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 225^thafter 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 1^stSergeant, 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 225^thAvn. 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)