Click here www.225observer.blogspot.com to see the original version of "The 225th Observer".

Thursday, September 27, 2018

The Acuity Flagpole

Our friend Ed Belanger sent this wonderful video to me earlier this week.  
A Tribute to Freedom…Standing 400 feet tall, the Acuity Insurance Flagpole is the largest free-flying American flag in North America!  This is Awesome! 
Click here to see The Acuity Flagpole

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Comment Received re Bill Miller's "My Take on My Army Service"

Our friend Larry Conway wrote me to let me know he was unable to post a comment on Bill's story...he sent it to me so everyone could read it:

I was a TO at the 225th from May of '68 to May of '70, and I don't recall any flight crew member ever saying anything derogatory about the condition or maintenance of any of our Mohawks.  The aircraft were always up to snuff and ready to go, and nearly always performed beautifully in all respects, despite the harsh environment in which they operated.  I always had great confidence in the aircraft's ability to complete the mission and bring me safely home.  I lay this all at the feet of the Mohawk's innate toughness, and the people who maintained the numerous complex systems that were necessary to complete the missions.  The flight crews' lives were in their hands, and we all knew it and appreciated their unfailing efforts to keep us safe.  I think they did a wonderful job for little thanks.  Allow me to thank them now. 

Editor's Note:  I'll add that I was a "Flight-Follow TO" from about October 1969 to June 1970 and that I never gave it a thought about how our aircraft would perform for our missions.  I also want to thank them nearly 50 years later!

Sunday, September 16, 2018

My Take on My Army Service



Our friend Bill Miller sent this article he wrote to me for all you former 225th Soldiers.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading his wonderful memories; as I looked through the 223rd Aviation Battalion (Combat) 1969 Yearbook looking for Bill's photo (I did not find it) I was reminded what an amazing unit we were all a part of.  Take a few minutes and enjoy reminiscing.....


                                          MY TAKE ON MY ARMY SERVICE 
I have enjoyed being a member of the OV-1 Association.   Looking back almost 50 years to the past when I first entered the Army has been interesting to say the least.  I was given notice of being drafted in 1968, and with 90 hours of college majoring in Chemistry, thought it wise to enlist so I could select a training field.  My love affair with aviation was there before I can remember, but I do recall my dad taking me down to the KC Municipal airport to see the Super G Constellations.   Then it was the small .049 powered model control line airplanes he bought me.  At that time the space program was up and running and we were exposed to, Nike surface to air missiles, Werner Von Braun and his rocket work and of course the cursed Sputnik.   So, anything moving through the air and not tethered to land was of paramount importance to me.  I could have mentioned the Bell X-1, F-104 Starfighter, B-47’s and B-52’s and of course the U-2.   Man’s vision to excel still excites me except for the cost and politics of it all.
Back to the near present and I was glad to be able, not often someone says that about the Army, to enlist to become an aircraft mechanic.  Next of course, was the midnight bus trip from KC to Ft. Leonardwood.   At 22 years of age I was an old person, overweight and thrown in with recent high school graduate athletes.  Those next two months proved to be both physically challenging and provided a unique time for observation with respect to the application of my college psychology class and its appreciation.   I have to admit that on numerous occasions I smiled too often at the barking of the drill sergeant which in turn lead to me in the front leaning position saying “more push-ups drill sergeant”. 
Next, was a free trip to Ft. Rucker for multi-engine fixed wing aircraft maintenance training.   Sadness in basic was experienced when a buddy was given light weapons infantry MOS as he had a degree in Chemical Engineering.  Why I asked?  I was promptly told by the SDI that a) he was older, b) he was smart and c) when the officers and senior NCO’s were killed he was there to step up and become command.   Damned Army Logic.  So, we are about to start the next phase of training and having new friends that will last a lifetime.  In our three-man room there was John Martin and Joel Haugen.   Only 7 were in our class for training on the Mohawk so it became a close-knit group with the here of us going to the 225thafter graduation.  So many stories to tell and so little space about the three newbies landing in VN and going through processing in Tan Son Nut, Nha Trang, Quin Nhon and finally to our new home at Phu Hiep.   Initial impressions were many to include: not a rice paddy, not a fire base, not a out post in middle of nowhere and also not an Air Force style base like Tuy Hoa, which was 4 miles away.  At least we were on the coast for swimming.   One question came to mind; is what genius puts all these amazing aircraft(OV-1, Ch-47, CH-54, UH-1 and O-1) out in the open scarcely 1.5 miles away from a 900 foot jungle mountain?  No wonder we received so many mortar attacks; the enemy could see every move and could easily target each particular spot.   It’s the Army!
Back to title.  Not knowing the exact percentages, but a good guess was that about 60% of my enlisted colleagues were probably draftees.   I would say another 20-30% were like me who enlisted to get chosen field of endeavor.  Our group, the Association, has so many amazing members and I don’t think anyone underestimates what the pilots and observers did in their chosen field.  I have defended them to many outliers because our aircraft were rather primitive in modern terms due to the lack of radar, night vision equipment and other electronic enhancements.  They flew at night at low levels down the valleys with little or no electronic assistance into very hostile situations.  I wonder at times how many present-day pilots/crews would be willing to undertake the missions our guys faced.   I would feel safe venturing to say few if any would step up to handle the stress they endured.
Back again.  When we have our reunion meetings the officers and observers usually interact as they are most familiar with one another.  A few mechanics/crew chiefs go off into our own click due to the same parameters.  Our group, maintenance personnel, do sometimes feel underappreciated because we are in fact the drones due to being the most numerous and because of the high incidence of draftees with a high turnover.  The hierarchy sometimes forgets what the system is really about. It is about the whole and not individual parts and we as mechanics held certain persons in high esteem because of their realization of the whole.  Major Amaral, Captain David O’Hara, WO Lonny Bauman, SFC Hawkinson, SSG Richardson to name a few.   They knew leadership and treated us with respect and often relied upon our intimate knowledge and experience of the aircraft.   The Army sometimes forgets that the glue holding the machine together is the enlisted person and without it all could unravel.  
The whole of the system.  The orderly room, the 1stSergeant, the cooks, the company Supply, the motor pool, an amazing Tech Supply which kept the parts in stock and flowing, the Tech Inspectors, avionics, Direct Support Allied Shops(hydraulics, ejection seat, sheet metal, machinist, turbine engine shop, electrical and prop shop), POL which insured we had plentiful and clean fuel and oil, crew chiefs with their myriad of duties of total oversight of their assigned aircraft and finally the biggest unsung heroes were the PMI crews. These guys, Periodic Maintenance, swarmed over the aircraft and tore it apart every 100 hours to insure it was still safe to operate.  Boring and tedious is just one description with unending hours of unscrewing panels to check inside the girl’s anatomy.  All the above personnel make a mission complete and have to do their job to perfection before the pilot or observer step into their Nomax.   What did the Army get for their dime?  On the flight line it usually entailed about 10-14 hour days, 7 days a week, 100 plus degree temperatures unless you had to crawl into one and all for less than $200 per month on average.  Over my 18 months in VN, I never heard of any hint of sabotage or unwarranted grounding of an aircraft.   I find this intensely interesting because of the high percentage of draftees (remember they did not want to be there) and in general the unfavorable sentiment to this war. 
Now a couple of side stories.  I OJT’d into the prop shop because we been given an exposure to it and as well as all aspects of the aircraft.  I worked there with John Martin for 7-8 months when a shortage of turbine engine personnel presented itself.  We would avail ourselves to help the engine shop at times so we became familiar with its operation and maintenance.  We had gotten in two mechanics that were school trained on props, but Mohawk props were not of primary importance due to the limited number of those types of props in the Army.   John had taken over the rigging crew, a horrible job involving making all the wires tight and making sure all things operated and aligned as they should, a very thankless job in itself.  Because of our rank we were assigned to be in charge of the prop shop, engine crews and rigging systems.  Both of us had taxi and run-up orders after systems were changed or maintained.  I went on many test flights after maintenance with O’Hara and several visual photo missions. John Martin was one of those premier mechanics that just knew what and how to do to make an aircraft hum.  He later stayed on and spent 20 years in the Army and got out as an E-8 with a long list of accomplishments.  During his 20 years he spent 2 years in VN, a tour in Korea, Germany and Iraq.   His dedication was always top notch, but the real story that is so often untold is what his wife, Karen, did to enable him to make those choices.  Wives are so often forgotten when it comes to service personnel as they are there during the absences taking care of the home, finances, children and making those dreaded moves for new deployments.  Never should the families be underestimated as to their importance in the life of servicemen and servicewomen.  
Another notable is Jerry Murphy, a school trained turbine engine mechanic.   John and I rib him about us training him when it is he that looked over our shoulder and gave us needed info to become good engine men during our prop to engine transition.   Again, enlisted taking care of other enlisted taking care of the pilots and observers.  Jerry left after his year duty and then went to Ft. Hood.  After DEROS he went to Mobile, AL to join the Air Guard and become a crew chief on a C-130.  He joined the Mobile Fire Dept and worked his way to become a Captain and is now retired.  He and his wife are fiends at flea market shops and they have an extensive and beautiful collection of antiques to include 2 Corvettes and a 56 Chevy.   As for me, Bill Miller, I left service from Ft. Hood and went back to college. I got my bachelors and Master’s degree with a minor in Chemistry and major in Aquatic Ecology.  While in college I joined the KSNG and worked on CH-54’s and later became a full-time mechanic for DoD.   Before that I was a Park Ranger with the Corps and while in the Guard applied for and got a job as a Fisheries Biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.   We are just three short stories of all those making the 225thAvn. Co such a success story.
The point of all this is that over 250 personnel supported and enabled a few each day to perform their mission and support tens of thousands of troops in the field giving them the best possible intel for completion of their mission.  In my 18 months in VN those personnel working on the flight line maintaining our 20 or so aircraft that flew on average about 100 hours per month each gave us 90% available aircraft for missions assigned.  It amounts to 36,000 hours or over 5 million miles of flying in hostile combat zones with zero mechanical failure due to maintenance.  We maintenance personnel are rightly proud of our record/accomplishment and it was never taken lightly as we made sure our vehicle returned our pilots/observers back to us and their families.  
Dwayne (Bill) Miller (presented to the Mohawker on July 7, 2018 for publication) 

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Some Good TV Shows

Fall is almost upon us, and so is a new season of TV programs.  As you may know I started my working life as a film editor for KOMO-TV in Seattle in 1966, and my interest in television has continued on through the years.  So I am always anxious to see what new programs are offered  each year.

Karin and I watched a new series this week called Warriors and Wolves, about a Navy veteran (Matt Simmons) who suffered from PTSD after getting home from the middle east.  He, along with his trained psychologist wife (Dr. Lorin Lindner), helps other veterans overcome their PTSD through working with wolves and wolf-dogs.  This Animal Planet series is filmed at the Lockwood Animal Rescue Center in Southern California.

This new series’ premier episode aired on September 1st on Animal Planet.  I have a special place in my heart for my fellow soldiers and sailors who are victims of PTSD because when I got out of the Army in 1970 I experienced, although I did not know that it was PTSD, some of the same symptoms.  I am grateful that God through his providence helped me eventually overcome it.  

Another great program Karin and I discovered this summer when we visited our son and his wife in the “Other Washington” (DC, that is) was Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.  This is Jerry Seinfeld’s online program about, you guessed it … comedians in cars getting coffee.  Each episode Jerry arrives at various comedians’ homes (like Jim Carrey, Don Rickles, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Fallon and Chris Rock) in vintage cars and has a conversation with them as they go to various restaurants for coffee.  It’s kind of like his long-running “Seinfeld” in that it is just kinda fun to watch … no particular point except you get to know comedians a little better.  

And finally, for those of us who just religiously love old airplanes there’s the Netflix series Plane Resurrections.  There is currently the 2016 series available in the US, and another year’s worth on the way.  These guy in England who have the time and money to restore old relics have accomplished the near impossible with a North American P-51 Mustang, a T-6 Texan (or, as the English call it the “Harvard”) and, my favorite, a Navy Stearman biplane.  Several years ago our friend Alex Berkeley and I had a chance to ride in Steve Sachs’ Stearman when we were at our 20th Annual Reunion in Nashville.  We each had a wonderful time!

I recommend both of these programs to you!

Monday, September 3, 2018

Stamp of Approval

Whenever I travel I look to buy a coffee mug as a souvenir.  Often I get one that relates to airplanes.  I have one from museum at Naval Station Tillamook and also a nifty mug with the space shuttle Discovery from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.  When we were in DC in July I found a mug that fulfilled both my need for coffee and for a mug with an airplane at, of all places, the US Postal Museum (thus the photo at the top of this article)!


If you are in our nation’s capital be sure to take an hour or so to visit the Postal Museum, it is fascinating to see how important and amazingly efficient the postal service is.  Below are some of the images it took in July.
Some of the great stamps the US has produced


The 1918 Inverted Jenny misprint

My son Tim in the Post Office Museum lobby

Some examples how the mail was delivered in the early 20th century (above & below)


Some Drago Wisdom

Our friend George Drago sent me some gems of wisdom and I would like to share them with you:

"Old Ironsides"   

The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers).

However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log, "On July 27, 1798, the USS Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."

Making Jamaica on October 6, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.

Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there November 12. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On November 18, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, salvaging only the rum aboard each.

By January 26, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.

The USS Constitution arrived in Boston on February 20, 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rumno wineno whisky, and 38,600 gallons of water.

GO NAVY!

"Chillaxing"

********************************

"How a Clock Works"

In case you were wondering how a clock works and how to keep it accurate, click on the YouTube link below...


Mohawkers Reunion 2018


It will be Reunion time soon (October 25-27), so I wanted to remind everyone that the deadline to register for this great party in Reno, Nevada is coming up soon!  Go the OV-1 Association website to get the skinny on all the activities, cost, etc.  

By my count 21 Blackhawk/Phantomhawk soldiers (plus their guests) will be in attendance.  Here’s the list of guys who are planning on being in “The Biggest Little City In the World” this year:  Joe Beckham, Don Bernstein, John Britten, Joe Floyd, Andy Gramlich, Larry Haglund, Steve Hammons, Arlan Lando, Bobbie Luthi, Gilberto Mendoza, Dave Nelson, Bill Page, Ben Perez, Ron Pitcock, Bob Riha, Ernie Serna, Loren Schrock, Alan Summers, Gary Todd, Art Winslow and me.  


If you are not signed up yet, do so quickly  I hope to see you there!!!  If the past few Reunions are any measure, our Director of Parties (John Bosch) has put together another event worth attending and remembering!

Saturday, September 1, 2018

A Day at the Museum


Recently my granddaughter Maddie and I visited the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field (BFI) in Seattle.  Maddie is nine years old and her first visit to the Museum of Flight.  It was kind of a whirlwind tour through their wonderful exhibits in the Great Gallery and new 3 acre Aviation Pavilion.  

We had a wonderful time exploring the many antique aircraft in the Great Gallery, including the 1928 fighter Boeing 100/P-12/F4B, a 1966 replica of the 1916 Boeing B&W, the iconic Douglas DC-3, and a helicopter most of us rode at one time or another fifty years ago the Bell UH-1H Iroquois (Huey).  In the Aviation Pavilion Maddie and I walked through several of the wonderful planes also: the British Airways Concorde, the “City of Everett” Boeing 747-121, the first 747 built which was  built in Everett, Washington in 1969, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and VC-137B "Air Force One".

We also enjoyed ourselves walking through “The Red Barn” which is the first building Bill Boeing used to build his first wooden airplanes.  All in all we had a wonderful time together.  Below are some pictures while we were at the Museum of Flight.

If you are ever in Seattle (also known as the “Jet City”, “Queen City” or the “Emerald City”) a must see stop is the Museum of Flight, which, according the Wikipedia, is the largest private air and space museum in the world.

A model of an early biplane in the Red Barn

Maddie point to a wooden airframe

One of the many great displays

A Coast Guard rescue helicopter

The Great Gallery at the Museum of Flight