Page 15 - DFCS News Magazine Spring 2013

The next DFCS National Convention will be held in Tampa, Florida in October, 2014 based on the desires of the membership. Tampa is home to the Armed Forces Historical Muse- um. This amazing museum houses unique and realistic displays depicting scenes from World War I, World War II, D-Day Landings, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Korean and Vietnam eras. Organized within the museum’s 35,000-square-foot facility, visitors will find authentic artifacts and equipment dating from the early 20th century through the modern day. Additional information will be forwarded as details become available.
As with most aviation stories, the reader can usually find a thread that stimulates the remnants of ye old brain matter to arouse a memory relating to the story being read. Here is mine.
Since most aircraft departures are usually followed by an equal number of landings, it is in this depart- ment that most seat cushions are consumed.
The time ... 1965-66, and the war in SEA (Southeast Asia) was in full swing; in fact, we thought we would win the war before our replacements arrived. During this period, the Air Force was in a royal shin kicking contest with the Army over that consistent thorn in the side (you guessed it) "Roles and Missions", and was searching for an additional fixed wing cargo aircraft for its airlift mission; the air- craft would serve as a cargo delivery supplement to the larger C-130 cargo aircraft, which could not accommodate the abandoned, short and narrow French-built airstrips.
Specifically, the Air Force wanted the Army's fixed wing cargo aircraft, and their "Caribou" fulfilled this requirement, since "trash hauling" was to the boys in blue as fox holes is to the Army. The Army said no dice. So the mighty bureaucrats in the sky said we wil match you and conduct the same mission using our equivalent aircraft, the CH-3C helicopter -- a large twin engine, single rotor chopper, equipped with landing gear and a hull (used by the Coast Guard in later years), except the Air Force version had a ramp in the rear for loading vehicles (two jeeps). The payload approximated that of the Caribou. This helicopter was also used by the famous rescue crews, the "Joly Green Giants".
In the early months of 1966, on a typical hot muggy day reeking with high density altitude conditions, the Army made an urgent call to our flight operations shack, stating that they had a large combat patrol working the Cambodian border west of Tay Ninh being pursued by an overwhelming force of Viet Cong and/or N. Viet Regulars. The patrol consisted of two jeeps, mortar crew with base plates, andthe remain-
Page 15 The Distinguished Flying Cross News