My Helicopter Pilot

One of the civilian secretaries that worked in our office was married to the helicopter pilot that flew me and the General around -- when I was hanging out with the 3 star! I didn't know he, the pilot, even noticed me because we didn't exchange words at all. Later, he mentioned the flight to his wife and told her to ask me if I wanted another helicopter ride. Did I? See, the whole time I was in the Army I tried to do as much Army stuff as I possibly could because I knew it would be my one and only chance. Once I got back to Chicago settling down with the love of my life, 2.5 children and a white picket fence surrounding our humble abode, I doubt anyone was going to randomly walk up to me and offer me a free helicopter ride. So when these things came up (like Tom letting me crawl in, out and all around a tank), I took up the offer.

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record when I say, we had no means of communication other than word of mouth but in today's world where cell phones, texting and instant messages are readily available, I don't think you can fully understand how remote we were, now cut off we were or how difficult communication was. So the helicopter ride had to be arranged from the pilot to me through his wife. We finally set a date and time I was to arrive at Katterbach. I had to be in uniform and had to wear my dog tags (again --a body identification thing). It amazes me now that I even had the courage to do such things --not so much ride the helicopter but just show up there alone --not knowing anyone or anything I was doing. It was winter and this was a night flight which I was certain would be rather boring not being able to see anything but hey, it was a helicopter ride nonetheless.

This ride proved to be far better than riding with the General. I was the only passenger in the back --just the pilot and co-pilot up front. I got to wear a helmet so I could hear the pilots talking, I could converse with them and other pilots too, that were in helicopters flying with us. They even gave me some night vision goggles.

What I remember most about the flight is despite the darkness and even with out the night vision goggles, I could see more than I expected. The snow was absolutely beautiful --We flew over the pilots house and his wife and kids, who had been expecting him, came running outside waving to us. They were standing on the back porch and he flew down close and snow blew all over them --it was funny. They asked if there was any place I wanted to see but hey --I was just a private hanging out in Germany --what did I know? They flew me over Hindenburg and its always interesting to see places familiar to you from a birds-eye-view. I liked how the closer we got to the ground, the snow would just furiously fly in a cloud about us. It looked like little snow tornadoes. I didn't like the night vision goggles as it made everything green so I'd first look through those to get an idea of what I was looking at then I'd take them off and look again.

It really was a fun ride because the pilots were showing off a little bit for me and I was the only one riding -- it was like having my own personal helicopter. Psh! Who needs a 3-star???? We rode around for about 45 minutes before heading back to Katterbach. The pilot drove me back to Hindenburg and promised me it wouldn't be my last ride - -- and it wasn't! The next time though, we ended up making an emergency landing in a German farmer's field. Scary. Stay tuned.