Montauk, NY, Resident Will Be Inducted into Veterans Hall of Fame

I have a unique connection with the guy about whom these articles are written.  Even though I wasn’t an officer, after serving 28 months with the 225^th Surveillance Airplane Company at Phabulous Phu Hiep By The Sea as a Photo Lab Tech (84G20), working in the Orderly Room for several months and flying many missions as a flight-follow observer, I wanted to return home having experienced the famous low pass that others had experienced when they left the Company.  So, on my last duty day as a Phantomhawk, I was assigned to a flight-follow mission with a warrant officer named Mr. Drago.  As I recall, it was a warm and clear morning on June 11, 1970, when I crawled out of my bed (I had packed my stuff over the previous days) and reported for my pre-flight our briefing.

There was nothing remarkable that I recall about that flight, except that I was going home when it was done!  Now, you must remember that this was a dumb thing to do...volunteering for a mission on my last day in country!

I remember clearly coming back to Phu Hiep from Qui Nhon one early evening on a Huey.  In those days we just went out on the tarmac, put our thumb out and hitched a ride on anything that was heading to Phu Hiep.  (No TSA to fool with in those days!)  Anyway, I got on this Huey that had several other passengers on it already, we lifted off and headed south.  A little while into the flight we turned right and headed west.  “What’s up?” someone asked and the pilot said that another chopper had landed with hydraulic problems and was on a little airstrip out in the toolies; we were going to pick up their passengers.

Well, as we were heading west to our objective, this guy was sitting next to me in his khakis, obviously on his way to Cam Ranh to get on a jet to head back to the “world,” muttering to himself “I don’t wanna die!”  This was not an unusual comment I think we all had near the end our tours.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, we got to this little airstrip at dusk, after flying over at least one fire fight where we saw our red tracers going one direction and the enemy’s green tracers returning the other, we landed up in the hills where the landing strip was only illuminated by only two jeep headlights.  We picked up the passengers that included some GIs and a couple of ARVN officers and we slowly took off for Phu Hiep in our overloaded Huey, while all the time our khaki-clad GI was doubting he was actually going to be on jet going west in a few hours.

We were all grateful that the trip ended uneventfully.

Anyway, back to my last day in Vietnam...  Mr. Drago and I completed our mission.  I said goodbye over the radio to my friend CPT Larry Stallard, who was flying one of the missions we were following.  I must have said to Mr. Drago that I wanted a low pass, so we headed west out over the Pacific to a radar installation (it looked like a big, white golf ball sitting out in the ocean), climbed to a bazillion feet altitude and dived toward it.  Pulling up at the last possible moment, I had gotten my low pass!  What a rush!

We then headed north to Cam Ranh and touched down on the Air Force runway, taxied over toward the terminal, I got my gear out of the Hawk, said goodbye and thanks to Mr. Drago with a salute, and headed for the terminal and home.

I didn’t see George Drago until many years later at a Mohawk Association reunion (I don’t remember which one) and we have remained in touch ever since!

Click on the links below to see what now LTC Drago (US Army Retired) has been up to all these years.  I am so very proud to have served with him in the 225^th, as I am proud to have served with the finest group of men in the United States Army so many years ago!

http://easthampton.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/montauk-resident-will-be-inducted-into-veterans-hall-of-fame

http://www.nysenate.gov/report/2013-veterans-hall-fame-award-recipients

http://bit.ly/Zd06qK

Remembering Our Lost Friends

As this Memorial Day 2013 begins to wind down, I know that we all will take a moment to remember our friends who died in the line of duty so many years ago.

Messerschmitt 109 Escorts B-17

A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II 

Kevin, my brother-in-law, sent me an email letting me know about a World War II book he thought I might enjoy.  What a great book!  Here’s the Amazon review of it...

“Four days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a 21-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly, a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber’s tail—a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would defy imagination and later be called the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.

 

“This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day—the American—2nd Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17—and the German—2nd Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II.

 

“A Higher Call follows both Charlie and Franz’s harrowing missions. Charlie would face takeoffs in English fog over the flaming wreckage of his buddies’ planes, flak bursts so close they would light his cockpit, and packs of enemy fighters that would circle his plane like sharks. Franz would face sandstorms in the desert, a crash alone at sea, and the spectacle of 1,000 bombers each with eleven guns, waiting for his attack.

 

“Ultimately, Charlie and Franz would stare across the frozen skies at one another. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as “top secret.” It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search for one another, a last mission that could change their lives forever.”

This is one of those “I can’t put it down until I’m done reading it” kind of books.  I’m sure all of us who served in Army Aviation will identify with at least some part of this remarkable story.

About the Author:  ADAM MAKOS is a journalist (http://valorstudios.com/author-adam-makos.htm), historian, and editor of the military magazine Valor. In his fifteen years of work in the military field, he has interviewed countless veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and present-day wars. He has flown a B-17 bomber and a T-38 fighter with the Air Force and was one of the few journalists privileged to examine Air Force One with its pilots. In pursuit of a story, Makos met presidents, had tea with Prince Charles, and toured the DMZ border in Korea with American troops. The high point of his work occurred in 2008, when he traveled to Iraq to accompany the 101st Airborne and Army Special Forces on their hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists.

After Sandy Hook

Our friend Ed Balanger sent me this note a few days ago.  I encourage you to click on the link to watch his son Jeff's video that was produced for PBS.  Ed, thanks very much for sharing this with us.

“As you know, I live in Sandy Hook CT.  My son Jeff is a writer, author and lecturer.  He does TV work as well.  This video was done for PBS and most of the scenes that are inside are at our house in Sandy Hook.  It is a very well done piece but may cause tears.  I had a difficult time watching the entire clip. I work as a volunteer for Newtown Memorial Fund 7 days a week so I have not had much of a break from this sad tragedy.  Ed”

http://video.wgby.org/video/2337692550

Howard, Milt and Me

A little over a week ago I had the feeling that I should give a friend who I had worked with at KOMO-TV for over 30 years a phone call.  In the past, I have ignored such “impulses” only to find that I should have called because of some important reason or other.  I’ve come to recognize that these “feelings” are very often promptings from the Lord.

Anyway, I gave Howard Stott (left above), who was a radio and TV newsman and news director at KOMO, a call last weekend.  After catching up on the past few years (I hadn’t seen or talked with him for three or four years) he mentioned that another mutual friend, Milt Furness (arrow above), was in a rehab facility in Seattle after suffering a series of strokes and that he was going to visit him.  He asked if I would like to come with him.  Of course I said yes!  Milt was a news reporter and anchor for 15 years at KOMO while I was there. 

I met Howard at the rehab center on Friday afternoon, and the three of us spent over an hour talking and laughing, all of us having great fun trying to remember names of people we knew back in the “KOMO days,” reminiscing about the TV station that we worked at during the last 3 decades of the 20^th century.  

Afterwards, Howard and I decided that we would have to get together much more regularly if only because time is flitting by so quickly and we aren’t getting any younger!  Howard, Milt and I had a great time together despite our friend’s health issues.  I would urge you that if you have a feeling that you should call someone or reconnect with an old friend, that you don’t ignore that inclination, but make that phone call or write an email.  

The Adventure: Post Surgery + One Year!

Well, the Adventure continues to continue!  It’s hard to believe but it’s been a year since I had surgery to remove my prostate and the cancer that went along with it.  Since then I’ve had 4 blood tests as part of the normal follow-up and all have proved to have a negligible result of PSA (prostate specific antigen).  And that’s very good news!

Also, the Veteran Affairs Department ruled on my claim for Agent Orange related prostate cancer and has awarded me special monthly compensation.  Only took about fifteen months, but considering the number of claims they’ve been inundated with, from not only us older veterans but from Iraq and Afghanistan vets, I’m pleased that it only took this long!  My Service Officer at the D.A.V. who handled my claim told me that in November alone the Seattle VA office processed 3,500 claims, but that they received 5,000!  So they were behind almost before they got started.

I decided quite a long time ago that when the claim came through I would get something that I have been thinking a long time about – a tattoo.  Not just any tattoo but one that had significance in my life experience.  I found one called the Veteran’s Cross that was described as one that Scottish warriors would have on them when they went into battle.  I chose it for several reasons – I am a Christian (the cross), I’m Irish with family ties to Scotland, I am a veteran of a 28 month combat tour and one with cancer (it’s on my the left shoulder), and I could customize it with the 225^th’s patch colors (blue, red and gold).  Below is a photo of the finished work that I had done a few days ago. 

I thank God for his goodness and grace as I have progressed along this adventure called life!  I especially thank him for my family, for friends from the Army, for people I know and have known from lots of church communities and from my jobs.  And the fun hasn’t stopped yet!  The Adventure will certainly continue!

My Eight Years with the Mohawk

One of the interesting "problems" the Board of Directors of the OV-1 Mohawk Association faces annually is choosing who our speaker should be for our annual reunions?  In 2008, as we were planning the 20th Reunion to be held in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009, we wrestled with this question a little bit and decided that we would ask one of our own members to share his experience as a Mohawk driver.

We asked MG Bill Page (US Army, Retired) to be our featured guest to relate to us that part of his Army career that centered around this wonderful piece of machinery we call the Mohawk.  We were treated to a marvelous presentation!

Click on the video below to watch as he recounts his Eight Years with the Mohawk.  (Note that this is over an hour in length so it may take a moment to load!)