Volume 10, Issue 10 CHPA • The Swash Plate www.chpa-us.org

October 2014

From The President Milan Tesanovich

“From The President” Milan Tesanovich

“Welcome New Members”

“Mind Pictures from Vietnam” Robert Frost

“Last Chance for Convention Ts”

• “Christmas Boxes 2014”

And much, much more!

Presenting!

My message this month departs from the usual information about CHPA and veterans in general. What I want to do is inform you about something known as Ransomware. This insidious form of malicious software (malware) attacks Microsoft Windows based computers. It infects a computer and restricts access to the computer or its contents until a ransom is paid to unlock it.

With the expanding EBOLA outbreak government agencies are warning individuals and businesses to be especially alert for phishing scams that promote fear and panic.

WHAT IS RANSOMWARE? Basically, it extorts money from victims by displaying an on-screen alert most often stating that their computer has been locked or that all of their files have been encrypted. The malware then demands that a ransom be paid to restore access. This ransom is typically in the range of $100–$300 dollars for individuals, but much higher for businesses. It is sometimes demanded in virtual currency, such as Bitcoin.

Ransomware is typically spread through phishing emails that contain malicious attachments and drive-by downloading. Drive-by downloading occurs when a user unknowingly visits an infected website and malware is downloaded and installed without their knowledge. Crypto Ransomware, a variant that encrypts files, is typically spread through similar methods, and has been spread through Web-based instant messaging applications.

WHY IS IT SO EFFECTIVE? Ransomware usually instills fear and panic into their victims, causing them to click on a link. The computer inevitably becomes infected with malware. Common types of messages that accomplish this are:

“Your computer has been infected with a virus. Click here to resolve the issue.”

“Your computer was used to visit websites with illegal content. To unlock your computer, you must pay a $100 fine.”

“All files on your computer have been encrypted. You must pay this ransom within 72 hours to regain access to your data.”

RANSOMWARE EXPLOITS LINKS TO OTHER TYPES OF MALWARE. Systems infected with ransomware are usually also infected with other malware. In the case of CryptoLocker, a user typically becomes infected by opening a malicious attachment from an email. This malicious attachment contains Upatre, a downloader, which infects the user with GameOver Zeus. GameOver Zeus is a variant of the Zeus Trojan that steals banking

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information and is also used to steal other types of data. Once a system is infected with GameOver Zeus, Upatre will also download CryptoLocker. Finally, CryptoLocker encrypts files on the infected system, and requests that a ransom be paid.

The close ties between ransomware and other types of malware were demonstrated through the recent botnet disruption operation against GameOver Zeus, which also proved effective against CryptoLocker. In June 2014, an international law enforcement operation successfully weakened the infrastructure of both GameOver Zeus and CryptoLocker.

Infections can be devastating to an individual or organization, and recovery can be a difficult process that may require the services of a reputable data recovery specialist. SOLUTION. The US Department of Homeland Security has a department known as the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (“US-CERT”) that posts information that is beneficial to all of us about how to stay safe and avoid becoming victims. Canada has a similar agency known as the Canadian Cyber Incident Repsonse Center (“CCIRC”). US-CERT and CCIRC recommend users and administrators take the following preventive measures to protect their computer networks from ransomware infection:

Perform regular backups of all critical information to limit the impact of data or system loss and to help expedite the recovery process. Ideally, this data should be kept on a separate device, and backups should be stored offline.

Maintain up-to-date anti-virus software. Keep your operating system and software up-to-date with the latest patches. Do not follow unsolicited web links in email. Refer to the Security Tip Avoiding Social

Engineering and Phishing Attacks for more information on social engineering attacks. Refer to the Using Caution with Email Attachments Cyber Security Tip for information on safely

handling email attachments. Use caution when opening email attachments. For information on safely handling email

attachments, see Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams. Follow safe practices when browsing the web. See Good Security Habits and Safeguarding Your

Data for additional details. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to not pay the ransom, as this does not guarantee files

will be released. Paying the ransom does not guarantee the encrypted files will be released; it only guarantees that the malicious actors receive the victim’s money, and in some cases, their banking information. In addition, decrypting files does not mean the malware infection itself has been removed.

Report instances of fraud to the FBI at the Internet Crime Complaint Center or contact the CCIRC (link sends e-mail).

Here are links to more information about this threat: Symantec, CryptoDefence, the CryptoLocker Imitator, Makes Over $34,000 in One Month (link

is external) Symantec, Cryptolocker: A Thriving Menace (link is external) Symantec, Cryptolocker Q&A: Menace of the Year (link is external) Symantec, International Takedown Wounds Gameover Zeus Cybercrime Network (link is

external)

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Please feel free to forward

this issue of “The Swash Plate” to

your colleagues, potential

members and other interested

parties!

Share the “Swash”

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.

So where are all the story tellers out there? 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]

Retiree Appreciation Day Rich Miller

This is the time of year when many military installations hold their Retiree Appreciation Days. Over a

2-3 day period many events are scheduled specifically for the benefit of retirees and their family. These are a great source of the latest information. RADs vary from installation to installation, but in general they provide an opportunity to renew acquaintances, listen to guest speakers, renew ID Cards, get medical information and services, legal assistance, and various other services. Here is a link to the upcoming events for many Army installations across the country.

http://www.ausa.org/resources/retireeaffairs/Pages/RetirementAppreciationDays.aspx

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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Reunions and Gatherings

Welcome New Members

How Are We Doing? Jay Brown

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.

CHPA extends a hearty “Welcome Aboard” to these new members, who have joined so far in October, 2014. Bill Collier William H. Forrester Michael N. Merrill Rick Neal Herbert E. Perkins Kent A. Showalter

Every month we try to bring you articles and notices that interest all of our members. Of course that entails gathering news items and articles from various sources and varying topics, from the humorous to serious news of world events. We hope we’re meeting your needs and providing entertainment and we’d love to hear from you on whether we’re meeting those goals. If you have a comment or suggestion on what we’ve done well or where we could improve drop us an email at HQ@chpa-us.org or give us a call at 800-832-5144 and let us know.

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Mind Pictures from Vietnam Robert Frost

Continued on Page 6

Grab a cup of coffee. You’re going to be busy for the next five minutes!) Mind pictures from Viet Nam: Memories of another time and place. Some from a rotor head’s perspective.

• ================================================= The sound of main rotor blades beating the sky into submission.

• The thump of outgoing mortar fire. • The whistle, thump of incoming mortar fire. • The smell of rice paddies in the heat. • The feel of rain so heavy you think you're going to drown. • The taste of ice cold “33". Or luke warm "33". • Heating C-Rats with C-4. • The ever-present smell of hot JP-4. • The scream of 30 turbo-shaft engines under load. • The beautiful dark green of the mountains. • The smell of burning diesel fuel and shit. • Flying lazy circles at 10,000 ft to cool off the beer. • The sight of unfamiliar constellations viewed from the top of a sandbagged bunker on a pitch-black

night. • The chatter of an M-60. • The smell of hot gun oil, burning gun powder and overheated metal. • The sight of green tracers reaching up. • The feeling in the pit of your stomach when you look around and realize that all the civilian workers

have disappeared into the bunkers for no apparent reason. • R & R any place. • The whistle a main rotor blade makes when it has a bullet hole through it. • The call of a "f***kyou" lizard in the middle of the night. • The breath taking beauty of the country from 5000 ft. • Waking up in a panic in the middle of the night because the artillery at the end of the field isn't firing

and it's too quiet. • The scream of the scramble siren in the middle of the night. • Drinking Jim Beam straight up and chasing it with warm black cherry soda because that's all you've got. • A kidney busting full throttle run down Thunder Road in a sandbagged duce and a half. • The feeling when fewer ships come home than left that morning. • The mind numbing sight and sound when Puff lights up the night and saves your sorry ass. • The absolute silence when Puff is done. • Flying over the mountains and seeing a high valley still covered in the early morning fog

and the fog spilling out of a high pass, like cream out of a cup. • Cloud skiing :-)) Get to the top of a puffy cumulus over the coast during the rainy season. Get right on

top and dump collective. Try to keep just the skids in the cloud while following the contours.

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Continued on Page 7

• Sliding down to the ridge lines in my Loach and pretending to do a recon while riding the updrafts like I was in a sail plane as the fog starts burning off. In my mind sailing a small "cat" in Cape Cod bay.

• Cool night air at one mile high and one mile out over the coast. • High "pucker factor" while hovering up a road into 200 & ¼ with rain and fog. • The smell of human blood. • What a hard sideways flare feels like when started at 120 kts and 30 feet AGL. • Over the high plateau during the monsoon, cruising along a road in 200 & 1/4 (or less) and having to

pull collective to miss a deuce truck coming at you and going IFR. • Sitting on the ground, looking up at a clear blue sky through whispers of ground fog; then flying over

that same fog bank towards Dak To, finding only one FSB poking up through the fog. Then sitting on that FSB, drinking varnish removing coffee made in an aluminum pot over a Mo-gas powered squad stove, waiting for the fog to lift.

• Foggy days at Bao Loc. Lining up, one by one, between the revetments and taking off into the fog at 30 second intervals. Breaking out at 4000 msl, PZ was at 5000 msl and the LZ was still higher.

• Insect repellant on your testicles...burns! • Blowing up a leaky air mattress! • The 'rush' of short final into a hot LZ! • A jammed M-16 during a "white" moment! • A howitzer firing over you in the middle of the night (during your two hours of sleep)! • Watching the ground come straight at you during a high overhead approach (in trail formation). • Realizing you're lost and have crossed the border when you can't see any more of those little round

yellow circles on the ground! • Realizing you're in the wrong place when the arty response is "Sorry sir. Those coords are out of

range."! • The silence when the "whop-whop" and "whine" stops! • The realization when the "whop-whop" and "whine" stops that the only place you can see the

ground is the nearby sewer called a "rice-paddy"! • The joy of a ride home! • Hearing, "Move your tail left, sir." And, "Move your tail right, sir." at the same time in

a hover hole! • Hearing, "What the hell was that!", "Awww shit!", and noticing little yellow rectangular lights

out of corner of your eye all at the same time! • You notice how small trees look when you had a blade strike at 2000 feet. • You notice how many lights are not lit up on a master caution panel. • The beautiful curving red lines of tracers at midnight. • The look of rice in the rocket pods. • The look of blood on the windshield. • The horrifying basketball size green tracers going upward in slow motion at midnight. • The eerie light of a parachute flare. • The true beauty of a mini-gun when you are down in the rice, and your wing ship is above covering

your sorry ass. • The surrealistic sight of Nui Ba Den as dawn breaks the horizon. • The mosquitoes that carry harpoons. • The sting of a rocket cap hitting your shins.

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Concluded on Page 8

• The taste of crushed cookies. • Pinto Beans cooked on a popcorn popper. • Measuring the grease in C-rat beef stew. • Finding a use for powdered eggs. • The thought of watching mama-san pop the heads off those big roaches in the mess hall and eat them. • The whistle of a 122mm rocket inbound ... right in the middle of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” • Taking a shower at the edge of the roof during monsoon season. • Missing the submerged boardwalk during the monsoon on the way to the club and finding the 6' deep

ditch instead. • Naming all the rats. • Roach races as a sporting event. • Scrounging missions just for the hell of it. • The white cranes that are bullet proof. • The humidity in August. • Finding the true meaning of rocket city. • Plugging hydraulic leaks with bubble gum just to get home. • The smell of napalm. • The smell of rocket fuel. • The cherry glow of a red hot M-60 barrel. • The pop of a .51 as it flys by too close. • The incessant dust of Cu Chi. • The sucking mud. • The ring of the telephone that sends you to action station. • The backfire of a car … the embarrassment of being face down in a ditch. • The joy of DEROS Day. • The loneliness of the days after Travis ... and ETS. • Wondering why the grunts don't shoot your hook after it blows the air mattress out of their poncho

tent and onto the concertina wire at LZ Leslie. • Watching the rotor wash of your hook dismantle a hooch and not even caring. • Watching the water buffalo drag the farmer and plow across several dikes cause the boo doesn't like

hooks. • St Elmo's fire on the rotor blades. • Wondering why the Marines at Phu Bai don't have counter mortar anything. • Listening to 2/20 ARA birds salvo doing counter mortar in a CAV controlled area. • Swimming with sea snakes at Wonder beach. • Watching how high a blivet can bounce when punched off at 50 feet. • Being damn glad to be in Hooks when the last flight of the day you sling back a dead Huey and you can

see the pilot’s helmet rolling around in there. Knowing he wouldn't have left it if he was okay ... • Flying through the Mang Yang pass from Pleiku to An Ke and seeing the French graves from Groupe

Mobile 100 on the hilltop. • The smell of RVN. • Flying out of Evans, over the mountains and low level over the rice paddies early in the morning.

Looked like jewels sparkling in the morning sun.

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So, Where Are the Stories Jay Brown

• The sound of Armed Forces Vietnam Radio at 0600 ... Goooooood Morning Vietnaaaaaammm! • The click as a round went past ... • The sounds of the Mama's and the Papa's "Monday, Monday” ... and you start another day,

another one down and ??? to go. • The quite voice of the FDC ... "On the way, wait ..." and you wait for the bright flash of the

parachute flare to see if you can see Charlie ... and you can't. • Y'all OK down there? ... "click, click" .... sigh of relief.

As has often been said, and demonstrated so often in The Swash Plate, some of the best stories are

told by military pilots, especially helicopter pilots, usually over a beer at a bar. As we’ve also said, this is your newsletter, not only to read and share, but to contribute to. We’ve shared tales of bravery and daring-do from flight school to combat zones around the world to boring stateside missions that were suddenly not so boring anymore. There was the CH-47 that spiraled down through a dark and cloudy night following a flare to deliver much needed supplies. There was the story about trying to take off for an instrument qualification check ride with seat belt and shoulder harness unfastened. There was the story of a near miss over Fort Campbell between two OH-58As that tried to share the same airspace at high airspeed below the tree line. So, where is your story? It doesn’t have to be a literary work of art, nor does the spelling, syntax and formatting have to be perfect. I’ll take care of all that. It just has to be delivered to me at HQ and I’ll take care of everything else. And, with respect to “war stories” or TINS, it doesn’t even have to be true!! Submit your stories to CHPA either by email to HQ@chpa-us.org or send them to HQ at CHPA, PO Box 42, Divide, CO 80814-0042.

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Convention T Shirt Jay Brown

Christmas Boxes for the Troops 2014 Jay Brown

This is your last chance to get one of the high quality and

very handsome convention T Shirts with the 2014 Convention graphic on the back. We have a very limited number available; 1- Medium, 2-Large and 1- XLarge. They will not be listed in the CHPA online store and are only available by contacting Headquarters at 800-832-5144 or dropping us an email with your order. Payment may be made by credit card or by check. The price remains $35 per shirt which will barely cover the postage. If you would like a shirt, order now before we run out of your size.

Your CHPA has kicked off the 2014 Christmas Boxes for the

Troops project and we’ve made great progress toward another banner year. Last year we sent 70 boxes packed with reminders that we’re thinking of those who will not be able to be home for the holidays and that we support them during their time away from home, family and friends. To date we have sponsors for 43 boxes but with your help we can do more.

We are grateful to those who have already sponsored boxes for this worthwhile endeavor:

Rusty and Lynn Bourgoyne Jay Brown Ronald Diller Mike and Marcia Daigle Peter Howson Donald Slack Arthur Davis Loren McAnally Pat Ramsey Grover Wright Janie Thurman Sara Sheldon Daniel Odell Rhea Rippey

While it’s not too late to sponsor one or more boxes, time is of the essence. Starting with the deadline

to get packages into the mail system for delivery before Christmas and counting back from there we have less time than optimal to advertise this project, buy the boxes and contents and get them packed, addressed and the customs forms completed, so you can see we need to move along.

If you’ve not yet sponsored a box, or several, it couldn’t be easier. Just go to the CHPA website at www.chpa-us.org and click on the link in the Christmas Boxes for the Troops article on the landing page. Using this link you can sponsor up to 6 boxes. If you’d like to sponsor more just give HQ a call at 800-832-5144.

With your help, CHPA will help make Christmas afar a lot brighter for our deployed service men and women.

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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?

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