War Stories 48

[ikar]

Normally when people think of the Vietnam war they think of the Huey. Those old enough to be around then remember seeing them on T.V. all the time, or seeing them in person. Along with the Jolly Green and Super Jolly Green, that was the most seen copter of the time.

There was another one, a small boxlike thing with a big rounded canopy that most people never saw but rack up a pretty good record for rescues.

Kaman's HH-43 Husky, more commonly known as Pedro did an excellent job picking up downed pilots, injured people, and putting out aircraft fires with its powerful downwash and fire suppression pack.

Granted it had a few quirks, like having a ride that made the Huey ride like a Cadillac, you had to land as soon as it started to rain, and a couple other things, but it was one heck of a machine. Sometimes I would see it leaving the base with loads of tubing or a water filtration unit for a village strapped under its fuselage or we would use it for local off base recon and observation work at night. At times it seemed it could do almost anything. We even mounted a M-60 in the side door for a very short period because of a problem we had. Pedro just seemed to take everything is stride and get it done.