I thought I would share with ya'll an event that is about to happen that is one of the most impotrant events in my life. First I'll set the stage for how this came to be.
Two years ago on Memorial Day I got an email that was titled "this is Skip". It was from Skip Chesney from Oregon. He was one of my best friends in Vitenam.We were fight engineers on Chinook Helicopters. His life after Nam had paralled mine to the point of being unbelieveable. I had put some pictures on a website called Vietnam Helicopter Crewmember's Network. One day Skip had found this website and was looking thru the pictures. He came across one of a Chinook helicopter in flight. The caption uner the pic read "Oct. 71 Big Windy headed to Cambodia" When he saw this he freaked out. He started yelling for his wife to came there and see this picture. When she saw it he told her this "That is my bird and I have a copy of this picture" It was made by Butler!! Only two people in the world has copies of this and since I have one then only Butler could have put this on this website. He contacted the website administrator and told him the story and got my contact info. I called him almost immediately. We have been in constant contact since then. We also started looking for three other guys, Sam Pitts, Jack Saylor and Jack Parker. A long search had turned up nothing. Then Skip had found a website that was called Chinook crews.com. It is a place where anyone that has ever been associated with a Chinook flight platoon can register and your info will be put into a database that can be seen by anyone interested. We both signed up. A couple of months later (Nov. 2007) I got two emails....one from Jack Saylor and one from Sam Pitts. I was stunned. I cried, I whooped and hollered. Then I thanked God. The four of us have talked on the phone, wirtten dozens of emails, swapped pictures etc. It seems that the four of us had all started looking for each other about the same time. We all got to Nam the same week and all left within three days of each other. Jack and I left on the same plane. The five of us were extremely close and although we had other friends, there were none that could get close to us inside our little family. We have not found Jack Parker but we are still looking.
Fast forward until today: Tomorrow morning I am picking Skip up at the Chattanooga airport. Then we are driving to FLorence Ky. At a motel right off I-75 in FLorenece we are meeting Jack And Sam. We are going to spend three days together. This is the first time we have seen each other in 37 years. God has truly blessed us. Our wives will not be with us on this trip as they all said that we needed this time alone. All of our wives are soooo very supportive of us and they feel that this trip is one of the most important events in our lives. I feel that a huge emotional burden will be lifted from my heart. Next year we plan on a trip to The Vietnam Memorial wall in DC. DOn't know how I am gonna handle that one but the wife says we gotta go.
I pray that you, my internet family, will have an event in your life that is as blessed as this one is for me.
Alan
Two years ago on Memorial Day I got an email that was titled "this is Skip". It was from Skip Chesney from Oregon. He was one of my best friends in Vitenam.We were fight engineers on Chinook Helicopters. His life after Nam had paralled mine to the point of being unbelieveable. I had put some pictures on a website called Vietnam Helicopter Crewmember's Network. One day Skip had found this website and was looking thru the pictures. He came across one of a Chinook helicopter in flight. The caption uner the pic read "Oct. 71 Big Windy headed to Cambodia" When he saw this he freaked out. He started yelling for his wife to came there and see this picture. When she saw it he told her this "That is my bird and I have a copy of this picture" It was made by Butler!! Only two people in the world has copies of this and since I have one then only Butler could have put this on this website. He contacted the website administrator and told him the story and got my contact info. I called him almost immediately. We have been in constant contact since then. We also started looking for three other guys, Sam Pitts, Jack Saylor and Jack Parker. A long search had turned up nothing. Then Skip had found a website that was called Chinook crews.com. It is a place where anyone that has ever been associated with a Chinook flight platoon can register and your info will be put into a database that can be seen by anyone interested. We both signed up. A couple of months later (Nov. 2007) I got two emails....one from Jack Saylor and one from Sam Pitts. I was stunned. I cried, I whooped and hollered. Then I thanked God. The four of us have talked on the phone, wirtten dozens of emails, swapped pictures etc. It seems that the four of us had all started looking for each other about the same time. We all got to Nam the same week and all left within three days of each other. Jack and I left on the same plane. The five of us were extremely close and although we had other friends, there were none that could get close to us inside our little family. We have not found Jack Parker but we are still looking.
Fast forward until today: Tomorrow morning I am picking Skip up at the Chattanooga airport. Then we are driving to FLorence Ky. At a motel right off I-75 in FLorenece we are meeting Jack And Sam. We are going to spend three days together. This is the first time we have seen each other in 37 years. God has truly blessed us. Our wives will not be with us on this trip as they all said that we needed this time alone. All of our wives are soooo very supportive of us and they feel that this trip is one of the most important events in our lives. I feel that a huge emotional burden will be lifted from my heart. Next year we plan on a trip to The Vietnam Memorial wall in DC. DOn't know how I am gonna handle that one but the wife says we gotta go.
I pray that you, my internet family, will have an event in your life that is as blessed as this one is for me.
Alan
