[Vhfcn-l] Unit flying UH1N models Vhfcn-l Digest, Vol 104, Issue 33

[Arnold B Christensen]

I will let you guyz fight it out as to what kind 
of Bees they were but have to toss in my two 
cents.  I worked at Bell Helicopters Machining 
Center for 14 yrs.  And for all of that 14 yrs 
1986-2000 in our Machine parts inspection area 
was a inspector  who was Vietnamese.  One day I 
was walking through that area and he called me 
over to his work area. What's up I asked.  He 
says, "the guyz all say you flew Chinooks 
Chris.  Is that true?  Were you a pilot? "  I 
asked him if he knew what a CH21C was or a 
Chinook?  "Oh yes I got to ride one time only on 
each of those helicopters.I was a pilot in the 
King Bees until we crashed. I said we got shot in 
the tail rotor drive shaft and it failed on 
approaching to a hover at  a Landing Zone>.   It 
was a hot LZ Chris." They said it was my fault 
and suddenly I was not a pilot anymore and was 
transferred to the infantry. Choi Oi! I 
liked  being a pilot a lot better than being an 
Infantry Commander.  But I survived, 
smiling."  Then he asked me what I did.  Told him 
about being a H21 Crew Chief flying in the New 
York City and surrounding area, and in 65 the 1st 
Cav brought the first Chinooks into Vietnam in 
the Highlands.  I started off in country being a 
team leader of several guys on my team that did 
25,50, and 100 hr inspections on our Chinooks.  3 
months later I crewed a Chinook and when Flight 
engineers on other Chinooks were on leave, R&R or 
just plain sick I replaced them on their assigned 
aircraft. When we came back Larry as an 
instructor in the Chinook school at Eustis and me 
in Ft Carson Then to Eustis and TI School where I 
became part of a new TI system of having Chief 
Tech Inspectors  as I was a Hard Stripe E6 when I 
got to Eustis I became one of them. After 
Campbell I went to Germany in the 42nd Trans 
Co.(DS) Then to Vietnam and Air Vietnam.  He did 
set about to get me to join in with a get 
together with a group of Vietnamese, several of 
which worked at Air Vietnam.  However I was in 
the hospital at the time of that gathering 
getting my back operated on.  So I missed out of 
reuniting with a bunch of Air Vietnam workers who 
he said remembered a very tall Sargeant walking 
in the hangars and flying in the Aircraft that 
came out of Modification. Shortly after that I 
retired from Bell and we started travelling in 
our motor home full time for the next 11 yrs.




At 03:03 PM 1/28/2020, you wrote:
>The King Bees flew Ch-34s.  In 67 there was one 
>setting on the end of Dak To airstrip, it took 
>over 90 hits and barely made it in after 
>extracting a recon team.   IMHO there is no 
>helicopter unit anywhere who can look down on 
>those guys. They flew MACV-SOG units and some of 
>them were legendary. -----Original Message----- 
>From: Roger W. Ek via Vhfcn-l 
><vhfcn-l at lists.vhfcn.org> To: MoeElmore 
><MoeElmore at aol.com> Sent: Tue, Jan 28, 2020 1:40 
>pm Subject: Re: [Vhfcn-l] Unit flying UH1N 
>models Vhfcn-l Digest, Vol 104, Issue 33 > On 
>Jan 28, 2020, at 2:35 PM, Larry Russell via 
>Vhfcn-l <vhfcn-l at lists.vhfcn.org> wrote: > > I 
>thought it was King Bee. True, but I still doubt 
>they had UH-1Ns. 
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