| The 61st was activated on
1 May 1962 at Ft Bragg, NC. I joined the unit in Nov 62. As
I recall it was attached to XVIII Corps Artillery. As
the flight planner, I put together eighteen folders, one for each
aircraft, with a flight plan and flight record for each leg. Also
included were enroute charts, info on ocean vessels, use of Console/Consolan
for navigation if necessary, foreign clearance briefing guide, a list of
frequencies for the navigational facilities at each stop along the way,
and a memo on CV2B on flight and aircraft handling techniques at gross
weights exceeding 28,500 Lbs. Being the pack-rat that I am, I still
have my folder, Flt # 15, with some, but not all of the info we had put
together.
Flight Hotel consisted of
A/Cs 62-4171(myself, Bill Hooks, Jim Dodrill, and crew chiefs Robert Priebe
and James Shaw) and 62-4167(Jay Blom, Lawerence Pierce, Charles Gillman,
and crew chiefs Joseph Albaum and William Farnham). We
departed Ft Bragg at noon on 22 June 1963 with 18 A/C and arrived in Saigon
at 1115 on the 4th of July. My calculations show we put 16 birds
in country in 8 days (Two A/C experienced engine problems, but arrived
later), landed in eleven countries, flew 10766 miles plus/minus, in about
72 hours The first leg was to Mcquire AFB. The second
leg was to Argentia NAS in Newfoundland. The first elements departed for
Argentia but were called back before reaching Argentia. It seems the roles
and mission battle had begun. After waiting around a few days, the green
light was given and we departed for Argentia on the 27th 0f June. The next
leg was to Lajes in the Azores. This was one of two interesting legs
for the flight, not counting the two A/C with Maintenance problems.
Both involved Weather. I still have the weather profile prepared
for us at Argentia..a line of thunderstorms lay about half-way between
Argentia and Lajes with no way around..as I recall one A/C in each flight
was equipped with Wx Radar so they could miss the severe stuff. In
our A/C Bill and Jim D were flying as it was my turn to rest, so I slept
through it.
The remaining routes were
as follow: Lajes to Torrejon, Spain; Torrejon to Verona, Italy (a planned
overnight maintenance stop); Verona to Athens, Greece; Adana, Turkey (overnight);
Adana to Teheran, Iran; Karachi, Pakistan; New Delhi, India; Calcutta,
India (Overnight); Calcutta to Bangkok, Thailand (overnight and this was
the other interesting leg, VFR filed, but a lot of IFR flown. suffice to
say that Bill, Jim D and I became ATC in a hurry, located altitudes of
all A/C, established separation for all A/C, put out calls to let everyone
know we were coming through); Final leg Bangkok to Saigon, where we learned
that Vung Tau was the home of the 61st for the next year.
We had thirty days to become
operational. The Company Hq and first platoon operated out of Vung Tau.
Peter Withers took one bird and crew to Hue to support I Corps, and I took
three birds and crews, one at Qui Nhon and two to Pleiku in support of
II Corps.The tail numbers of the birds we took to Viet Nam were as follow:
Flight Alpha - 62-4173, 61-2395; Flight Bravo -62-4168,61-2396; Flight
Charlie - 61-2401, 61-2405; Flight Delta - 62-4169, 62-4148; Flight Echo
- 61-2593, 62-4146; Flight Foxtrot - 62-4170, 62-4149; Flight Golf - 62-4166,
62-4164; Flight Hotel - 62-4171, 62-4167; Flight India - 62-4172, 61-2404.
I would also like to acknowledge the young, at the time,
aviators in the 61st. As I understand it, for the most part, they were
turn-around transitions into the Caribou. They, the crew chiefs, and other
maintenance personnel did a tremendous and professional job. Except for
the one fatal crash, I don't believe any of those aviators were involved
in any incidents. I know the ones in II corps were not. |
