Once upon a time in Korea

by Don Sikes , Vera Cruz, Missouri, Wednesday, December 21, 2022, 11:31 (703 days ago) @ JimT

Great story... Seems like Korea tends to bring out some memorable times and stories of folks who have been "lucky" enough to have experienced some time there...

Here's a story of one of my experiences while I was there back in the day... This is a true story... It happened as I describe and remember...

Once upon a time, a whole lifetime ago…

“Hold on to something… we’re gonna crash…”

“ WE’RE WHAT?!!!!!! “

I knew my teammates would be a bit upset…

Let me backtrack a bit here and explain how we were about to plant a “Huey” into a rice paddy…
It gets real cold in January in Korea. Mountain roads are nearly impassable. My team of 3 technicians and I were dispatched to install some equipment on top of a mountain as part of our Multinational Defense program.

As Murphy would dictate, we got our 4-wheel drive truck stuck half-way up the mountain and had to back down, slip-sliding, for about three miles just to get to a point that we could turn around. I wish we had took along a change of underwear. It took us the whole day to get back to base and of course that made everyone back at HQ sorta upset that we were behind schedule. I suggested that if the good ole boys up at the “Huey” base could free up a chopper, they could fly us in and out of the mountain top facility. Arrangements were made for the next day and I told the team what’s going on…

“What? No way! I ain’t goin up in those egg beaters…”

Well… I told them that a senior Instructor Pilot with several years experience would be flying us up there. That sorta appeased them a little. I “neglected” to tell them the Instructor Pilot was also female. I figured I better not rock the boat anymore than necessary.
The next day, we arrived at the Army base and found the chopper that would be taking us to the mountain. We packed everything in and waited for the crew. I sat in the center jump seat and had the other three in back with the gear. The crew arrived and I glared at my team to keep their mouths shut as I see their eyes bug out when they see the “pilot”.

“Mam, my team and I are packed and ready. I appreciate you taking us up to the site.”

She grinned and said “ Alright, belt up, we’re gone…”

To make this story short, the ride up was uneventful and my team finally settled down once they saw that the pilot was a real pilot.. GRIN

We get to the facility and proceed to install the equipment when we get a call that the weather is moving in and that we had only 2 hours to finish a normally 4 hour installation. If we didn’t finish, the chopper would have to head back and we’d be stuck in a below zero mountain top equipment room with only warm kimchee as our only food and source of heat for at least a day. As was expected, that lit a fire under the team and we knocked out the installation in record time.
We hurriedly packed the tools and gear back into the chopper and waved a fond single finger farewell to the facility and awaited eagerly for our pilot to head us back home.

Well… Murphy was in fine form that day also… As we headed back down from the top of the mountain, a snowy fog bank was creeping its way thru the valley between the mountains. The pilot and her co-pilot started a very animated discussion on what to do. For you see, in our age of high tech navigation systems and radios, our illustrious instructor pilots navigate using railroad lines. They follow the tracks to and from the locations they fly to. This is because most of the Hueys had non-functional navigation systems beyond the compass. As you have it… the fog bank is now lowering down into the valley and they no longer can see the railroad tracks. After what seems a period of very colorful language exchange, they decide to use the compass and head in “that direction”… I lowered my head when I saw that each had pointed in the opposite direction. I was hoping that none of the above exchange was observed by my team. I looked around and was surprised to see that they were all asleep. The bust-ass work to get the equipment installed must have tasked them severely. Anyway… back to the problem at hand…

The two pilots again started to gyrate and utter all kinds of unique new words. I didn’t know female military officers knew such language let alone use them. All the while, I scanned the instrument panel as I usually do in vehicles that I am riding within (it’s an old habit of mine). I noticed that the fuel gauge was suspiciously bouncing on the “empty” line. I tapped the pilot’s shoulder.. she turned and screamed, “WHAT!!!”

I cringed and pointed at the fuel gauge… The next thing I heard was…
“OH SHIT!!!” followed by a bunch of unintelligible utterances by both pilots. The engine started to make funny noises and the pilot screamed “HOLD ON!”…

I turned to my teammates and shook them awake and said… “Hold on to something… We’re gonna crash…”.

This brings us back to the beginning of this little episode. I never saw so many “chest crossings and Hail Mary’s” in such rapid succession as in those few moments before “touch down”. Ever see the statues of the three monkeys? Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil? I sware that’s what I saw sitting in the back of the chopper.

It was a good thing the pilot was well versed in auto gyration landing techniques. We “landed” safely and intact in the middle of a soft and frozen rice paddy. Luckily since it was in the middle of January, the rice paddy was solid and not “wet”. “Ok…” I thought. We’ll just let the pilot call in and have the base send out some fuel and we’ll be on our way again. WRONG…
As per normal military conditions in such situations, the radio was inoperative. We drew straws to see who would have to hike it to the nearest village to see if they had a “phone” that we could use to call for help. Our Instructor Pilot, bravely stated that she spoke Korean and was in command and it was her duty to go for help. We didn’t argue. We gave her one of our parkas and saluted her on her way. As it was, the village was only 100 yards down the path from the rice paddy.
About two hours later she arrived back with a glum look on her face and said help was on its way. We were to find out soon why she looked like the world had come to an end.

An hour later, we heard the “bop bop bop” of several Hueys on its way. The lead chopper landed and a big hairy monster of a pilot got out and immediately yelled “Where is that G*&dampieceofshit tug driver?!”…

We now understood the demeanor of our pilot upon her returning from the “phone call”. He was “THE” commander of Huey squadron, her boss. We were “cordially” invited to transfer to another Huey. It was everything I could do short of blindfolding and handcuffing my teammates to get them to board another chopper. The new crew flew us back to base uneventfully and thus ended a rather unique experience in the field.

Now… While all this was going on, my “friend and co-conspirator” back at our local field HQ called back to our main base and stated that we had gone down with the chopper. He stated that our location wasn’t exactly known but that we might be on the wrong side of the DMZ since our mountain top mission was close to the border. Oh how the feathers must have flown in the chicken coup back at home base.

I later learned that after several near heart attacks and bottles of xanix at home base that he let them know that we were safe and had been “rescued”. It’s a wonder that our teams were ever later allowed to utilize the Army Huey transportation service. By the way, this wasn’t the only time that my “friend” and I had been involved with upsetting home base.

But then that’s another story…