Huey vandalized at American Legion

Vandals damage helicopter used in Vietnam War
Columbus Dispatch
Marc Kovac
July 3, 2018

NEWARK — Local veterans are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of vandals responsible for damaging a Vietnam-era helicopter that’s been displayed at schools and in parades for decades.

The UH-1 “Huey” helicopter was used in the Vietnam War for about five years and subsequently for stints by the U.S. Navy and the Ohio National Guard before it was transferred to Newark about 30 years ago for display.

Sometime over the weekend, vandals broke out two of the windows on the chopper, which was parked at the American Legion Post 85 on Wilson Street in Newark, said Mark Rehl, president of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 55, District 1.

“It’s very upsetting,” he said.

The aircraft, which rides atop a customized boat trailer, has been used as a mobile historic display at community and school events, with frequent appearances during parades. It’s also been a help to local veterans, some suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from their service years.

Anyone with information about the weekend vandalism of the aircraft is encouraged to contact the local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter at (740) 927-6272.
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Navy: Sailor's death suicide on flight line

UPDATE

His Suicide Note Was a Message to the Navy. The Way He Died Was the Exclamation Point

On June 25, 2018, Caserta left notes to several friends and his parents, walked out on the flight line at Naval Station Norfolk and hurled himself into the spinning tail rotor of an MH-60S helicopter."I'm sorry you have to see this," he shouted to the plane captain before he died.

Sailor Died by Suicide at Naval Station Norfolk: Navy
Associated Press
June 26, 2018

Aircraft carriers in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, the world's largest naval station, on Dec. 20, 2012. Stocktrek Images

NORFOLK, Va. — U.S. Navy officials say a sailor who died on a helicopter flight line at a base in Virginia died by suicide.

Cmdr. Dave Hecht, a spokesman for Naval Air Force Atlantic, said by phone Tuesday that Monday's death was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Hecht did not provide additional details.

The sailor worked as a maintainer in a helicopter squadron. Navy officials said Monday that the sailor had been killed in a "mishap" at Naval Station Norfolk. The flight line is where helicopters take off.
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The Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and Crewmember Monument

Dedication ceremony set for monument honoring Vietnam helicopter pilots, crews
Military Times
By: Charlsy Panzino
March 21, 2018

The war was known as the “helicopter war” because the United States relied heavily on the aircraft to transport troops and provide close-air support.

Retired Lt. Col. Forrest “Frosty” Price, a Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association member, stands with the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and Crewmember Monument. (Courtesy photo)

Those who wish to honor the helicopter pilots and crew members killed in Vietnam can do so on April 18 at Arlington National Cemetery.

After four years, these service members will have their own monument at the Virginia cemetery.

The Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association spearheaded the effort, working with Arlington National Cemetery and Congress to get the monument approved.

At first, the cemetery was hesitant because of the ever-shrinking space for grave sites, but supporters of the monument wrote to Congress and gained attention. Eventually, a compromise was made, and the cemetery approved the monument.

The Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and Crewmember Monument will be placed in Section 35 along Memorial Drive, not far from the Tomb of the Unknowns. It honors the nearly 5,000 helicopter pilots and crew members who were killed during the Vietnam War.
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Huey's Still Coming to Rescue of Vietnam Veterans

Vietnam Veterans give therapy rides to fellow Vets in 1968 Huey Helicopter
KTVU News
Leigh Martinez
June 25, 2017

That was the start of his mental healing process and Raquiza now volunteers every weekend with the Huey Vets and recruits veterans from all battlefields to take therapeutic rides and discuss military PTSD.

On the tarmac at the Bud Field Aviation Hanger, there’s a sound familiar to all Vietnam Combat Veterans. The deep, loud ‘thud, thud, thud’ of a Huey helicopter.

This distinct sound meant supplies, medic rescue, and most importantly, that they were going home.

"I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for a UH1 helicopter taking care of me,” said US Army pilot Randy Parent, one of two pilots commanding the EMU 309.

Today, veterans claim the Huey continues to save their lives. The EMU 309 is a Bell UH-1H Huey helicopter restored to its 1968 Vietnam War configuration. The all-volunteer team of Huey Vets now maintain the EMU 309 to provide therapeutic flights above the San Antonio Reservoir to veterans suffering the after-effects of war.

Geoff Carr and Peter Olesko bought the Huey helicopter in 2003. Carr mortgaged his house to restore it.

“I knew if these go out of service, they can become beer cans and lose their history,” said Carr.

It has turned the lives around for two veterans, who credit the aircraft for starting their PTSD recovery.

"You hear that expression 'Coming home' and I think it's different for everybody, but if I was going to use that expression, I'd say ‘coming home’ for me was getting back in this chopper and flying it again,” said Andy Perry, who flew the Huey 309 during the Vietnam War for the Royal Australian Navy, fighting alongside American troops.

Perry and U.S. Army Sgt. Faustino Raquiza both received silver stars for their roles in Vietnam. Raquiza was awarded two silver stars.

"The silver star doesn't mean anything to me,” said Raquiza.

“I know people make it a big deal -third highest ranking star in the United States military, but I rather be understood; understood for what I'm going through and not patronized. It's hurtful."

Perry and Raquiza said they had no idea what they were returning home to after their service in Vietnam.

"I was booed at the airport, they threw stuff at me, I was called a baby killer, women killer,” said Raquiza.
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America's Forgotten Heroes - No Longer from Huey Vets - EMU, Inc on Vimeo.

One of Two Killed in Helicopter Crash Named

FAMILY NAMES SOLDIER KILLED IN HELICOPTER CRASH NEAR LA PORTE
ABC NEWS 13
Updated 4 mins ago

LA PORTE, TX (KTRK) -- The name of one of the two soldiers killed during a routine training flight near La Porte has been released by his family. Relatives of 33-year-old Lucas Lowe from Hardin told ABC13 they've been notified of his death.

Lowe leaves behind a son, daughter and a wife who is pregnant with twins. He served in Iraq in 2008.

ABC13 has also learned that the other soldier killed in the crash is from the Houston area. His identity has not been released.
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UFO surrounded by helicopters on rural road

UFO surrounded by helicopters on rural road: National Geographic hunts answers
Examiner
Roz Zurko
October 31, 2014

They were in the Piney Woods just outside of Huffman, Texas in 1981 when they saw a UFO hovering over the road ahead of them, describes the website Blue Blurry Lines.

Some UFO sightings are much more intriguing than others, like the UFO that was surrounded by 23 helicopters seemingly trying to corral the spacecraft. This is a case still talked about today. Then there's the case of an unknown spacecraft that plays cat and mouse with jet fighters, this is another UFO sighting that can’t be ignored. These sightings are too detailed and seen by too many reputable people to dismiss them as being mistaken for a weather balloon.

How about the case of the Australian pilot disappearing mid-flight just after he radios in that a “strange craft” appears to be “dancing” around his aircraft? This is another encounter not to be taken lightly, according to Open Minds TV on Oct. 30.
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101st Super Bowl flyover 5 seconds after National Anthem

Fort Campbell contribution: The making of a Super Bowl flyover
'What a difference a year makes' for unit that watched game in Afghanistan last year
The Leaf Chronicle
Philip Grey
Feb. 3, 2014

FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — On the Monday before the big game in the Big Apple, ground controllers of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, were at Fort Campbell’s Fryar Stadium getting ready for the Super Bowl.

Their part of the game would be all of maybe five seconds, but they were intent on making it a perfect five seconds.

As night set in, it was cold enough to freeze skin on contact with metal or anything other than a lit match, but Command Sgt. Maj. John Martin and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brett Chivers were just warming up as the first run was coming in from Clarksville, headed for the south end of the stadium.

“We’ve got line-of-sight,” someone yelled as nine helicopters came into view as distant points of light.

The time-on-target over the goalpost was 1805 hours, 6:05 p.m., and they had to hit it just right.

Come Sunday, there would be no do-overs. The plan called for them to crest the end of MetLife Stadium within 5 seconds of the last note of the National Anthem.
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This is from New Jersey.com
WATCH: Spectacular footage of Super Bowl 2014 flyover from a Chinook helicopter

Vietnam Veteran receives Silver Star after 44 year wait

44 years after risking life for comrades, helicopter pilot gets his Silver Star
Downed over Mekong Delta and wounded by ground fire, George Carlton Bloodworth led others to safety
The Baltimore Sun
By Matthew Hay Brown
January 2, 2014

Photograph of ceremony in Chris Van Hollen's Rockville office.

(Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun / January 2, 2014)

It was the kind of mission that Warrant Officer George Carlton Bloodworth flew daily in Vietnam. But on Sept. 20, 1969, it went badly wrong.

Bloodworth was piloting the second of two scout helicopters on a reconnaissance mission over the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam, speeding 100 feet off the ground, when the lead helicopter was shot down. As he circled back to search for its two-man crew, his own helicopter was shot down, and he was hit by ground fire.

Still, he found the downed crew and helped lead the wounded pilot, the pilot's crew chief and his own crew chief through withering fire to safety.

For his actions that day, Bloodworth was awarded the Silver Star, the military's third-highest decoration for valor. But he never received the medal. Until Thursday.

Surrounded by family — two sons, a daughter and their families — Bloodworth, now 75, finally got his Silver Star. It was pinned onto his blazer by Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Clark, commander of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, during a brief ceremony at the Rockville office of Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat.
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Marine Helicopter helps Santa with toy lift

Marine helicopter picks up toys collected by students for children in need
William and Mary
by Erin Zagursky
December 6, 2013

Who needs Santa and his reindeer when you have a Marine helicopter and the Griffin?

A Marine CH-46E touched down at the Williamsburg Jamestown Airport on Thursday afternoon to pick up Toys-for-Tots donations collected by students in William and Mary’s Part-Time Flex MBA program. The Griffin, wearing a floppy Santa hat on one of its ears, joined the students as they loaded dozens of toys onto the aircraft to be delivered to Naval Station Norfolk, where Marines will sort and distribute them next week.

“It feels really good to provide a smile to children who maybe wouldn’t get one over Christmas,” said Erin Miller, a student in the program. “It’s nice to give back and do something for them.”

The helicopter pickup was the brainchild of Maj. Paul Minihan, a Marine reservist who is also the president of the MBA Flex Program’s student association. He and Miller, who is vice president of the association, collected the toys at William and Mary’s Peninsula Center, which is located in the Oyster Point section of Newport News. The two were looking for outreach activities to do in the fall and spring and decided on Toys for Tots because of Paul’s connection to the Marines. Miller’s husband is also a retired military member.
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Dec 6, 2013
A Marine CH-46E touched down at the Williamsburg Airport to pick up Toys-for-Tots donations collected by students in William and Mary's Flex MBA program.

Author reunites "Super Slick" crew with Huey

Vietnam crew returns to helicopter's W.Va. home
MARY WADE BURNSIDE
Times West Virginian
June 9, 2013

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — Tom Feigel spent a year in Vietnam as the crew chief of a Huey helicopter, flying out on night missions that would have the aircraft called into battle or going over into Cambodia and Laos to drop off and pick up soldiers.

"You fly that helicopter every single day," said Feigel, a Webster, N.Y., resident who was an Army Specialist 5 as part of the 366th Assault Helicopter Co. out of Soc Trang, Vietnam.

"It's your home. You do have attachments to it, and to the crew, because of some of the situations and firefights you were in with them. So there is a special bond between the crew and the ship."

These days Feigel's Vietnam "home" now resides in Fairmont as part of the Marion County Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located at the entrance to East Marion Park off the Gateway Connector.

For a long time, Feigel had no idea that the "ship" he spent so much time on actually still exists, and is located only about a seven-hour drive away from where he lives in New York.

"I had tracked the helicopter from Vietnam back to Fort Hood, Texas," Feigel said.

"Apparently, the helicopter was transferred from Fort Hood to Fort Rucker. This was 15 years ago."

Feigel lost track of the helicopter — dubbed "Super Slick" — and figured it had been parceled out. But in January of last year, John Brennan, an author working on a book on military choppers, contacted him and another member of the crew, Tom Wilkes, and informed them that the ship was in Fairmont.

The helicopter had made its way to Fairmont after Alfred Knoll, an area veteran, spent four years working with the military to get a piece of equipment to display at the Marion County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He drove to Fort Rucker in Alabama to pick it up and learned that the aircraft he had been promised already had been given away.
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First Marine flight to be commemorated in Marblehead

First Marine flight to be commemorated in Marblehead Aug. 3-4
Posted by Liam O'Kennedy
Boston.com
August 3, 2012

By Liam O'Kennedy, Globe Correspondent

Marine aviation's beginnings will be celebrated in Marblehead Aug. 3-4.

Local Marines and the Marine Corps Aviation Association will commemorate the centennial of the first Marine Corps' flight, taken from Marblehead Harbor by Alfred A. Cunningham in 1912, with two days of aircraft displays and flyovers, and a Saturday morning parade.

On Friday and Saturday, a fleet of Marine Humvees, helicopters, and planes from throughout the Corps' history will be on display at the Marblehead Village School, and their pilots will be on hand to answer questions. A collection of art showing the history of Marine Corps aviation also be on exhibit.
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Oops! Army dropped bomb in Killeen neighborhood

Inactive missile drops from Army chopper in Texas

KILLEEN, Texas (AP) – A 6-foot-long inactive training missile accidentally fell from a military helicopter into field near a Texas military post, causing the brief evacuation of nearby homes but not harming anyone, officials said.

About 100 homes in a neighborhood near Fort Hood were evacuated Tuesday night after a witness reported seeing something fall from the sky around 8 p.m., Killeen police spokeswoman Carroll Smith said.
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Rep. Todd Akin thinks Arm Medevac helos to save more lives

Lawmaker: Arm Medevac helos to save more lives
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 17, 2012 19:35:22 EST
A key lawmaker says the military could save more lives in Afghanistan if the Army would arm its Medevac helicopters rather than worry about its commitment to the Geneva Convention.

Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a letter sent Tuesday to the Defense Department that current Army policy of having unarmed Medevac helicopters is slowing transport of injured troops. The helicopters, marked with a red cross, are accompanied by armed aircraft when flying into dangerous areas.

Army officials responded to Akin’s letter, making the case for continuing the MEDEVAC program as it now stands. Adding weapons, they say, would take up space and weight that could be used for patients.

“Longstanding Army policy and doctrine prohibit the mounting of crew-serve weapons on MEDEVAC aircraft and provide detailed guidance on the utilization of the MEDEVAC aircraft, lest the platform lose its protected status under the Geneva Convention,” the Army wrote in an email to Army Times. “AH64 is infinitely more effective in targeting enemy and protecting MEDEVAC helicopters than arming the MEDEVAC itself.”
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U.S. copter shot down in Afghanistan

U.S. copter shot down in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter after exchanging fire with its crew in central Afghanistan on Monday.
By Fisnik Abrashi - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 27, 2008 10:34:25 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter after exchanging fire with its crew in central Afghanistan on Monday.

The helicopter was forced down in Wardak, one province west of Kabul, after insurgents hit it with gunfire Monday, said Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthew, a U.S. military spokesman. The crew survived and has been extracted from the area, he said.

“The helicopter crew exchanged fire with the enemy before the damage brought the helicopter down,” Matthews said. Coalition troops secured the area and “are in the process of recovering” the helicopter, he said.
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