[Vhfcn-l] Fwd: Contribution of Engineers to Army Aviation

[Richard Lewis]

I never knew Maj. Johnson as I did not arrive in B Co 228th until Sept 66.  However i sure did enjoy the use of all the improvements made in the company area.  Thanks to all you "Boat People" And a special thanks to Maj. Johnson (RIP). Richard lewisMsg, USA {ret} 

    On Wednesday, August 23, 2017 10:46 AM, Arnold B Christensen <abc15 at mindspring.com> wrote:
 

 B Co, 228th ASHBn also had an Engineer Officer 
for a commander.  Under his leadership we built 
the first hot and cold shower in the Div in our 
company area...instead of the long truck ride to 
the shower point and worse the dusty ride 
back.  We also had the first EM Club built raised 
up over part of the rice paddy in our company 
area.  We had the first solid mess hall built 
with picnic tables to sit at and the cooking and 
mess line separate from the eating area with an 
existing tree between the two areas. We had the 
first all in one building that included a barber 
shop, a washing machine area separate EM and 
Officer shower and sink areas and the rest of the 
building was set aside to hang the cleanly washed 
clothes and a Herman Nelson Heater plumbed in to 
create a nice under cover drying area that could 
be used during any weather to cleanly dry your 
clothes.  Again we had hot and cold showers and 
sinks plumbed. We had wooden floors in all the GP 
Tents and most had wooden walls.  We also had 
drainage ditches around our company area that 
drained downhill to the rice paddy.

We had 3 10KW gas generators that had a bad habit 
of requiring a lot of maintenance to keep them 
operational.  We soon had a 150 KW Genset on 
skids slung in one day and made operational very quickly.

Major Johnson...RIP... had the idea back in 
Benning that we were going to live in comfort 
when we finished work on the flight line or came 
back from a days worth of hauling ammo, food and 
water and replacement clothes for the troops out 
in the boonies.  He had friends all over Vietnam 
who he could call on for whatever we needed for 
our projects and we were so lucky to have our own 
Hooks sometimes loaded to the gills with what he 
scrounged and some stuff came in hanging off the 
cargo hook to be deposited upon arrival right at 
the company front door so to speak.

He was proud of his company of men and we all 
gave him our strength and time as much as we 
could.  His ideas made us as comfortable as could 
be when we finished for the day.

Personally:  When he found out I had only one 
pair of combat boots size 13 1/2 to wear around 
my size 15 feet and the soles had come off he 
called on all the aircrews to search for boots 
that would fit me on any flights to the boonies 
with new clean uniform items as long as some 
infantry or artillery guy did not need them.

I remember well the look on his face shortly 
after that when at the lunch meal in our new mess 
hall when he had the supply sgt bring him my new 
boots.  Seems like the whole company was there to 
witness this event. "Put them on Chris", he 
said.  I did and shook them on my feet and I mean 
they rattled all around my feet.  Sadly they were 
too large. Can you imagine?  They were 16 Wides 
and my feet were only 15 Narrows.  His face 
brightened up and he said to the guys to keep 
searching.  He would have enjoyed knowing that at 
the end of my tour their in Aug 66 I had to tell 
the supply sgt to send his clerks to my bunk area 
and retrieve about a dozen boots of different 
types and sizes and use them as trading 
material.  Major Johnson would have gotten a big 
smile on his face at that "problem".

Sadly he was KIA piloting "his" Chinook with an 
H-13 slung under it down out of an Arty position, 
during the Bong Song operation,  in somewhat 
marginal weather and coming down a draw that they 
had flown up earlier Sir Charles had sat and 
waited in ambush from one side to the other and 
opened up on the ship. A round hit him and he was deceased.

There were several sad days after that but in 
true Hooker fashion we continued to haul whatever was needed to be hauled.

He was an Engineer Officer and took good care of "his boys" first.

Chris the Bigfoot

At 08:28 AM 8/23/2017, MoeElmore at aol.com wrote:
>Just forwarded as a possible item of 
>interest.  ____________________________________ 
>From: BSilvey at aol.com To: BSilvey at aol.com Sent: 
>8/23/2017 4:39:56 A.M.  Mountain Daylight Time 
>Subj: Contribution of Engineers to 
>Army  Aviation This from our 1st Air Cav point 
>of contact - some good information - we  have 
>several who served in TOPO units - one comes to 
>mind is Bill Kelly - who  reportedly accepted 
>the 5th Otter form production way back in the 
>1950's - he  was also an Engineer.  Another is 
>Bill Potts, a Past President of our  association 
>but I don't recall if he was an Engineer - 
>probably was.  Mentioned below is member Del 
>Deginiffe - who I knew during our battles 
>in  Germany in 1967.    The original content is 
>by Bruce Crandall, MOH  for his actions with 1st 
>Air Cav in RVN.  The TOPO units operated in 
>some  extreme environments and made significant 
>contributions to Army  Aviation.    Bruce, I 
>believe this recent conversation with MOH Bruce 
>Crandall  about the contribution of Engineers to 
>Army aviation is worth a share.  Not sure how 
>many “ seasoned� aviators would agree or 
>disagree. Bruce made some salient points that 
>probably won’t get “air  time� in today 
>’s world.  The recent recognition and 
>commendation (Gold  Star?) of Medevac pilots 
>with congressional approval doesn’t even come 
>close  in comparison to what Bruce is talking 
>about. Their aviation credentials for  the task 
>assigned at the beginning of the Huey’s intro 
>into Vietnam were far  beyond anything in my 
>limited knowledge of Army aviation 
>history.  I  think Bruce has good reason to make 
>his point.  Hank  “FYI, most of the assault 
>commanders that went over with  the Cav were 
>Corps of Engineer officers and among the most 
>experienced  Aviators in the Army. All of us had 
>flown in Topo units and been together for  about 
>10 years. I had A Company 229th, Dick Rogers B 
>co. Cornelius (Jon) Radu  D co, Too Tall Ed 
>Freeman was my 1st platoon CO and Pyne  Gramly 
>my ops  officer. The 11th AVN Gp staff for later 
>LTG  Al Burdette were all  Engineer majors. ( 
>Bob Flint, Del Degeniffe, Hugh West and I 
>believe a  Gonzalez). The Corps had 2 units in 
>Topo with over a hundred aviators  assigned. One 
>out of Calif 30th Topo, supporting the mapping 
>in the Arctic and  later Libya and Iran and the 
>other out of Panama  (The 
>Inter-American  Geodetic Survey  IAGS) with 
>aviators assigned in most countries  supporting 
>Central and South American national  mapping 
>operations. All aviators were dual fixed and 
>rotor qualified. All in  the Cav probably had 
>close to 5000 hours or more of flight time 
>before  Vietnam. We all were qualified in l-19s, 
>Beavers and Otters as well as small  helicopters 
>and Huey's. All of us that had flown in the 
>Arctic were qualified  in floats and skis as 
>well.  Gen Burdette loved Engineer aviators 
>and  kept most of us in our jobs for the whole 
>of our first tours. Many of us went  back to 
>Topo before our after our tours in Vietnam. Most 
>completed at least 20  years before retiring and 
>some of us almost 30. Four or five retired 
>as  Colonels and the rest as LTCs except one 
>major. There were a number of DFCs,  several 
>Silver Stars and the first 2 Medals of Honor for 
>helicopter aviators  in any branch of Service in 
>history. In my judgment, the contribution 
>of  Engineers to Army aviation history has long 
>been overlooked or ignored. Just  some thoughts 
>to get off my graying chest.�  Snake 
>6  (Bruce Crandall) Sent from _Mail_ 
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