Stories from Bob Harrison, Crew Chief, 66-67

 

You asked for some stories, etc. and I have a lot of memories; some clear, some foggy, some related to me by first, second or third parties, some personal experiences and some get better every time they're told.

Since I was assigned to the Check Crew when I first got to Marble Mountain, I had the great pleasure of going out with a crew to recover some of the softer landings. One soft landing occurred north of Danang sometime in the early summer of 67. I believe the crewchief was Gehlan and I haven't the foggiest who the pilot was, but with a load of grunts and over heating engines he decided to cool off a bit and set the bird down in what was probably a discharge pond from the local binjo ditch.

He apparently made a good landing, but as we all know, 46s float only as long as the blades are turning and as soon as they stopped, over she rolled. Grunts preferring to swim rather than sink dumped most of their gear and exited for shore out the ramp (or rather out the left side of the ramp since that side was now the floor. They dove in and swam/crawled through the soup to shore and called for help.

I got a call late and didn't go out until the next day.  I and the rest of the crew, for
what ever reason, boarded a 34 for the flight out. lifted and headed to the northwest crossing over the Danang river at somewhere around 3000 feet.
I was setting in the door with my foot on the strut step and my right hand on
the handle hold watching the country go by.

A One-shot Charlie must have a few extra rounds and was popping at us with
no affect until our SAS decided not to work and the plane jumped what felt
like at least a hundred feet to the left. Since I was seated on the right side of the plane and my feet were hanging out the door, the end result was I stayed where I was and the floor of the 34 moved out from under me.  I swung out like a garden gate, pivoting on my right foot and hand, until I was inspecting the tail section.  Just a quickly as the bird jumped to the left, it jumped back to the right and just
like that old gate, I swung back into my original setting place. After a moment or
two I glanced around at the rest of the crew who were seated firmly against
the walls of the fuselage with eyes wide and mouths open staring at me. I casually turned back around (took a real firm grip on the hand hold) and continued with our trip back to Marble for another 34.

I guess the moral of this tale is, if you have to get thrown out of a chopper at 3000 feet, at least be cool and make it look like it is no big deal.
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If you can't be cool do what Fred Benigni did. Some of you undoubtedly know a great deal more about this incident than I do, so don't hesitate to correct me if I wander afield.  We were bunk mates at Quang Tri and talked a lot. I had heard about this experience and one day asked him about it over a beer or two or three...

Fred was a small man, not that I was big at a bit over 5'9" and 145, but Fred was smaller than me. I don't know where he found it, but he actually wrap around me twice and when I tried to go some place fast I would wind up like a calf in a rodeo. Well, never mind that. The important part is that Fred had a tether and he faithfully wore it.

It seems that Fred was flying out over the ocean and being the inquisitive fellow that he was, he was leaning out of the hatch (probably watching some half naked lady on a boat) when the pilot decided to turn left. Fred must have been leaning out quite a ways because when the plane turned left he continued going straight and over the hatch he went.

The tether that Fred was wearing fit him perfectly and worked just fine, but since he didn't want his movements in the cabin to be too hindered, he had let it out until it was quite long. Now being that Fred didn't have any crew with him on this particular flight, he had to get back inside by himself. I neglected to mention that when Fred was so abruptly ejected, his long cord disconnected.  He was on his own. He climbed up the tether as far as he could, but for the life of him, couldn't quite make it up to the hatch.

Fred, being observant, noticed that as the pilot maneuvered the chopper around he would swing closer to the cockpit. He figured that with the natural motion created by the pilot and his own efforts, he could swing up far enough to get the pilots attention. So, Fred was swinging with all of his might like the weight at the end of a pendulum and after 10 or 20 tries he finally managed to reach the pilots window and knock on it.

Apparently the pilot wasn't expecting anyone to drop in at that time so he ignored the knocking. Since Fred wouldn't answer on the IC, heck,
everything must be ok.

After many attempts, the pilot - I don't know what this says about some of you pilots out there -finally realized that somebody was outside and wanted in. Fred didn't elaborate on how the pilot reacted when he first realized HE was outside,but it is suffice to say that he was surprised. I heard that the co-pilot nearly helped with population control when he unfastened his three-point to climb out of his seat. After he recovered, he ran the step-and-a-half to the hatch, and with some difficulty managed to pull Fred back in.

I understand that the yellowsheet and post flight debriefing didn't mention the crewchief falling out. Maybe they should have included a note or two about what to do under those circumstances in the flight manual.

Fred we still miss you.  Rest in peace my friend.

Graphics by Neil "Sam Small" Allen, 69-70