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

[Richard Lewis]

Chris, I very much appreciate your putting in the time and effort to research Bill.  I will take this with me Tuesday when I go visit him.  Heck your research even helped me remember some things I had forgotten about.  Your kind of amazing some times.  Bill will be sure to appreciate your research.  With my pictures and your facts we will have a good visit.  Will let you know how much this jogs his memories.
  On a different note what’s the word on The Imposter Wife ?
Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Arnold B Christensen
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2019 2:39 PM
To: Richard Lewis
Cc: vhfcn-l-vhfcn.org
Subject: Re: Old boat person....He sure was! Bingo!

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 2  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.
 
 
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
 

 Virus-free. www.avast.com 




---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus