180th Assault Support Helicopter Company - "Big Windy"

180th ASHC Big Windy patch Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	Flight platoon hootches Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC
180th company HQ. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	The bird that I was FE on for most of my tour. It was rotated back to the states and I was given a reject from hell to fly in.....819 was a good ship.......528 was wore out.....lol. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	Big WIndy in action Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC
Big Windy in action .....the troops called us sh*t hooks but they sure were glad to get the supplies we carried to them time and time again. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	Big Windy lined up for early mornin pre flight. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	Big WIndy headed to Krek Cambodia in Oct. 71 Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC
The good times....we got to travel with a Korean show band for two days..hauling them from fire base to fire base......watching the show a couple of times. We of the flight crew were given the royal treatment by the guys on the firebases...... Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	The bad times......ROTOR STRIKE ....April 71 CH47 was taxing into the revetment after a misson and the pilot struck the giant steel bunker with the forward rotor blades. The chinnok climbed the wall and lande on the other side upside down. It had just refueled and have over 1000 gallons of JP4 on board. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	All that is left......three seriously injured cremembers, one slightly injured pilot and one pilot dead. CWO James Meade died in the crash. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC
Surveying the mess after the ammo had cooked off...... Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	This is me.....Yea I was sexy back then......well I thought I was.......lol. A little about me......I grew up a country boy in a small rural cotton mill town in North Ga. I joined army aviation to get out of being drafted into the infantry. I did the Ft KNox and FT Eustis gigs and then off to Tuy Hoa. I arrived at Tuy Hoa in Jan 1971 and left in Jan 1972. The first six weeks that I was in country I worked as the line maintenance cheif. I hated watching them birds take off every morning leaving me behind. One day I had enough and into the flight platoon I went. I flew gunner or crew chief for a different bird almost every day for another six weeks then I was give my own bird and I was a Flight Engineer the rest of the tour. In my heart I will always be a hooker. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC
Who stole my engine......The Nam was rough on helicopter engines...... Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC	Sunset over Tuy Hoa..so peaceful a scene in such a tumultous time. Image courtesy of Alan Butler Sp/5, FE 180th ASHC

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