the same clothes they wore the “Someday that kid is gon- three were luckier. They were honored night before, except Bringloe’s camo na be sitting on his porch for “conspicuous gallantry and intre- was spotted purple where blood had with his kid or his grand- pidity in action,” their citations began, soaked in. The memory of the rest of and for Bringloe it was especially high the mission is a blurred tape with a kid in his lap, living his praise. She is just the seventh woman few slow-motion sequences that none life, not dead. . . . That is ever to receive the award, and only the of the participants will ever forget— your reward.” fourth for combat experience. One of Bringloe rappelling down a 20-foot the others is Amelia Earhart. boulder, Sabiston hovering at the crest These days Brodhead is finally of a 10,000-foot ridge line, the aircraft They had rescued 14 Soldiers, thinking about retirement. Capps has wobbling at its mechanical limits, made three critical resupply runs, re- already gone there, taking with him Capps throwing his legs outside the covered two dead bodies, and nearly the Air Medal with Valor, which he helicopter to catch an empty plastic died every day for three days straight. won for Operation Hammer Down. body bag before it floated into the tail Now they flew back to Jalalabad, Sabiston is teaching down at Fort rotors—and the final two rescues: the showered, and got online to friends Rucker, Alabama, enjoying a break kind of dramatic ending the unrelent- and family. They did not talk to each in the action, and Bringloe is preparing sameness of war almost never pro- other about the mission, but they all ing to redeploy next year. She recently vides. understood it was special, even before graduated from a course for advanced They both star Bringloe, who they got the news that every one of medics, a new effort in the Army’s dropped onto the roof of the mud hut their hoists survived. The skinny black push for a perfect war, a fight within Gambir to pick up a dead body. kid was already out of the country, in out dying. As more troops come home Bullets flecked the landing zone and fact probably on board a big ol’ free- from the Middle East, there are natu- sizzled past her ears during the hoist dom bird headed for a warm, dry hos- rally fewer casualties this year than back up, a full 15 seconds of exposure pital in Germany, where he would get in years past. But that does not mean that had the boys in a nearby Apache another reconstructive surgery before the battle is done. A month after the cheering the bravado. The whole time, one more transfer back to America. heroics of DUSTOFF 73, Army intel- Sabiston and Brodhead somehow held “Someday that kid is gonna be sit- ligence picked up new activity in the a perfect hover, knowing that their ting on his porch with his kid or his training camps, an effort to resupply seats were designed to flip down into grandkid in his lap, living his life, not after Operation Hammer Down.  operating tables because bullet-ridden dead,” one of the other DUSTOFF pilots are that common. At last they pilots told Sabiston later that night. Tony Dokoupil is a senior writer at pulled away to safety, and Brodhead “That is your reward. Knowing that Newsweek and The Daily Beast. John saw the oddest thing in a field not 200 you helped him get there.” But there Ryan, a former staffer at Army Times, yards away: a soccer game. In the U.S. would be other awards, as well. This is a freelance reporter based out of kids stop for fire trucks, but here a he- past winter the three-day adventure New York City. He served two tours licopter flies through a bullet shower, of DUSTOFF 73 was named Air/Sea in Iraq as a platoon leader. and the game plays on. Rescue of the Year, the top honor of They had to go back up the moun- the Army Aviation Association of tain for the last hoist. For three days America. the weather had been bad but flyable. Over the summer Bringloe flew to Now it was like someone had kicked New York for the USO awards, where a roll of insulation over the sky. Brin- she won Woman of the Year, appear- gloe was dangling 50 feet below the ing alongside the first female four-star helicopter with a patient when it hap- general, Ann Dunwoody, and the first

6 The DUSTOFFer Unmanned MEDEVAC of the Future Author unknown

he concept of the MEDEVAC (Lopez, 2017). vehicles, including UAVs, unmanned aircraft as a dedicated platform The concept is that a UAV Mede- ground vehicles, unmanned boats, un- Tto rescuing injured Soldiers vac vehicle will fly to a grid point ob- manned submarines, and unmanned from the battlefield originated with tained off of the 9-Line MEDEVAC amphibious vehicles. The U.S. Army MAJ Charles L. Kelley, the Father of Request and land. The ground crew also wants autonomous systems capa- MEDEVAC. His vision of an Army would approach the UAV, open the ble of helping with medical treatment unit that had the sole mission of go- of injured Soldiers, including analyti- ing to retrieve injured Troopers and cal and decision support tools, it says” return them to advanced medical care The thought of having (Reim, 2019). The thought of having was visionary in his time. Now the robots provide medical robots provide medical care seems to current wars have seen survival rates care seems to many that many that we may have entered the skyrocket, due to the use of the UH- “Jetsons” era of travel and medical 60 Blackhawk MEDEVAC aircraft. we may have entered the treatment. As an unarmed aircraft, however, the “Jetsons” era of travel One other MEDEVAC mission that dangers linger that the aircraft can be and medical treatment. can be picked up by UAVs is to deliver fired upon, and it cannot protect itself. medical supplies to the front lines of MAJ Kelley knew this as he hov- the conflict. The conflict of the future ered his Huey above a hot LZ near doors, and place the wounded Soldier with a near-peer advisory will greatly Vinh Long on July 1, 1964. The air- into the aircraft. The aircraft would reduce the supply chain from the back craft not having weapons was a big then take off and “return home” to de- to the front. “A noteworthy emphasis target, and as bullets struck the Huey liver the wounded Trooper to medical given at the 2017 Air War College war from all sides, Kelly remained calm personnel for advanced treatment. games found that, unlike Iraq and Syr- and simply told the ground force, “I’ll During a MEDEVAC mission, ia, where the U.S. has enjoyed relative leave when I have your wounded.” time on the ground for the aircraft is aerial freedom, North Korea’s robust MAJ Kelly was shot and killed in the when it is most susceptible to enemy air defenses would eliminate, or at crash of the Huey immediately fol- fire. The goal of the crew is to remain least degrade that advantage” (Keller, lowing his statement. The Army is on ground for no longer than neces- 2019). This degraded air space will not ignorant to the dangers faced by sary to pick up the injured Soldier. not only affect our ability for Close MEDEVAC pilots and crews today. One problem that has not been figured Air Support of the ground force, but The Army is considering a radical out is how to provide en-route patient also resupply of important materials. new direction for MEDEVAC, by us- care to these Soldiers who may re- The UAV MEDEVAC aircraft could ing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) quire it during their trip to the medical be used in this aspect to deliver medi- for MEDEVAC purposes. facility. The critical care Paramedic cal supplies to forward medics, while The Army recognizes that having has been developed over the last five not placing anymore crews in danger. trained en-route care treatment per- years to bridge this gap and provide This concept has already been thought sonnel is the best option, but at what advanced medical care while in flight. about and brainstormed. “Separately, cost? Aircraft are damaged from bul- Flight Paramedics progress the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps lets or RPGs during a mission, put- through almost a year of training be- have said they are working togeth- ting the crew at risk. It is a risk they tween Joint Base San Antonio, TX, er on a Joint Tactical Autonomous are willing to accept, but the Army is and Fort Rucker, AL, before being Aerial Resupply System (JTAARS) looking to mitigate this risk. The near- released to the force. The unmanned concept. As part of that joint initia- peer type adversary will not allow the MEDEVAC platform does not have tive, the services want UAVs able to U.S. Military to have complete and this asset onboard, obviously, due to carry 136-636kg (300-1,402lb) of unchallenged control of the airspace. the name. The craft could have medi- cargo. These UAVs must have at least The two types of support that are in cal tools onboard that can be hooked a single-flight-leg minimum range of jeopardy are “first, how to get medical to the patient prior to take off from 43nm (80km). And the aircraft should supplies out to the field if no aircraft the site of injury, however, this could be able to take off and land vertically” or crew are available, or if the flying take more time that will allow the (Reim, 2019). The future of these ve- conditions won’t permit it. Second, MEDEVAC aircraft to become a big- hicles and supply missions is still in how to get wounded Soldiers from the ger target, as seconds on the ground development. field back to treatment facilities in the tick away. “The service says it is con- The notion of unmanned MEDE- rear, without using manned aircraft” sidering various types of autonomous VAC aerial platforms seems like some

Spring/Summer 2020 7 futuristic vision, but the Military and land to pick up wounded or to Lopez, C. T. (2017, 10 13). Army is seriously researching the ca- drop off supplies. Looking into Unmanned MEDE- pability. A notable event that oc- The unmanned aircraft is a VAC, Medical Resupply. Retrieved curred prior to September 11 was growing field in the Army. More from US Army: https://www.army. Air Force pilot Capt. Scott Francis and more pilots, mechanics, and mil/article/195268/army_looking_ O’Grady, who was shot down over communication specialists for these into_unmanned_medevac_medi- Bosnia. “Ejecting from his F-16C drones are developed every day. The cal_resupply and spending almost a week dodg- layout of the Combat Aviation Bri- Reim, G. (2019, NOV 20). U.S. ing Bosnian Serbs until he was re- gade now includes a UAV battalion Army looks for autonomous medevac trieved by U.S. Marines, a saga that for reconnaissance and delivery of vehicles, including UAVs. Retrieved would later serve for the inspiration weaponry to targets. They also allow from Flight Global: https://www. for the 2001 action film Behind En- for monitoring of the ground forces flightglobal.com/news/articles/us- emy Lines” (Keller, 2019). Although during operations and can stay in the army-looks-for-autonomous-mede- this story had a good ending for the air for much longer than other rotary vac-vehicles-inclu-462443/ Air Force pilot, it has become one winged aircrafts. The concept of un- of the stories associated with UAV manned aerial vehicles has already About the Author use in combat. The ability to place a proven its use in target acquisition machine in harm’s way without en- and delivery of pin-point fires on tar- Kristofer Meals is an active-duty dangering human life can be looked gets. In the future, the military may Army Sergeant First Class, cur- at as the best-case scenario. use the unmanned aerial vehicle for rently stationed at Fort Rucker, AL, Other options currently being MEDEVAC, resupplies, or to trans- as an Instructor at the United States researched by Sikorsky include op- port Soldiers around the battlefield, Army School of Aviation Medicine tionally remote vehicles. “The H-60 making our next battlefield look like (USASAM). During his 12-year ca- Blackhawk platform, which it aims something out of a Star Wars movie. reer, SFC Meals has been a combat to retrofit into any variant of the UH- It will be interesting to see what is medic for 6-1 CAV, 1st Armored 60 Black Hawk. Retrofitted ‘option- developed in the future as technol- Division, 4-319th Airborne Field ally piloted’ Black Hawks could be ogy continues to advance.  Artillery Regiment, 173rd Infantry flown by a pilot, autonomously, or in Combat Team (Airborne), and 3-82 blended fashion, for instance, where References GSAB, 82nd Combat Aviation Bri- the aircraft’s flight control system gade. He has held several leadership autonomously flies a route, which Keller, J. (2019, MAY 16). The positions, including Senior Line could be adjusted ad hoc by the air Army Wants MEDEVAC Drones Medic to Platoon Sergeant. SFC crew” (Reim, 2019). Other options for Its Troops. Retrieved from The Meals is currently a senior instruc- include an unmanned aerial vehicle National Interest: https://nationalin- tor/writer for the Flight Medic Pro- that would follow a manned aircraft terest.org/blog/buzz/army-wants- gram and instructs the last course as to the destination, and then break off medevac-drones-its-troops-57857 they progress through their training, the AMEDD Aviation Crewmember Course (AACC). He has been hap- pily married for more than 11 years and has three daughters.

COL (R) Merle Snyder (right) presents the DUSTOFF Aviator of the Year award to CPT Samuel R. Stalons, at Ft. Bragg, NC. (Story on page 18.)

8 The DUSTOFFer Retiring the Last Huey A speech by CW4 Lawrence Castagneto, May 17, 2011, at Ft. Rucker, AL, upon the retirement of the last Huey. hank you, sir. I would like to she is, young or old all over the world. whop-whop is the soundtrack of our thank MG Crutchfield for - al She connects with all. war—the lullaby of our younger days. Tlowing me to speak at this To those who rode her into com- It is burned into our brains and our event and try to convey in my own bat, the sound of those blades causes hearts. inadequate, meager way, what this our heartbeat to rise and breaths to Those who spent their time in aircraft means to me and to so many quicken in anticipation of seeing that Vietnam as a grunt, know that noise other Vietnam veterans. beautiful machine fly overhead and was always a great comfort. Even to- First a few facts: as a Vietnam the feeling of comfort she brings. No day when I hear it, I stop to catch my Veteran Army Aviator, I would like other aircraft in the history of aviation breath and search the sky for a glimpse to thank everyone for coming to this of the mighty eagle. special occasion, on this, to be honest, I can still hear the sound To the pilots and crews of that very sad day, the end of an era—an of those blades churning wonderful machine, we loved you, we era that has spanned over 50 years. loved that machine. The retirement of this grand old lady, the firey sky. To us, you No matter how bad things were, if “Our Mother,” the Huey. seemed beyond brave we called, you came—down through It was 48 years ago this month that and fearless. the hail of green tracers and other the first Huey arrived in Vietnam with visible signs of a real bad day off to units that were to become part of the a bad start. I can still hear the sound 145th and the 13th Combat Aviation evokes the emotional response that the of those blades churning the fiery sky. Battalions, both units assigned here Huey does for combat veterans. She To us, you seemed beyond brave and at Ft. Rucker today. While in Viet- is recognized all around the world by fearless. Down you would come to us nam, the Huey flew approximately young and old. She is the ICON of the in the middle of battle in those flimsy 7,457,000 combat assault sorties, Vietnam war, U.S. Army Aviation, and thin-skin chariots into the storm of fire 3,952,000 attack or gunship sorties, the U.S. Army. and hell. We feared for you, we were and 3,548,000 cargo supply sorties. Over five decades of service she awed by you. We thought of you and That comes to over 15 million sorties carried Army Aviation on her back, that beautiful bird as “God’s own lu- flown over the paddies and jungles of from bird dogs and piston powered natics” and wondered who are these Vietnam, not to include the millions helicopters with a secondary support men and this machine and where do of sorties flown all over the world and mission, to the force-multiplier com- they come from? They have to be other combat zones since then. What bat arm that Army Aviation is today. “Gods Angels.” an amazing journey! I am honored Even the young aviators of today, So with that I say to her, that beau- and humbled to have been a small part who are mainly Apache, Blackhawk tiful lady sitting out there, from me of that journey. pilots, etc., who have had a chance to and all my lucky brothers, who were To those in the crowd who have fly her, will tell you there is no great- given the honor to serve our country, had the honor to fly, crew, or ride this er feeling, honor, or thrill than to be and the privilege of flying this great magnificent machine in combat, we blessed with the opportunity to ride lady in skies of Vietnam—Thank you are the chosen few, the lucky ones. her through the sky. They may love for the memories. Thank you for al- They understand what this aircraft their Apaches and Blackhawks, but ways being there. Thank you for al- means, and how hard it is for me to they will say there is no aircraft like ways bringing us home regardless of describe my feelings about her, as a flying the Huey. It is special. how beat up and shot up you were. Vietnam combat pilot, for she is alive, There are two kinds of helicopter Thank You! has a life of her own, and has been a pilots: those who have flown the Huey, You will never be forgotten. We lifelong friend. and those that wish they could have. loved you then, we love you now, and How do I break down in a few The intense feelings generated for will love you till our last breath. minutes a 42-year love affair? She is this aircraft are not just from the flight And as the sun sets today, if you as much a part of me, and to so many crews, but also from those who rode listen quietly and closely, you will others, as the blood that flows through in back… into and out of the “devil’s hear that faint wop, wop, wop, of our our veins. Try to imagine all those caldron.” As paraphrased here from mother speaking to all her children touched over the years by the shadow God’s own lunatics, Joe Galloway’s past and present who rode her into of her blades. tribute to the Huey and her flight history in a blaze of glory. She will be Other aircraft can fly overhead, crews and other Infantry veterans’ saying to them, “I am here. I will al- and some will look up, and some may comments: ways be here with you. I am at peace, not even recognize what they see. “Is there anyone here today who and so should you be, and so should But when a Huey flies over, everyone does not thrill to the sound of those you be.”  looks up, and everyone knows who Huey blades? That familiar whop- Spring/Summer 2020 9 An Old Pilot’s Tale by Ben Knisely, February 18, 2020 have often considered a relationship between the stages of a basic aviation “traffic pattern” and the chronological stages I of our age of life. Consider the following: •The climb out from takeoff is representative of our teenage years. We are just checking to see if all systems are in the green, and the power is adequate. It is a great feeling as we gain altitude. •The crosswind turn is synonymous with our 20s and 30s. We are “trimming” up our ability to maintain flight and becoming comfortable with where we are heading. The “hum” of the engine is music to our ears. •The downwind leg is the same as our productive years of our 40s, 50s and 60s. The wind is behind us and pushing us to full speed, and we discover the limits and edges of our flight dynamics. •The base leg is our “retirement years.” We slow down, make that 90-degree turn, drop the first set of flaps to reconfig- ure our “lift component” just a little, pull back on the throttle some, and begin to drop a little altitude. •The final approach leg is synonymous with our “winter years of life.” It’s time to set the power lever to a minimal notch just above idle. Final flaps are engaged.When we hit the five-mile “gate,” tower gives us clearance to land. We acknowledge and put the gear down and begin the glide slope that is a direct path to a landing touchdown. (Some- where between the gate and the threshold, we are “committed” and know that a “go-around” is no longer an option.)

Each of us can find ourselves somewhere along that flight path. You may adjust the duration of the legs based on the length of the runway God has given you to land upon, but the principals and functions of flying the pattern never change and are the same for all of us. Today at age 75, I find myself clearly on the final approach phase of the traffic pattern. The “outer marker” green light is beginning to flash, telling me that I am in the vicinity of the “gate.” It is probably time to drop the gear and set to final flaps and begin to focus on the touchdown spot, but if I reduce the airspeed just a little more (keeping above stall veloc- ity) — just maybe I can hold off on putt’n the “gear down” and setting final flaps for just a little while longer. Hot digity and God willing — that’s my plan!

—DUSTOFFer—

Michael Novosel, Dustoff Pilot by Marc Leepson, The VVA Veteran, March/April 2017

VA’s Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Chapter 542’s official name is Capital Chapter 542, Michael J. Novosel Medal of Honor Chap- Vter. After retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Mike Novosel died in 2006 at age 83, the chapter adopted the new name to honor him and his award for his extraordinary heroism under fire as an 82nd Medical De- tachment Dustoff helicopter pilot on October 2, 1969. That day Novosel saved the lives of 29 men pinned down by enemy fire near the Cambodian border’s Parrot’s Beak, making 15 hazardous trips into a white-hot shooting zone to save them CWO3 Novosel, a native of Etna, Pennsylvania, was a 43-year-old father of four in 1964 when he joined the Army. He had been a B-29 bomber pilot in World War II, and he was a commercial airline pilot and a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve when he enlisted to fly Army helicopters. During his two Vietnam tours, he flew more than 2,000 hours in combat during his 2,500 missions. And he rescued 5,589 wounded men. The main street at Ft. Rucker, Alabama, which runs past the Army Aviation Museum, is named for him. Chapter 542 carries his name “with the utmost pride. By doing so, his inspirational leadership, unflinching bravery, devotion to family and country, as well as his quiet determination, become constant reminders of what we hope to emulate in our activities.” 

10 The DUSTOFFer In 1940s Burma, a New Kind of Flying Machine Joined the War: The Helicopter Toward the end of WWII, the strange new craft became vital in guerrilla warfare. by Bob Bergin, Air & Space Magazine, August 2019 Few people had seen one in the fall of 1943 or would have known what it was if they had. But shortly after a prototype impressed official U.S. Army Air Forces officials at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, the helicopter became part of an un- conventional strategy to defeat the Japanese in Burma. Its first call to military service came when U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel John Alison went to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, to find out what a helicopter could do. y the time of his 1943 Day- tiation with a manager at Wright Field Alison thought about that. “Well, ton visit, Alison was already were initially unsuccessful. He re- the mission we’re going on will be Ban ace. Flying Curtiss P-40s membered trying to persuade the pro- pretty dramatic,” he said. “We can and leading the 75th Fighter Squad- gram officer to sign over several of the take six of your helicopters and your ron—part of a task force commanded Sikorsky YR-4s the Army was testing testing gear to India and test them in by General Claire Chennault after his there. “We need six of these,” he said. real conditions. Then we’ll go rescue fabled American Volunteer Group had The manager, he recalled, said, “No.” some people in the jungle who are in disbanded—Alison came to the atten- real trouble. That will get Sikorsky tion of Army Air Forces Chief Henry great publicity.” The manager was “Hap” Arnold. “Nobody questioned us,” not moved, and Alison went back to Arnold, who was constantly devis- he said, adding that Ar- Washington empty-handed. ing new ways to use airpower, enlisted nold’s approach was, Cochran, in the meantime, newly Alison and his friend Phil Cochran in returned from North Africa, traveled a Top Secret project. Both Alison and “Damn the paperwork, to Britain to meet the commander Cochran had built reputations as dar- get out there and fight!” of the Special Force, a controver- ing leaders who improvised when tra- sial British irregular warfare expert, ditional tactics failed. Alison had won Orde Wingate. Wingate had recently a Distinguished Service Cross for an “You can’t have them,” he told returned from a punishing guerrilla experimental night interdiction flight Alison. “They’re not ready for real- raid into Burma, though his irregular in China. world conditions. The rotor blades are forces had managed to penetrate 200 In a series of interviews in 2001, laminated, wood pieces glued togeth- miles into the jungle. I talked with Alison about his Air er. In the hot climate you want to take It took Alison and Cochran about a Force career (he died in 2011 at age them to, they’re liable to come apart. month to establish their air comman- 98, having earned the rank of Major There’s just so much we don’t know do unit and its armada of more than General before he retired) and about about them.” 300 aircraft: among them, 13 C-47 his partnership with Cochran, a friend of cartoonist Milton Caniff and the inspiration for the character Flip Corkin, a flight instructor in the popular Terry and the Pirates comic strip. Cochran, who led hit-and-run attacks from Tunisia on Axis forces, was once described by the journalist Vincent Sheean, who served in North Africa, as “a kind of electrical distur- bance in human form.” These were the two pilots Arnold selected to build the first U.S. group of Air Commandos, a term he coined for pilots who would insert, supply, protect, and extract ground forces in the Burmese jungle, deep behind enemy lines. In eastern India in 1944, Carter Harman (standing, left, next to his co-pilot) had the Of the two, Alison was the more extremely rare job of helicopter pilot. The maintainers with him, members of the 1st diplomatic, but his attempts at nego- Air Commando group, were among the first to service helicopters in the field. (USAF)

Spring/Summer 2020 11 transports and 150 gliders to fly the called it; its 200-horsepower, seven- Alison. “It took us two months to find Chindits, as Wingate called his guer- cylinder Warner 500 radial engine was it. The people who received it won- rilla fighters, and their mules into the installed in the rear of the cabin. Theo- dered, What the hell is this? They had jungles of Burma. A squadron of 30 retically, the YR-4B could carry a pilot never seen a tail rotor before. P-51A fighters and 13 B-25 Mitchell and passenger at 65 mph for about 100 On March 5, 1944, under a full bombers would be the artillery for the miles. High heat and humidity would moon, 61 Air Commando GC-4A ground troops; a light airplane force affect its performance significantly. gliders, towed by C-47 Dakotas, of 100 Stinson L-5 Sentinels and 20 The air commando unit started lifted the first element of the British Stinson L-1 Vigilants would fly the moving their aircraft and more than Special Force Chindits into central wounded back to India. They were not Burma. Thirty-five of the gliders and sure where the helicopters fit in, but 350 Chindits made it to the jungle they were confident in Arnold’s sup- . . . found the only place clearing, which they ironically named port. Alison recalled: “We had a se- nearby where a light air- “Broadway.” The first order of -busi cret weapon, wrote up our memoran- craft could land, a sand- ness was to build a landing strip with dum, signed it General Barney Giles. a bulldozer that arrived in one of the Giles allocated resources for Arnold.” bar on the river. But the gliders. Completed that night, the strip Alison knew he had the protection injured men could not made it possible for 64 more C-47s to of the Chief of the Army Air Forces reach the river on their insert more troops. Each night over the in case anybody questioned the sig- next few nights, 100 Dakotas landed. nature. “Nobody questioned us,” he own. The call went out to By March 10, 9,000 troops and 1,100 said, adding that Arnold’s approach send in the “eggbeater.” mules and horses had been deliv- was:,“Damn the paperwork, get out ered. With the close air support of Air there and fight!” Commando P-51A fighters and B-25 In the end it took a conference 500 personnel to India in November bombers, the Chindits began taking where Alison had to convince a panel 1943. (The following year, it was on the Japanese army. The Air Com- of generals that the helicopters were designated the 1st Air Commando mando light airplane force of L-1s and necessary at a time when no one re- Group.) Each of the six helicopters L-5s transported injured and wounded ally knew much about how helicopters went in its own Curtiss C-46. “The troops back to India, dropped supplies could be used. first one to almost reach us was in a to mobile columns, and spotted targets The Sikorsky that Alison got was C-46 that crashed in a thunderstorm for the Soldiers on the ground. designated the YR-4B, the “Y” mean- about 60 miles from its destination,” “When we got the Air Commando ing it was still in “service test,” and said Alison. That helicopter was de- into the jungle, the fighting we were the “B” that it had 20 horsepower stroyed, and its pilot was killed. An- doing was 150 miles behind Japanese more than the original model. It was other helicopter arrived without a tail lines,” said Alison. “[The] helicopters built of fabric-covered steel tubes; “a rotor. “The rotor was put on another wouldn’t go 150 miles. To get to our shoebox with windows,” somebody C-46 that went somewhere else,” said airfield in the jungle, the helicopter pilot had to stack the passenger seat with tins of petrol, fly half-way, and then find an open area and land to refuel. The local Burmese would spot him right away, and then they would try to run out to him.” Because Commandos feared drawing the attention of Japa- nese troops, they discouraged the curi- ous villagers from approaching what must have been to them a wondrous sight. “We had six P-51s overhead,” recalled Alison. “They would have to strafe out in front of the running villagers, and the villagers would stop and turn back.”

In 1943 Burma, leaders of the Air Commandos (from left) Phil Cochran, John Alison, and former Flying Tiger Arvid Olsen—confer as they invent ways of conducting air missions to provide cover for special operations. (1st Air Commando Association)

12 The DUSTOFFer For a time, the helicopters were to penetrate. It must have been a good 5,000-foot mountain in the way, right not called on for rescues. The light hiding place. at the ceiling of the YR-4B. Harman airplane force carried out evacuations Nevertheless, an Air Commando stripped his YR-4B of excess weight, and other duties very effectively on L-5 spotted the small group from the loaded four jerry cans of fuel, and set landing strips—usually a smoothed- air, then found the only place nearby out. At Taro he was told to fly on to out rice field—that were often shorter where a light airplane could land, the Chindit base called Aberdeen, an- than the 900 feet specified for the Stin- a sandbar on a river. But the injured other 125 miles south. He reached it sons. men could not reach the river on their on April 25.  Then on April 21, 1944, an L-1 own. The call went out to send in the Vigilant, carrying three wounded Brit- “eggbeater.” ish soldiers, was hit by ground fire Carter Harman had been an Army and crashed in a rice paddy. All four Air Corps biplane instructor before men in the airplane made it into thick volunteering to fly helicopters. In In- jungle as Japanese troops closed in. dia barely a month when the L-1 went Having spent much of my life poking down, he was instructed to fly from In- around Southeast Asia, I have learned dia’s Lalaghat airfield to Taro in north- that the Burmese jungle can be hard ern Burma, 600 miles of jungle with a

Precursor of the YR-4B, the Sikorsky XR-4 was designed for the Army Air Corps. In 1942, it flew a five-day, 761-mile journey from Sikorsky’s Connecticut plant to Wright Field in Ohio, the first cross- country trip by helicopter. Today it is in the National Air and Space Museum. (Dane Penland / NASM)

Spring/Summer 2020 13 A Couple of Hoist Missions by Allen Rhodes he last four months of my tour we did not receive any fire, as their just small arms. We were committed, I was flying with the 68th Med. reaction time from that altitude would so we continued, landed, and picked TDet. out of Chu Lai, as Dustoff have been a bit slow. up the casualties. The peter pilot was 82. Pretty routine missions for the Back to the hoist—the crew chief a new WO1—Harry Neuling—and most part, though flying about 10 miles announced that he was taking up don’t ask me how I can remember his off the coast to an island was -differ slack, taking on weight, and started name after 50 years. Got ’em loaded ent for sure. Hoist missions were part the lift. Engine instruments were in and realized our flight path out gave of the usual, though not too frequent. the green, torque was well below our us just two options. But something unusual almost always max, and it seemed routine, and then We could do a 180 and fly back up happened with me on a hoist. This the crew chief’s announcement came the valley over the same flight path we mission was no different—two urgent over the intercom, “Crap! The hoist came in—knowing the bad guys were U.S. casualties, cold LZ. Launched quit, it just quit.” on both sides of the valley, and we and coordinated gunship support en A quick scan showed all the cir- would be right in their sights, low and route. Arrived on station with the guns cuit breakers were good, and the pi- slow. Our other option was to continue (Sharks) and identified the smoke lot’s controls did not work, either. down the valley—but. A large tree had drifting up through the trees and got Our only option was a high hover to fallen and was lying across the valley in position. Crew chief sent the jungle lift the wounded grunt above the trees side-to-side about 50 yards ahead of penetrator down, and then it was just the LZ, though it was fairly high above a matter of monitoring instruments (I the creek level where we were sitting. let the pilot do this one), monitoring But when they popped I made a quick decision to go down guns, and sweating out the lift. smoke, and I saw the lo- the valley and not try to climb over the Well, with just two wounded, we tree into the bad guys’ view, but rather told the grunts on the ground to put cation, I did not like it would fly under the tree. I can still see them both on the penetrator, which one bit. the look on the pilot’s face. He was a they did. Crew chief says, “Taking up second tour guy, having spent his first slack, taking on weight, load is off the tour as a grunt/LRRP. But this was his ground and coming up.” Then sud- and take him to a location where we first experience flying under a tree. denly the bird lurched, and I hear an could land and load him up, which Well, the story has a happy ending— excited, “It broke, it broke, it broke we did. Got to the closest Firebase plenty of clearance under the tree, and right the **** off!” Fortunately, they flying slowly, set him on the ground, we were dropping the wounded GI at were only about six feet off the ground and had them unhook the penetrator, the surgical hospital before Harry said and suffered no further injuries from while the crew chief and medic pulled a thing. the fall. in the cable, which the crew chief had We refueled and repositioned to What’s next? Reel in the cable and cut once the wounded was safely on the first-up pad, and I went in and haul for Chu Lai and another hoist— solid ground. Got the cable all squared filled out the after-action report, while second-up was on a back haul to Da away and the soldier loaded and head- the rest of the crew got the bird ready Nang, so we were the quickest option, ed for the Evac at Chu Lai. Hard to tell for the next mission. I thought I had got the hoists swapped out and headed from the guy’s expression if he was heard the last about it until a couple back to the pickup site. En route, we more relieved to be out of the jungle of nights later at a hooch at the hospi- hear another aircraft on the tactical or off that penetrator. tal where we generally hung out (and frequency—Danger 66 (the battalion enjoyed our liquor rations). I was bar- commander). He got involved, had Ever Fly Under a Tree? tender that night, since I was first-up the unit move down slope about 100 Here we go again—multiple ur- the next morning, and my command- meters to a small clearing, which he gent U.S. casualties, unit in contact. er, Ed Bradshaw, came for a refill. He could get into in his Loach/OH-6. We Crew is in the bird, rotors turning, looked at me, shook his head, and said, listened as he went in, loaded both when I get to the bird with the mis- “I don’t want to hear any more stories casualties on the Loach, and flew to sion sheet. Off we go, and when we about flying under trees, Lieutenant.” a nearby Firebase, where we picked get in contact with the unit, things had All I could do was stammer out, up the casualties and took them to the calmed down, and they were no longer “Yes, sir,” and that was the last I heard MTF in Chu Lai. receiving incoming. But when they from him, though I never flew with popped smoke, and I saw the location, WO1 Neuling as my pilot again. Next one— I did not like it one bit. They were in As with the first mission, this hoist the bottom of a very narrow, steep val- —DUSTOFFer— had a surprise for us, as well. All ley, with a sandbar/gravel bar as the seemed to be going well. We ID’ed LZ. Oh, well, with the winds, only the smoke, got in position, sent the one way in—from the upper end of the penetrator down, and waited for the valley flying a really steep approach, wounded grunt to be loaded. The gun- which turned out to be uneventful un- ships (Firebirds) were orbiting though til we were about 50-100 yards from way too high for my comfort, maybe the pickup site and started taking fire 1000-1500 feet above us. Thankfully, from both sides of the valley, though 14 The DUSTOFFer New Entries on the Financial Flight Manifest Report

Jason Bouchard CATEGORY 1/1/2020 OVERALL Steve Canter 6/30/2020 TOTAL Vincent Gebhardt Income Gary Hagen Interest Income $ 32.71 $ 31.71 Membership Dues 600.00 600.00 Craig MacDonald Memorial Donations 200.00 200.00 Eric Neutkens Reunion Income 2,050.27 2,050.27 Robert Olson Sales Income 1,183.67 1,183.67 Susan Romano Total Income $ 4,066.65 $ 4,066.65 Ronald Truitt Expenses Newsletter Publishing $ 328.20 $ 328.20 Richard Varriale Operating Expenses 1,969.32 1,969.32 Terry Wilson Reunion Expenses 784.37 784.37 Sales Expenses 3,585.72 3,585.72 Scholarship Fund Exp. 20.00 20.00 Total Expenses $ 6,687.61 $ 6,687.61 Overall Total $ -2,620.96 $ -2,620.96 Total Bank Accts. $57,158.62 $57,158.62

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DUSTOFFers, don’t let our legacy The DUSTOFFer would like to publish your article. If you have a recollection of a go untold. The Hall of Fame honors particular DUSTOFF or MAST mission, please those who exhibited our ethics and share it with our members. If your unit has been standards in their actions and their involved in an outstanding rescue mission or worthwhile program, please submit your contributions to DUSTOFF. Do your essay about it to The DUSTOFFer. Don’t homework. Find out about that man or worry about not being the best writer. We will woman who made a difference in your edit your material professionally. Send photo- graphs with your article or attach them to your career by his or her inspiration. Re- e-mail. search your hero and nominate them. Send typed, double-spaced, hard copy to the Deadline is May 1. Details are on the address below, or e-mail your article to ed@ dustoff.org homepage. Click on the Hall dustoff.org or [email protected].

of Fame tab on opening page for infor- Please send your submissions to: mation. It’s OUR Hall of Fame; let’s The DUSTOFFer make it complete. P. O. Box 8091 San Antonio, TX 78208

Spring/Summer 2020 15 Remembering a DUSTOFF Hero: MG Spurgeon Neel By Al Burris and Dick Scott, compiled by Vince Cedola short time ago, Jerry Rose and ited the MASH and MDHA units fre- ed and did not hesitate to go after it. Vince Cedola sent out a Wiki- quently. I flew him often when he was As my mentor for most of my avia- Apedia testimonial about Major coming to visit us. Upon returning tion career, it was a continuing learn- General Spurgeon Neel, whose ac- from my three-year assignment with ing experience, even to my last ass- tions could grant him the title of the the 31st Medical Group in Darmstadt, chewing in Washington when I turned “Father of MSC Aviation.” Soon after Germany, I was assigned to the team down his offer of a BG star because that went out, they received the fol- that activated the Aeromedical Re- I refused to return to Washington as lowing letter from Al Burris, an old search Unit at Ft. Rucker. Spurgeon chief of MSC assignments. He had al- timer pilot. Al tells us about some of ready given me his BG stars when he his personal history with General Neel Neel told me it was for my was promoted to Major General. and the beginnings of MSC Aviation. My first run-in with him was in Vince, I appreciated the email. own good, for my career, Ft. Rucker, Alabama, in the 50s after Here is some related information. I and to quit complaining. I had been assigned to ground duty was a member of the first class of at Ft. Rucker upon graduating from MSC officers to go to flight school. Flight School. At Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, I We reported to the Aviation School at was the Commander of Lyster Army was finishing my ground tour as Exec Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, in February 1953. Hospital.We had almost daily contact. of Hq and Svc Co. Bill Hammett (Avn Upon graduation, most of us went to My next assignment was in the Avia- Advisor to TSG) had come through Korea and were spread among the tion Branch, OTSG for three years, Ft. Rucker and promised me my first four MDHA units (32nd, 49th, 50th, and before taking my turn as commander choice of assignments (Germany). 52nd), spread across the peninsula with of the 658th Prov. Air Amb. Co. in Two weeks later I got orders for Ko- MASH units. I was in the 52nd with Vietnam 1966-67. General Neel is in- rea. Neel told me it was for my own Howard Huntsman and Bill Brooks. deed the father of MSC Aviation. good, for my career, and to quit com- We were attached to the 46th MASH. A few days later, Vince received an plaining. Fond memories. We were attached the 1st Hel Amb. Co. email from Dick Scott, another of the Both Al and Dick gave Vince per- Provisional, attached to the 30th Med. old timer pilots, telling about his rela- mission to share their stories, and we Group, commanded by LTC Spurgeon tionship with the General. would like to have many more Sol- Neel. The provisional company was MG Neel was a tough and dedi- diers to jot down your experiences commanded by a line officer LTCvi a - cated doctor—a flight surgeon who with General Neel and send them to ator. Follow-on MSC graduates were went through the Navy Flight Surgeon Vince, so they can be shared. spread among the four detachments as program and actually soloed in fixed- they arrived in country. LTC Neel vis- wing aircraft. He knew what he want- —DUSTOFFer— Jaw-Dropping Heroism The film, When I Have Your Wounded, demonstrates that the techniques developed by the pilots, medics, and crew chiefs in Vietnam are still in use in the military today. The final third of the film examines state-of-the-art DUSTOFF For medevac crews, the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. time between being no- “The legacy forged by Vietnam DUSTOFF pilots is arguably one of the most important advancements in military medicine,” Cheryl Fries said in an interview. “We wanted people to know about both the jaw-dropping heroism of the tified and getting the men who forged it and that of those who have followed in their footsteps.” The film includes a look at Patrick Zenk, who wounded to the point of commanded a medevac unit in Afghanistan—and whose father, Bruce, had flown DUSTOFF in the Vietnam War. care has become known “We knew this was a fantastic opportunity to capture this fantastic story,” Fries said. “Some things have changed—the helicopter, the technology, the gender of the crews—but that ‘no hesitation’ ethos has carried forward for half a century, as “the golden hour.” and we will never know all the lives it has made possible.” The Fries also tell the story of Marine Kevin Hanrahan, whom they filmed after he was severely wounded and dusted off in Afghanistan and was recuperating back home. “Being able to meet and follow Kevin Hanrahan and his family was a powerful personal experience for us filmmakers,” Cheryl Fries said. “We hope that showing his ability to come back home to his wife and daughter symbolizes the true and sacred importance of the mission and the heroes who have put their own lives on the line to do it.” Cheryl and Patrick Fries received the VVA President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts at the 2004 Leadership Con- ference in Nashville, Tennessee. They were honored for their Vietnam War helicopter documentary, In the Shadow of the Blade. 

16 The DUSTOFFer Consultant’s Corner by COL Rick Ortiz

was asked a week ago to write an stories I have heard from past excep- old 28th CSH and is already on track article for The Dustoffer. Without tional 67J Dustoffers who forged our to take his second (Level II) command I hesitation, I said yes. I was in- Dustoff legacy today. summer ’21. COL Tanya Peacock was spired by the opportunity to contribute Yes, it hit me. It is about leader- activated for MEDDAC Japan, and a message that I hoped would have ship. That is the 67J value proposition COL Dirk LaFleur relinquishes com- value. I thought that with all the cur- to the Joint Force, the Army, Army mand of PHC-C and takes over as rent craziness going on, topics would Medicine, and Army Aviation. 67Js Director APPD. While two LTC (P)s, flow onto the paper. They did not. The are superior leaders. They routinely Nate Forrester and Mer Carattini, are work week started, and I struggled experience diverse and uncertain as- on their way to resident War College with what to write. What did you want signments and missions. They are this summer. to know? What is important to many groomed in decentralize operations At the Lieutenant Colonel level we of you now? I took a few stabs during and expeditionary mindsets. 67Js are have four 67Js going in or out of com- the week, but no joy. forced to adapt with agility to uncer- mand. LTC Sam Fricks relinquished Then, yesterday, I had the good tain and ambiguous environments, as command of 61st MMB and will be fortune to attend a small 67J dinner well as complex and vague situations. the Deputy Director of Medical Evac- hosted by Robe Howe. Nate Forrester, They do this knowing that they have uation Concepts and Capabilities Di- Sam Fricks, and Scott Farley rounded no-fail tactical missions and clear eye vision in Ft. Rucker. LTC Scott Farley out what turned out to be an exclusive on the strategic ramifications of their relinquishes command of the 615th night of comradery. (Thank you, Rob, profession. The output of all these Aviation Support Battalion and will Nate, Sam, and Scott) I woke up in the inputs are 67Js who are comfortable be the SGS for III Corps. LTC Duryea morning thinking of how special the with being uncomfortable. They are will take command of the Field Hospi- night was, and then it hit me. These calm, collected leaders who are criti- tal in Ft. Polk in March of ’21. Mean- guys and their very special spouses cal thinkers and arguably on-the-job while, LTC Brian Tripp was activated symbolize the excellence of the 67Js trained strategic leaders. for O5 Centralize Selection List com- and the underlying secrets of our pro- That makes no sense, Rick. There mand in Italy. fession. Please let me try to connect is no way you can say that from sitting Ten Major level commands have these dots. around drinking with a few good men. already or will change out this sum- As the consultant, one of the top Well, I can say a lot of things after a mer. C/2-4 MAJ Zach Mitchell re- questions I get from our 67J commu- few drinks, but in this case, yes I can. placed MAJ Ernie Severe; C/1-52 nity at all ranks is, “What opportuni- To validate my assertions, I assessed MAJ Matthew Clark will replace MAJ ties are there for me?” This question is our current senior 67J populations and William Keller; C/3-2 MAJ Justin normally associated with frustrations found ample proof. Stewart will replace MAJ Drew Wil- of officers spending too much time in Here is what I found. Out of 19 67J son; C/2-501st MAJ Suzannah Morri- MEDEVAC companies; feelings that COL/LTC(P) in the inventory 15 have son will replace MAJ Robbie Flowers; there is a lack of talent management, or will be commanding at the O6 lev- C/6-101 MAJ Doug Hill will replace post-command opportunities, worries els (79%). Keep in mind that we only MAJ Russell Scott; Flat Iron MAJ about promotion potential, or discus- have three authorizations for 67J at the Brandon Paniagua replaced MAJ sions of being a bastard child in both Colonel level, but we have historically Amanda Charlton; C/2-1 MAJ David Aviation and Medical branches. sustained a COL inventory exceeding Preczewski replaced MAJ Jon Spikes; But thinking back to last night, I 600%. That means we have consis- USAAAD JRTC MAJ Ralph Salazar recall listening to Rob, Nate, Sam, and tently performed extraordinarily well took command USAAAD NTC; MAJ Scott share stories—stories that im- in the O6 boards to include at least Chase is taking command from MAJ pressed me. They talked about tough three colonels being picked up for O6 Todd Perry; and in USAAAD Yakima trials and tribulations. Their stories without O5 level command. MAJ Jason West is taking command were of personal leadership chal- Let me try to personalize all this by from MAJ Nolan Roggenkamp lenges within MEDEVAC companies, connecting all that with what is com- We also have the following 67Js challenges in battalion command and ing up in the ranks, and it is hard to going to resident Command General even at brigade command. The stories dispute the leadership excellence of Staff College: MAJ Cody Sneed, MAJ were followed by drinks and laughter. 67Js. Drew Wilson, MAJ Tom Barth, MAJ I witnessed these top 67J leaders high- COL Dave Zimmerman was acti- Matthew Perry, and MAJ Amanda lighting their own unique approach vated to take 65th Med BDE this sum- Charlton who is deferred to FY21. but all with a common thread—lead- mer. COL Y. R. Summons taking com- Finally, 10 company grade 67Js ership excellence through selfless mand of 62d MED BDE. COL Rob took command or relinquished com- commitment to duty and passion for Howe changes out of 1st MED Bri- mand of various CPT level company Soldiering. I realized that their experi- gade Command in Jan ’21. COL Dan commands throughout the Army. ences directly correlate to many of the Moore changes out of command of the Corner, continued on page 20.

Spring/Summer 2020 17 2019 DUSTOFF Association Awards

riginally established in 1995 as the DUSTOFF Crewmem- Ober of the Year and DUSTOFF Rescue of the Year, our awards program was expanded to recognize outstanding members of the DUSTOFF DUSTOFF Rescue community at individual levels of of the Year crew: DUSTOFF Aviator of the Year, CW2 Nathan Dooley, DUSTOFF Medic of the Year, and Pilot; SGT Aaron DUSTOFF Crew Chief of the Year, Winberg, Crew Chief; CW3 Josh Schaaf, in addition to the Rescue of the Year. Pilot in Command; Generous support of these programs SSG Lawrence Lind, is provided annually by our corporate Medic. sponsors. Sikorsky Aircraft division of Lockheed Martin provides trophies National Guard Aviation assets were for the unit, as well as all crewmem- activated at 17:00 to conduct imme- The DUSTOFF Aviator of the Year bers of the DUSTOFF Rescue of the diate search and rescue efforts within is CPT Samuel R. Stalons. Captain Year award. AirMethods provides devastated communities throughout Stalons, a highly skilled and experi- funding for the trophy awarded to the Nebraska. enced combat aviator, currently as- DUSTOFF Medic of the Year. Breeze Swift water rescue hoist missions signed to Charlie Company 3-82nd Eastern provides funding for the tro- would be conducted under Night Vi- General Support Aviation Battal- phy awarded to the DUSTOFF Crew sion Goggles (NVG’s) with sustained ion (GSAB), embodies all the posi- Chief of the Year award. Currently, the wind of 40 knots and gust to 50 Knots. tive aspects of an Army Aviator and DUSTOFF Association is funding the The temperature would be 35 degrees. DUSTOFFer. CPT Stalons has served DUSTOFF Aviator of the Year award On March 14 at 21:00, a seven-person in the active aviation component for through donations by several Execu- firefighting team was responding to a 16 years, first beginning Army flight tive Council members. call from residents, as part of a large training in February 2004, and now as Normally, these awards are pre- flood response near Arlington, NE. a DUSTOFF aviator. He has served sented at the annual reunion. How- The team’s two airboats capsized, Army Aviation in three operational ever, as were many other events this leaving all seven firefighters in rush- deployments to Afghanistan, with two year, the DUSTOFF Reunion was ing, ice-cold water. NEARNG UH-60 previous deployments as an infantry cancelled due to the COVID-19 pan- #556 was over 60 miles away with Marine, and currently serves as the demic. Efforts are currently under- only 45 minutes of fuel remaining Area Support MEDEVAC Platoon way to have members of the Execu- when called to respond. (ASMP) leader for C/3-82 GSAB tive Council, along with our corporate All seven were still clinging to DUSTOFF. sponsors, travel to the home station of the overturned boats. Four previous With a career spanning over 21 the awardees and make the presenta- rescues had been conducted by this years, CPT Stalons is an excellent tions. crew when the boats capsized. Both example of a DUSTOFF aviator. As boats were located directly under a previously branched Aviation war- The DUSTOFF Rescue of the Year power lines. There was no possible rant officer aviator, Sam demonstrated for 2019 was a mission flown by the landing site. At the time, the aircraft a typical DUSTOFF mindset. On one Nebraska Army National Guard G was in a critical fuel status, 500-600 occasion in Farrah, while providing a Company 2-104th General Support pounds. The crew made the decision month-long MEDEVAC chase mis- Aviation Battalion. In March of 2019 to perform the rescue immediately, sion, a unique mission presented itself historic flooding struck Nebraska. The as going for fuel and returning would that would change Sam’s future avia- combination of heavy rainfall from have been fatal for those firefighters tion plans. the “bomb cyclone” and snow melt in the water. All six were rescued and The MEDEVAC received a 9-line caused large-scale flooding along the taken for medical care, one in critical from a Marine infantry unit based at Platte, Missouri, and Elkhorn Rivers. condition with hypothermia. Two ad- an FOB between Farrah and Bastion: On March 14, the levees along these ditional rescues were performed that three Marines had critical gunshot waterways failed, and water flooded night, following the night hoist mis- wounds to the chest. Upon takeoff, into fields, towns, and roadways. By sion. The crew that night conducted the MEDEVAC aircraft experienced the afternoon, the Nebraska Army Na- six continuous flying hours, perform- hydraulic malfunctions and returned tional Guard was responding to calls ing extremely high-risk rescues under to Farrah, unable to continue the mis- for assistance from several county the most demanding conditions, sav- sion. Informing the TOC at Kandahar and city officials. The Nebraska Army ing 17 civilians and two animals. of the problem, they were told that 18 The DUSTOFFer DUSTOFF Aviatior of the Year, CPT Samuel R. Stalons there were no other Army or Air Force with a unique challenge: to create units able to respond to the 9-line, and a unit and their mission from noth- the Marines would have to be ground ing. Sam was the only Soldier in the evacuated. Sam realized the severity detachment for two months, and the DUSTOFF Medic of the Year,, of the situation and requested that the only officer for four months, all while SSG Danielle Black medic and medical gear from the bro- accepting and inventorying 11 MES ken MEDEVAC aircraft be transferred sets, six aircraft, ordering new class to his aircraft, so he could launch a VIII, and procuring all of the daily liv- was assigned to C/6-101st Aviation single ship to answer the 9-line. The ing needs of the detachment. Regiment (Shadow DUSTOFF) and MEDEVAC platoon leader agreed, CPT Stalons is now a member returned to Ft. Campbell, KY, where but the TOC in Kandahar denied the of C/3-82 as a DUSTOFF platoon she soon completed the UH-60 Air- request for single ship flight for risk leader. He remains dedicated to the crew Member Standardization Course. reasons. CW2 Stalons departed none- DUSTOFF mission and mentorship Shortly after her arrival, SSG theless, understanding that the Ma- of the next generation of DUSTOFF Black became the first and only- fe rines would likely die on the two- to aviators and medics. CPT Stalons’s male to complete the demanding three-hour ground evacuation, due to resilience and professional manner, Special Operations Aviation Medical the severity of their wounds. steadfast courage, and commitment to Indoctrination Course (SOAMIC). As CW2 Stalons landed at the POI, his Soldiers and the mission has led to the company’s senior medical flight picked up the wounded Marines, and the successful accomplishment of the instructor, she was responsible for the transported them to Nightingale, the DUSTOFF mission, in both training pre-deployment training of 25 flight Role 2 at FOB Bastion. Sam refueled and real-world environments. paramedics. SSG Black prepared each and returned to Farrah single ship, of the 25 paramedics to provide life- saving medical care in harsh environ- where he was met with armed guards The DUSTOFF Medic of the Year is ments and under intense pressure. No and returned to Kandahar immediate- SSG Danielle Black, nominated by matter how difficult the situation, SSG ly. her previous commander while serv- Black has always performed to the The command threatened to re- ing in C Company 6-101 Aviation highest standard. move him permanently from flight Regiment. She is now serving at the During a Taliban attack, SSG status and push UCMJ proceedings schoolhouse at Ft. Rucker. As a young Black and her team were tremendously for his actions. Sam’s reply was sim- Private First Class, she earned her Ex- tested. In a 36-hour period, they flew ply, “Did they live?” The sacred con- pert Field Medical Badge on her first five missions, including one involving tract with the fighting man or woman attempt in 2011, while serving as a 11 patients. In total, they cared for 15 on the ground was more important medic at the 121st Combat Support severely wounded patients, of which than his career, which he had willingly Hospital in Korea. Serving with C/7- SSG Black treated nine. Given SSG risked saving the lives of those three 101st, SSG Black became an indis- Black’s involvement with a majority Marines. The answer to his question pensable asset to the Eagle DUSTOFF of the patients, the FST Commander was yes, all three had lived. In the end, team. asked her to present her portion of Sam received only a slap on the wrist In 2013, she deployed to Afghani- patient care during these missions as and was free to continue his aviation stan in support of Operation Enduring part of the Joint Theater Trauma Con- career. Freedom, where she treated dozens of ference, a weekly conference of Joint Then as a new Medical Service patients in the volatile Wardak Prov- Medical Agencies around the world. Corps aviator and returning from an- ince in Central Afghanistan. After re- SSG Black’s briefing helped further other deployment in December 2014, turning from Forward Operating Base develop and refine patient care - pro Sam was selected to stand up the Ar- Shank, then-SGT Black attended the cesses throughout theater. my’s newest Air Ambulance Detach- Critical Care Flight Paramedic Course SSG Black’s tireless work ethic ment in Ft. Benning, Georgia, in May to earn the coveted F3 identifier. After was also crucial to the unit’s success in 2015. Upon arrival, he was presented finishing the CCFP course, SSG Black conducting expeditionary operations. Spring/Summer 2020 19 Upon arrival to the POI, SGT Cook Corner, continued from page 17. immediately sprang into action load- They are CPT John Alderete changing ing patients onto the aircraft, while out of HHC 6-101; CPT Robert Calla- simultaneously maintaining security. han taking a recruiting company com- Once the patients were loaded on mand this summer; CPT Jeffrey Crook the aircraft, SGT Cook immediately taking command of Honduras Detach- began assessing patients and aiding ment by replacing MAJ Cody Sneed; the flight paramedic. He began apply- CPT Kenneth Danos took detachment ing pressure to control bleeding on a command of USAARL; CPT Dan- patient with a blast injury to their low- iel Harritt took command HHC 1-52 er leg, thus allowing the flight medic to Alaska from CPT Jeffrey Crook; CPT focus on the other two patients whose Christopher Howell took command injuries required more immediate at- F/3-25 GSAB from CPT(P) Jason tention. SGT Cook maintained his West; CPT Armando Valencia took care until the Forward Resuscitative command of HHC 3-2 GSAB, Ko- Surgical Team (FRST) received the rea; MAJ Dawn Herron relinquished patients. SGT Cook has already pro- F/2-3 GSAB to CPT Teddy Ivanco vided over 1,500 hours of MEDEVAC DUSTOFF Crew Chief of the Year, 15A, (former FSMP leader in C/2-4); SGT Eric Cook coverage, enabling U.S., NATO, and and MAJ Thomas Barth relinquished Afghan ground forces to perform op- command A 2-501st to CPT Jennifer erations with continuous MEDEVAC On nine separate instances, her team Zanghi. support. SGT Cook trained more than repositioned to an austere site to cover That is a lot of superior leaders. 50 U.S. Military and partner forces in U.S. and partnered forces operating All symbolize the overall talent and safely loading and unloading patients outside the traditional MEDEVAC character of a fairly small community from a UH-60/HH-60 Blackhawk. “golden hour” ring as part of an Ex- hovering just around 290 phenomenal Since arriving in country, SGT peditionary Advisory Package (EAP). men and women. Cook has forward staged at various During these forward operations, SSG Make no mistake about a few 67Js austere sites for more than 45 days, Black and her crew were called upon drinking and telling stories. The real- requiring him to conduct aircraft numerous times to evacuate and pro- ity is that 67Js have infinite opportuni- maintenance with minimal external vide care to wounded Soldiers in the ties because they are proven leaders. support. SGT Cook serves as one of most dangerous of environments and Challenge them with any job, and two Technical Inspectors (TI) in the situations. Ultimately, SSG Black flew they will excel. They will tell stories platoon, increasing combat power by more hours and completed more mis- of trials, tribulations, and excellence. ensuring continuous MEDEVAC cov- sions than any other crew member in This does create a problem for them. erage. her platoon. That problem is called choice. 67Js SGT Cook successfully served as will struggle with choice because they a maintenance NCO, supervising and The DUSTOFF Crew Chief of the are talent that our Army wants and assisting in the completion of vari- Year is SGT Eric Cook. SGT Cook our Soldiers deserve. This is a good ous 40-Hour, 120-Hour, and Phase previously served with All American problem to have, a blessing to the hard Maintenance Inspections, as well as DUSTOFF before his current assign- profession known as DUSTOFF. I re- unpredicted and unscheduled mainte- ment with Mountain DUSTOFF. His main proud, honored, and humbled to nance. The leadership and expertise expertise and knowledge have con- be part of this exclusive group of men displayed by SGT Cook is directly tributed greatly to the development and women, past and present. of his platoon’s relatively junior Non- impacting unit mission readiness each day by maintaining a superior overall Rated Crew Members with little to no —DUSTOFFer— deployment experience. Within four operational readiness rate of 90%. weeks of in-processing at Ft. Drum, It is with great pleasure and honor NY, SGT Cook deployed to Afghani- that the DUSTOFF Association recog- stan for a second time, now in support nizes these great men and women of of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel with DUSTOFF. They truly are great rep- Mountain DUSTOFF. resentatives of the entire DUSTOFF SGT Cook regularly assisted his Family of Warriors of Compassion. flight paramedic counterparts with patient treatment, due to minimal per- —DUSTOFFer— sonnel at his forward location. On one specific occasion, DUSTOFF received a mission for three CAT A patients after an IED blast struck a ground element during a clearance operation.

20 The DUSTOFFer From the Executive Director A 25-year perspective on the DUSTOFF Association by COL (R) Dan Gower, Executive Director, DUSTOFF Association was a new Colonel on Fort Sam Aviation Association of America and heroes from the Vietnam War—all 214 Houston. I had been there just were already in the (Quad-A) Hall of them. The second board has those I over a year and made it to the of Fame. Major Charles Kelly, MG who died in the conduct of actual TOE DUSTOFF reunion. It had been sev- Pat Brady, MG Spurgeon Neel, CW4 missions since that time in peace and eral years since I had been to one, hav- Mike Novosel, and CW2 Louis Rocco in combat. Shortly after the attack on ing been assigned to Graduate School, were inducted to our Hall of Fame on the World Trade Centers, we under- Ft. Rucker, Graduate School again, 17 February 2001. Forty-Six men now took a program to place brick pavers and then to Ft. Riley. Bob Romines are enshrined in our Hall of Fame. at the AMEDD Museum. Through an was the President of the Association, aggressive fund-raising program, we and our current VP was removing raised over $15,000 to place a paver himself from the normal transition As I look back on those there at the base of the Hall of Fame into the role of the President of the 25 years, there are many Wall for our KIA DUSTOFF brothers Association. programs . . . I can refer and sisters. At the business meeting that year In 1998, I spearheaded the efforts the assembled crowd voted to have to as “good stuff.” . . . to upgrade the Memorial Huey that Bob serve two terms as President. Bob Through it all, the legacy stands in front of the AMEDD C&S. asked me to serve as his VP. The year of Charles Kelly remained Through some fund-raising and arm- was 1995. In the 25 years since that re- twisting of then MG Jim Peake, we union I have served as VP, President, vibrant and relevant. dedicated the plaza in honor of MG Treasurer, and then Executive Direc- Spurgeon Neel, as the Spurgeon Neel tor. I have made the DUSTOFF Asso- Recently, we formed a “blue- DUSTOFF Memorial Plaza, with the ciation my “pay-it-forward” volunteer ribbon panel” to review our Hall of memorial helicopter as the center- job. Fame procedures and processes. Vot- piece. Since that time, we worked a As I look back on those 25 years, ing in this all-important program has deal with the Army Aviation Museum there are many programs and chal- remained with the membership of the for a replacement Huey, since the lenges that I can refer to as “good Association. However, in the past six original bird had deteriorated due to stuff.” The Association has come a years the numbers of members who the Texas heat and exposure to the ele- long way from its inception in 1980. take the time to vote has decreased by ments. DUSTOFF has evolved, as well dur- nearly half, while membership contin- Maintaining a relevance to the cur- ing those years. The Vietnam War pro- ues to increase. rent force has long been a goal of the vided a solid foundation for the legacy The Quad-A Hall of Fame was Association. The first awards were of service to our fighting forces. The originally a membership vote, but that made in 1996 to SSG Scott Spiva 1980’s provided a period of growth organization changed many years ago (Crewmember of the Year) and the and modernization. The 1990’s were to allow nominations to originate in 571st Medical Company (AA) (Res- yet another period of change for our the normal way. But voting has been cue of the Year). In those days we profession. Through it all, the legacy assigned to an executive board and were struggling financially to main- of Charles Kelly remained vibrant members of the Quad-A Hall of Fame. tain a semblance of ability to do more and relevant. The Association, formed We are considering that method, than hold reunions. To that end, we es- from the efforts of Thomas “Egor” among others. tablished an awards program, the first Johnson, continued to “chug along.” At times during the early years of awards being made sometime in 1997 During the time I have worked as our Hall of Fame, there were attempts (if my memory serves me—check the the Executive Director of the Associa- to cease nominations and to do away trophy to be sure). We reached out and tion, we can cite quite a few cardinal with the Hall of Fame all together. I found corporate sponsors to provide events and programs that have served can remember a passionate speech by funding for the trophies. John Soehn- to give our fellowship relevance be- Egor at one reunion that very clearly lein was our “go-to guy” at Sikorsky, yond the hospitality room at the annu- defended the Hall of Fame and set and they gladly took up the sponsor- al reunions. Let me point to just a few. the tone for future decisions. The ship of the Rescue of the Year award. Early on it was decided and instituted DUSTOFF Hall of Fame remains en- They still provide the trophies for that that we should honor those DUSTOF- shrined on the Hall of Fame Wall at award. Fers who went well beyond the nor- the Army Medical Department Mu- The original individual award was mal selfless service as members of our seum. the Crewmember of the Year award, Hall of Fame. The first class of induct- Since our early reunions, our Killed which often went to medics. That ees was formed from those DUSTOF- in Action boards were always present award was originally sponsored by Fers, who were members of the Army at the reunion. One board has all our Director, continued on page 23\.

Spring/Summer 2020 21 From the Wiregrass MEDEVAC In LSCO—Advancing to Meet the Challenge by Mr. Michael Pouncey, MEDEVAC Analyst, MECCD ur Army will be challenged in Operations (MDO) concepts, our maneuver. Not evacuating in LSCO unique ways by armed con- forces intend to operate on these more will not be an option. Oflict in the Future Operation- lethal battlefields, and so will MEDE- The scope, scale, and tempo of al Environment (FOE). Large-scale VAC. We must accept that the thresh- casualties in LSCO will require the combat operations (LSCO), against old for acceptable risk in LSCO will full commitment of the MEDEVAC peer or near-peer adversaries, will be significantly different than today. force—air and ground. Adversary le- present problems not encountered in As we look to potential LSCO in thality and reach will require MEDE- recent operations. We expect LSCO the FOE, some only consider the ca- VAC assets to be arrayed through the to be more dangerous and difficult for entire breadth and depth of a theater of the medical evacuation, or MEDE- operations. The scheme of evacuation VAC force to operate—but it will not Failing to evacuate will must carefully position ambulance be impossible. jeopardize the medical assets—and dynamically reposition To operate effectively, we must mission and the opera- them to anticipate casualty flows and have a well-grounded understand- react to contingencies. Despite the ing of LSCO, a sound grasp of the tional mission. evacuation capacity that MEDEVAC inherent risks, and take a clear-eyed assets bring to the Force, there will approach to mission analysis and ex- pabilities that adversaries bring to the likely be times when this capacity is ecution. Perhaps the most critical ad- fight. They assess the unopposed im- exceeded. Accordingly, commanders aptation required is one of mindset. pact these adversaries could have— must complement MEDEVAC with We have become habituated to a risk and draw a number of flawed conclu- casualty evacuation, or CASEVAC, calculus that accepts relatively little sions. They fail to acknowledge that assets and condition the Force to pro- risk in operations. We have become the U.S. military—and our allies and vide lift of opportunity when required so reliant on our dominance of air partners—will bring significant oppo- with the least impact to their primary and ground lines of communication sition to battle. An assessment of the mission/task. that some believe we cannot operate opposed impact of adversary capa- In LSCO, we must expect our ad- without it. We have become so used bilities provides a much different pic- versaries to have the ability to inter- to relying almost exclusively on aero- ture. It acknowledges the challenges, dict lines of communication (LOCs), medical evacuation that many have but also highlights the opportunities. thereby impeding battlefield access to forgotten the ground component to While operations in LSCO in the FOE MEDEVAC assets. However, an ad- MEDEVAC. To an extent, we have against a peer/near-peer adversary versary’s ability to interdict our LOCs forgotten how to plan, coordinate, and will be difficult, they will not be -im will not be uniform across space and execute in dynamic environments at possible. time. An adversary’s ability to inter- the tactical, operational, and strategic dict LOCs will be greatest where he levels. To be successful in the future, Evolving Combat Casualty Care can mass effects. we must overcome the thinking we The scope, scale, and tempo of Simplistically, the adversarial ef- have cultivated in recent operations casualties during LSCO will present fects will diminish with distance from and expand our mindset to match the distinct challenges to the MEDEVAC the physical location of his assets. We demands and dynamics of LSCO. force—but will also make MEDEVAC can expect the greatest interdiction of an imperative. Failing to evacuate LOCs in the vicinity of brigade com- Lethality of LSCO will jeopardize the medical mission bat teams in contact and to diminish, We can accept that LSCO in the and the operational mission. Failing in terms of effects or duration of- ef FOE will present us with more lethal to evacuate will jeopardize the medi- fects, through the depths of the divi- environments. We cannot accept that cal mission by risking culmination of sion and rearward. We can also ex- this increased lethality precludes our forward medical treatment facilities pect an adversary’s ability to interdict ability to conduct MEDEVAC. Some through overwhelming the capacity of LOCs to be greatest at, or near, the believe that, because of the risk to medical care or through consumption outset of a campaign and to be dimin- MEDEVAC, assets will be greater of medical supplies faster than they ished over time, assuming a degree of than what we consider acceptable can be replenished. Failing to evacu- success by U.S. forces, as U.S. forces risk in our current operations, we will ate will jeopardize the operational penetrate and disintegrate adversary cease to conduct MEDEVAC. We mission through the drain on combat capabilities and exploit opportunities must understand that future battle- power required to secure/protect the for movement and maneuver. The key fields will be more dangerous for the accumulating casualties and through throughout is to get our MEDEVAC entire force, not just for MEDEVAC. the drag effect these accumulated ca- assets as close as prudently possible As articulated in the Multi-Domain sualties will have on movement and to the patient needing evacuation. We 22 The DUSTOFFer Director, continued from page 21. who wear the mantle of Charles Kel- tal into the competition will go on Breeze Eastern, the manufacturer of ly’s last words with distinction and to win one of the other scholarships most of the rescue hoists we use in honor. available. Some years we have seen our aircraft. Christine Hawk was and In 2005 we established a partner- two, three, and four of our folks win remains our “go-to” person there at ship with the Quad-A Scholarship scholarships. The other aspect of this Breeze-Eastern. With a desire to hon- with the DUSTOFF Association Mike program is that Quad-A looks to us or the “whole crew” concept of what Novosel Scholarship. That was a great to provide evaluators to review the it takes to put a DUSTOFF aircraft scholarship applications. COL (R) on the ground to rescue the wounded, Those who served in Viet- Doug Moore and COL (R) Rick Agos- we expanded the awards program in ta have worked tirelessly to evaluate 2006 to include an Aviator of the Year, man never got those wel- those applications over a long time. Crew Chief of the Year, and Flight come home ceremonies. Thanks, guys, for that work. Medic of the Year Award. Air Methods Today’s Warriors get that A personal goal of mine has been took up the sponsorship of the Medic to welcome home DUSTOFF War- of the Year, and Art Torwirt and Jim welcome they so richly riors from deployments. Over the Wingate, among others, became great deserve. years I have had the distinct honor to friends of our mission and the Asso- visit on probably 50 occasions units ciation. Christine Hawk and Breeze returning from combat. From Hawaii Eastern took up sponsorship of the financial step forward, as we were able to Germany and almost every post in Crew Chief of the Year. The Aviator to provide $15,000 to the Scholarship the CONUS, I have had the privilege of the Year Award has bounced around Foundation Fund that was matched to shake thousands of hands and pres- between a few other sponsors and is by the fund. The rules of that fund ent them with a DUSTOFF Associa- now funded by the DUSTOFF Execu- provide for a set percentage of funds tion coin. tive Council Members. each year to provide a scholarship in Those who served in Vietnam never Over the last 24 years, we have perpetuity, depending upon the invest- got those welcome home ceremonies. seen some outstanding DUSTOFFers ments that are made on behalf of the Today’s Warriors get that welcome selected to receive those awards. I will fund. Those rules allow us to award a they so richly deserve. Travel has be- confess that during the last few years, $1,000 scholarship to members of the come much more difficult for me these the challenge of getting commanders Association, their families, and their days, and the trips have grown fewer to take the time to nominate their peo- immediate lineage (children, grand- and fewer. Other members of the As- ple for these awards has been “daunt- children, etc.). We have been able to sociation have graciously traveled to ing” at times. Yet, every year we tend provide that $1,000 each year since. welcome home our DUSTOFF War- to find those brave men and women The added benefit is that each year riors, like Ben Knisely, Dennis Doyle, somebody who applies using our por- Director, continued on page 24.

From, continued from page 22. until evacuation can be conducted. Failing to evacuate may cause us to lose today’s battle—as the backlog of cannot afford to cede any advantage Balancing Evacuation Capabilities casualties/patients causes a cascade of to the enemy that he has not actually The scope, scale, and tempo of ca- medical and operational culmination taken from us. sualties in LSCO will require the ef- on the battlefield. Failing to evacu- What this means is that the MEDE- fective and efficient employment of ate often enough—with its impact on VAC force will have the battlefield ac- MEDEVAC assets. It will require a Soldier morale and national will— cess it requires to evacuate patients mission command structure that can may cause us to lose the next battle, over much of a theater of operations. achieve unity of effort/purpose in the next campaign, and the next war. In these areas, achieving the 1-hour highly dynamic situations. This begins While MEDEVAC will be difficult in evacuation standard for urgent and with the theater medical command de- future LSCO—it will not be impos- urgent-surgical casualties should be ployment support, or MEDCOM-DS, sible. doable. Based on the reach and lethal providing top-down guidance and di- We must adapt our mindset to the capabilities of adversaries, we should rection—for the overarching scheme operational environment in LSCO. expect wounded throughout the depth of MEDEVAC and reaches down Without a mindset that understands of the theater of operations. Evacua- through medical brigades and medical the challenges and refuses to cede any tion from points of injury (POI) will battalions and through corps, division, advantage to an adversary that the ad- be possible in some areas. Where units and brigade headquarters for bottom- versary has not actually taken away— are in contact with enemy formations, up refinement. These elements must we cannot be successful. Cultivating however, our ability to achieve the be able to dynamically plan, coordi- and inculcating such a mindset must one-hour evacuation standard will nate, and execute MEDEVAC opera- be a high-priority effort moving -for likely be challenged. Wherever evac- tions that are integrated into and syn- ward. uation is delayed, our prolonged field chronized with schemes of maneuver. care capabilities will be used to miti- Not evacuating our sick and —DUSTOFFer— gate the risk to patients—buying time wounded in LSCO is not an option.

Spring/Summer 2020 23 No Compromise—No Hesitation The enduring legacy of the DUSTOFF program in Vietnam by Marc Leepson, The VVA Veteran, March/April 2017 hen I have your wounded. Those were the words U.S. Army MAJ Charles Livingston Kelly growled before taking a bullet in the chest, while flying his DUSTOFF Huey helicopter into a hot LZ near Vinh Long on July W1, 1964. Those words—which Kelly barked out when a sergeant on the ground urged him not to risk landing— have been adopted as the credo of the U.S. military men and women pilots, medics, and crew chiefs who do the highly dangerous humanitarian work of flying into combat areas to evacuate the wounded. Charles Kelly’s story is at the heart of the 2012 documentary, When I Have Your Wounded: The DUSTOFF Legacy, produced and directed by the husband and wife team of Patrick and Cheryl Fries. Narrated by Charles Kelly’s son, Charles L. Kelly, Jr., this first-class documentary traces the history of DUSTOFF from their bare-bones beginnings in Burma during World War II, to their still-rudimentary use in the Korean War, as they worked in conjunction with the first Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units. The movie concentrates on the revolutionary and startingly successful use of the Bell UH-1 Huey during the Vietnam War, starting in April 1962 when the first “air ambulance” arrived in country, and ending with the 1973 U.S. combat (and flew for) the pioneering 57th Medical Detachment (Air Ambulance) in Vietnam, sometimes known as “Kelly’s Krazies.” He lived by the words that became the unit’s creed: “No compromise. No rationalization. No hesitation. Fly the mission. Now!” A “gruff, stubborn, dedicated Soldier who let few obstacles prevent him from finishing a task,” Kelly was the first DUSTOFF pilot “to exploit fully the possibilities of the medical helicopters,” Peter Dorland and James Nanney of the U.S. Army Center of Military History wrote in DUSTOFF: Army Aeromedical Evacuation in Vietnam. Within six months after taking over the 57th, Kelly “set an example of courage and hard work that DUSTOFF pilots emulated for the rest of the war.” Kelly and his men regularly flew dangerous missions at night and in all kinds of weather. “He fought his way to the casualties and brought them out,” Dorland and Nanney wrote. On one such mission, heavy enemy fire forced him to turn back from the LZ before he could get the wounded on the chopper. An hour later, Kelly “tried to land exactly the same way, through enemy fire, and this time he managed to land the patients safely.” Kelly’s goal was “saving lives, no matter the circumstances; get them out during the battle, at night in weather, what- ever. Get those patients,” Patrick Henry Brady, who flew with Kelly, wrote. Brady later received the Medal of Honor for the courage under fire piloting a DUSTOFF in and out of hot LZs while evacuating 51 seriously wounded men near Cue Lai in January 1968.  Director, continued from page 23. enough to make it profitable. So the with a database that indicates we are and others. Association took that on and funded nearing the 3,000-member milestone. For about 25 years the DUSTOFF the purchase of inventory. That inven- The delta in those two numbers rep- Association website was main- tory has grown to a level of nearly resents two things. One is the ever- tained free of charge by Ron “Huey” $50,000. The store has resided in my changing status of accurate mailing Huether. Huey flew with the 15th home for all those years and now oc- addresses and the inevitable “Closed Medical Detachment and is a member cupies a 12’x24’ room in a structure Flight Plans” of our aging population. of the DUSTOFF Hall of Fame. The I own on some land near my home. Currently, the Association offers two DUSTOFF Website was always a first- We make money in some years, and levels of membership, Officer/Warrant class operation, thanks to Huey. Last we lose money in some years when we Officer/Civilian Life membership, and year, we transitioned that “rock” out must replenish inventory. But we buy Enlisted Life Membership. Our mem- of Huey’s “rucksack,” and the website in large enough quantities to provide bership fees are the lowest of most any is now hosted by a fellow Volunteer a reasonably priced line of DUSTOFF veterans’ organization. Firefighter friend of mine, Don Black. products. In 2004 the DUSTOFF Associa- The movement from the HTML-based Membership continues to increase tion was incorporated in the State of website to the “WordPress”-based each year. The demographics of our Texas as a tax-exempt entity. That ac- website is a long, slow, and detailed membership have changed. From a tion also changed our status with the process. Slowly but surely, it is begin- largely commissioned officer member- IRS. Formerly we were tax-exempt. ning to take shape. ship, now it is an almost equal number This action also provided the Asso- In the early days of the Reunions, a of new members from both commis- ciation the status of tax-deductible, as few people wanted to develop a store sioned/warrant officer ranks, as well well. The benefit of that is that dona- with DUSTOFF Products for sale. But as enlisted ranks. We have also seen tions made to the Association for me- the economies of scale and the amount leadership of our Association with morials and to support programs can of cash flow provided by our member- representatives of both commissioned be used for income tax purposes of ship’s purchasing habits was far from and enlisted DUSTOFFers. Currently the person making the donation. Each we have nearly 1,400 active members Director, continued on back cover. 24 The DUSTOFFer Aloft and Afraid by Robert B. Robeson, 236th Med. Det., Viet Nam, Lincoln, NE Published in Military, Volume XXXI, No. 6, November 2014 lthough this urgent medical commander, pilot, and maintenance above actual ground level. evacuation mission occurred officer nightmare. After talking to my maintenance Aover four decades ago, my At one point, we were down to two officer at Hawk Hill, we both agreed thoughts often return to that night in flyable aircraft. One was being flown that the best decision would be to late March 1970—and the God’s love by my maintenance officer on field switch aircraft. We intended to land and protection—especially when it is standby duty at Landing Zone Hawk his ailing bird with a couple of routine rainy, foggy, and overcast. Everything Hill, about 32 miles south of our unit and priority patients for Da Nang, and seemed to come apart at once in my headquarters. The other was designat- then I would fly back low-level again, U.S. Army, Bell, UH-IH “Huey” heli- ed for missions closer to home and for before the bad weather had an oppor- copter on that fateful midnight flight. tunity to potentially ground us for the night. As long as my crew was there, Life in a War Zone Three American infantry- the northern half of our operational The first seven months during my men had been seriously area was without medevac support, combat tour as commander and op- wounded by small arms and our aircraft maintenance crew in erations officer of the 236th Medical Da Nang could not deal with the ap- Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance), fire. They scrambled to parent engine malfunction. located at Red Beach on the southern evacuate them before As we were preparing to load these edge of Da Nang Harbor in Da Nang, “zero-zero” visibility be- patients, the field site crew received South Viet Nam, provided a long list of an urgent medevac mission. Three unpleasant experiences. This included came a reality. American infantrymen had been se- having seven helicopters shot up by riously wounded by small arms fire. enemy fire, crewmembers wounded, backhauling patients from the battal- They scrambled to evacuate them be- and being shot down twice. ion aid station at Hawk Hill to a vari- fore “zero-zero” visibility became a Many times, during those close ety of hospitals in Da Nang for further reality. encounters with danger and death, ap- medical treatment. Now I could not leave because of proximately 800 evacuation missions I was on flight duty in Da Nang the apparent severity of their wounds. at that point, there was an unsettled when our operations radio-telephone If they lived, and as soon as they were feeling of fear and vulnerability. This operator informed me that my aircraft medically stabilized, my crew would may have been because all of our maintenance officer at Hawk Hill had have to backhaul them to the 95th flights were single-ship missions, but called requesting another helicopter. Evacuation Hospital on China Beach I always knew we were never alone, He had been experiencing sudden in Da Nang in an effort to enhance as long as God was near. Having been power surges in his Lycoming jet tur- their chances for survival. raised in the home of a Protestant bine engine during tactical approaches The field site crew returned in less minister and having my parents, their that were accompanied by “strange than 30 minutes. It was not a pleasant church congregation, my newlywed noises” from the engine compartment. sight. Two of these young Soldiers had wife, and others praying with and for He did not have time or the necessary sucking chest wounds, and the third me, I was intimately aware that, with equipment to look into these mechani- was wounded in the head and extremi- God, all’s well, even when all doesn’t cal problems in the field because so ties. I watched as doctors and medics appear to be that way. many missions were being called in. worked feverishly to save them in this On February 3, 1970, I was pro- I alerted my crew, and we flew out to primitive medical setting. Seconds moted to commander of our 50-man evaluate the situation. and minutes began to tick away like and six-helicopter unit. A month later, a slow-fuse time bomb. I knew from enemy action in our 5,000-square- Bad Timing experience it could be hours before mile area of operations increased dra- This mechanical and logistical de- the doctors determined that these in- matically, and our mission of evacuat- velopment could not have occurred fantrymen were capable of making the ing casualties from both sides of the at a more inappropriate time. It was 25-minute flight to Da Nang. fighting became more chaotic by the nearing dusk when we arrived, and a minute. massive storm system was beginning Impossible Scenario In one month, our 13 pilots were to envelop the entire coastal region Feeling angry at the sight of com- collectively shot up or shot down in along the South China Sea. I had cho- rades in pain and such dire straits, I 16 different aircraft. We went through sen to fly out on the deck, a few feet walked outside to check on the weath- our entire authorized inventory of un- above the ground, the entire 32 miles er. It was completely dark by then, armed helicopters nearly three times. in order to keep a low profile from the except for perimeter lights outlining a We begged and borrowed birds from enemy and because a solid cloud deck series of bunkers encircling the entire higher headquarters. It was a unit was concentrated at about 600 feet base. A thick and eerie fog had rolled

Spring/Summer 2020 25 in off the surrounding rice paddies. It In God’s Hands what is possible in combat or life un- was beginning to rain, and a heavy “Dust Off” flying was an occupa- less you try. The three patients were layer of low-lying clouds hung above tion chock full of danger and uncer- carried out and locked into our litter the fog like a ghostly presence. I real- tainty on every mission. As an aircraft rack in the cargo compartment, one ized we were now knee-deep in mul- commander, I often assumed personal above the other, before our medic and tiple dangers and dilemmas. responsibility for suspending flight crew chief slid the doors shut. Standing alone outside, I knew our rules and regulations in favor of what My decision to lift off into fog, crew had been placed in an extraordi- appeared to be the best of several less- clouds, rain, and dead of night, was a nary and dangerous position. It was than-desirable alternatives on behalf definite act of faith. I prayed silently becoming apparent to me that I would of our patents. and quickly for our safety and that probably have to fly our wounded bird In this instance, it would mean of our patients before “pulling pitch” into IFR (instrument flight rule) con- attempting to safely transport these with my collective control and tiptoe- ditions, if the lives of three critically infantrymen to the 95th Evac where ing into the heavy, cotton-wood mist wounded Americans were to be pre- surgery might save their lives. It was hanging over the aid station landing served. This would also have to be ac- pad. Thick clouds swallowed us, at complished with a rookie “peter pilot” I made the command 100 feet, like the closing of a gigantic straight from flight school. decidion that we would mouth. Scanning my instrument panel From my perspective, it all came in a continuous motion, I climbed to down to two alternatives. I could leave as soon as our pa- 3,000 feet before breaking out on top ground our helicopter for the night, tients were stabilized. above the storm system. due to the weather and apparent en- The rest would be in A yellow egg-yolk moon hung like gine problems, and probably doom a round lantern in the northwest sky, these patients, or I could take off and God’s hands. tossing strands of golden light across a hope we would be picked up by radar carpet of billowy gray clouds covering for a GCA (ground-controlled ap- a colossal gamble. But in combat, as the earth from horizon to horizon. The proach), at Marble Mountain Airfield in other areas of life, I had discovered clouds were like a bed of scattered on China Beach in Da Nang. that you do not always do what you ashes, holding no warmth or light. I knew the odds were good that want to do. You do what you must. I made initial UHF radio contact nobody else was crazy enough to be With rain dribbling from the bill of with the Marble Mountain tower and flying in such abysmal weather. The my military baseball cap and down the was quickly switched to approach con- prospect of having an upsetting mid- back of my neck, Psalm 121:8 came to trol. The approach controller asked for air rendezvous in the clouds with an- mind, “The Lord will guard your go- my heading, altitude, and approximate other aircraft, before being picked up ing out and your coming in from this location. Then I requested a GCA with by radar, was not my biggest concern. time forth and forever.” This verse a low approach to the 95th Evac, a I could only hope that the cloud tops was a figure of speech for “everything short distance up China Beach to the would not extend so high that VFR you do.” It affirmed that God watches northeast. This medical facility lay un- (visual flight rule), conditions would over His children all the time, in every der the shadow of mysterious Monkey not be present when, or if, we were circumstance, and forever. Mountain, situated between Da Nang able to break out on top. I had done I knew this flight would be anoth- Harbor and the South China Sea. that many times before, but with more er of those “going out” times in war “Dust Off Six-Zero-Five,” the con- experienced copilots and mechanical- when a pilot cannot be reasonable or troller directed, “turn left to a heading ly safe aircraft. I had not done it with rational. And, sometimes, it is when of three-five-zero, maintain VFR on a jet engine reportedly making strange you most want not to go that you most top and three-thousand. Squawk two- wheezing noises. have to go. I made the command deci- two-three-three.” If we experienced engine failure, I sion that we would leave as soon as My copilot dialed “22333” into our would have to immediately autorotate our patients were stabilized. The rest transponder, which transmits position- and descend on the energy in our ro- would be in God’s hands. identifying signals, and activated the tating main rotor blades alone, rather “ident” switch. than the engine. This would occur in Perilous Flight I flew toward Da Nang for what blind instrument conditions at night It was after midnight when aid sta- seemed like minutes. with only one shot at a landing, a mation physicians informed me that our “Six-Zero-Five, be advised I have jor challenge, even in daylight. If we patients were prepared for evacuation. negative radar contact,” the controller broke out of the clouds before reach- We had been waiting over six hours. noted, matter-of-factly. ing the ground, I would either have to In an attempt not to traumatize my A moment of stunned silence land in the middle of the night in “bad rookie copilot with graphic details of enveloped the cockpit. My copilot guy” territory or the South China Sea what might happen once airborne, I turned and looked at me for a reaction . . . with three critically wounded pa- acted as though this was just another or course of action. What do you mean tients and a crew of four. normal Dust Off mission. He would you have negative contact? I thought learn, in time, that you never know to myself.

26 The DUSTOFFer Closing Out the Flight Plan

ambrills, MD — CW3 Max Edward Tucker, retired U.S. Army, age 82, passed peacefully in his sleep in the early morning hours on Sunday, February 23, 2020. After battling late stage pancreatic cancer, he was fortunate to live Gout the remainder of his life in his own home with the help of hospice care and his loving family. Mr. Tucker is survived by his children and their spouses, Tina Dykstra, Patricia & George Abitante, and Susan & Dean Harrison. He also leaves behind five grandchildren, Julia and Anna Dykstra, Miki, Alissa, and Max Abitante, as well as his great grandson, Gavin Good. His wife, Chieko Watanabe Tucker and son, Max Edward Tucker, Jr., who died in infancy, preceded him in death. Mr. Tucker was born on August 24, 1937, in Warrensville, North Carolina, to Rev. Frank and Edith Rowland Tucker. He was the fourth child of seven children. He is predeceased by Elizabeth (Betty) Jones, James Tucker, and Mabel Miller, and survived by Patsy Troell, Nancy McNeill, and Larry Tucker. Mr. Tucker served honorably in the U.S. Army for 28 years. His service included multiple tours in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Mr. Tucker served with the 50th Medical Detachment as a DUSTOFF pilot and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism. He met his wife during his first tour in Yokohama, Japan, and they were married shortly thereafter. Mr. Tucker was an avid golfer well into his 70s. He enjoyed having his family and friends around his pool in the summertime, listening to country music, drinking MGD, and eating crab. He also enjoyed spending time at his favorite watering hole, Perry’s, watching football, playing Keno, and shooting the breeze with all his friends.

“Turn right to zero-four-five and again to get a fix on us before it gets have radar contact” is like the dif- maintain three thousand,” he contin- worse.” It was my decision that had ference between a wet match and a ued. put us in this position, but I felt com- flamethrower. Although I felt alone In the red glow from our instru- pelled at that moment to entice this during those distressing and danger- ment panel, I verified the correct controller to share a bit of my stress ous moments, I really was not. The an- transponder code. Then I activated and responsibility, too. swer to my prayers came in the words the “ident” switch myself. Another si- In the brief interlude that followed, of Mark 5:36, “Do not be afraid any lence seemed to drag by as slow as a I offered up another silent prayer, longer, only believe.” I did, and God turtle on a racetrack. while my copilot sat in his armored took care of the rest. I suddenly felt like a fool for hav- seat as rigid as an Egyptian mummy. I could tell by the tone of the con- ing risked so much. Then I heard, for He was undoubtedly thinking it was troller’s voice that he was as relieved the first time, “strange noises”- com going to be a long war for him if every as I was. He provided vectors to the ing from the engine compartment. I flight was like this one. final approach course and talked me guessed we were somewhere over the As had happened many times be- down around three massive rock for- South China Sea near the coastal town fore on other missions, all that was mations jutting hundreds of feet above of Hoi An, if my mental airspeed, left for me to do was to hang onto my the white sandy beach near the south- time, and distance calculations were cyclic stick, collective control, and a ern approach to Marble Mountain Air- anywhere near accurate. If I descend- total faith I had had since a child in an field. These formations were the basis ed slowly over the ocean, a chance all-knowing and all-seeing God. for this airfield’s name. existed that one of the mountains ris- The controller’s voice again broke We broke out of the clouds as we ing from the Cu Lao Cham chain of the radio silence. “Six-Zero-Five, neared altitude minimums. I had al- islands—located eight to 11 miles off turn right to zero-niner-zero, maintain ways loved the magnificent and exotic the coastline—could become a flight three thousand.” appearance of Da Nang at night from hazard. It was an emotional and real Banking east, I felt isolated and the air, but the extensive lights of the truth. For some unknown reason, ra- afraid that our patients might not have city were even more lovely and spe- dar had not been able to locate us, and much sand left in their hourglasses. cial this moment in time.  I was quickly running out of options. After another interminable pause, “Six-Zero-Five, I still have nega- I heard the controller say, “Sir, I have tive radar contact. State your inten- radar contact eighteen miles south- tions.” east.” “Marble approach,” I broadcast, For an aviator adrift above a foil- “we are having engine problems, and ing sea of clouds, with three lives there are three critically wounded U.S. hanging in the balance, the difference aboard. I would recommend trying between, “negative contact” and “I

Spring/Summer 2020 27 Director, continued from page 24. year we file a form 990 with the IRS documenting our financial status. So that is a long-winded history of my involvement in our beloved Association. Where do we go from here? In part, this history is a precursor to the largest issue at hand. For about two or three years now we have been dis- cussing the transition of the Executive Director’s duties from me to my successor. I will be the first to state that having somebody be the continuity and the workforce who does the work of managing the affairs of the Association is a double- edged sword. On the one hand, there is that continuity. There is institutional memory. There is somebody who makes things happen. I have been honored to do all of that as a part of my service and paying-it-forward volunteerism. The other side of that sword is the fact that there is a “single-point-of failure.” I routinely state that if I wake up “drooling in my salad,” nobody knows what to do next. Passwords, checking accounts, points of contact with supporting organizations, business processes, store order processing, Website management, reporting to the IRS, membership applications, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. Put your mind at ease and fear not. I do not plan on retiring anytime soon. I am still in the fight and still on the job. And my labor of love for this Association has not diminished. But I have seen men age and develop resistance to change over the years. I have seen programs beginning to become “stale” with familiarity. And I did not serve 27 years on active duty and 12 more years working for the Army, and not recognize that leadership can and will change over time, bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas to the mission. My 25 years serving this organization have been an enriching experience in leadership, perseverance, tolerance, and gratitude. I cherish every moment. The time is approaching for a change at the helm of this great Association. Our Vietnam-era DUSTOFFers are an aging fleet who will be replaced by the Blackhawk generation. I invite you to look into your heart, and if there is a desire to serve in this capacity with a willingness to devote the time and energy to “continue the march,” come up on the net and let us have a discussion. There are many ways to address this challenge. One way is for the different aspects of the job to be taken up by others, e.g., the DUSTOFF Store. The Executive Council remains the elected leadership, per our Constitution and By-Laws. But the Executive Director’s position, as established in those documents, can and will remain the long-term institutional memory and stability over time, as Presidents come and go. Proud to serve! DUSTOFF Dan Gower, Executive Director, DUSTOFF Association

—DUSTOFFer—

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28 The DUSTOFFer