swash plate february 2014

Volume 9, Issue 2 CHPA • The Swash Plate www.chpa-us.org

February 2014

• “President’s Message” Jay Brown

• “Reunions and Gatherings”

• “Welcome New Members”

• “My 41 Year Search” Jimmie D. Ferguson

• “Gift Hunt” Ed Turner

and much, much more!

Presenting! President’s Message Jay Brown for Milan Tesanovich

While Milan and his wife, Karen, are traveling in support of CHPA I’ve stepped in to provide the President’s Message for this issue of The Swash Plate. I hope you folks are not too disappointed.

I’ve heard from our Chairman, Robert Frost that CHPA enjoyed another successful visit at the HAI Heli-‐Expo and

we’d like to thank Robert, Milan, Karen and CHPA member Jim Drivdahl for supporting CHPA and manning the booth.

Attending Heli-‐Expo is always a fun filled adventure and we had several visitors come by the booth. It was great to see that Shayne Meder, 2013 recipient of the Robert N. Tredway award stopped for a visit. Robert also enjoyed meeting other expo attendees and seemed to enjoy their company.

Next CHPA will be attending the Quad A Convention in Nashville, TN, May 4 – 6. This is another excellent opportunity for CHPA to meet new friends and recruit new members. If you live in the area and are a CHPA member and would like to attend CHPA as a booth representative give HQ a call and we’ll make the arrangements for your registration. Following

that we’ll be attending the VHPA reunion in Louisville, KY, July 1 – 6. If you are planning to attend and are willing to help man the booth call CHPA’s HQ at 800-‐-‐-‐832-‐-‐-‐5144 or e-‐mail us at HQ@chpa-‐-‐-‐us.org and let us know. If you have any questions just give us a call. We always love to hear from you.


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CHPA continues to receive quite an assortment of patches from our members. These patches are displayed at our booth at HAI, Quad A, and VHPA. Several of you have donated patches, but we’re always looking for more. They are very eye catching and help us garner attention. So please dig through your old patches and if you have some you’d like to share, send them to us at:

CHPA • PO Box 42 • Divide, CO 80814-‐0042

GOT PATCHES?

The Swash! One of the things we all know, nobody tells a better story than a combat helicopter

crewmember, whether it’s the truth or “enhanced truth.” Our most entertaining and informative stories come from you, our membership. We often receive responses from our members when an article is published that opens a memory or touches a nerve, in a good way.

The stories we hear are about anything from flight school to real life there-‐I-‐was stories. We’ve published several stories over the years ranging from tales of flight school a long, long time ago to “war stories” that we’re sure most of you can identify with. But we need more stories. Stories from Vietnam and more importantly Iraq and Afghanistan. Those conflicts and those stories are far too often untold.

So, all you veterans of the skies of OEF and OIF with an idea for an article, or a story to tell it’s as easy as sending it in. Take a moment to lay fingers on keyboard or just put pen to paper and send them in. You can email them to hq@chpa-‐us.org or through the US Post Office to: CHPA • PO Box 42 • Divide, CO 80814-‐0042

Help us help you tell the tales of your experiences and continue to preserve our shared legacy of combat under a rotor disc.

[Call For Articles]


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The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life By

Byron Edgington CW-‐4 (ret.)

“What a pleasure to read this book and get to know this man who so dearly loved every minute of his exciting career. If he handled choppers as well as he handles the English language, it must have been pretty exciting to be in the sky with him.”— Thomas E. Barden, Professor of English and Dean of the Honors College U. of Toledo & Author of Steinbeck in Vietnam, Dispatches from the War. University of Virginia Press. www.upress.virginia.edu

“Chock-‐full of heart-‐stopping drama, gut-‐wrenching lows, euphoric highs, tragic personal loss, laced liberally with humor and garnished with deep introspection, Edgington’s story gripped me from the very first page keeping me spellbound until I finished the very last sentence. You don’t have to be a pilot to enjoy this story for this is a tale anyone can relate to if you have ever yearned to pursue a dream of your own.” — Randolph P. Mains, author of Dear Mom, I’m Alive, and Journey to the Golden Hour.

Amazon.com/Randolph-‐P.-‐Mains

“The Sky Behind Me is one man’s forty-‐year love affair with helicopters and his almost poetic rendering of a life lived in the sky.” Free download is available at http://goo.gl/LYKul. Buy it at Amazon http://goo.gl/klFGF


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Reunions and Gatherings

Are you planning a reunion or event that may be of interest to our members? Let us help you get the word out and support veterans groups of all sizes and locations. Just send a message with the information to HQ@chpa-‐us.org. If you have a logo, send that along as well.

Be sure to include accurate contact and registration information and we’ll take care of the rest.

Charlie Horse Air Cavalry Reunion

C Troop, 3/17th Air Cavalry will host its Charlie Horse Air Cavalry Reunion “Immortalizing the Fallen” in Nashville, TN, May 4 – 8, 2014.

For more information the contact is Bill Halevy, [email protected] Ph: 703-‐867-‐2366.

B Troop, 7/17th Air Cav

Calling all Troopers of B Troop, 7/17th AIR CAV and ALL Ruthless Riders. We will gather in Louisville, KY, June 2 – 6, 2014 and you are all invited. For more details contact Buddy Harp, [email protected], (573) 324-‐3924; Rich Hefferman, [email protected], (412) 771-‐8214 or Johnnie Griffits, [email protected], (760) 535-‐8523 or visit our website at http://www.b717.homestead.com/

VHCMA

The Vietnam Helicopter Crewmembers Association will host its 28th ANNUAL

REUNION in San Antonio, TX, June 24 – 28, 2014. The Reunion Hotel is the Hilton San Antonio Airport, 611 NW Loop 410. Book your room now by calling the hotel at 1-‐210-‐340-‐6060 and ask for in-‐house reservation. Tell them the group code is VHC to receive the room rate of $103.75, all inclusive. The preferred room rate is good for three days before through three days after the reunion. If you have any questions contact the VHCMA office at 1-‐901-‐850-‐0500 or 1-‐800-‐842-‐6201.

50th Anniversary Vinh Long Outlaws Association

62nd, A/502nd, 175th Assault Helicopter Companies 50th Anniversary Reunion of the Vinh Long Outlaws Association at Washington, DC -‐ Sept 18 -‐ 22, 2014

Outlaws, Mavericks, Bushwhackers, and Roadrunners at Vinh Long, Vietnam 1964 -‐1972

Contact: Tom Anderson ([email protected]) Info: www.vinhlongoutlaws.com (Click: "Reunions")


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Welcome New Members

Please feel free to forward this issue of “The Swash Plate” to your colleagues, potential members and other interested parties!

Share the “Swash”

CHPA extends a hearty “Welcome Aboard” to these new members, who joined in January, 2014. Roger Bays Dennie Gose Wayne Guffy James Scanlon

Please consider sponsoring CHPA’s programs. You may make tax deductible donations to support the Goldie Fund, CHPA’s Scholarship program, the Holiday Boxes for the Troops, T-‐shirts for Heroes or the Association. For further information please look at Sponsorship at the website, http://www.chpa-‐us.org.

Sponsorship


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Submit Your Photos!

CHPA has a growing collection of photos that include photos from Annual Convention pictures to action photos to helicopter shots from around the world …

If you would like to contribute

to the collection please upload your photos by following the links on the CHPA website or click here!


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My 41 Year Search Jimmie D. Ferguson

Concluded on Page 8

On January 19, 1972 I crashed in Cobra

67-‐15690. That was my last flight with A Battery, 4th Battalion, 77th Aerial Field Artillery (provisional). The unit received orders to stand down within a few days and the flying mission turned into a pack up and move mission. I left the unit early in February 1972 and have never seen the Aircraft Commander that saved my life and changed my life again. I thought about CPT Michael E Neufeld on and off for the next twenty years. I even woke up in a cold sweet after having dreamed of how things could have turned out differently. Pilots that fly Cobras are a relatively small group and I probably asked every older Cobra pilot that I met if he knew of Mike Neufeld, to no avail.

By the mid 1990s; with the advent of the computer, the internet, genealogy and helicopter veteran organizations gathering records I started to look in earnest. I kept running into the same Data. WO1 Michael E Neufeld of Class 67-‐5 was a member of The Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. This was the only organization with a database that you could search for flight school graduates. My only problem with this Warrant Officer was that he was a member of the organization and had flown in Vietnam, but had done so in 1969 -‐ 1970 and listed his unit as 361 ACE/AWC. He had not flown with A Btry, 4/77th ARA, or so the records indicated. The A Btry, 4/77th ARA web site listed his address as unknown. The name was Michael John not Michael E Neufeld. The data base showed him in the mid-‐central US and I believed he was from the North East. So I kept trying. I sent an article about the Shoot Down to the VHPA Aerial Field Artillery Story section hoping that I might get a response from CPT Neufeld.

I tried Googling Michael E. Neufeld. I came up with a collage professor from one of the Ivy League Colleges with the name Michael Neufeld but that turned out to be a dead end road.

I sent in a email to "Looking For" in "The VHPA Aviator" around 2007 and got an email back that indicated if it wasn't WO1 Neufeld from Little River, Kansas, they couldn't help and the email was never published. I never called Little River.

In 2013 I once again sent in an email to "Looking For" in "The VHPA Aviator" explaining about the first letter and sending in a picture of CPT Neufeld. I was sent an email back assuring me that Neufeld was the Neufeld from Little River, Kansas.

I looked up Michael Neufeld on the VHPA web site only to discover that the Neufeld in question had died. I still felt that this wasn't the person I was looking for. Several more months went by and I continued to search for CPT Neufeld. I wrote about the Shoot Down in the CHPA’s August 2013 Swash Plate with some hope that I might get a response.

A few days ago I looked to see who had reported WO1 Neufeld's death, something I hadn't thought of doing before. He had died in 2011 but it wasn't reported on the VHPA DAT section until 2013. Then I looked this person up through the database and found that he had flown with the 361 ACE/AWC Pink Panthers in 1971 -‐ 72. Using the phone number provided, I gave him a call. He informed me Mike Neufeld was the person I was looking for. I asked if I could send him a picture for confirmation. He then informed me that he had never laid eyes on Mike Neufeld. The unit had pooled their funds and signed up everyone who had flown with 361 ACE/AWC that had never taken the time to join. That way the VHPA would have a complete list of everyone who served with the unit. I had never imagined that scenario.


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Silent Auction Items for Sale

I looked up the obituary for Michael E Neufeld in the Hutchinson, Kansas newspaper on line. I found he had a brother living in Denver, Colorado. I looked the brother up on the White Pages on line and found a number and gave it a call. He confirmed that Mike was the Neufeld I was looking for. He said Mike had three partial tours in Vietnam. To his knowledge Mike never had a computer in his home. He talked with me for almost forty minutes. I found out that Mike had two wives. He had ran an antique shop and sold organic vegetables that he and his first wife had grown in their garden. He had become a vegetarian. He lived in the country and was something of a hermit. He never mentioned his times in the Army or Vietnam to anyone but a very select few.

About a year before his death, on a trip to visit with his sister in New York, Mike changed planes in Chicago, IL. He happened to run into an old army buddy there. They both had a layover and caught up on each other’s lives. The buddy mentioned seeing a picture of Mike and reading a story about his getting shot down. He sent a copy to Mike who read the story and sent a copy to all his kids and family. I wonder if he ever thought of Me. I have thought of him ten thousand times. I wish that he had given me a call.

The Silent Auction held for the first time at the San Antonio convention was a success but we do have a few items left over; some that didn’t sell and others where we have several issues of a single item. These items will be put up for sale on the website in a few days but before that happens I wanted to let the membership know what is available and what the minimum bid was. These items will be sold on a first come – first served basis until they’re sold out so give us a call and make an offer no lower than the minimum bid. The items available are: 1. A certificate for two people to ride in a UH-‐1B from Wings and Rotors Air Museum -‐ $500.00 (Wings and Rotors Air Museum is about 30 minutes from the 2014 Convention Host Hotel) 2. A voucher to attend one Dave Ramsey “EntreLeadership” event during 2014 -‐ $125.00 3. Two vouchers to attend one Dave Ramsey “Legacy Journey Live” event during 2014 -‐ $40.00 4. Dave Ramsey’s book “Total Money Makeover” -‐ $25.00 5. Russell Jones’ book, “Honorable Intentions” -‐ $16.95 6. Framed poster of a Bell Helicopter Attack Helicopter -‐ $25 7. Signed and embossed copy of Jimmy Moore’s print “Goin’ Home” -‐ $125.00

If you’re interested in any of these items or have questions give HQ a call at 800-‐832-‐5144.


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L/R: Don Mutsch, Ed Turner, Kevin Gooding, Chris Hemwall, Rodney Allen, William Allen

Gift Hunt Ed Turner

Continued on Page 10

We have just recently returned from our second "Wounded Warrior"** hunt, held again this year, in Georgia. This was our second such sponsored hunt where we brought a veteran along as our guest and provided him with a free four day hunt and also, upon his arrival, gifted him with a free rifle, scope and accessories as part of our gift hunt.

I can go no further without expressing my appreciation to Jay Brown, Executive Director of the Combat Helicopter Pilots Association as my original point of contact helping to find a deserving individual for this year's hunt. His assistance was invaluable in hosting a fine young American on what we hoped would be a memorable hunt provided by some fellow Americans who understand the definition of both service and sacrifice. Thank you again Jay!

Jay graciously put me in touch with Kevin Kenney, who Jay flew with a few years ago and a member of "Operation Second Chance," an organization devoted to helping those who have experienced life-‐altering experiences while serving our great Nation. As most of you might expect, planning a "vacation" for a service member still on active duty can be a challenging situation and Kevin and I had something like three other candidates online, before our fourth candidate could finally be confirmed as our special guest. Again, not something we know nothing about; having to go to a plan "B" (or C or D) as necessary.

Operation Second Chance stepped up to provide the flight necessary to carry our hunter from the DC area (still on active duty) to a nearby airport in Georgia. They also provided a volunteer escort to pick him up at the airport and join us in camp for the hunt. Kudos go to this fine organization for stepping up and offering to provide any help needed for this gift hunt.

Our guest and his escort arrived at our very nice camp, outside Wrightsville, Ga. on Friday evening, January 17th, 2014. After some introductions and a bit of chatter amongst the group of six of us now in place for the hunt, we decided to present our guest's gift rifle to him. Just so you know, he had no idea or indication we had planned this as part of his hunt.

To say he was dumbfounded when handed the new Winchester M70 Featherweight in 30/06, topped with a Leupold VX2 3-‐9x40, would be a huge understatement. His first response was disbelief, followed by a few minutes of simply fondling that nice American

made rifle & scope. If the hunt had ended right then, I'd have been fine with it, but our guest hunter was also very eager to harvest what would be his first wild hog ever. A


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Concluded on Page 11

dinner of Spaghetti & meatballs followed that brief presentation and a few rounds of cheer had everyone quite excited about our upcoming four-‐day hunt.

First thing next morning our guest took an hour or two to shoot and familiarize himself with his new rifle. If possible, he seemed to like it even more after putting a box of ammo through it, preparing for the first afternoon’s hunt!

Our weather throughout turned out to be chilly, but dry. We found the hogs in the area to be a tad uncooperative to our plans which included chops &

barbeque. We all enjoyed each and every day's hunt along with the food that was also provided for our guest and his escort. We had typical camp fare with additional dinners and lunches including meals such as chili, venison stew and baked ham among the meals we all enjoyed together (along with our two guides).

The hogs remained elusive enough that, although some had been seen and had also presented some opportunities, our group remained hog-‐less right up until the last evening's hunt. That last hunt proved productive for two members of our group, however. Our special guest hunter was the first and ultimately only hunter to take a mature hog on our hunt. I was so excited upon receiving the text that last evening saying he had scored I wanted to cut my hunt short and get back to camp and join in on the celebration.

With this single harvest, our hunt had become a great success for all involved. Our guest had to work hard to harvest his hog, something he did without complaint. If we all had not already known exactly how severe his injuries had been, after having been shot in Afghanistan, none of us would have guessed. Life altering is as far as my description will go. To see and hear his enthusiasm for the hunt, his fine young family and life in general was something we all enjoyed!

Although none of the rest of us scored on a big hog, we knew we were actually there for a more important reason; to provide a few days of fun and adventure for a very fine young American. I dare say we accomplished that.

In closing I'd first like to again thank both Jay Brown & Kevin Kenney for their support and help in hooking us up with a young man who exemplifies all that is GOOD about this nation. Our group consisted of military retirees (2), active duty Navy, former active duty and civilians who all shared a

L/R: Ed Turner, Chris Hemwall, Don Mutsch

L/R: Ed Turner, Chris Hemwall, Don Mutsch


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Call on Us! Contact Quick Reference Chairman of the Board – Robert Frost Buzz Covington Chairman@chpa-‐us.org BCovington@chpa-‐us.org President – Mick Tesanovich Mark Hilton Call us! president@chpa-‐us.org MHilton@chpa-‐us.org 800•832•5144 VP Administration – Rich Miller Alex Horony Fax us! admin@chpa-‐us.org AHorony@chpa-‐us.org 719•687•4167 VP Membership – Al Major Randy Jones Write us! membership@chpa-‐us.org RJones@chpa-‐us.org CHPA

PO Box 42 Secretary – Rhea Rippey Dan McClinton Divide, CO 80814-‐0042 secretary@chpa-‐us.org DMcClinton@chpa-‐us.org Treasurer – Loren McAnally Randy Zahn Remember! Treasurer@chpa-‐us.org RZahn@chpa-‐us.org Feel free to contact

us any time. Executive Director – Jay Brown HQ@chpa-‐us.org

single, common thought; to show our gratitude in some very small way towards those who have given much for this Nation.

The "package" we provided for our honored guest totaled well over 2K, with every single dollar being provided by donations from people I happen to know along with the help with the flight given by Operation Second Chance. I received donations from 8 states altogether, from as far away as Alaska and California and for every one of those individuals I am humbled by their help and generosity towards a common, important goal.

I even had one good friend travel all the way to Georgia from Wisconsin to participate (along with his generous donation). We took pride in being sure that the gift rifle and scope were manufactured in America, just as we had done for last year's honored guest, a Marine veteran also badly injured in Afghanistan who hunted with us and received the exact same "package".

Hope you enjoy the pictures from our hunt. ** We are not officially connected with the fine Wounded Warrior Foundation, but rather perform a similar service for our nation’s

deserving veterans.

swash plate february 2014

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