North Alabama VHPA

03/17/2026

The annual Huntsville Veterans Day Parade was held on 11 November. As we have done for the last 15 years, we participated with members walking and riding in BUC-3. This year we had 14 members & spouses come out on a chilly day to participate. This is a large parade, with over 150 entries. As the only helicopter in the parade, we get lots of cheers, applause and pictures taken as we maneuver through the streets.

03/17/2026

We took BUC-3, our UH-1C/M Gunship to the Cullman, AL Veterans Celebration on
November 1st. This annual event, held at the Cullman Alabama Airport, is one of the largest veterans’ events in Alabama. It includes a full day of activities like vintage military aircraft displays; flight demonstrations; sky divers; car show; old military movies; veterans organizations tents; reenactors of World War II, Korea, Vietnam; free lunch for all veterans and families; and Huey rides. NAVHPA docents were Dan Petrosky, Bob Monette, Bob Stewart, Marshall Eubanks, Ernie Megli, Jean Rose, Sandy Weand, Les Haas, Stan Souvenir and Rich Hudgens. As always, at this type of event, there was lots of interest in BUC-3.

02/26/2026

This memory was submitted by Sam Maki, the one and only Secretary of the North Alabama VHPA.
10 Dec 1967 I reported into the 40th Arty Bde (Air Defense). I was assigned to Crissy Army Airfield and there was one OH-23G assigned to the unit. 10 Jan 1968, I replaced Sgt. Stoner. I got my runup orders to crank the aircraft up. CW-3 Ed Doblado was my first pilot and was later replaced with CW-3 Perry D. Leonard and CW-2 Terry Connors. The little flight detachment was a stopover for guys going to Vietnam or ones that were going to be a short timer getting out.
The 40th had all the Nike sites from San Francisco up to the northern border. The pilots were always taking someone out to a site out in the middle of nowhere. Once in a while I would get to go. Let me tell you, those poor Nike guys who got assigned to some of those very isolated sites had to be thrilled when they got to go off site and see civilization.
When I got married, we had quarters on Fort Barry across the bay and had a Nike site right across the pond from our house. We'd watch the missiles come in and out of the silos for whatever. We had floats installed on the aircraft and the pilots would go float around on that pond.
Anyway, we had a small hanger at the end of the runway on the water side. We were always throwing our crappie nets out or trying fishing. One of our guys was Dennis Leavitt and he was into rockets. He'd bring it out the airfield and he'd launch it from the beach near the water. They would go up from about a hundred feet to maybe three hundred and fall into the bay. The problem was we were always visited by the MPs. The tower way at the other end of the field would call it in and here come the MPs again. If you notice in one of the pictures there are a lot of billets at the end of the runway. Some were used by Letterman Army hospital to put male patients in. We didn't always catch crabs but would get these huge snails. We gave them to the wounded guys to cut up for bait when they were fishing.
The runway itself was about 3.000 feet. The 6th Army Flight Detachment was on the other end from us. They had all the fixed wing plus one CH-34 with floats, that I remember. In the one picture you will see an OH-23 sitting in front of our hanger. Looks like a U-8 at the very end. Sometimes they would start their run there to get all the runway they could get. The one picture of all those folks is what the former airfield turned into. A park.
Did I tell you I met Rosie Grier while stationed there? At a club called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. Yes, the Presidio was a terrible assignment from 1967-1969 and I feel so bad about this assignment. Well, we also flew by the USS Enterprise when it came in 1968. Carol Doda was showing her wares from a small boat nearby. Nasty girl I say.
I was supposed to ETS in 1969 and thought about trying out for the California Highway Patrol. Perry Leonard asked me if I'd considered going to flight school. I went to Letterman, did my physical, had my interview with LTC Taylor, who flew with us once in a while and who would put on his scuba gear and retrieve our nets. Perry called Branch and before I knew it, I had a class report date of 1 March 1969. I reenlisted for 6 years. Perry took time to show me hovering and doing a traffic pattern, and I headed to Fort Wolters, Texas for abuse.
And there I met my forever friends Les Haas, and Richard Ready. 69-37 B5. Les with the big glasses.

10/10/2025

The eighth and last post of the memories of Ed Marzola of his memories if Vietnam. The Chapter thanks Ed for sharing his recollections of his tour. We believe it is valuable to capture these for future generations.

While I was in Vietnam the Army offered Warrant Officers a
chance to obtain a commission so I applied. On October 1, 1970
I was given a commission to First Lieutenant.
The rest of my tour was uneventful. On 14 October 1970 I left
Vietnam. I arrived in Oakland, CA after a long flight. We were
given a briefing before we left for home and warned that the
attitude toward the military was not always friendly. I was called a
“Baby killer”. Some other veterans received much worse treatment.
During my year flying in Vietnam, I flew over 1200 hours. I
earned 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 Bronze Stars and 3 Air
Medals for valor.

10/10/2025

This is the seventh part of NAVHPA member, Ed Marzola's memories of his tour in Vietnam in 1969-1970.

On 19 August 1970, we were moved again. This time to Quan
Loi, a base in the middle of a Michelin rubber plantation. I shot
up so many Michelin rubber trees with my rockets I always feel I
should buy their tires. The ground at Quan Loi was red dirt and
when it rained it was red mud that clung to your boots and seemed to crawl up your pants.
During a tour in Vietnam, we were entitled to take one week for R & R. I chose to take mine in Hong Kong. On August 22, I was off to Tan Son Nhut Air Base to catch a flight to Hong Kong. The first thing we had to do was pay for our hotel room for the week. They
wanted to make sure they got their money before we spent it all.
Hong Kong was a good place to buy stereo equipment, so I bought everything and had it shipped home to my parents. I spent most
of the money I brought with me on the stereo, so I barely had
enough left to eat for the rest of my stay. I got back to Quan Loi
on 30 August and began flying missions again.
One night I had was assigned counter mortar and was patrolling
the area around Quan Loi. I noticed a fog had started to cover
the base so I decided to return. Our operations put some vehicles
along the runway with their lights on to help us find the runway. I
tried one approach but the fog had gotten too thick, so I decided to fly south to Lai Khe where they had radar. I told Lai Khe radar
that we were on top of a fog bank and would need a GCA
approach. I was excited to do a GCA in actual instrument
conditions. About 10 minutes out I was disappointed to see the
fog end and we were in the clear. I did the GCA anyway just for
practice. The next morning Quan Loi had cleared and we went
back there.
On 17 September, I asked to fly front seat for a pilot who was
about to become an Aircraft Commander, to give him some
experience. We were doing our normal reconnaissance when
operations called us to aid a unit that had enemy contact. They
estimated 10 to 20 enemy soldiers. The friendly forces were on
the south side of a road and the enemy was on the north side close to the Cambodian border. We decided to put some rockets on the
target to see what we could stir up. Instead of 10 to 20 enemy we
attacked a North Vietnamese Army battalion-size unit with .51
caliber anti-aircraft guns. Several rounds hit our helicopter. One
round hit the left outboard rocket pod and cut the rocket in half.
The back half flew off, and the front half was jammed in the tube.
The troops on the ground called and said they saw pieces flying
off our aircraft. On our next pass we again took fire. A round hit the underside of the aircraft and went into the ammo bay. It tore through the minigun ammunition and there was a strong smell of gun powder. Fearing we could be on fire we landed in a field behind the friendly lines. I got out to inspect the aircraft. There were holes in the ammo bay doors and gun powder was everywhere, but there was no fire. There were also holes in the rotor blades and several other places. But it appeared nothing vital had been damaged so we traded seats, and we took off again. Two other Cobras had come out to help us. I expended the rest of my rockets on the target and returned to Quan Loi. Unfortunately, one of those Cobras was shot down and they weren’t as lucky. They hit hard and both pilots were badly injured. The front seat pilot died of his injuries a few days later. I was awarded my second Distinguished Flying Cross for this action.
The next day we were again attacking the same enemy position.
During my attack I saw tracers going by on the left and right of my
aircraft. A tracer is every fifth round so there were four rounds in
between that somehow missed us. The next day the enemy had
moved back into Cambodia where we couldn’t pursue them.

10/10/2025

This is the sixth part of NAVHPA member, Ed Marzola's memories of his tour in Vietnam in 1969-1970.

We moved back to Di An and resumed operations in our old AO.
On 15 April 1970, I got my checkride for aircraft commander. Now
I would be flying the back seat of the Cobra and running the
mission. On 23 April, I was assigned to pick up one of our Cobras
that was in maintenance at Cu Chi. We were told it just needed a
test flight and would be ready to go. Two pilots from the
maintenance facility flew it around and they released it to us. The
pilot with me and I agreed that after a test flight there should be a
post flight inspection. As I was postflighting the main rotor, I
grabbed a hold of the main rotor retaining nut to make sure it was
tight. To my surprise I was able to turn it easily. I called down to
the maintenance people standing around and they scrambled to
get their tools to fix the problem. If we hadn’t done that inspection
the main rotor could have come off on the way back to Di An!
On 29 April 1970 we started a new mission. For the first time we
were allowed to go into Cambodia. The enemy brought supplies
from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and
Cambodia and they used Cambodia as a sanctuary where we
couldn’t go. We supported ground troops in Cambodia up to a
distance of 21 kilometers which was as far as we were allowed to
go. On 17 May 1970, I led a fire team of two Cobras to aid a US
unit that was pinned down by enemy fire. We made several
passes at the enemy position. I guess we did some damage
because the troops on the ground said they were no longer taking
fire and they believed the enemy had started to withdraw. So, we
moved our attack behind where they had been and expended the
rest of our rockets. We learned later that we had inflicted heavy
casualties on the enemy and saved many American lives.
On 28 June I was assigned to the counter-mortar mission, so I flew that night and I had the next day off. Another crew took the aircraft that I had just flown. They had a hydraulic failure and the controls locked up. The aircraft crashed and both pilots were killed.
In July 1970 I had another incident with a maintenance problem.
Our aircraft were parked in revetments with a berm on each side
and open at the front and back. One morning I was assigned an
aircraft that I had flown the day before. When I parked it in the
revetment the night before there were no problems. As I tried to
pick up to a hover, the aircraft began to turn. I added left pedal to
counteract the turning and I suddenly ran out of pedal. I could
only get light on the skids. To stop the turn, I had to lower the
collective to put the weight back on the ground. This was not how
this aircraft was the day before. We shut down and got the spare
Cobra and went out to fly our missions. When we got back that
evening, we were told that a required tail rotor service was
performed the night before. When everything was put back
together, it was found to be not properly rigged. That was the reason I did not have enough pedal to stop the turn. The tail rotor came within inches of the revetment.

On 15 August 1970, my 25th birthday, we spent the night at away
from home at a base called Dau Tieng. That evening, I was lying
on my bunk when a mortar attack started. The first round hit just
outside my h***h. Shrapnel hit the side of the h***h and I heard
the clanging of shrapnel coming down on the metal roof. I rolled
onto the floor and started crawling for the bunker. When I was in
basic training my drill sergeant always yelled at me for being too
slow at the low crawl. That night I crawled faster than I had ever
before. I reached the bunker and dove in headfirst. The bunker
was a pit dug in the ground about 6 feet deep. Boards were laid
across the pit and sandbags piled on top of the boards. There
was a ladder going straight done into the pit. As I went down
headfirst it occurred to me that I could get hurt if I hit my head so
I grabbed a rung of the ladder and flipped my body around to land
on my feet. As I sat in the bottom of the bunker listening to the
mortars I thought how dumb it would have been to survive the mortar attack and then break my neck diving headfirst into the bunker. What a great birthday!

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10/10/2025

This is the fifth part of NAVHPA member, Ed Marzola's memories of his tour in Vietnam in 1969-1970.

Sometimes we landed near a Vietnamese village waiting to go out
on our mission. This was an opportunity to see how the people
lived. Their living conditions were primitive.
This was home to them.
One village was next to a stream. There was a platform build
over the stream about 4 feet high. There were holes in the
bottom of the platform. I watched several boys climb onto the
platform, pull down their pants and squat over the holes. This
was a bathroom. As their f***s dropped into the stream fish
jumped to catch it. I have no doubt they would catch fish from
that stream for dinner.
Another time we were near a village with a grove of banana
plants. Another pilot and I used a machete to get ourselves a
bunch of bananas.
We ate bananas for the next couple of days.
The kids from the villages were always friendly and came out to
greet us. They were fascinated by the helicopters. And they
always loved having their picture taken.

In March 1970 someone decided that we should move back to Di An. C Troop 16th Cav was to replace us. They sent a Cobra and 2
pilots to work with us until the rest of their troop came. On early
morning of 22 March 1970 we got a call for a fire team to aid an
outpost that was in danger of being overrun and in desperate
need of help. I was in the front seat of one Cobra and the pilots
from C/16th Cav flew their Cobra. There was a haze covering the
ground making landmarks difficult to see. With the help of a
command and control aircraft on station we were able to find the
target. We made one run on the target and started a second. As
we broke off I watched the other Cobra start his run. I saw him
firing rockets at the enemy and suddenly he exploded. I believe
with the haze making the ground difficult to see he got target
fixation and wasn’t watching his altitude and flew into the ground.
When we went to a stage field to refuel and rearm, we saw pilots
from another unit who had also been scrambled. They neglected
to get dressed. One was flying in underwear and boots and
another was in underwear and shower shoes. I thought this was
hilarious. One instant I watched a helicopter explode and now I
am laughing at two pilots flying in their underwear. War does
strange things to you.
Someone decided we should get medals for this action. I was
awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. There was a ceremony for
all the recipients and a special guest was to present the medals.
It was Col William Maddox, the same colonel who reprimanded
us in Germany. He didn’t give any sign that he recognized me
and I didn’t volunteer any information.

10/10/2025

This is the fourth chapter in Ed Marzola's memories of his tour in Vietnam.

In January of 1970 we were sent south to the base of Soc Trang
which was located in IV Corps. IV Corps comprised the
southern-most portion of Vietnam. Because of increased enemy
activity in this area, we started flying missions with 2 scouts and 2
cobras. We got involved in numerous fire fights and I came back
to base several times with bullet holes in my aircraft, mostly in
the tail boom. Sometimes we had several sorties and we had to
rearm after each one. That’s 52 rockets, 4000 rounds of minigun
ammunition and 300 gr***des and only 2 pilots to load all that.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted. In one incident we had
four Cobras attacking a large enemy position. As I looked at one
Cobra in his attack, I saw him firing his minigun and a line of
tracers going down to the enemy. And there was a line of tracers
going back up at him. With all the bullets flying only one Cobra
took one hit.
On 27 February 1970 I was in the front seat of a Cobra. We had
just finished a day of reconnaissance when we got word of a unit
that was pinned down and wanted to be extracted. We were
tasked to cover the Hueys who were trying to pick them up. On
their first attempt enemy fire was so intense the flight leader
elected not to land. On their second attempt we started our run to
cover them when suddenly there was a loud thunk. A bullet had
hit the nose of our aircraft and lodged in the back of the
instrument panel in front of me put a dent in it. It set off a shock
wave that caused me to black out for probably a few seconds. As
I started to regain consciousness, I noticed the dent in the
instrument panel, but I was still too groggy to realize what had
happened.
I remembered feeling pin pricks on my face which were flecks of
paint that had been thrown off the panel. Luckily, I had my visor
down so my eyes were protected. The Hueys again had to abort
their attempt. It was decided to wait until daylight to try again but
we were not involved.
A few days later we were again in contact when we heard a loud
noise outside our aircraft. A pilot in another Cobra called to say
he saw something explode on our left side. We couldn’t see
anything, and all the gauges were normal, and the controls all
functioned normally so we flew back to Soc Trang. When we
inspected the aircraft, we saw the left skid had a big gash and
was bent a couple of inches. Whatever hit us must have been
pretty big!
One day we were assigned to assess damage down by an Arc
Light. An arc light is a strike by B-52 bombers dropping
many tons of bombs on a target. We were positioned
several miles from the strike. When the bombs were dropped, we
could feel the ground tremble. A helicopter from another unit was
first to go in to start the assessment. They found somebody still
alive, and called for a clearance to fire. For some inexplicable reason it was denied. So, they decided to watch him.
If he shot at them, they could return fire. He shot at the helicopter
and killed one of the pilots. We were all extremely upset. How
could a clearance to fire be denied in an area the Air Force just
bombed?

10/10/2025

This is the third in NAVHPA member, Ed Marzola's, reflections and memories of his tour in Vietnam.

I arrived in Vietnam on 17 October 1969. I was assigned to A
Troop, 3rd Squadron 17th Calvary. The first lesson I got was about
the Malaria pills. There was a large pink pill every Monday and a
smaller white pill for the rest of the week. Failing to take the pills
could be a cause for a court-martial. I learned quickly to never
take the pink pill on an empty stomach. I always got my pill at
breakfast so I could take it after I ate. The pink pill caused
diarrhea several hours after taking it. We learned to live with it.
Our barracks was a wood shack built on a concrete slab with a tin
roof and it was divided into individual rooms. It did have
electricity, so I was able to buy a small refrigerator to keep cold
drinks. The water had so much stuff added to it to kill the bad
bugs that it tasted like medicine. Adding cool aid helped to
improve the taste. We hired ho**ch maids from the local town to
clean the rooms and do our laundry.
The latrine was a shack with a bench and a hole cut in the bench.
Beneath the bench was a 55-gallon drum cut in half to catch anything that came through the hole. Once a week. a detail would pull the drums, throw some gasoline in them and light it. Once everything was burned, they cleaned out the residue. It produced a delightful smell.
We did have a hot shower if you got there early enough. If you
were late there may not be any water left.
The Air Cavalry troop consisted of a headquarters platoon, a
scout platoon, a gun platoon and a lift platoon. The scout platoon
had OH-6 Light Observation Helicopters (LOH), the gun platoon
had AH1-G Cobra gunships, and the lift platoon had UH-1
Iroquois (nicknamed Hueys) and had a section of infantry called
blues.
The Air Cavalry missions in Vietnam were primarily
reconnaissance performed by a Hunter-Killer team. This team
consisted of a scout helicopter and a gunship. The scout flew low
and slow looking for signs of enemy activity. The gunship flew
high keeping the scout in sight at all times to provide cover. If the
scout found a worthwhile target, he would throw out a smoke
gr***de to mark the target for the gunship. The gunship pilot had
to keep track of their position on the map and call in the
coordinates of anything the scout found. If the scout started
receiving enemy fire, he would toss out a smoke gr***de and
leave the area as quickly as he could. The gunship would roll in
to put rockets behind the scout to cover his escape. It was
important for the gunship pilot to know where his scout was as all
times or there was a risk of shooting him down.
One thing we had to do with each mission was check artillery, so
we didn’t wander into an area where artillery rounds were going.
Still there were some occasional surprises and we had to
scramble to get the artillery stopped.
I got my in-country check ride on 25 October 1969 and started
flying combat missions. After a little practice I got fairly good at
reading the topographic maps that we used.
On 28 December 1969 we were assigned to protect a Bob Hope
Show at Long Binh. We did reconnaissance around Long Binh to
make sure no one was planning to send some rockets or mortars
into the compound. The scout must have stirred up something
because he started taking fire. The pilot was shot in the foot and
was medevacked back to the States. The observer had a bullet
hit his chest protector. Except for some bruises he was alright.
That was the closest I ever got to a Bob Hope show.
We did have some entertainment. We would get movies that
were passed around from unit to unit. Each movie had several
reels and only one projector so there was always an intermission
while the reels were changed. Sometimes the reels were shown
out of sequence. One time the film was on the reel backwards, so
we watched it in reverse.
There were also traveling shows of Vietnamese musicians and
singers.

08/07/2025

This is Part 2 of Ed Marzola's memories of his tour in Vietnam.

I arrived in Vietnam on 17 October 1969. I was assigned to A
Troop, 3rd Squadron 17th Calvary.

The first lesson I got was about
the Malaria pills. There was a large pink pill every Monday and a
smaller white pill for the rest of the week. Failing to take the pills
could be a cause for a court-martial. I learned quickly to never
take the pink pill on an empty stomach. I always got my pill at
breakfast so I could take it after I ate. The pink pill caused
diarrhea several hours after taking it. We learned to live with it.
Our barracks was a wood shack built on a concrete slab with a tin
roof and it was divided into individual rooms. It did have
electricity, so I was able to buy a small refrigerator to keep cold
drinks. The water had so much stuff added to it to kill the bad
bugs that it tasted like medicine. Adding cool aid helped to
improve the taste. We hired ho**ch maids from the local town to
clean the rooms and do our laundry.

The latrine was a shack with a bench and a hole cut in the bench.
Beneath the bench was a 55-gal drum cut in half to catch anything
that came through the hole. Once a week a detail would pull the
drums, throw some gasoline in them and light it. Once everything
was burned, they cleaned out the residue. It produced a delightful
smell.

We did have a hot shower if you got there early enough. If you
were late there may not be any water left.

The Air Cavalry troop consisted of a headquarters platoon, a
scout platoon, a gun platoon and a lift platoon. The scout platoon
had OH-6 Light Observation Helicopters (LOH), the gun platoon
had AH1-G Cobra gunships, and the lift platoon had UH-1
Iroquois (nicknamed Hueys) and had a section of infantry called
blues.

The Air Cavalry missions in Vietnam were primarily
reconnaissance performed by a Hunter-Killer team. This team
consisted of a scout helicopter and a gunship. The scout flew low
and slow looking for signs of enemy activity. The gunship flew
high keeping the scout in sight at all times to provide cover. If the
scout found a worthwhile target; he would throw out a smoke
gr***de to mark the target for the gunship. The gunship pilot had
to keep track of their position on the map and call in the
coordinates of anything the scout found. If the scout started
receiving enemy fire, he would toss out a smoke gr***de and
leave the area as quickly as he could. The gunship would roll in
to put rockets behind the scout to cover his escape. It was
important for the gunship pilot to know where his scout was as all
times or there was a risk of shooting him down.
Another thing we had to do with each mission was check artillery, so
we didn’t wander into an area where artillery rounds were going.
Still there were some occasional surprises and we had to
scramble to get the artillery stopped.

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08/07/2025

This is the second in a sometimes series of personal stories from members of the NAVHPA. The following is Part 1.

Ed Marzola served in Vietnam from 17 Oct 1969 – 14 Oct 1970. His primary personal callsign was Silver Spur 39.

I entered the Army on 27 July 1967. I reported to Fort Polk in
Louisiana for basic training. Louisiana in August and September
was unbearably hot and humid. Our quarters were old wooden
two-story World War II barracks with no air conditioning. Because
it was made of wood we had to have a fire guard all night. That
ran for two-hour shifts. If you had fire guard duty you hoped to
get the first shift or the last shift so you could get uninterrupted
sleep. I think I lost 20 pounds during the eight weeks of basic.

After basic I reported to Fort Wolters, Texas for primary flight
training as a Warrant Officer Candidate. The first four weeks
were called Pre-Flight. No flying, just classes on military subjects
and lots of physical training. In the fourth week of pre-flight I was
made company commander of our WOC Company. One
afternoon we had just received our official aviator sunglasses and
for reasons I don’t remember we decided to wear them in the
evening formation. A super senior was watching. A super senior
is a WOC who has completed primary training and was waiting for
assignment to advanced training. He demanded to know why the
company was wearing sunglasses in formation. I replied “Sir, we
are evaluating our new sunglasses”. He didn’t think it was
appropriate to have sunglasses in formation so he ordered me to
have them removed. So, I called the company to attention. I gave
the order to “Remove sunglasses, Move”. Everyone took off their
sunglasses in perfect order. It was beautiful. But this super
senior wasn’t impressed. “What did you do?” he yelled at me. I
said “Sir, we removed our sunglasses in a military manner.” He
had no sense of humor. He proceeded to chew me out for the
next ten minutes. Then he piled on a bunch of demerits. It was
worth it.

After one month of preflight we began flight training with
classroom instruction of various flight subjects. Some guys were
having trouble with the navigation, particularly using the E6B
computer, so I started tutoring. Our TAC officer found out and he
cleared all the demerits off my record.

I graduated from flight school in August 1968 as a Warrant
Officer 1 and was sent to Germany. I was assigned to the 3/12 Cavalry in Budingen, Germany. We were flying some old helicopters, UH1B’s and OH-13’s left over from the Korean War. Most of my year there was spent on field exercises. We spend six weeks at a time in training areas at Hoenfels and Grafenwohr. One day I was flying in a UH-B with another warrant officer who was PIC
returning to Budingen. The weather was low clouds, but good
visibility beneath. There was a mountain range that we had to
cross. It was only about 1500 feet high, but the tops were in the
clouds. He decided to follow the autobahn up the mountain. As
we got into the base of the clouds we had to slow down and stay
low to keep the autobahn in sight. At the top of the mountain was
a gasthaus (hotel). He landed in the parking lot and shut down.
We checked into the hotel to spend the night until the clouds
lifted. He thought this would make a good story to tell at the
Officer’s Club. The local police were not amused, and the
incident was reported to our parent unit, the 3rd Armored Division.
A few days later we were invited to meet with the Chief of Staff of
the 3rd Armored Division, Col William Maddox, who was a Master
Army Aviator. The discussion was pretty much one sided and we
just stood at attention and listened. Luckily there were no other
consequences for this incident.

After 11 months in Germany, I got orders to report to Hunter Army
Airfield in Savannah, GA to attend AH-1G Cobra transition at
Cobra Hall. This was a 4-week course and upon completion I got
orders for Vietnam.

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