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 225th 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 225th, 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/
http://www.nysenate.gov/
http://easthampton.patch.com/
http://www.nysenate.gov/
http://bit.ly/Zd06qK
