| HMM-262 COMBAT HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION |
| Home of the Tigers in Vietnam 1966-71 and Iraq 2007 |
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FLIGHT GEAR Stolen from Member E-MailFrom Sam Small to our members 5/17/97 To All: You all know that flight gear, like a jock strap, is a very personal thing. When I received my orders for my second tour in Vietnam which took me to 262 at Quang Tri, I was told not to take my flight gear; that there would be plenty on hand. This turned out to be a lie, and it took quite a bit of scrounging on the part of my Ops O, "Don Ho" Waunch, to provide me with the necessities. I looked like I came out of a rag-bag with old beat-up cast off stuff including a size XL airforce flight jacket (they don't call me Sam Small for nothing!). During the next eight months I was able to replace all of this with good gear except for the flight jacket, which I still have. During May of 1969 I received an urgent call from the CG of the Wing to report to him immediately, which I did, wearing a flight suit and the XL jacket. He informed me that I was to report to General "Herman the German" Nickerson at III MAF for TAD. After about a week I began to stink and sent a priority message to Quang Tri for them to send me my stuff. By the time it arrived three weeks later in the hands of "Rocket J Squirrel" Nelson I had been transferred permanently. Rockey told me that they had kept my flight gear since I would not be needing it and some Charles Newguy needed it desperately. I was somewhat put out as that flight gear had in excess of eight-hundred missions and had proved to be absolutely bullet-proof for the entire period. But it was a done deal, and though the squadron trembled when I was their CO, no amount of threats on my part could make them return it when separated by a hundred miles and two months. It later occurred to me that as I have one leg shorter (or is it longer) than the other that my left flight-boot had a 3/8" lift in it. I have wondered ever since whether the pilot that got my gear is now drawing disability, thinking that he is a cripple. Sam Small
From Jake Jacobs to Sam Small 5/17/97
SamS: I still have my leather flight jacket which issued to me at New River before we went to Nam. Check out the tag: JACKET, FLYING, MAN'S, INTERMEDIATE, TYPE G-1 SIZE 40 MIL-J-78230 (WP) DSA 100-68-C-0099 I have been a size 44 R for many years. I can't believe that I actually wore this tiny old thing. I honestly know what you mean about being "bullet proof". It is kind of like my security blanket. I can tell you that this particular jacket is worth a great deal to me. One day I was loading the trunk of my wife's car with the "things we no longer needed" (mostly my clothes which for some strange reason had shrunk and were too small for me) to take them down to the church for distribution to the needy. I spied one ratty sleeve of MY FLIGHT JACKET sticking out of one of the boxes and went ballistic. I said some unkind and unnecessary things to my wife. She didn't speak to me for several days. It cost me much more than the original cost of the jacket in flowers, dinner and gifts. However, it now hangs prominently in the middle of my closet. I have had to change the Jersey cuffs several times. Moths seem to consider the cuffs a delicacy. It is so worn and wrinkled, it looks like a large, old prune. I don't care. Nobody messes with my jacket. There's a lot of things in this house that will go before my Flight Jacket does, and they all know it, too! Semper Fi !!! JAKE
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