Scroll down to watch “Dustoff, Jungle Creatures, LZs and Firebases” video
Due to the extreme nature of the terrain of Vietnam, the dangers and challenges faced by both air and ground forces were treacherous, with surprises at every turn.
Dustoff Pilot Phil Marshall joins the show to discuss Dustoff, jungle creatures, LZ’s, and Firebases. Alongside Vietnam war infantryman Ronny Ymbras they will also discuss your comments on these topics, that were presented in the Vietnam Veterans Photo Club. It should be quite an interesting show
If you like this video share it on Facebook 👍
TRANSCRIPT – Transcript and Subtitles are generated automatically by YouTube and may contain errors.
okay here we go good evening vietnam
live from lz bunker this is veterans
live show i’m your host ronnie embrass i
serve at 101st airborne division in
vietnam from december 67 to december 68.
tonight’s show is all about dust-offs
jungle creatures lz’s and firebases in
the vietnam war
we have our favorite dust-off pilot phil
marshall with us tonight coming live
from a hangar at the american ewing
museum
we’ll get to the show in just a few
minutes but i’d like to let you know
that the program is brought to you by
fallen never forgotten
the vietnam veterans memorial book
visit foreignforgotten.com for more info
or to purchase your copy
so he asked that the vietnam veterans
photo club what was the first thing that
comes to your mind when they hear the
sound of a ui
and the sound off says we called and
they came in any circumstances describe
those brave ue pilots in five words or
less
they would fly into hell thank you
robert k fuller appreciate
that
next
alani rhodes
michael o’brien yep
we did whatever we were called upon to
do never turned any mission down
thank you michael
and alan
phil what do you think about that
question
uh yeah we were there for you guys on
the ground uh without you we were just a
flying club so uh yeah you were so
uh
means of existence and uh
as you know we would not have traded
places with you guys on the ground for
anything of course i know that you
wouldn’t trade places with us you know
we were crazy
you got a great point there so let me
ask you a question though when when when
you got a mission
did you ever say
oh man
be a tough one
maybe a little bit of trepidation
uh but usually uh you know that’s that
was would be for a brief second if that
yeah then you just don’t know what the
job yeah yeah yeah you go you go do the
job
and uh you do it to the best of your
ability and trying to keep as many
people safe as possible that’s it that’s
a perfect they love it how it felt
respect they came when
we needed them
amen to that
and
how about some overload of calls
phil
you got one call and then was there
another call right behind that yeah
okay yeah uh well we uh for our unit we
had six aircraft uh and crews now
normally at least one or two would be in
maintenance at any one time so so we had
three or four aircraft that were ready
to go at a moment’s notice if necessary
uh but that was pretty rare for for our
unit um but it did happen occasionally
sometimes you would have
a mass casualty situation where you knew
you couldn’t get everybody on one
aircraft so we would send out two
but
normally
one aircraft was first up those were the
guys that were ready to go at a moment’s
notice but we had we had more aircraft
ready if if necessary
got it that’s great
jim carmen stevens they saved me in
vietnam
okay that’s about the ten thousand guy
there thank you jim that’s a good
reminder to him i got i got medevaced
out twice myself
thank you very much
jim appreciate that one
rita sitka dave seiss pilots were
got shut down twice luckily we were not
too high only a few felt a huge bump
no injuries thank god
so
is he saying oh he was
he must have been a passenger
and he got shot down twice and luckily
they were just like lifting off and
coming in
and they bumped down
yeah that one confuses me a little bit
yeah all right well i tell you what they
they do that in like a lot in hollywood
you know everything seems to always
happen
five feet off the ground
and by the way before we go any further
when you did a hot lz drop off what what
was your
um
yeah what was your mo like you came in
and that was it five feet off the ground
you didn’t touch the skids you got in
and out boom get off the plane get off
the
out of the machine let’s go
um as dust-off i was only there picking
guys up we didn’t drop any off okay
but i can answer that for you because
many of friends many of my friends were
slick pilots
uh
most of the time you guys were out of
the aircraft before the skids even
touched the ground right uh the aircraft
would come in the heels and puts the
ground they would level off and then
take off they didn’t even
the select drivers didn’t even stop when
they were dumping you guys off you were
right
you said that before we didn’t want to
be like you and you didn’t want to be
like us so we got the hell out of the
helicopter
and that’s why you sat on the floor with
your feet hanging out no seat belt
thousands of feet in the air
just enjoying the view
right yeah yeah
you were the crazy bastards not us well
standing on his kids
yeah
you knew the helicopter you knew the
helicopter was the high value target you
wanted out of there
they meant to that bro he wasn’t trained
to be on the ground i was trained to be
in the air
well you meant to that okay from roger
shmuller
we fought together to die together
people up today have no idea except
veterans
amen tonight
you bet you
and it took between five and ten guys to
support one infantryman so if it was a
cook a mechanic a pilot a navy guy
whatever it was
uh sending uh 16 inch rounds off to new
jersey
yeah
amen today
yep
all right sound off what kind of
creatures and wildlife did you encounter
in vietnam
all right
oh my god here we go andres f garcia
tamago
remember the fire ants mounds
uh
phil do you remember fire ants mounds
no no i never encountered them but there
was some crazy mamasan in the local
village she was pretty oh never mind
just said that
no but i’ll tell you what andres
actually
i never went in the village i had no no
need to go in the local village i got
you um
there’s a little chat for you we were
stationed at coochie with the
25th and the 11th cab was also in the
neighborhood so we dropped it into the
michelin rubber plantation area
northwest of kuchi and
got on some
with
uh the leather cap
so you’d be sitting on top of it it was
great this is great you know all of a
sudden they hit a tree
and the fire ants
would get shaken out of the tree on top
top of the
bus oh yeah on in the in the
apc
i’ll tell you with this shirt this shirt
came off in like
a second and a half oh yeah after
pulling their pants off it was crazy and
it got everywhere into your boots into
your belt line oh my god man
right rats as big as cats
we’re gonna get to that
yeah
okay
thank you robert mahers from 101st thank
you brother had a company that had a
rock fight with some type of monkey and
they ambushed a tiger airborne all right
so he got a monkey here with a rock
fight that’s cool
and
they
had a company oh so the company or the
monkey ambushed the tiger i’m not quite
sure
so the monkey was throwing rocks
i’ve heard similar stories
yeah wow yeah
yeah i never seen a tiger i’m glad all
right donald r elmore this is this is
like really cool
one night in cameron bay went out the
back door the barracks would take a leak
so about 25 of these creatures all in a
bunch
they were standing up on all fours and
the head was about 24 inches off the
ground i jumped back inside the door
and looked really scared
so wait a second how you got to tell us
how long with this send another post how
long were they
and did they make any noise or did
anybody get hurt
that’s crazy that looks like a little
bit of a monotour thing i i i wouldn’t
take the time to measure or anything i’d
been long gone no i mean it was a guess
trying to get the tape measure out
yeah i’ll take your word for it yeah
yeah yeah you’re right two feet three
four innings off the ground no that’s
too big for me
okay gary baron lots of poisonous snakes
during the monsoon season huge rats huge
and little credits referred to as vc as
they kept moving south
semper fi
gary very good
okay so poisonous snakes
any any encounters phil
uh one of our medics uh gate told me the
story this was uh during lamson i
believe but there were some flooding i’m
sure during the monsoon season and they
lowered the dust off aircraft down into
the water to get these gis the soldiers
into the aircraft and he says he turned
around and he’s looking eye to eye with
a cobra that had had crawled up into the
aircraft because they’re so low in the
water and he said it was the most scared
he was the whole time he was over there
there you go yeah i don’t i don’t
remember exactly what happened but he
just said uh he he turned around and was
looking eye-to-eye to that cobra that
was in the aircraft yeah
yeah we had one incident one second god
made ken ken post there we uh either at
cel ld jane or lz sally i forget which
one it was we had these like one man
bunkers they were like
three feet wide two feet high with
sandbags and had some uh
that quonset hut material there those
you know
metal things
right
and you crawl in there right one guy one
day woke up with a snake on his chest i
forgot what i don’t know what kind of
was and he went into cardiac arrest
yeah yeah that was that was like who
wouldn’t that was
never heard of anything else that we
either had a little bamboo viper stuff
but he’s here
but that that was nuts
i’m not a reptile person you can have
every one of them
okay what do you got next there matt
kenneth hogan
five inch long black stinging scorpions
yeah
yeah
uh
i saw a couple yeah never throw any
scorpions yeah but never uh yeah they
just kept moving down the trail yeah
yeah thank you ken
uh stephen lentz on my second tour
someone had a pet monkey
it was mean
yeah
yeah
not only that they’re not only vicious
but they’re quick
i mean
nothing you can box them don’t get me
wrong but even if you’re going to grab
them like
they’re like a snake and a i guess a
monkey at the same time
all right what’s the next one here
how about those
homogeneous centipedes
asian tiger came close to our position
we were belly up
we hadn’t had any chat for two days
my guys asked me i’m gonna dust that
tiger i told him hell no
cause every everything in the country
mine would hear it and be a dd popping
all over to us
yeah okay charles i like that uh
slang
the dinks and the diddy boppers very
good
by the way ryan i apologize for the
camera moving i’m trying to hold it
steady i don’t have anything to mount it
on oh it’s okay i don’t even recognize
it phil i’m not hearing the rail
is almost getting me nervous here
all right next
soundoff what’s your most vivid memory
about flying in a ui
this ought to be fun
vernon evil brewing a second i was
thrown out of one when we passed over a
ridge of hills coming in where a creek
meant a large stream
evasive movers to avoid
a shitload of aks gas fire from the top
of the hills below
he put the ue on its side and kept it
there i was
but ejected
trooper grabbed my
grabbed me by the back of my fatigue
collar and pinned my head and shoulders
to the metal floor i never lost my
weapon or a can of 60 ammo
if there’s more on here
no that’s it okay
thank you vernon
yeah normally centrifugal force held you
guys in that’s why you could get away
with no seat belts but uh yeah if it was
an erratic erratic movement and he
wasn’t ready for it that yeah i can see
where that would happen for sure
yeah you got to pay attention too you
know
yeah can’t be writing a letter having a
smoke you know
in a chopper on an assault mission
all right stephen steve booker getting
hit in the nose by a rocket
cut
the flight short you mean the nose your
nose or the nose of the helicopter yeah
gosh i don’t i’d have to be him but how
that happened
i i would be curious on that one yeah i
hear that okay
next one
this is going to be fun larry allen
calzook webb a lot around singing the
metal skin as you drop into hot lz yeah
our crew choice was the rolling stones
okay
yeah i uh
you know
melter skelter oh that was beetles
wasn’t it yeah no no that was uh yeah no
was it
i don’t think i discovered those beetles
but that’s okay we’ll find out somebody
send that information on the next uh
post um
the uh
yeah the
rounds hitting the metal skin as you
drop into hot lc
yeah that’s like
you’ll you’ll find that most flight crew
if they don’t have hearing aids they
need hearing aids
the wise tale was that if you wore
hearing protection in a huey you
couldn’t hear the bullets hitting the
aircraft trust me you could
uh but uh myself along with many many
others uh we we have hearing aids or or
we need them one or the other
i got you
okay
next one
paul freeman picking me up after i’ve
been shot down
wow choke you out
yeah those lugs drivers were really
crazy
i just say that’s a compliment
uh what’s the difference between a loch
and the kayak iowa
uh kai was the oh-58
uh it’s actually a light observation
helicopter but when we see the oh6 likes
in the picture that’s what most of us
consider to be a loach okay
yeah loh light observation helicopter
but the kiowa is an oh-58 you know what
the
native american name of that helicopter
is in the picture
it’s a caius
caius is that a female kiowa
nope they must be cousins though okay
yeah it sounds it
somebody got that in there okay next one
owen sheldon hammer watching them land
on a metal deck of a medical aid boat
barely bigger than size of his kids to
pick up wounded
yeah okay then landing on the hospital
ships was a real joy
oh that’s what it is that’s the medical
boat the that’s how big it was a
hospital ship oh yeah yeah yeah the you
know the navy pilots tell you landing on
an aircraft carrier is like landing on a
postage stamp well we had to land on a
corner of that postage stamp yeah i was
out of new jersey a few weeks back they
have a lan they have a spot on there as
well yeah even on a battleship but yeah
we saw the
yeah no that plus you’re out there in
the open there’s no
enemy fire
trucks
yeah but the deck is always moving and
sometimes it moves more than others
absolutely i hear that
thank you
dave zigler they flew me to the uss
repose along with a few other wounded
marines 28 march 69.
yes that thank you david that name uss
repose comes up a lot my good friend
harry adams got moved out there and a
couple other
guys uh the other the other ship the
other ship was the sanctuary yeah i
never heard of that thank you the repos
of the sanctuary were the two navy ships
that worked uh uh da nang and off the
coast of uh the dmz
gotcha
okay
okay my cart having
my card having to jump out went under
fire into elephant grass in a rice
paddock and sinking into the mud up to
your knees and water up to my chest and
you know to the other guys in this squad
where are you
that would have to be scary it depends
how tall they were because maybe they
were like under the water you know
yeah yeah yeah that was uh one thing you
guys didn’t that you never had an
evacuated chopper did you
i’m sorry run that by me again did you
have a vacuum have to evacuate a chopper
uh no no no i i was always able to stay
inside and bring it home i’m just saying
yeah okay
next
manual lopez
when our crew crashed into the ocean
after losing an engine on takeoff
at khansan vietnam
very good okay wow
things happen
that would be scary
next one
sound off what lz’s and firebases we got
during your time in country
okay
james taylor
liz and lz bronco
okay
nice i don’t know where they were never
heard of them good for you man
james just no brightest little note
could if you could what
what core were they in first second
third or fourth quarter okay james
eddie cook
lz ross
there you go
firebase jack september 70th van der
griff and k-son is 71.
my staff want to know i was at lz jane
and lz sally
and uh
that’s about it because camp eagle was
our headquarters but
would have never never slept tonight
there but lgj first and then lz
sally
okay firebase jack dave from david
redmond
september 70 randy griffin case on 71
lam psalm 719 january to april 71.
wow
okay
yeah
alan pope t-bone oh here we go sounds
like a hundred first guy
t-bone strike
birmingham legal lash
bad stone and professional
alan 100 first dragon right
all right next one
charles walmart report there’s another
one okay
thank you charles
a lot of action in ripcord too rodney
violet
thank you rodney
cranktree
may lock charlie two camp carroll
caisson dongha mcfee
compound
yeah camp carroll that was 100 first car
one two and then we’re pairing the other
ones
thank you man a lot of five points
oh the talking points are coming up okay
what do we got here
get it ready for this
okay it’s up to you phil
okay what you have behind you there or
your little girl
i’m gonna get down off my ladder here no
problem my man thank you i’ll get by
you’ll hear me scream take your time
we’ll come and matter back here
yeah
yeah i’ll have to get a medal back oh
wait there’s one right here
so anyway uh we have restored three
vietnam hueys back to flight and uh
working on a fourth uh eventually it’ll
it’ll uh be in the air
but um this is our uh
namesake uh last uh three digits of the
uh tail our three six nine that’s why
we’re american huey 369. but this
aircraft flew with the 498th dust off uh
out of uh oh gosh where were they they
were south of danae
uh they were a medical company they had
12 aircraft and this was their vip bird
and it’s all combat but not as much as
the other aircraft because they the co
wanted the the best aircraft and just
quite by chance we got this one uh it
was purchased off of ebay it was a um
well what am i trying to say it was a
search and rescue aircraft in the state
of maine and uh it’s restored uh just
exactly the way it was in vietnam
uh faa has required a few changes to it
but uh this again was the first aircraft
that we restored
because we are
is it still coming
oh yeah yeah absolutely i’ll be flying
it tomorrow when we go to the kokomo
vietnam veterans reunion which i’ll uh
talk to you about here in a minute okay
uh but yeah i’ll be i’ll be uh right
here in in this seat uh
flying uh over to the uh veterans
reunion uh the second aircraft we
restored
is warrior 1-1
and this was a slick
but first it was a medevac helicopter
with the 15th med
and it flew in the battle of the
ayadrang
of course the eye drain valley mel
gibson the movie weaver soldiers
we’ve got the door guns on it
and
again it’s configured
for passengers just like our dust-off
bird is
but it’s been a couple of years as the
medevac helicopter it was a d model
delta model
and uh after
15th med got their h models this went to
a slick unit
and uh but again the history of it is
that it flew in the battle of the
ayadran valley
then we come to our jewel of the
collection
this is our b model gunship
uh you can see a
static display that kids can climb all
over over there but this is our jewel uh
this is zero four nine gunship zero four
nine
and it flew
for six years in vietnam
as a gunship
the average huey only lasted six months
this one lasted six years we uh know the
history of it of it
it flew for uh four different units
uh flew for the first calve the alley
cats falcons um
one other unit that it flew with
was the smiling tigers
and the smiling tigers logo has an
interesting story uh the pilot one of
the pilots who was an artist
decided that he was going to create that
smiling tiger logo he wanted it to look
aggressive but still smiling
and he said every time he was done with
it it looked like it was constipated
so somebody said well why do why don’t
you uh write to walt disney and see if
they’ll create a smiling tiger for us
that looks aggressive so he did
and six months went by never heard
anything and then all of a sudden one
day this package showed up
and that’s the smiling tiger that was
created
by walt disney
um not walt disney himself one of his
artists right
this is the actual
photo that walt disney sent you can see
it’s water stain yeah yeah that’s not a
reproduction that is the artwork that
walt disney studios created
for the smiling tigers for their
gunshots that’s unbelievable good for
you guys yeah and the other neat thing
about this aircraft is
that it has
the rockets and mini guns on it let me
back up a little bit
and uh these are the real deal now the
rockets are are not
they’re they’re not real that are in
there they’re they’re fake but this is a
real minigun and real rocket combination
the seven shot uh rockets m21 system
and uh
as far as we know
this is the only flying b model huey in
the world with this gun system on it
uh we’ve got we’ve got the sights uh in
the inside for the pilot and the
co-pilot of course the pilot the
aircraft commander would fire the
rockets and the co-pilot would fire
the mini guns i was like an upside down
joystick hanging from the ceiling
so like i say this is this is our jewel
because of the history of it
we decided to go ahead and restore it
even though we were told that it was
economically infeasible
to restore this helicopter it’s going to
cost more than what it’s worth
but here’s the kicker here’s the kicker
speaking of the battle of the ayad ring
ed freeman and bruce crandall were both
awarded the uh medal of honor for
rescuing wounded during that battle
this is one of the gunships that
escorted them in and out of the lz
so so not only do we have a medevac
helicopter that was in that battle we’ve
also got a gunship that escorted two
medal of honor recipients and that’s the
crazy thing about that that was the
first battle of the war
yes so so for for huey’s it didn’t last
an average of six months we’ve got two
of them that were in the first major
battle of the war
and and they’re flyable and we fly them
and uh the kokomo uh vietnam veterans
reunion uh
i’m going to leave the camera you can
see all the paint peeling off the wall
here we’re going to talk about the
museum for a minute but uh
kokomo reunion is one of the largest if
not the largest vietnam veterans reunion
in the country
and it’s only just a few miles from here
so every year we fly all three aircraft
down there
and you can get a flight in a in a
vietnam huey and a real warbird and uh
so
we
will be flying over there in formation
tomorrow
the museum that we’re in right now is a
temporary museum uh we are building a
permanent museum across the road uh
we’re currently at grissom uh air base
there’s the architects drawing of the
museum we’ve already broken ground we’ve
put a down payment on the steel for the
museum uh we’ll have a restoration
hangar we’ll have a maintenance hangar
and then we’ll have the museum
and this is the only
huey museum in the world uh there are
vietnam museums there are aviation
museums
but this is the only huey museum in the
world
and we’re building it we’re a 501c3
charitable organization we’re all
volunteers
we own the ground we will own the
building and
the that’s the good news the bad news is
our temporary hangar the air force uh
here at grissom has told us that they’re
going to tear the building down
and so we don’t have the funds to
complete the museum yet
but uh we have to get it started because
uh we don’t want these aircraft to be
sitting out in the in the weather in the
winter
so uh what we’ve done is we’ve created
uh some bronze plaques
uh that will be in the entrance of
the museum
uh for a minimum donation of a thousand
dollars you can get your name in bronze
uh we have two flat two plaques here
that we uh uh that are going up and then
we have a third one which is uh as large
as both of these put together trying to
get get it in here
uh so these are people who have already
donated a minimum of a thousand dollars
to help us build the museum
uh we’re over halfway there
it’s going to be built
you would think the bell helicopter
in their
coffers all the billions of dollars
they’ve made off these helicopters you
think they’d be tickled to death that
we’re building a museum to their
aircraft
but uh they have not given us not one
penny uh not an o-ring to maintain the
aircraft or or anything
so uh we’re we’re asking for
veterans patriots you know to help us
build the museum and then one more thank
question real quick phil
yeah go ahead you know how like
automobile manufacturers need to keep a
stock of parts for every car they make
forever and ever
right
so bill helicopter doesn’t do that they
they’ll go into that oh yeah i’m sure
they do but they won’t give us anything
we got to get a little campaign going on
social media
yeah we uh
i guess say we’re building a museum to
their helicopter and they couldn’t care
less uh and i’m sorry but uh that’s the
way i feel about it
one more real quick thing and then and
then i’m gonna shut up um warbird
magazine
can you find it here
uh
did a
where were we at there we go uh did a
magazine uh featuring our aircraft uh
this is the second magazine that they
did
and uh uh the first time they did it was
the first time that they had ever put
helicopters on their cover and it turned
out to be their largest selling uh issue
so they did a second one for us uh once
we got the gun ship back in the air and
that was that was
that one so we’re getting coverage but
we need more
and uh you know this is our legacy this
is this is
all of us that were involved with
helicopters in vietnam whether you just
simply wrote in one or whether you were
crew or whatever this is our legacy and
if we don’t tell the story nobody else
is uh that’s for sure let me know
one of my associates that staff has
thought
zachary what would you say helicopter
what inside
can you show us inside the helicopter a
little bit uh yeah i’ll try uh i’ll show
you the gun chip the lighting in here is
not the best well it’s okay yeah just so
you know
um
i don’t know can you uh
yeah
i’m trying it’s okay
there’s uh
okay there you can see the pilot’s
rocket site now it’s in the stowed
position there right
the aircraft commander uh would fire the
rockets from the right seat
and then the co-pilot from this seat
uh that gun sight is like an upside down
joystick once it comes out of the stowed
position okay but uh
uh yeah like i said i wish i could give
you a better view it’s all right it’s uh
it’s 50 year old technology 50 year old
uh stuff
and uh it all works very well thank you
yeah i’ve seen a 737 look like that
that’s okay
yeah yeah but uh you know these are
amazing aircraft they’re they’re
incredibly reliable um they’re they’re
designed to be maintained in the field
um
they uh they just did everything that we
asked them to do and then some
here’s uh
here’s the dust-off bird
and
again it’s
very very basic very rudimentary
uh i don’t know if you can see uh the
panel up there
yeah i can i have trouble with its
pedometer and you got all these 500 uh
dials yeah yeah i hear you
uh the console you’ve got four radios
down here and a lot of other goodies
that’s why uh our training was a year we
had to learn all this stuff
yeah but again uh these are as close to
they were 50 years ago flying in vietnam
wow
yeah and i tell you what it is an honor
and a privilege to be able to do this
uh i’d never take it for granted and i
guarantee none of the other guys that
are involved in the organization take it
for granted either we’re we feel that
we’re stewards of these aircraft
and uh the legacy of what we did
and uh
again if we don’t preserve this history
nobody else is amen today
yeah it’s a grassroots level we don’t
have any big corporate sponsors or
anything
uh yeah even for the twenty dollar bill
will help build the building
uh at americanhewie369.com
uh if
if anybody’s anywhere close to kokomo
indiana uh this is a great weekend uh
guys it’s an old abandoned airstrip and
it is absolutely chock full of campers
entertainment every night
what i call fair food you know the the
waffles and the brats and all that good
stuff yeah sure it’s uh it’s a carnival
almost
and
you don’t get run over by a golf cart
save me a reservation for next year
all right yeah it’s uh it’s amazing
bring your camper uh if you don’t have a
camper uh motels are close
uh yeah it’s a hoot and then like i say
we’ll have all three aircraft there uh
our dustoff bird and our lift ship uh we
give passenger flights for a hundred
dollars you get a flight in the vietnam
huey again and uh all that money goes to
the keeping the aircraft in the air uh
we don’t want them to be on a pole
somewhere uh just you know gathering
dust uh we want to keep these puppies
flying as long as we can you might make
an episode there next year yeah we could
do our uh show next year from out there
oh that would be a great idea yeah but
uh it pretty much starts tomorrow and
we’ll be here all weekend with the
aircraft and
i don’t know what the cost is but it’s
rather minimal i believe where where are
you now where is this
uh we’re at grissom air force base which
is peru indiana right and uh
uh it’s uh it’s an air reserve uh
refueling wing they have kc-135s here
all right so
how far is pokemon
uh kokomo is about maybe uh 20 minutes
away oh by what my car were playing yeah
bike park yeah okay bye helicopter it’s
not even that yeah four minutes okay
good how fast
yeah three or four minutes
yeah
that’s great so anyway thanks thanks for
letting me ramble on about the museum
but it’s oh man
hey it’s our legacy it’s a legacy man we
got it yeah
vietnam guy’s dead we got a cube
question in the answer don’t go nowhere
okay i’m right here
but yeah no
the the
the guys whenever they talk about it
whenever they see it whenever they get
together
the word yui comes up so until we are
all dead in our grave
then maybe our kids and grandkids could
talk about it but yeah we gotta we gotta
live it
oh
[Music]
okay questions or comments what do you
got here
who’s the first one kilo
how did they handle
how did the ue handling crashes
they seem very crash worthy
um
your skids will absorb a lot of the
impact
but
um it’s hard
you know it’s rather safe uh but
sometimes uh the crew could get thrown
around we lost one medic uh who was not
belted in when the aircraft crashed uh
wound up with a broken neck and and died
uh but overall yeah it’s it’s i think
it’s pretty crash worthy i don’t know
what the numbers are or anything
but uh those skids will take a lot of
the impact
yeah as long as you’re landing
like yeah
yeah
yeah you’re in trouble man
yeah okay
now did that i see this on tv a lot when
the helicopters go like this when
they’re coming down
oh well that’s when you lose the tail
rotor
ah okay yeah uh that’s your anti-torque
and uh
yeah you lose the tail rotor that’s when
you start spinning okay next one
did you see any animals or anything from
the helicopter uh yeah did you uh before
we asked uh yeah to talk about tom’s
question did you see any animals or big
ones of something from the chopper
um no no i was too busy flying uh yeah
yeah yeah i didn’t really look for that
kind of stuff okay tom and elephants
yeah and we’ll have to i have to ask tom
about that i’ll see you tomorrow he’s
one of our core members
okay yeah i consider him to be a good
friend so yeah i want to hear his
elephant’s story very good thank you tom
next yeah
jim isaac that tiger might eat it should
dink too
okay
well i imagine one or two were lost to
animals
they were like smaller too so they could
have two of them yeah there you go
next one
greg nunez
you are the best jumps ever no doubt you
mean like helicopter jump or jumping out
of or into the rice paddy
get back to me on that greg
thank you
jim isaac my butt almost slid out of a
huey before gotta watch the banks
yeah gotta pay attention when you’re
sitting out there with your feet off the
side thinking about john wayne you know
what i mean then you got your right
ready and you’re pumped up and your
adrenaline’s flowing you’re superman
yeah you better you better hang on boy
especially with a rucksack and a your
helmet and the do your weapon and oh my
god
okay by the way how many people would be
the max
dead or alive or wounded or whatever oh
that’s a good question
um one night we got a call for two south
vietnamese wounded
uh when we got there uh 15 of them
jumped on board
yeah our brave comrades okay
well i thought that was a lot and uh
another dust-off pilot i talked to uh mo
majeski a good friend of mine who was in
the organization uh he said he had 21
one night uh same thing yeah but you
know if you know they were like
you know they were half the weight of
the average american
yeah well you just stack them on like
like cord wood you know we don’t have
time to sort them out we just dump them
off at the hospital and let the hospital
dump uh
yeah you get a call
and they swarm the ship yeah they wanted
to get thrown out to get out of the
field
yeah
so uh yeah you just you know the crew
yells go go go you don’t know if you got
the wounded on or not but you’re full
uh and you can get too many bodies on
board to where you can’t lift off the
aircraft you can’t lift off the ground
that’s for sure
okay
uh yeah it’s okay chuck white
my brother was a door gunner 67-68 you
guys brought him home thank you
okay
yeah and you know that’s one of the neat
things we didn’t know these guys that we
picked up
uh i if the
the time that i was there
i i found three guys that i picked up
and that was only because they were the
guys i picked up the night i was wounded
one was kia i found the family
but uh
yeah we the the neatest term that i’ve
ever heard about what we did as
helicopter crews picking up
wounded and things like that was uh a
15th med first cab medevac driver said
just think guys some grandfather in
nebraska is buying ice cream for his
grandchildren you saved his life and he
doesn’t even know who you are
yeah there you go yeah
that was just such a neat statement
yeah
sad okay
20
justin lane lane
21 people is a 47 lift
justin lane and uh flu chinooks in
afghanistan
oh okay and when he went to afghanistan
i sent him a pair of wings that i wore
in vietnam
when he got back from afghanistan he
sent me a pair of wings that he wore in
afghanistan and they’re on my helmet
today
yeah so yeah justin was a chinook driver
and uh yeah he he he’s got some huey
time i think that’s his favorite for
sure but yeah good to hear from you
justin that’s terrific next one
dki research thank you for sharing your
experience and knowledge your service
will never be forgotten amen to that
thank you i think he’s talking to you
ronnie
oh
no both everybody
yeah yeah that’s true that’s true
yep okay that’s it that’s it okay that’s
it i have a a question here though
uh but you can’t you snuck up on me here
um
no i guess it doesn’t matter
can’t remember can you remember it’s
heck yeah
yeah i know that yes uh
that that that’s amazing about the
so this is a regular hangar or what is
this uh yeah well
grissom was a b-58 base during the cold
war they stored nuclear weapons here
right and uh this is one of four hangers
that’s in a building it was the a-10
hangars right now both the doors
behind me would open up so they would
fire up the aircraft right here in the
building and they would taxi right out
to the runway no stop no nothing just
open they were the ready alert aircraft
the a-10s
to protect the b-58 bombers and and the
nuclear weapons on base here
but now the base has been turned over to
the civilians except for uh the tarmac
where the uh
kc-135s are uh
uh are
part
and uh
so that’s uh
um
in a nutshell what we’ve got here these
hangers are old uh they’re almost world
war ii vinnies they’re 1950s and 60s
vintage
but uh the lead paints peeling off uh
no heat or air conditioning in here
we’re doing annual inspections in here
in in february and march and april and
uh it can get a little cold
okay
okay
i gotta show you something hold on
of course getting 21 people oh yeah
that’s beautiful mahogany
yeah check this out
yeah
careful it’ll fly out of your hands i
know but look at this the
you got the rocket pods
okay oh that’s an h model with rocket
paws i didn’t notice the rocket points
man we don’t mess around here yeah
looking over here goes
yeah and and there were a few of those
but most of them were on the gun ships
but yeah
yeah yeah that’s very nice yeah
very nice
well i i i’d spend these blades for you
but
this is crazy matt matthews
he found this somewhere on the internet
and he sent it to me and there you go
yeah very nice you’re not kidding man
this is beautiful well i i appreciate
what you’re doing ronnie and and matt uh
your son there that’s uh directing all
this stuff uh yeah is that yeah
this one zach
zach yeah exactly i saw him there in the
background he’s the guy he’s the on
staff
mets down the tropical paradise of costa
rica doing the show
for medical uh deluge area of new york
we got flooded out this week with
hurricane ida and uh
yeah so we’re doing good
yeah doesn’t make any difference if you
served in combat or not just so you
serve that’s that’s
yeah you know that’s that’s the thing it
took between five or ten guys
to support one infantryman
yep
five five to ten
soldiers
mechanics cooks supply clerk
you name it medics no deal to to
to carry on our protection of this
wonderful country that’s the deal
yeah check you out with the
winged assault
nice what’s that first of all
yeah yeah that was uh that was when it
was escorting uh freeman and uh crandall
in uh the battle of the eye it rang
that’s great
these things cannot go
uh unnoticed and on
uh
how would you say this
uh i don’t know just we got to tell the
public and keep him informed about this
stuff yeah and and we get decent
coverage from from the local press
you know not saying we don’t but uh
we we need help we we need to build this
museum to protect these aircraft and
keep them in the air
uh and and it will be built sooner or
later we we start construction here yet
this summer
but uh right now we don’t have quite
enough to uh to finish the job we we’ve
we’ve uh collected just over two million
dollars
uh three million to build the building
and another million and a uh fund to
perpetuate the museum gotcha we’ve got
something some jokes we got to say there
i got justin has to say that you was the
best
the hotel was like an old f-150
that’s like a ford
yeah a ford f-150 pickup truck yeah okay
it was absolutely perfect for every
mission we ever needed it for i remember
what i wanted to say
okay
i’m sorry go ahead okay thank you okay
here we are in the field slugging it out
you know two or three weeks at a time
before you go back to base maybe and get
a shower
uh
in the field
you got
food from the ue you got mail from the
ui yup you got
medevac from the ue yeah you got
replacements from the ue you got
reinforcements from the ue
you got food from the ue
you got encouragement from the ue it was
like
everything you needed the you he brought
us
yeah
and i probably forgot a few things
so like really i mean
think about it well yeah i’ll tell you
what the ue wants dry socks so what
happens i get the salt
yeah it didn’t take much to keep them
happy didn’t it yeah but i put them on
what do they always do before sunset
they make you move 500 meters somewhere
else and i’m walking through a wet rice
paddy with my new dry socks
yeah
yeah no justice that only happened one
time
yeah one time after that i kept the
socks up in my shirt pockets here yeah
oh my god
yeah and and justin uh thanks dude i uh
um
they uh justin and his generation have
continued the uh
the legacy of the combat helicopter
pilots and uh
yeah that’s what he’s saying here he
says i’m so thankful for men like phil
that laid the groundwork for guys like
me to continue protecting america yeah
amen yeah yeah
i consider justin a good friend so i you
know we uh
we go back a few years and uh we’re
gonna meet up with him next year
yeah yeah yeah we uh we could use some
of his input from his war for sure
but thank you so much phil pleasure
talking to you again
and uh do me a favor send me the address
of your organization when you finish
this hang on
well hang on no hang on if the show will
talk and uh just wait right there okay
matt thank you phil take care talk to
you later
talk to you in a few minutes thank you
okay
thank you everybody for checking out
this show what a great
example of what happened in vietnam and
the men who flew those helicopters and
brought out the wounded and brought the
food in and helped with the
reinforcements and the rockets and the
machine guns and the whole deal
thank you very much for watching
hope to see you next week
god bless you and welcome home
