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Graywolf88

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Everything posted by Graywolf88

  1. https://usobit.com/2018/08/hector-leyva-august-7-1945-august-28-2018/ August 28, 2018 - El Paso, Texas
  2. Looks like most everything is working again. It is a lot of work to keep a forum going.
  3. It can only redirect if we had the index page bookmarked. If we bookmarked somewhere else to save steps it wouldn't redirect. It will just come up with URL not found.
  4. The forum will not allow me to post the news clipping pages. You can find the news clippings from the Doc Jensen Story at : http://www.tanwater.com/834/det1-pg4.html And http://www.tanwater.com/834/det1-pg5.html I can testify to the fact that every plane over An Loc came back with bullet holes. I was there. Saved these news clippings from the Det 1 Report. These 2 pages were on Doc Jensen story. Other news clippings I saved are at - http://www.tanwater.com/834/dex2.html#line3
  5. Copy the link in the first post and paste it into the browser address. It will take you to the pictures.
  6. I have had the same problem.........
  7. The American Legion Post I belong to has a ceremony at the county Veteran's Cemetery every year on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. On those days the names, dates, which military service, and which wars if any are read off for all veterans who were residents of this county and died since the last ceremony. DAV, Boy Scouts, and some other organizations also have a part in the services. It ends with 21 gun salute for all the veterans who have passed away and taps. The ceremony is usually attended by at least several hundred people. I have crew wings and my son got crew wings. He was FE on E3 AWACs out of Tinker. He served in middle east.
  8. I have no idea what the tail number is on this aircraft. It must be one of the A models we turned over to the Vietnamese just before we left there in 1972 - 73. We were flying all E models at that time and I am not aware of any A model that was left at Khe Sanh intact. This aircraft is said to be on display at the Khe Sanh War Memorial currently. The pictures were taken by an ADV Motorcycle rider who bought a small Vietnamese motorcycle in Hanoi and rode it all the way to Saigon taking pictures along the way. He and his wife spent a month making the trip. Not sure if you have a record of this aircraft or what the numbers are. These pictures are fairly recent. The person taking the pictures knows nothing about tail numbers or types. He was simply taking pictures of the static displays at the Memorial.
  9. It cost me 2 stripes and a fine. I left the Malibu in Florida and got the blue Honda when I got to CCK. Long ago when I was young I had a little bit of a wild streak. As I got older I mellowed out and found that high lift cams and shotgun pipes attract unwanted attention from the PoPo. I now ride very sensible personal transportation which does not get me in so much trouble. The black Harley is my current personal vehicle.
  10. I had probably been at CCK a year when that picture was taken. Arrived at CCK with only one stripe due to a misunderstanding with the Pope AFB Security Police concerning the operation of a 64 Malibu on base.
  11. He was assigned to the same barracks room as me at CCK, but don't think I ever saw him there. One of us was always gone TDY.
  12. Photo taken at Tan Sun Nhut shortly after the 1972 rescue and later printed in the Airlifter Newsletter. Several of those who were rescued are not in the picture because they were evaced to 3rd Field Hospital for injuries.
  13. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/04/19/vietnam-war-heroes-honored-silver-star-45-years-amazing-rescue/ Spc. Leonard “Bruce” Shearer of Indianapolis, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Monette, Capt. Robert Frank, and Spc. John DesLauriers saved five men from a burning plane, WTHR reported. They followed a burning C-130 transport plane that crashed near Saigon in 1972 when they took enemy fire, returned fire of their own, and pulled five men from the burning plane into their Army UH-1H “Huey.” All of the men, including two men who were rescued by a nearby helicopter, survived. “We did these sorts of things in the air cavalry all the time, the difference this time being it was recognized and documented,” Frank told Stars and Stripes. “Heroic things were done every day. Sometimes somebody would see it, other times they wouldn’t.” Shearer made multiple jumps from the helicopter to the burning C-130 below while DesLauriers battled North Vietnamese soldiers. “We were running on fumes,” Monette said. “We were critically low on fuel. But we weren’t going any place until we had the guys on board.” After nearly five decades and several attempts to get medals for the heroes, they were honored with the Silver Star on the 45th anniversary of the rescue. The Silver Star is the third-highest military honor.
  14. Yeah, the tech manuals was another problem. The updates are in your mailbox at CCK and you get jumped for a check ride in country. Most of us carried a little notebook with all the take off and landing times and the 3 letter airfield designation. You used them to fill out the travel voucher when you got back to CCK and you could also use them to keep up with the number of combat missions. Still got some of mine. You could buy them for a few piastres in Siagon.
  15. Best I can remember the standard for Air Medals was 35 combat missions. You could also be put in for one for a single mission by the Aircraft Commander. The Awards and Decs officer was also on active inputs and rarely around CCK. If I remember correctly we had to fill out a form listing the missions and leave it in the squadron Awards and Decs inbox at CCK. If you did not submit the forms, none were turned in. I was in 776 TAS the same time you was there. I remember keeping up with combat missions and turning in the forms.
  16. 45 years after Doc Jensen's crew was picked up from the burning wreckage of their plane (63-7775 c/n 3841) while under fire from the bad guys, the Army helicopter crews that rescued them have finally been awarded the Silver Star. This was one of the planes shot down during the An Loc Airdrops of 1972. The rescue probably saved the lives of the entire crew. You can easily find all the stories of the Battle of An Loc on the Internet. The crews who recently received the Silver Star for the rescue are the ones who picked up the C-130 crew of Capt. Don (Doc) Jensen after his plane was hit during the air drops and crashed into unfriendly territory. Fox News Article and pictures
  17. I have that whole Det 1 Report and some other news clippings posted online. Det 1 Report
  18. I have my complete flying time records and they list the tail numbers of all the birds we flew. I vaguely remember some of the crew chiefs and maintenance people at TSN, but I can't even remember all the crews I flew with. 217 combat missions just all blend together like some weird dream from a different life. I could look up the tail number and what day we used that bird, but the flying time records do not list the crew chief and that probably wouldn't help him any.
  19. I was 776 TAS out of CCK from early 1970 until we moved from Ton Sun Nhut to NKP in 1973? whenever it was. I had the VSM on my DD-214 from an extended time at TSN as duty loadmaster. The VA would still not accept that as proof of "boots on the ground". I had to get a DD215 with Vietnam Campaign Medal and Vietnam Cross on it before the VA accepted it as "boots on the ground". I had orders for both of them, they were just never put on the DD-214. Still took a long time to get it changed. Best I can remember the crew chiefs assigned to the aircraft went on the TDY inputs with us to TSN and stayed with the bird until it returned to CCK. Somebirds had assistant Crew Chiefs also. The VA has no clue what was going on back then. They make decisions based on some guidelines that somebody else without a clue wrote for them. They kept telling me that we could have been flying all airdrop missions out of Thailand and never landed in country. I tried to show them flying time records with hundreds of in country sorties and travel vouchers. They wouldn't look at them. They would only change my status when I got the DD-215.
  20. Yeah, all that is true. Every one of us was in country TDY. None of the TDY crews or support were included in the numbers of American troops in Vietnam. We had 70 or 80 birds in country at times and there is no record of it. When we were under the 834th Air Division the records show that the 834th was sent to Ton Sun Nhut with no equipment and no personnel. It would have been real difficult to move all that cargo and pax around without any planes, crews, or support. Pretty much nobody cares now and you have to fight the system to even get listed with the VA so you can file a claim.
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