Rigged up a exercise Bike in a CH-53D helocopter,
Every time They would pick up a platoon of Grunt He would jump on the bike and pedal as fast as he could when ever the pilot took off
and continue pedaling while the Helo flew around....
well almost alway some times he would slow down,
and every time he did he would tell the pilot over the mike on his helmet that he was slowing,
and the pilot would make the helo drop in altitude to match him slowing down,
they would do this several times until the grunt saw the pattern of Bike slows down,
helo goes down,
Bike speeds up,
Helo goes up...
after a while the crew chief would jump off the bike to answer a hand signal from the Co-pilot to look at a map.
and with out fail there would be at least nine grunts trying to jump on the bike and continue pedaling.
As the story was relayed to me the crew chief in question was Sgt. Dewey Johnson,
You may not have heard of him.
He died in Iran at a place called Desert One.
And many times I flew with him...
but I never saw the bike!
Happy Birthday Dewey and Semper Fi!
Race, don't you know this guy?
That is one of the saddest photos I never saw before
Imagine how it tore at Chesty's heart to see his only son, his namesake, all tore to hell.
I wanted to show everyone in the USO canteen that picture so they could better understand Chesty and all his pain.
He was indeed a Marine's Marine
Semper Fi,
Norb