Posted on 01/27/2011 6:21:50 AM PST by epithermal
YAKIMA, Wash. -- An icon of the Vietnam War, a faithful conveyer of American troops across the globe and savior to countless lost or injured civilians, the Huey helicopter’s long Army service is ending.
For the medevac detachment at the Army’s Yakima Training Center, that distinguished career concluded Wednesday.
More than 50 years after the first models lifted off, the Army is retiring the few single-bladed UH-1 variants still sitting on the flightline.
Wednesday’s retirement ceremony at the training center was a bittersweet moment for the pilots, crewmen and passengers who came to know the Huey as a reliable machine for both combat missions and stateside duties, most notably civilian search and rescue.
Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Long, part of the Training Center’s Air Ambulance Detachment, is probably one of the last Vietnam-era Huey pilots serving today. He was recalled to active duty in 2002 because the Army didn’t have enough Huey-trained pilots.
Long had the honor of piloting the last formal Huey mission at the training center as part of the flyaway retirement ceremony on the parade ground. Sitting on his left was retired Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall, who received the Medal of Honor for flying 70 wounded troops out of Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley in 1965.
(Excerpt) Read more at yakima-herald.com ...
Good find. Thanks!
ping
Saw two of them this past weekend mothballed beside the road outside a podunk town in the mountain foothills of NC.
I had the honor of meeting and talking with Col. Crandall. I asked him what made him do what he did. His answer was, "I brought those boys in and I had to bring them out."
One last comment.
Not sure I would describe the sound of a Huey this way: “ ... Vietnam veterans who remember the “whoop whoop” of its blades gliding into combat zones”
WHOOP WHOOP?
I think it is WOP WOP WOP WOP or WHOP WHOP WHOP. I *BETCHA* the newspaper’s spellchecker/editor would not allow the potentially politically incorrect ‘sound’ to be printed ;-)
BTW, we’ve had a pair of Ospreys in the area of late. You oughtta here those bad boys coming. It’ll rattle your heart.
Yeah, when I first read that I had this vision in my mind of a UH-1 with a single blade attempting to lift off the ground - it wasn’t a pretty image.
Here is a group that should get a mention in this thread:
Army Aviation Heritage Foundation
http://www.armyav.org/
They do some really cool airshow routines. I’ve been down to one of their practice sessions to watch.
Error, It was another pilot in the same unit that I was referring to, Ed Freeman also a medal of honor winner is the one that I as quoting.
Both are real heros for what they did that day.
The helicopter´s helicopter.
I remember my one ride in a Huey. I was at Yakima Firing Center and had gotten a Red Cross message that my grandfather had died. My unit was at “Yak-Attack” doing desert training. They flew me back to Ft. Lewis so I could get home.
It was loud and not the smoothest ride in the world, but it helped get me home.
Goodbye, ‘Huey’...ya done good.
I remember taking rides on those. They weren't the smoothest ride. We had one pilot who had the right last name - Looney. He ended up as an O6, but when he was CPT & MAJ, he used to chase jack rabbits under high tension power lines with the landing lights at night.
Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall: “My men call me Snakesh!t, sir.”
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: “Why do they call you that?”
Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall: “Because I fly ‘lower than snakesh!t,’ sir.”
I don’t know of anyone knowledable that would describe the rotor blade sounds as ‘whoop, whoop’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQPPMcUZSEU
I agree.
Ya know, as the rotors really slow down they start to produce a sort of whish whish whish, or PERHAPS whoosh whoosh whoosh. But that’s when they’re on the ground and shutting down.
But seriously, no one who has ACTUALLY heard a Huey beat the air into submission would describe it as ‘whoop whoop’
I lost some hearing running Medevacs in these birds when I was in the USN.
Da-dum, da-da-dum, dum
Dum, da-da-dum, dum
Dum, da-da-dum, dum
Dum, da-da-dum.
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