Best deployment? Pardon the length of this post. It was Hurricane Relief in 1980. I flew with two 53s to Homestead AFB to evacuate civvies off of Andros Island ahead of Hurricane David. While we were at Homestead, crews from New River (HMH-461) broke down and loaded two 53s on a C-5. Once loaded, the C-5 transported crews and helos to Roosevelt Rhodes (sp?) in Puerto Rico. Upon my return to New River I reported back to the shop. Gunny Loane was talking to another Marine about flying down to Puerto Rico to join the crews there. The other Marine had just had a baby so I spoke up and told (actually begged) Gunny to send me instead. I already had my sea bag packed. Gunny says, Ok ONeal be here at 0500. A C-130 will pick you up. I arrive as ordered, staged tools and equipment. Hopped on the C-130 with gear, tools and equipment when it arrived about an hour later. The C-130 flew me to Charleston AFB. There I loaded my junk on and boarded a C-141. The C-141 flew me to Roosevelt Rhodes. One of our Marines picked me up in a jeep and brought me to where our 53s were. They had just performed test hops from putting the rotor heads and landing gear back on. We sat out Hurricane Frederick, then took off island hopping across the Caribbean, destination Guadeloupe. First leg of flight was to Antigua. They lodged us at a Pan Am station there. That night we were there is a whole different story! The next morning we took off on our way to Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is a French island. We had no one that spoke French and no one in the tower at the airport spoke American. Crazy right? When we landed the Polizia surrounded us with Uzis. Once our acting CO finally got to speak with someone that spoke English they welcomed us with open arms. Put us up at the Hotel Arawak. Swanky joint!! Remember I said it was a French island? You know how the ladies dress on French beaches? Thats all Im gonna say about that. Guadeloupe was to be our base of ops. C-130s brought in and off loaded supplies. We externalled the supplies to a small island called Dominique. We were there for two weeks then island hopped back to Puerto Rico. You may not believe this, but our SgtMaj (Palmer) was waiting on us just to make sure we had a serious throw down, job well done, party. A couple of days later we island hopped all the way back to the states. This post couldve been a lot longer. Some details were left out to protect the innocent LOL. It was a deployment I will never forget.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 14:02:23 +0000
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