HUEY!

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orvet
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HUEY!

Post by orvet »

Garry's stories about Vietnam bring back memories for me, some good some less so, all of them strong to this day. Sometimes they're stronger than I think they should be. Some of them seem to me to be so universal and pervasive that I take for granted that everyone who shared in the experience of Vietnam has the same sort of reaction. It is said that everyone's experience a Vietnam was different, but I think there are some experiences that are pretty much the same for everyone. This story involves reactions of Vietnam Veterans to certain circumstances long after we were home. In my case it was 15 years after I was medivaced home.

In the 1980s I became involved with a Christian veterans organization called Pointmen Ministries. There were several unique things about the group, not the least of which was that the group for not just for veterans but also for the spouse and children. It was a support group for the veteran and their entire family.

A typical meeting was in one of the members homes and the leader's wife or someone else had an activity for the children. The veterans and spouses met together in a group session for a short while with more for the purpose of socializing and to check in with everyone and see how they're doing is families. After that the group divided, spouses want to their own group and the veterans to their group. Then we would discuss issues that affected us individually. It was a very successful form of peer counseling that it was helpful to most all of the families that were involved.

One summer evening about 1987, we were sitting in the group with the spouses and the veterans just visiting and all of a sudden every veteran in the room stopped talking and begin listening intently. Most of the spouses were wives, I think there was one couple where the woman was the veteran, so when the wives noticed none of the men were talking they were all a little surprised and said "What?" "Whats the matter?" "Why aren't you guys saying anything?"

One of the guys said,"Don't you hear them?" One of wives said, "I don't hear anything! What are you talking about?"

After a couple more moments of silence we all heard from the distance the whop, whop, whop of a multiple Hueys several miles away.

The women couldn't believe we could actually hear those helicopters when we did, 15 or 20 seconds before they heard them. Several of them accused us of having selective hearing because we didn't hear our wives that well. But for the entire group it was a good illustration of how things affected the veterans without us even really being aware of them. The men in the group, I believe, felt the pop of those Huey rotors long before we ever heard them with their ears. It's one of those things that you become attuned to when you are in country and it seems like, at least to me, that it never goes away. Even today, nearly 50 years after I was in Vietnam, I still "feel" a Huey or other heavy helicopters long before I hear them.

I was wondering if anyone else had that type reaction to Hueys?
Dale
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buddyie22
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Re: HUEY!

Post by buddyie22 »

While in country( Vietnam) 1968. Combat Engineers 168th ..We were sent north to a base camp after the camp was overran by North Vietnamese Regulars. It was our job to put up concintina and Bangalore’s trip wire around the whole camp. They NVR were still in the area close to the camp so close when they sent mortars in around noon chow time we could hear them leave the tube. There was a Vietnamese stationed on listening guard and when he heard the mortar leave the tube he would yell loud into the speaker which meant incoming. And would start a sierne to warms us of oncoming mortars. When I got back from Vietnam each time I heard a sierne I would look for cover. Harsburger and I would normally eat chow in the same place at noon next to the chow hall. One day we were assigned to a detail at noon out side the berm. As always we had incoming during the noon chow time. When we came back in the base camp in the afternoon we saw two Vietnamese covered with ponchos that were killed during the noon chow time. They were sitting the same place Harsbuger and I normally sat.
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buddyie22
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Re: HUEY!

Post by buddyie22 »

Sorry for the spelling it was sent before I could check it.
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buddyie22
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Re: HUEY!

Post by buddyie22 »

And yes I believe God protected us. Not only then in other instances too.
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zzyzzogeton
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Re: HUEY!

Post by zzyzzogeton »

Orvet, I was Navy, not Army, but I served on 2 gators, a carrier and an unrep ship, so I was around SH54s, CH53s and CH46s for a significant period of time, as well as Hueys and Cobras. I'm under one of the primary flight paths for Army birds transiting between Ft Hood and wherever they are heading in east Texas. I can still "feel" when Army helicopters are passing nearby long before anyone around even knows they are coming.
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Quick Steel
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Re: HUEY!

Post by Quick Steel »

Orvet and all of you, I am so pleased to read of other's experiences. Hope more will join in.

Dale it sounds like that group you were in would be just the ticket for our vets today. Such an easy, practical way to support one another and "vent" rather than keep things bottled up inside.

I am appalled at the suicide rate among our brother and sister vets.

I think anyone who spent a tour around Huey's has that sound permanently registered in their neurons. I just now recalled that when I had a basic training company at Ft. Knox I would get the trainee platoon and squad leaders, put them in a Huey and deliver them to the rest of the company that was out on bivouac. This gave the lads a bit of a thrill and also added to their prestige with their peers. That night the troop conversations would invariably be about those helicopters, skimming the treetops, looking for LZs, etc., the noise, the wind. I arranged for several of them to have headsets so they could listen in to the pilot's chatter and my commentary.
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Re: HUEY!

Post by jerryd6818 »

I wanted to take a ride in a helicopter but missed my chance.

In December of '65 I was with Bravo Battery 1st LAAM Bn on Monkey Mountain (it was later called Hill 647).
Danang Battery Positions- plus bridge.jpg
We were told we were going to get to go down the mountain and see the Bob Hope Christmas show. Didn't happen. Just a few short days after that announcement, Charlie blew the bridge that connected us with Da Nang (and there was only one).

The original bridge.
Old Bridge.jpg
Since that was the only connection we had with Da Nang and Battalion, we were resupplied by helicopter while we waited for the Seabees to build another bridge.
B Btry 1st LAAM MkyMtn Supply chopper Jan 1966.jpg
In the meantime I was supposed to go down to Battalion for something (and I'm sorry, I don't remember what) and the only way I could get down there was on our resupply helicopter.

BUT

Before that happened, the Seabees finished the new bridge and I made my trip to Battalion in the back of a deuce-and-a-half like always.
Da Nang Float Bridge.jpg
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Re: HUEY!

Post by fergusontd »

Stationed on a destroyer we refuled Navy sea king rescue helios in flight and when close to shore on gunfire support station we would recieve supplies and mail from the Marine 2 bladed helos. ftd
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