Lee ward has added a new section in her Robin Hood web site that pays honor to those fallen members of the 173rd Assault Helicopter Company. Each name has their own ndividual dog
tags for an  Honor Roll.  When she gets enough pictures of these individuals she will
make a page with their photos Honoring each of them, so any Robin Hoods have photos of these men -  please send with identification. to lee or Doug Ward at dvward@bellsouth.net . 
 The pages can be found by going to the following web address: http://www.geocities.com/OURBARRACKS/WEBCONTENTS.html

UP DATE ON DOCUMENTARY AND ON 5-0 DUCE
There has been lots of behind the scenes action on the documentary and the huey, the 5-0-Duce, that was slated for use in the film. Here is just some of what is being said or done:

5-0 Duce - what happen to it?
Submitted by: "Ron Leonard" rollayo@earthlink.net

The lies continue, and where are the rest of the parts? The Government contract states thou shall not cannibalize sell, or lease parts for a period of 60 months. They are well within the 60 month period.
Latest News Article in the Sun-Herald Weekly. Click on web address below for full article.
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/082601/tp2ch16.htm?date=082601&story= tp2ch16.htm

After you read the full news article you may wish to read the following
also from Ron Leonard as a follow-up response.:

To Whom It may concern:

We have been rather quiet on the 502 issue for several days waiting for Major Sapp and Sheriff Clements to hang themselves. They have succeeded beautifully.

This Aircraft 5-0-Deuce flew for over a year with Bob Carr vibration free after restoration, the aircraft flew operational missions for the Sheriff's office,  flew to Fort Campbell and returned, then flew members of President-elect  Bush's official party and officials from Gov. Bush's office, all the while in a total airworthy state with no vibrations. The accusations that this condition  existed prior to acquiring 5-0-Deuce from GSA is totally ludicrous.

Is it major Sapp or Brownie can't see well enough to do a proper pre flight inspection? They both flew it and never said a word. When Mintzke and Burgerhoff  wrote it up they were fired? Is this retaliation for doing their job? Are Major Sapp and Brownie in the habit of putting dignitaries in jeopardy in life threatening situations from failing to do a proper pre-flight  inspection or are they lies? I know Bob Carr wouldn't allow that to happen. 

What you have here is a major lie being told to try and shift blame. I think this needs to be addressed by the National Aviation Safety Board. The FAA takes  these things quite serious also no matter how trivial. The hot line complaint number  is 1-800-FAA-SURE

Rumor has it that at best Brownie passed his last flight physical marginally with a depth perception problem. This could cause a hard landing. In the regular Army you wash out of flight school for that problem. I think this also needs further scrutiny. The  FAA number is the proper place to address those type issues also. Now we take into consideration the cannibalizing of parts. The GSA contract states you can't do that for 60 months. They are well within that period. The engine is missing, the transmission is
 missing, and due to their own admission other parts were taken to keep other aircraft flying. Rumor has it the 502 tail boom is now on 586? When do they abide by the rules of the GSA contract. I personally vote for a government investigation into the improprieties.

It is time to turn the heat up again as it seems they do not wish to do what is proper,  admit their shortcomings and mistakes instead of being content to grind an Axe. You  know that axe could slip and strike where it is least expected Major Sapp.

Sincerely 
Ron Leonard



MAJOR GEORGE E. DAY - REMEMBERED - AUGUST 26TH 
Submitted by Jennifer Martinez

Something important to remember and think about:
26 August 1967 - Major George E. Day shot down over North Vietnam

Kind makes plea for war stories from veterans
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug01/vfw23082201a.asp
Posted 8/24/2001

He listened with great interest as U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) told
the Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting this week in Milwaukee about the
Veterans History Project. The project, which Kind sponsored and President
Clinton signed into law last October, would create a national repository
for the memories and oral histories of veterans. The program would also
preserve letters, diaries, photographs and films.

Congress is giving the project $250,000 for the fiscal year 2002, which
starts this October. The project is to be developed by the American
Folk life Center at the Library of Congress.

Relatives of Australian Vietnam Vets call on Govt. for support
http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/vic/archive/metvic-19aug2001-5.htm

Vietnam veterans' families say the Australian Federal Government should be doing more
to help the children and wives of those who fought in the conflict.

About 1,500 Vietnam veterans marched through Brisbane and thousands more
in ceremonies around the country yesterday in their annual parade which
coincided with the 35th anniversary of Long Tan in which 18 Australians
were killed.

Also in the march were widows, wives and children of the servicemen.

Lifeline calls on Vietnam vets become counselors
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-18aug2001-13.htm

The high rate of suicide among the children of Vietnam veterans has
prompted a call for veterans to volunteer to train with Lifeline as
counsellors.

A campaign to recruit veterans to join Lifeline's Applied Suicide
Intervention Skills training will be launched today.

The RSL's Major General Peter Philips says the rate of suicide among
children of Vietnam veterans is three times the national average.

He says Vietnam veterans are well placed to help both young people
experiencing difficulties, and families in their community who have been
affected by a suicide.

Nation honors Vietnam War veterans
http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/qld/archive/metqld-18aug2001-11.htm

Memorial marches and ceremonies have been held around the nation to
remember the veterans of the Vietnam War.

In Melbourne, about 2,000 people have marched to the Shrine of Remembrance
to remember the more than 500 Australians who died and almost 2,400 who
were wounded in the war.

More than 200 Sydney residents have returned to the Cenotaph in the center of
the city for the first Vietnam memorial service there in 15 years.


THE 240th AHC BATTLES FOR OVERDUE HONORS

From: Joe Ragman Tarnovsky RAGMAN240@aol.com
Doorgunner/CE
UH-1C Mad Dog Gunships
240th Assault Helicopter Company
LZ of the 240th AHC
240th AHC Flightline

From a message that Joe sent back to me concerning the follow-up actions for all those crew members of the 240th AHC who got killed, wounded, or took some very high risks to save M. Sgt. Roy Benavidez (who was awarded the MOH in that battle.) and others, who were trapped in the hottest of LZs. In his book, "Medal of Honor", Roy laments that these men were not fully recognized - some not at all.

MIA/ KIA OR COVER-UP? CAN YOU HELP?

I got the following message from Joyce Ussery and I have posted her request on the Veteran Bulletin Board on this web site. However, she has more background information and I am posting it here in an attempt to find people who might be able to help her family resolve this issue. 

From her email messages:
We appreciate your posting our request... To give some insight into our family. My husband, Eugene and I have been married for 25 years. We have three grown children - daughter Angela (23). graduated with a mass communications degree, married, is now working and preparing to begin graduate studies this fall; son Michael (21) who is beginning his third year of college, with a major in history and minor in communications; son Brett (18) will be a high school senior this fall and is conditioning for the basketball team. Even though we find our quest for information on Carl all consuming - but of utmost importance and quite necessary - we also have a normal family life and recognize the importance of maintaining some sense of balance.

Although I am somewhat apprehensive in sharing our family's story of disinterring the grave, etc. online - going so public with it - we feel we are going to have to share some of what we have been through in order to find out what the situation is - in hopefully being able to make contact with some veteran from that time that remembers something - that might help to fill in the missing pieces of this puzzle. Perhaps just the posting should be all for now - to see if it draws any interest. It might be better to take out the "wrong body?" mention for now - but if it is too much trouble, just leave it in. It's just that we have been asked so many times - by others helping - to stay low key with this for now and just try to make contact with men who were there and might have more information regarding Carl's loss - although admittedly that hasn't been very productive to date either. Within the past 5-6 years, we have had various Senators, Congressional Representatives, agencies, organizations and individuals assisting in our requests for information. It has been a quite involved, unbelievable - but real - situation. With their still being some ongoing efforts, we're still hopeful of information coming forth. However, we still believe the most reliable information would come from the men who were there - who might know what happened.

Again - we thank you for your assistance in trying to reach the men who might remember the incident - and for your concern.

Joyce Ussery

Additional messages:

Thank you for your response to our posting and for the web site information. To explain our situation a little further........

Seven years after Carl's death, I married his older brother. Within the past 5-6 years, it has come to our attention that there are significant and troubling inconsistencies within Carl's military and mortuary records. In brief summary, the family found it necessary to have the grave disinterred in March of 1996. I am sure you are aware that this cannot be done and is not done without very credible and valid reasons. The SF 603 enlistment dental charting for Carl, known to be correct and the actual good set of dental remains/and mortuary dental charting DO NOT MATCH whatsoever. This was confirmed by a well-renowned anthropologist. The estimated height of the remains is also inconsistent/not within the allowed variable range of Carl's actual known height. The anthropologist had felt that the Army would be in agreement to do Mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA, but the Army eventually denied the request and claimed to see no discrepancies. The irregularities exist - from the dental remains that do not match to the wrong date and time of death on the death certificate - and actually there are numerous inconsistencies within every aspect of Carl's military records that we have been able to obtain.

The Army is denying redacted, yet supposedly declassified, records to our family. Office of the General Counsel of the Army recently upheld Ft. Rucker's decision to withhold helicopter accident report info. This redacted/blacked out info was being withheld under Exemption 5. This in part contains "tracking information"/search and recovery info. We are totally baffled as to why the family of a Vietnam KIA would be denied declassified documents. They are also withholding GSA records that were being kept on Carl years after his death, as late as July 27, 1973. The evidence of the existence of these records consists of pages, batch numbers and a reference number for the records - plus notations of GSA having "a live case on Ussery" and notation of the "records lost for good" after I had asked for the name of the survivors in 1970. I was eventually given the name of the Aircraft Commander and when he wrote, he pretty much said word for word what the Army's official version was at that time. In 1996, we were told that there were two more passengers on the helicopter than they told us about in 1968. These two extra passengers are listed only as "Passenger #3" and "Passenger #4". They claim to not know their identities to this day, yet claim to know they survived the crash and with no injuries.

We have various Senators, Congressional Reps and others trying to help our family in obtaining records, etc. So far they haven't had much success either. We are told our best hope for finding out the truth of Carl's incident is to reach out to the men who were in Vietnam, who were possibly there and might know something that could help - thus the many postings we have placed in trying to find someone. We appreciate your forwarding the posting and it should be fine as it read. This additional information is just for you to understand our situation better for now.

I saw Carl in Hawaii about eight weeks before the crash. He told me of what to expect if he did not come back and his wedding band came back, secured and packed in a certain manner as it was. Everything he told me to expect came to pass. Hopefully this overall summary of our quest will help you to understand why we don't consider this an obsession, but a dedication, to getting to the truth of the circumstances of Carl's incident. Again - we thank you.

I thought of some other things that might help if added to the posting. If it has already been posted, that's fine and can stay as it is. If you still can, you might add "Some accident reports mention the crash occurring 1 1/2 miles east of LZ Barbara".

There was also mention of B Co., 1/5 Cav being at the LZ, that fighting erupted right after the crash. Also mention in the Duty Officer's Log Sheet of C 1/9 working out in the area and the mention of 25th "ele" (?) checking out the crash site.

Whatever you think about adding the above is okay - it may be too late if you have already posted it and that's okay too. We just appreciate your help in posting our request. Thanks.

THE 147th ASSAULT SUPPORT HELICOPTER CO.

"HILLCLIMBERS"

To learn more about this historic unit - go to their web site at:    http://www.147thhillclimbers.org

A message from Rodney R. Brown, 147th ASHC Hillclimber Veterans Association

That is where I really got to know you guys. I was always picking up Tomahawks and Robin Hoods during those days. (webmaster note: this includes Doug Wards crashed helicopter remains, as well as one of my own down ships)

We have a 147th ASHC association and we have a website. 

We only started the site last January (2000) so we have a little ways to go. We have had our second reunion as a group and managed to outdraw the first gathering by a factor of three.

Strange to think that maybe thirty-four years ago we may have walked pass each other in the Phu Loi PX, or may have run into each other out in the field during an aircraft recovery.

You may have some pictures of me in action in either the 330th or 147th.

(Webmaster note: Read the story called: "The True Nature of Courage" on this web site for the experience of one of the flight crews from the 147th ASHC.)