I’m sure that of us nearly 2.5 million guys and ladies who served in-country in Vietnam during the war, a majority of us at one time or another got from place to place by hitching a ride on a UH-1 “Huey.” Several times during my 28 months at Phu Hiep I would end up at Battalion HQ in Qui Nhon for some reason or other and, when I was ready to go "home," I'd go to the airfield and literally thumb a ride on a chopper heading south. I'd run out and holler at the pilot "You goin' to Phu Hiep?" More often than not he would yell back "Yeah, hop on!" and off we'd go. (In a future post I'll tell you about a real adventure I had on one such ride.)
Anyway, the Huey is one of the iconic symbols of that war half a century ago. A friend of George Drago’s sent this article to him about the Huey turning 60. We thought you’d enjoy reading it....click below:
Before being assigned to the 225 I flew O-1's with the 201st RAC based there at Phu Hiep. I returned the favor to a Huey driver who needed a ride from Qhi Nhon to Phu Hiep and at the same time the unit IP gave a ride to a Chinook driver. The Huey guy with me had a better ride as this picture was the aftermath of the IP's landing at Phu Hiep! I watched the whole event as he landed in front of me.
ReplyDeletehttps://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMjqogPANkVT6RWJlOgU64NIUm4lL9o9dB38TWA/photo/AF1QipM1_SThfoJd440AfYsP1JhiKllq11AXqF_4r7by
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DeleteSorry but you'll have to copy and paste the URL in the post above to see the picture. There is a series of pictures of this "event", just use the back and forward arrows to see them. These pictures are from my Google online photo albums and there is one from the 225th SAC if anybody is interested in viewing those. Don't know why it shows me as "unknown" in the post above. Bob Coveney
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