OPERATION KING’S RANSOM
PART III
Dale Dunham
I remember one trip that went well until we started to RTB. One of the birds blew an engine seal and with our options being rather limited we found five places (more I think) to land going home. We used all the spare oil and one at a time, drained the oil from both birds engines & transmissions down to the warning light. We got back with every engine & transmission warning light burning and the bad engine really smoking and burning more and more oil every minute.
Some landing sites had wonderful scenery
On another trip, miles and months apart, we demonstrated our crew skills at tree cutting. We were in an area I was unfamiliar with; mountains, volcanic, night falling, low fuel, mile after mile with no place to land. Finally came across a place just big enough to squeeze the two birds into...except for a 30 ft tree exactly in the middle of it. Yes, we did have an ax on one of the aircraft. I didn't have to ask twice and two crew chiefs were on the way down on the rescue hoist. So we circled, watched the sun go down along with our fuel indicators, watched the wood chips fly and the sweat flow. It was tight but if there's a record book for making a tree disappear these guys have to be in it.
Some campsites were primitive ; LtoR: Dale Dunham, Don VanMeter, Theron May & John Christianson
Don VanMeter
While I was there my primary duty, aside of the flying, was staging of fuel supplies and improving the fuel delivery system. I was able to secure the large rubber fuel bladders and the C130s would either land to off load one, or air-extract it in a designated location near a visible land mark. With those we only had to hook up a locally fabricated hose and turn on the faucet and the volume and pressure would fuel us without a pump almost till they were near empty. If they were remote a CH-3 would pick them up and return for refills. Pumping from 55 gal drums was very tiring. Occasionally natives would show-up and do it for our empty food cans.
(The metal was valuable for fabricating knives and spear points)
Fuel was stored in the building on the left; we landed on the road where the locals rolled the barrels and refueled us for the empty barrels as payment
Comment by John Christianson
Dave Glick
One memory comes from an initial landing on a peak which we were looking at for use as a suitable radio site. I surveyed the area from above and made my approach and landing. There was not a soul visible from the air. I hadn't been on the ground 10 minutes before we were completely surrounded by a group of natives...again with spears and loin clothes. They were wide eyed but stayed clear of the bird. Then a guy, who looked like a Chieftain stepped forward and must have thought I needed something in the way of a gift to keep from hurting them with my 'big bird'. Well he started pushing toward me a young lady of probably 12 or 13 years. I remember being quite embarrassed and got across the point that I wasn't going to hurt them and that no gifts were necessary.
John Christianson
The name of the location that Neil mentioned was ARBA MINCH and we operated out of it a couple of times. Our team set up the site on the top of the mountain top. We dropped off the two USAF Mapping Wing guys that were going to operate the site--and a few Ethi's--and they chopped off the top of the mountain so we could land up there; quite an impressive location and view. We brought up all the equipment and supplies that the guys needed.
As far as the use of aircraft oxygen is concerned, back in the 60's, AF regs required that all crews flying in unpressurized aircraft above 10,000' use supplemental oxygen. Of course, the H-43 had no such equipment. However, we did have a jury-rigged system that would handle a full crew on board the helicopter. As we were passing through 10,000' we all put on our O2 masks. I think that the regs now allow one to go up to 13,000' (or maybe 15,000') for up to 30 minutes without supplemental oxygen.
Site 18
Site 22, out of Dodola, was around 12,000' and as such, the use of O2 was required by the crew if we were going to work that site. I say around 12,000' as I looked at one of my slides which showed the instrument panel as we approached the site just in front of the helicopter--the altimeter was reading close to 11,720'.
The base camp elevation of Dodola was near 8000'. Our supplies were airlifted by C-130 into the grass strip at Dodola and we picked them up and flew the material up to the site. Site 22 was about 30 miles or so out of Dodola, and we could see the mountain top from base camp.
Mail Call at Site 21
Operator at Site21 waves a greeting. Local native workers hired to level the hill top and remove trees can be seen in the background
Dave Glick – Battle Damage
One day I was shot down while flying along the Somali border. It is hard to imagine how primitive this area was but suffice to say that once you were a few miles outside Addis Ababa, there were folks with loin clothes, spears and thatched huts with cattle outside tromping the grain (no combines in sight :-). We were flying in a desolate area at a thousand feet or so and saw this loin cloth clad native walking in a dry river bed below. He was carrying some kind of rifle and we figured he must have thought we were a big bird that he might just shoot for his lunch. As far as I know, he fired just one round. Well he got lucky (and so did we as the round didn't go through the seat of my flight suit). It struck a rotor blade smack in the center. We heard it hit and felt it but never lost control so we were able to land safely in a suitable area. When we inspected the blade and saw the clean hole, we realized how lucky we were as there were moveable control surfaces on those blades. In a couple days, my old friend Bruce Ware flew us in a new blade in his shiny new CH-3.
Dale Dunham on Colonels and Generals
I was advised that B/Gen Brooks CC ARRS and Col Mathews CC AARC would visit us, and date/time of arrival was provided. I set up the next mission to get us back in plenty of time to meet them. On our return, immediately after landing, I was called by Control Tower personnel at the International Airport. There was an American C-130 sitting on their ramp; it had arrived several hours ago. Naturally this got my attention. As quickly as possible I departed for the IA, about a 20 or 30 minute drive. I arrived to find my guests basking under the wing on a 120 degree ramp. It was a bit difficult to salute while holding their trip info message at arms length in front of me, but I didn't want to get any closer until they read it. After reading it several times it became apparent that they no longer wanted to strangle me, but they were still pissed.
After a very enjoyable visit for all of us it was time for them to depart. The evening before, the three of us went out for dinner and drinks. I certainly had a few drinks. Col Matthews left us fairly early. It was fairly late when Gen Brooks headed back to his room at the Hotel Ethiopia. I had to find accommodations for myself, which I did. I advised the Ethiopian taxi driver that he was to get me in a few hours at 0400 (so I could pick up my visitors for the trip to the airport at 0500.) I believe my instructions to him were something like, "break the door down if I don't answer, but get me up". I slept right through my alarm, but he did as I had instructed him and, even though I was now running late and it was a death defying trip to the hotel, I arrived only five minutes late at 0505.
What followed kinda made my hair stand on end. Gen Brooks turned to Col Mathews and said "pay up". Col Mathews handed him a $5.00 bill, and Gen Brooks said, "See, I told you he'd show up". I don't even want to contemplate Col Mathews winning that bet.
Needless to say, I tipped the taxi driver about three months of his normal income and promised him my first born.
Dave Glick lessons, the hard way
The accident pictured occurred on my orientation flight. I was riding co-pilot
(I can picture the pilot but can't recall his name). We were heading to a HIRAN Site on a mountain top at 15,000 feet or so. Our job was to position radios and operators along the routes so that the 130s could get exact fixes on their mapping runs. To get to our mountain tops, with the radio operator and his gear, we could only carry a few hundred pounds of fuel. We had made a couple attempts to get into the site but the peak kept getting capped off with a cloud. After the 2nd try, the pilot decided to approach the mountain from below the site and fly up the mountain side and come in under the cloud. We were making good progress when a gust of wind came down the mountain and wiped out our ground effect air cushion. When this happened, the chopper dropped and the blades struck the slope in front of us. The pilot immediately dumped the bird on its side while he still had some control as there was a steep drop off of probably a thousand feet right next to us. The blades ground themselves to nubbins and we got her shut down. There was no fire and nobody was injured. Our back up bird was brought up and the mission was completed. We took what we could from the aircraft and somebody is probably living in the fuselage as we speak.
Dale Dunham
The crash was before my time, but it has to be the one near Dese (I believe). I don’t know what the cause of the accident was, but I do know the approach to the site could provide perception problems. There was a second, higher, mountain peak beyond the landing site. It was easy, if you became focused on the landing site, to view the two peaks as a level horizon and to continue to pull in collective to keep from dropping below the "horizon". In a power limited condition you would then experience a loss of rotor speed (just an observation we experienced). I remember the site best because when we removed it the native guard insisted that we take him with us to a town near the base of the peak. Otherwise the spear carrying natives, from the other side of the peak, that had gathered to observe us, were going to kill him before we got out of sight. And, that they were discussing how they could do the same to us, but were discouraged by the sidearm I was carrying.
Last man out