First Quarterly 2014
Longtrip E-Newsletter
Updated: 12 March 2014
Our veterans group mailing list is an opt–in/opt–out type arrangement. So long as you wish to receive our group email messages your contact information will remain in the MailChimp email box groups named: Longtrip Email List. If you wish to no longer receive messages within any group mailing, just send me a private email and ask to be removed from the group, or opt–out when you receive a group email with an available unsubscribe feature. Bulk email messages to this group will only come from the MailChimp email service. Donald M. Ricks, Webmaster.
Click here for: Direct Source for Sign–up Form
HONOR ROLL: (Empty)
FOUND LONG TRIPPERS: (8 February)
CW2 Larry Alan Pedersen (CW4 Retired) [see the roster]
Major Adrian Peter Coty resides in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. We sent someone around to his home with contact information but did not receive a response.
Major William P. “Bill” Stewart, 1968–69, Long Thanh and Saigon, checked in with us on January 3:
Your roster is very interesting and brings back many old memories. I would like to add my name to the Roster. I was a pilot in the Command Airplane Company, serving in both Long Thanh and Saigon. My info: [see the roster]
Thanks for a great job.
Bill Stewart
SP4 Harrison R. Dung, MACV Flight Detachment, 1965–67, worked at the Saigon location as a Multi–engine Airplane Repairman. He is now on the roster while we await further information from him. Welcome aboard, Harrison.
CPT Craig Whited, 1970, checked in today from California. They are having a tough period of drought conditions but Craig seems upbeat and sent these comments:
Thanks for the information on your CAC — Long Trip website. The pictures you have on the site bring back a lot of memories. On the non–flying side, I still remember when we gathered around the python to watch it devour a live chicken and had to keep the circle very tight to prevent the chicken from running away. Was it our AF forecaster's snake or did it belong to one of our pilots? I seem to remember that it belonged to the weather guesser. [From a discussion with one of the air force enlisted men who worked at the weather detachment, the owner of the snake was Tom Paul, though Cam Tidwell had an affection for the snake, too!]
Please include me on your mailing list. I don’t know whether this would help your Long Trip website, but I have buried away from reels of super 8mm film, some footage, taken from in the U21 cabin and focused on the cockpit, of an actual flight from Long Thanh to Saigon sometime in mid to late 1970. I would be happy to try and get it to you for posting on your website if you feel that it would be of interest. I just need to know what sort of file format you need and then let me get to work on it. I have never used movie editing software so it will be a new experience. [Anyone know anything about this type of conversion?]
I see that you were a Catkiller. I was a Black Ace in Da Nang with the 21st RAC and was the last Black Ace Pilot assigned to VM02, MAG 16, 1st MAW, to be a Forward Air Controller. [That is a lot of history there, fellas. This is not an insignificant statement! With a digital file I can convert using iMovie, Apple’s editing software.]
It was an interesting time.
Regards, Craig
CPT Max H. Kennedy became a new contact via phone today. Max and I served together in CAC during 1970 and also while in the advanced course at Fort Benning in 1974. He was a sharp, no non–sense class leader. Perhaps we can get those old photos of his to share on the web site. Welcome aboard, again, Max.
CPT William “Bill” Campbell became a new sign–up at MailChimp’s double opt–in email system and a welcomed addoition to our roster. Bill lives in Texas, was in CAC during 1971–72 and served with Frank Bracken.
We have two additional names added to the roster thanks to Bob Agerbeck:
Hi Don,
I’m a Viet Nam vet that was stationed at Long Thanh North in 1969 and 1970, as was my brother, Richard Agerbeck, Rich was a GCA guy that brought me home safely during many a monsoon. I was a U–21 Crewchief on 076 primarily but all the birds over time. I think they called 076 the new brown cow. It wasn’t the White over Glossy Dark Green like the rest of the birds. I was a 67G20 and helped on all the golden eagles at LTN. (mine didn't have the fancy paint job and the golden eagle). I can assure you that I (RA68071428) got a lucky break, my brother was in-country when I arrived and he had a connection in the 165th Aviation Group, and I got my pick of locations—so lo and behold I ended up at USARV Flt Det APO 96530, along with guys like Raul Guajardo, Stephen Rivers, Gary Sargent, Vince Vento, and many more.
I even got a flight to Thailand with Major Earl Westlake and CW3 Ron Kiper in November of 69, great guys and good humor... but why do generals have to buy so much crap in Bangkok, we had to send him back to mail stuff home, plane couldn't carry it—
If I can get into the Long Trip group, even though I’m not a pilot, that would be cool. [That is not an issue, Bob. Welcome to the Longtrip Group.]
Vince Vento also worked with me on the flightline.
I ended up at Edwards AFB after Nam and got a job crewing a DC–3 we had.
Bob
CPT Larry Duppstadt checked in at the MailChimp site and signed up. This is an example of the positive benefit of compliant email systems that allows those who sign up to have increased confidence due to the safeguards. Than ks, Larry, for checking in and we look forward to further information.
CPT Leroy “Lee” Saage checked in at the MailChimp site and signed up. Lee served at LTN from Jan 1971–Jan 72 and is on the roster and the 1971 annual. Welcome, Lee.
DEAR EDITOR: (23 January )
Al Meyer:
I thought that you might find my SEA patch collection interesting [YES!!].
I served in the:
70th Aviation Detachment, Korat, Thailand, May 1969—May 1970.Jerry Jensen came and dragged me away from Nha Trang! At least I got my refer and aircraft commandser on the airplane!
201st Aviation Company, Nha Trang, August 1971—April 1972.
CAC, Saigon, April 1972_mdash; August 1972.
All U-21 flying, about 1700 hrs.
Al Meyer
Jerry Bowen:
Jerry Bowen, the Maintenance Officer during his tour, sent two photos to share with us:
VIRTUAL AIRCRAFT MUSEUM REFERENCE PAGE:
Thanks to Robert McKenzie, Longtrip 6, for sending in this link. I must be the last one on earth that knew about it so if you have visited the site and liked it you are probably not alone. The link is now added to our navigation bar at left:
With the link below, you can pull up just about every airplane that was built in every country in the world and every aircraft company. Want to check out almost any airplane ever built in the world? Old, new, military, civilian?
Browse this site for a few minutes. You will be amazed at what has been done in airplane design. The amount of info available is unbelievable. [There are interesting comments about the development of our U-21 (http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/beech_90.php) and from some guys who flew that aircraft.]
This is a super reference file:
CAN–SPAM ACT SETS COMPLIANCE RULES FOR GROUP EMAIL MESSAGING: (19 January)
In accordance with the CAN–SPAM Act and the Terms of Service agreements for email service, we must sign up within a double opt–in system, as this is the only verifiable method accepted by most ISP email clients. You will also with this system have an opt–out method available. The benefit is that you will start seeing more professional looking emails that have certain required elements content in the email header, body and footer. You should become more comfortable with such standardized emails. The more I learn the more I like the benefits. The hard part is in reaching the self educational level necessary to successfully manage the email effort.
I prepared an email sign–up form to save time and effort for the three sites I maintain. These are the only email lists I maintain, so you need to sign up to one of them to continue receiving email notifications. If you have any questions please send an email or call:
Click here for the Catkiller Web Site file: Direct Source for Email Sign–up Form
[or click on the sign–up form link located under “ADMIN” on the left side navigation bar.]
Donald M. Ricks, Longtrip Editor
2014 LONG THANH NORTH REUNION SURVEY:
This is a repeat of the second bulk email from the MailChimp web site but only had 45 of the normal 76 currently on my Longtrip Email Notification List. If you did not receive that message it means you have not signed up using the link supplied at the lower laft side of the side bar, under ADMIN. Please visit that link and sign up. It won't hurt, I promise.
Here is the message as you should have received:
LONGTRIP Newsletter Members:
Following is a survey request from Terry Edmunds (Long Thanh North Reunion, in which we have participated the last two years). Contact Terry direct with your input using the email address below his name.
Since there are less than half our normal email group signed up for this legal bulk email delivery, not all will receive this. I've tried my best to encourage signup and now must rely upon you to forward this to any others on the list. Please forward it around and encourage your friends to sign up for this compliant email delivery method. I'll also post the below list at the newsletter, less Terry's email address:
Donald M. Ricks
CAC Editor
“OK Troops, time to THINK about the next reunion...esp given the problems we had on the last one.
Some basic questions I have. You may have more:
If you have thoughts or destinations etc., send them to me and I will forward on to the whole group. I am sure Don Ricks will do the same with CAC as he has a more extensive list than I do.
- Should we have a reunion this year or skip a year?
- Timing—always been September, until this year when we went early Oct due to weather. Warm weather is most conducive to a good reunion in my opinion.
- Thoughts on where it should be etc. FYI: we have had reunions in San Antonio, Ft Rucker, Hawaii, St Louis, Branson (MO), Tampa and Las Vegas.
- Attendance—we gotta get better on who's going to commit. I tried to estimate low last year and we still barely hit the mark. I am guessing last year was just a bit more than half of who attended at Tampa. Given someone is signing a contract for the hotel, dinner etc we need to get a good handle on this. We took a bit of a hit on this in Vegas and I don't want to have it happen again. The dinners were a real problem and yea I know they were damned expensive. We have to try to avoid anything remotely like that again.
- Anyone interested in being the coordinator or at least helping? (I really appreciated the help Joe Tilghman gave me) My wife was not real happy with me the last couple of years given it was hard to really enjoy the reunion at times as I was often “herding cats”—collecting $$ etc. Need to find a better way to do it.
Terry “Pro” Edmunds
A POCKET GUIDE TO VIETNAM (PDF FORMAT):
One of our Long Trip friends (name being protected) shared this old pamphlet with us. It contains a lot of things many of us never saw, but the 75 pages and some cool graphics, especially the charging Alabama Elephant ridden by a Vietnamese, were a surprise! To be legal about this, it is Department of the Army PAM 360-411 but is also being sold for as high as just over eight dollars on Amazon.com:
THE LTN REUNION COMMITTEE CHOOSES PORT ARANSAS ON PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS, AS THE REUNION SITE:
This note came from Terry Edmunds yesterday:
We should have a reunion proposal this weekend for Padre Island [actually in Port Aransas] —all–condos setup and 1 room effeciency will be less than $100—dinner catered for $25—lots of things to do. The place is called the Sandcastle Resort,if you want to take a look. NO contract–only thing to consider is that to get the 10 percent discount on rooms under $100 we need to have only 10 rooms confirmed.
Sandcastle Resort Condos
Port Aransas Info
Pro
UPDATE: 4 March 2014:
The reunion committee, with Lee Ayers walking point, has made a decision on the 2014 reunion. We are going to Mustang Island (Port Aransas), Texas. (near Corpus Christi) The dates are Thursday, September 18 thru Sunday, September 21. We are staying at the Sandcastle Resort (see rates and link below). We only require a minimum of 10 rooms to get the expected 10 percent discount. Fifteen or more rooms gets a 15 percent discount. The rates are really good. The Sandcastle is a condo resort. Every condo is considered a suite (even the efficiency). Saturday night dinner is being catered in for approximately $25 a person. THERE WILL BE A LARGE ROOM RESERVED FOR US TO GATHER IN, swap lies, memorabilia etc. We can BYOB as well anytime we want to.
There are a number of possible activities beyond beach, swimming etc. Golf nearby, a possible tour to the factory that repairs our helicopters, deep sea fishing plus lots to do in Corpus Christi. The USS Lexington is anchored there, for example. I will provide the link to the chamber of commerce as well below.
1. RATES:
2. PROPERTY: Visual TOUR, etc.
Example: Virtual Tour of Unit 528. See different floors by selecting “Effeciency” and the the unit by floor
Sandcastle Resort Condos Overview
NOTE: The efficiency is like a hotel room with a kitchenette in it. Still a real kitchen but it’s all in one room. The one bedroom has a separate bedroom as well as the kitchen and living room in another room.
3. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Area Overview
Lots of time left to consider it, Troops. Within a week or so I will provide a direct link to register. As always I would like for you to inform me when you register so Lee and I can keep track of who plans to attend, not only for the hotel purposes, but also any group tours in which we might want to participate.
Lee Ayers
Terry “Pro” Edmunds
P.S.: I did take a survey as to whether to have the reunion in 2014 or not. Most still wanted to have the reunion. The most common reason was, “We are not getting any younger and won’t be around forever,” to paraphrase.
P.S.S.: Just a copy of some of the things we have discussed FYI:
We can contract a cash bar with one of the caterers know to the condos if we want but doing it ourselves will save a bundle, agreed. Fishing trips of all types are available from a party boat that carries 30–40 people to a local captain that will take just a few. We have the Lexington Aircraft Carrier museum, the Texas State Aquarium, Malls in Corpus Christi proper, Swimming, fishing off the shoreline, tennis courts, 2 hot tubs, workout center, coin operated laundry on premise, boardwalk to the beach, turtle pond???? (OK).
UPDATE, 11 March:
Terry Edmunds, LTN Reunion Coordinator, stated we now have the minumum number of reserved rooms at the condo hotel.
ROBERT MCLENZIE, LONGTRIP 6, UPDATE TO ACCIDENT:
This update message is from Bob’s daughter:
My dad looked much better today - swelling in his face is down. They were trying to get him to eat chicken pot pie and broccoli but he was not too excited about it! I was surprised that they had moved to solids so quickly - good news.
Several people have asked about sending cards and he is able to receive those in this new room — but only cards. The address to use is:
Robert McKenzie
Charleston Area Medical Center
Step Down Bed 1
501 Morris St.
Charleston, WV 25301
UPDATE, 11 March:
Just thought I would let you know that I heard from Bob’s daughter and he is making some improvement. He is now out of the ICU but still in Acute Care due to the injuries to his pelvic area. They are now discussing the idea of moving him to a facility closer to their home in Camden, SC but nothing is determined just yet.
I will attempt to keep you updated as I get information from the daughters, his wife, Joan or perhaps from the old scoundrel himself.
Don Smith
Shotgun 8A
Update 12 March:
An Update extracted from a note Bob’s daughter, LeAnn, sent to Don Smith: “Progress is being made and yet there are ‘miles to go and some steep hills to climb’ so to speak; so please maintain your intercessions for our Brother Shotgun. Ned Moore (Shotgun 15/Chaplain)
HISTORY INDEX ADDITIONS:
The history index now contains an add–on web page that highlights a unit to which at least five CAC pilots were assigned (70th Avn Det): CPT Craig Herget, CPT Al Meyer, CPT Don Ricks, CW3 Aldon Brown, and CW2 Jim Dawkins. Also, thanks to Joe Tilghman and his friend, Terry Love, we now have posted on the index a technical manual for the U–21:
