Stories Courtesy of Pat Ewing
I hope somebody remembers that Harvey's nick name was Daddy Rabbit and he was a pretty cool guy to fly with. One of the first times I flew with him we drew a defoliation mission at a couple of Korean Out-posts. We watched as the drum for the defoliant (Agent Orange) was loaded and the spray arms were attached. This all interested me because I thought a day of crop dusting would be fun. Well we take off and like any good AC Harvey demonstrates the proper altitude to insure good coverage, that was in Harvey's estimation about 6 to 8 feet! He started circling to the right as we sprayed. The CE and DG moved to the jump seat because the spray was wafting into the wells and besides, there were no other aircraft in the area to stay clear of.
After about a minute Harvey said, you've got it and I
took over. As I followed the curving path of the perimeter I noticed that
the aircraft was turning a little nose right and crabbing slightly, so I added a
little left pedal, that held for about ten seconds and I had to add more, and
more, until finally I craned my neck around and saw first, that a bunch of
Koreans were waving at us... hysterically! Then I noticed that the boom on
the right side had snagged some concertina wire and as my eyes followed this
giant ugly slinky I noticed some claymores and other anti-personnel devices were
connected to the wire and that was what really had the Koreans excited!
I flared a little and came to a hover as I informed Daddy Rabbit of the
situation, at which point he and the crew (who were sitting in the back with
their faces covered in order to avoid the spray, all took a look at the mess!
I sat the aircraft down, hoping that it wasn't a mine field and the Koreans came
running around the outside of the perimeter to untangle us. Meanwhile,
Harvey simply unplugged his helmet, opened his door and strolled about a hundred
yards away... just in case some of those explosives decided to detonate.
Now I'm sure Harvey would like to blame me, but I insist that we should have
been high enough to clear the boom as we turned and I'm pretty sure that he had
already hooked the wire and that was the reason he only flew the first ten
seconds of the mission!!
Hell if we were going to fly that low, why not just mount a mower deck under the
belly of the aircraft and do a really neat job??!
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Now that was my good story about Harvey, here is my bad story. One afternoon as we were finishing up some resupply, Harvey asks me if I would like to shoot the 60's. I said hell yes, so we headed out to the free fire zone on the other side of Big Charley mountain... and he lets Dewey, the door gunner get up front to fly. Dewey, a big strong, Indian (we called him Chief), drink a case of hot Carling every single night and fly every single day guy, gets up front. I plug in and as we get to the Free Fire Zone I hear Daddy rabbit go into his Method of Instruction routine. He tells Dewey to make a slow right turn, the next thing I know I am looking straight down at banana trees and shit from about 80 feet... and he is out of trim so only the gun mount keeps me from falling out and eating about two acres of Vietnam! Then I hear Harvey say make a left turn and Dewey does half a snap roll and suddenly I am looking straight up. The only weapon that I have fired up to this point is connected to my colon and is about to go full auto! Then Dewey gets a little tense and pulls back hard on the cyclic and pulls about seven Gs before Harvey says, I've got it.... then he says a little louder, I'VE GOT IT!! And then frantically LET GO OF THE CONTROLS! But Dewey realizing his mistake does a half of a snap roll to the right and now I'm looking at the water, then he corrects and I'm looking at sky, then water, then sky and I'm thinking if I see water next time I'm jumping OUT! I couldn't even get in a position to depress the intercom switch to cuss at either one or both of them before I died!
Finally Harvey got Dewey to release the controls and he
flew us around the free fire area far awhile so I could shoot the 60. I
must admit I did my best to burn the barrel up just to get even with Dewey!
Hell if they had been free guns I would have shot both of them since a
helicopter with two dead guys on the controls would be more stable than it was
with the two of them fighting over the controls!
Now the part that really ripped the string out of my tampon was when we got back
and were walking away from the aircraft, I distinctly heard Harvey say, to
Dewey, "you flew pretty good!" I turned around and considered
whipping out my 45 and shooting his dick off (but I never was so good at hitting
small targets so I didn't try, but sometimes I think I should have, hell in fact
I still might!!
Just kidding Harvey, you are still one of my favorite guys and I'd love to see
you at the reunion (I probably won't even bring a gun... probably).
Welcome Daddy Rabbit, I'd still fly with you any day.... but not if Dewey is
coming along!
Pat Ewing
Blue Star 114 1969-70