March 75

1. First crews bound for Korat. Mass gaggle is planned. Three H-53's in formation with King. Jolly's make low pass in formation over NKP and head SW to meet with King and low pass over Korat. Arrive @ Korat and find much work to be done. Enlisted quarters are number 10, move them into old Pedro shack. Pilot' quarters w/King pilots are OK. Two practice scramble on Sunday, one bird at a time.

3. Capt. Koch going home today. Going to Hill, hopes for IP in Hueys.

4. Lt Foote on his way to Eglin.

5. New supplement to AFM 35-10 - Col Mac seems to think jungle boots are OK with Combo 6.

12. Korat alert so far is pretty crummy! Too noisy with all the F-111's, F-4's and Sandies. Enlisted living at old Pedro shack - Officers getting moved daily. No more sleeping late till 11:00 or 12:00 - gotta get up and go to intelligence brief. Good food @ O-club, however.

19. Servo Joe get his assignment (only tentative) - SOS in residence enroute to fixed wing transition.

20. Looks like Systems Command @ Hickam is the place to be going. So far Capts Walls & Jacobs and Lt's Mason & Newland are going there.

23. Officers quarters @ Korat set up - staying in VOQ (2 rooms) next door to O-club. Pretty nice.

25. Servo Joe finds out his fixed wing transition assignment out of here maybe just a mirage. His print out says Eglin in H-53's

26. Another good day for J.G. Maintenance. 3 flights scheduled - 1 launched, 1 broke and 1 cancelled. One launched was Weikel's AC check and one irate Lt. "Let's-get-our-shit-together" Backlund decided he would "stick-it-to-'em." Col Mac broke his airplane (which is another story in itself) and "Shorty" decided he would take over the SAR - he picked up the 2 survivors plus the PJ's who were to jump at Hasty DZ. Off they go to break the surly bounds. Complete SAR and PJ drop and decide to land @ Ubon and get some gas. Nice try - he's still on a local flight plan. Ubon Base Ops sys, "Who the hell is flying this Jolly? Asking for fuel and there's no flight plan on him."

What is the reason for this madness?

- Is Ubon classified within the NKP local area?

- Could it be the confusion of the moment, overshadowed the need to amend the flight plan?

- Or could it be … possibly … no it couldn't be … NEVER - Did the helicopter pilot extraordinaire (HPE) fuck up? Yes, one of America's great white heros (pronounced Helo in Thailand) has fallen from grace.

Punishment will probably be a thorough debrief by Capt's Sheffield and Jacobs concerning flt planning, radio transimissions and perhaps technique. The King is dead - Long live the King. Or whatever they say.

On the brighter side - 4 newbies arrived today. Nice new collection for our rock garden.

28. Pedro bites an intruder @ the hooch bar. SP's take him away to the slammer for 10 days quarantine.