[Vhfcn-l] Old boat person....He sure was! Bingo!

[Arnold B Christensen]

Richard, I found him in the book written by the 
first commander of a Chinook Battalion, 228th 
ASHBn in particular.  But I think we were the 
only Chinook Battalion.  Book is entitled "Ride 
at a Gallop" by Col. (Ret) Benjamin S Silver. The 
book was written by him and his wife and 
published in 1990.  It is a rather dry read but 
it tells the story about building up the 
Battalion, logistics and such. But what it 
includes the Letter Orders for each Company with 
names of members of each company and their rank. 
The letter order that  Bill is on is Letter order 
334 for Headquarters and Headquarter Company, 
228th Assault Support Helicopter Battalion.  It 
shows Cavanaugh, William C.. who was a SP/4 E4 at 
that time. His Commanding Officer was a Major 
Denzel Clark and his First Sergeant was James D 
Weaver. Others were Major Pate who was the 
Battalion S-1 Officer, Major McCregor who was the 
S-2 Officer, Major Spotts who was the S-3 Officer 
and Major Lewandowski who was the S-4 
Officer.  He might remember Capt. Joe Van 
Smitherman who as I recall made his Major in 
Vietnam.  Joe was a hell of a nice guy from 
Longview, TX and he was the very, first Texas 
Aggie I met when he was a butter bar and joined 
our Aviation Section on Staten Island, NY. Sadly 
Joe passed several years ago.  I heard someplace 
that Col Silver passed also.  He may also 
remember S/Maj Tennihill or M/Sgt Lambert, both of his HQ's Company.

All of the companies had numbered designations 
when we got to Vietnam.  As I remember they 
became A,B, and C Companies in Dec 65.  Never did 
figure that one out but if he was still alive Col 
Silvers would be glad to explain it. Ha.

For me...Checking the Letter Orders is just like 
going to an old reunion.  So many names I 
recognize but can only place faces on a few of 
them.  Blame my memory and being an old man or as 
an old Winged Warrior as Col Silvers wrote of me 
and I am sure many others.  I was in B Co as a 
Intermediate and Periodic Inspection Team Leader 
for the 2nd flight platoon when we finally got 
into action flying missions. That lasted until 
Jan 66 when I became a Crew Chief on 64-13140 
which had Larry Campbell as the Flight 
Engineer.  When our ship was down I got picked to 
be CE or FE on other ships depending on who was 
absent from their normal duty position. Sick, 
R&R, hospitalized, whatever!  Stuff happened. I 
enlisted in Oct 58 and by 1965 I was 2 yrs time 
in grade as a SP/5 and 7 yrs of Active 
duty.  However the letter order states the a * 
preceding the name denotes 4 yrs of active 
duty.  I have no * Nor do many of my friends in B 
Company who had more that *4 years time on active 
duty have a * beside their name.  So the letter 
orders were not 100% correct but I would bet that 
Bill will remember some of the Officers and NCO's I mentioned.

When you see him ask him if he remembers Maggie 
the mule,a division mascot that had a small coral 
on the fantail of the ship. The fantail of a ship 
is the back end.  There was also a curfew for E4 
and below.  Had to be in your bed.  Us E-5's were 
exempt from the curfew and there was a Navy Chief 
selling Navy coffee out of a small space back 
there on the fantail.  Being that he was a Sp4 
and apparently had been to the Chinook school at 
Eustis...but what did he do?  HQ's did have 2 
OH-13's as I remember and I think they replaced 
them with a Huey or two but guy that was 50 some 
years ago. Print this Richard and take it to your 
meeting.  Ask him if her remembers the great 
Huey/Chinook race. It was even broadcast over 
Armed Forces Radio!  Our (B Co) Chinook won 
easily.  It was even our oldest hook which I 
think was a 62 model.  The Huey Jocks reminded 
our pilots that the cobra was coming and they 
would even up the score.  Well, it was not coming 
during their tour and when it did a B model hook 
would be there and after that for sure a C model 
Hook would be there.  5 years later on my second 
tour and was now in Saigon at Air Vietnam who had 
the contract to modify the B models to a C model 
in country and I was a Chief TI and NCOIC of our 
little section of TI's and 2 pilots.  We did our 
test flights from Tan Son Nhut to Vung Tao and 
back.  Several  times we would see a Cobra out 
there in the distance and pull up alongside and 
give a Beep Beep over the Guard Channel and move 
out in front of them smartly and then make a big 
circle and come back with another Beep Beep and 
run off away from them. I often wondered where 
were those two Warrants every time we did that to a Snake.

Tell Bill that a lot of guys would remember him I 
am sure if he knew where they were and if they 
knew where he was.  We have had several guys 
apply to be on the VHFCN but could not remember 
their unit of assignment.  I do no know why you 
forget a unit of assignment...but!  Hell I was in 
for 20 and assigned to 16 units and remember 
every single one of them.  I am glad he 
remembered the Battalion at least and I hope if 
you will print this and take it with you that 
something will click and jog his memory.  Was he 
in HQ's Company for his whole year tour?  Did he 
remember that B Co had the first hot and cold 
shower in our area or that we built a enlisted 
and officer hot and cold shower building and we 
had a barber shop and you could use the 2 clothes 
washers and hang your clothes to dry in the back 
of that building with a Herman Nelson heater 
running full blast to dry them.  We built the 
first mess hall. We also built the first enlisted 
Club too. We dug the first water well in our 
company area. I hope some of this helps him 
remember more.  Wish I could be there I would 
bring my copy of the book and he could read names and let the memories fly.
Chris



At 11:26 PM 1/11/2019, you wrote:
>I had lunch with a group of vets from all 
>services with the fact we were all in Vietnam 
>back in the day.  We had the lunch in the 
>Cafeteria of one of the places you get help as 
>needed, (Assisted Living I just 
>remembered.  One of our group that lives there 
>set it up.  During lunch several people stopped 
>at our table to thank us for our service.  One 
>mentioned he had been in 1st Cav in 65.  I 
>asked him what unit he had served with, he 
>became very quiet and you could tell he was not 
>sure, but then he said 2Â  then a long pause 
>then another 2 and then shortly an 8 Then real 
>fast and sort of unsure he said Assault support 
>helicopter  real fast then all at once 228th 
>ASH. I then asked what company, he thought a 
>while and said he could not remember but he remembered being at Fort Eustice VA
>and in 11th something then taking the Boxer to 
>Nam in 65. He was thrilled when I told him I had 
>been 228th.  We are going to meet again Tuesday 
>and I am taking some pictures for him to look at.
>
>His name is Bill Cavenaugh (not sure I spelled 
>it right,  Ring any Bells.  I would like to 
>tell him he is remembered if possible.
>
>
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