08/05/07

On one lovely Evans day Jeff was called to participate in an air strike and fired up his trusty O-2 fully loaded with 14 Willie Petes. I, and I believe A1C Smith, were crew chiefs on duty that day. Jeff taxied out but noted a problem with the aircraft just before takeoff. He taxied back in and wanted to take another aircraft but the other O-2 had no armament installed.

You may not recall but loading pods and rockets "by the book" was a time consuming process involving voltmeter readings, ohm meter checks for static charges, multiple ground wires and safety pins, and a long and tedious checklist procedure involving many steps all for the ridiculous purpose of preventing them from exploding or launching during the weapons loading procedure. All in all the process would take about 30 minutes to complete but Jeff was anxious to complete the mission and get back into the fray, So.....

Jeff, who I believe was also the detachment SAFETY OFFICER, suggested A1C Smith go in the cockpit and jettison the two pods STILL FULL OF SEVEN ROCKETS onto the backs of Jeff and myself. Always one to follow the orders of my superior officers no matter how insane they may be, I attached the clip on the nose gear squat switch to override the disarming circuitry and Smith ejected the rockets onto our backs. We then waddled over to the other aircraft and snapped the pods into the attach points, connected the electrical cannon plug, and Jeff was on his way.

This may have contributed to Jeff's failure to be recognized as 20th TASS Safety Officer of the Year

The Crazy Charlie Overloaded Takeoff Story

One of our O-2's was due back to Danang for phased maintenance inspection. The procedure required a crew chief (Shea) to fly back with the aircraft and assist in the inspection. Lt Charlie Attardo at the time was not one of our thinnest pilots and he wanted to put in an air strike on the way to Danang which required a full load of very heavy rockets. Add to that my luggage and a 50 lb toolbox, blistering temperatures and...well you get the idea. We had a LOT of weight on board. I asked Charlie if he had ever taken off with this much weight on the short Evans PSP (perforated steel planking) runway. He said "No, but it should be OK". We head for the end of the runway and he gooses both engines to 2800RPM and away we go.

Now I was not a pilot but having watched a few hundred O-2s rotate off the Evans runway I knew they typically lifted off about 3/4 of the way down the runway, a spot marked by a fire extinguisher just off the runway. Having complete faith in my skilled pilot and his extensive aviation training I, nonetheless, became concerned when we were well passed the fire extinguisher but still not lifting off. As I noted the rapidly approaching end of the runway (and subsequent fall off a small cliff), I turned to ask Charlie if we were going to make it. The wide eyes and look of terror on his face did not comfort me. He responded, I believe, with some sort of gurgling sound.

In spite of the fact that we were shelled sometimes several times a week at Evans that takeoff with Charlie was the only time in Vietnam that I was POSITIVE I was going to die. We literally fell off the end of the runway and Charlie's lightening-fast slamming up of the gear handle reduced our drag just enough to start climbing. It was the only time my shorts were darker than my fatigues.

The Cockroach Story

It was a lazy, boring day in the hooch. A few of us had the day off and most of the guys were playing cards in the "day room" or munching on C rations. We always had a cockroach problem in the hooch but we had no pesticides so there was not much we could do about it.

Now I've lived in the south. Alabama, Mississippi...and I thought I had seen some big roaches but the roaches at Evans were prehistoric. You could saddle those roaches. Some were up to 3 inches or more. On this day we had several cases of bug spray delivered for the first time. Me and one of the other guys decided to take a couple of cans outside and find a giant roach to spray. (This was entertainment at Camp Evans). We proceeded outside and saw a large roach on one of the rocket boxes which made up the walls of our hooch. We gave it a good shot of spray and all of a sudden 50 roaches poured out of the rocket box on the outside of the hooch. Naturally, we thought this was very cool and both of us started spraying several of the boxes wildly drenching dozens of roaches.

About this time, from inside the hooch we hear yelling, screaming, the crashing of furniture, and general pandemonium. We rush inside to see what had happened and running down the inside wall of the hooch is an ocean of thousands of cockroaches fleeing our bug spray from outside. Soon everyone in the hooch has a can of bug spray in each hand and all are battling an army of roaches.

When it was over the floor of the hooch was a carpet of dead roaches crunching under foot everywhere you walked. It was disgusting but....war is hell.

Camp Evans Today

According to the March 1998 edition of Army magazine, Camp Evans is now farmland and not a trace of it remains.