[Vhfcn-l] air medals

Tue Oct 15 13:48:47 EDT 2019

Denny in 65-66 tour the First Cav no matter what unit had only one 
way of figuring it all out.  What is missing is what kind of mission 
you were on.  Pilots and FE's, CE's and gunners got the same 
counting.  What was important, was that as CE or FE or gunner your 
name got entered on the 2408-12 Form for the days flights and every 
one that was crew especially your gunner was on the -12. He could be 
as important...in certain circumstances...as everyone else on board.

I just happened to be very good at making sure all the DA Forms were 
filled out correctly and at the end of the day I carried them to the 
Operations Office. That was due to my 7yrs time in service and that 
included as an extra duty assignment in Germany as time as NCOIC of 
an Artillery Group Aviation Section @ EDIX,and  running our ops 
office until we got a clerk in to do it, but I then had to check all 
the paperwork before we filed it.  Our Avn Officer, Major William 
Lenard Alford, a 1 over 1 Green Card holder didn't quite know what to 
do with the H21C mech (me) he had received and the US Army had no 
H21's in Germany...The Germans did!  So he gave me the job of taking 
care of our one OH-13H.  Told me that as a H21CE I ought to be able 
to take care of anything we had( L20, TL19 and the H-13)  Then he 
heaped more on me. Older pilots with Beacoup Hours will know what the 
1 over 1 card meant.  Major Alford was a WW2  Bomber pilot who in 
fact bombed EDIX and the town of Mutlangan when engine problems 
caused him to have to turn around and abort his mission. But to get 
back over the Alps he had to bingo his load. The Imposter wife and me 
lived on the economy in a large house and it turned out when we moved 
in to our apartment the Frau convinced her husband to overhaul the 
interior and gave us another attached bedroom for the baby the wife 
was carrying. When new larger windows were installed I noticed burnt 
or scorch wood that showed inside the walls. Asked about it and she 
told me about the time an Amercanish Bomber dropped a bunch of bombs 
from the Flugplatz to the town and one of them set the Bakery barns 
on fire destroying half of it and the fire caught the corner of the 
house on fire. I did offer to take him to see what one of the bombs 
did but he thought he better not. As an old man now, I realize what a 
good decision that was on his part. Most of the load landed in the 
forest on the edge of the airfield and in an arc to the town nearby.

Probably more info than most were interested in!  But my 20 yrs in 
Army Aviation were very interesting in many ways the least of which 
was Air Medals... or any medals for that matter.

DA Foot

At 08:21 PM 10/14/2019, you wrote:
>Got lots of answers. Most revolved around 25 to 50 hours of flight. If that
>is the case then I should have more or there is something I am missing,
>Just got a reply that asked what color the oak leaves were. Mine are
>silver. Evidently a silver leaf takes the place of 5 bronze oak leaves.
>Don't know how my unit, can't remember, how my C Co 227th AHB, 1st Cav.
>awarded the medals. DD 214's are a little vague on some things. Thanks
>guys. I will just tell her that I was awarded the air medal with four
>silver oak leaves and let it go at that. Dennis Beckler
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