People ask me why I am so passionate about politics and Constitutional issues.
Why did I get involved with Convention of states anyway? I do it because many have died defending not this country as a hunk of dirt but the Constitution and all of its ideals. Every time we chip away at our Constitution we dishonor those sacrifices.
I wish I could tell you that the following story was only a single isolated incident. Military aviation is not for the faint of heart or the weak of mind.
On April 9th of 1986 I had just returned from a Medevac flight in the cantonment area on Ft Stewart Ga.
It was a warm pleasant evening and I was getting the aircraft ready for its next possible mission. I was standing on the toe of the skid on the left side of the cockpit oh my UH-1V helicopter, I had just hung my helmet up on the pilots hook and was taking a second to admire the setting sun, it was very low on the horizon.
To my astonishment a bright flash went off to the north-west that actually blotted my view of the sun. In an instant a new half sun grew out of the horizon and was getting larger. What seemed like an eternity was probably over in a couple of seconds, I don’t really know, I was mesmerized by it until the shock wave from this event vibrated me to the core. I knew in that instant it was an aircraft accident. A split second later the Wright Army Airbase air horn confirmed what I had already known.
The crash involved a CH-47 Chinook and an AH-1 Cobra loaded for a night fire exercise, they had collided in midair. Both crews where flying with Night Vision Goggles and one can only surmise they just didn’t see each other.
The news was sketchy and anyone with loved ones in the aviation community were pretty upset not knowing who was involved. The only news reports on this was information that 2 air crews were down. Being in the thick of things I didn’t know how upsetting this was to wives and children, friends and neighbors, until the next day.
There were no survivors and the search and recovery of their bodies was long and not pleasant. It is a reminder that freedom comes with a cost and protecting what these men died for, the duty of the living.
Lost that night were the following men, pray for their families, although 28 years ago, these wounds run deep:
CH-47
CW4 Jerry G. Akers [P]
CW4 Charles P. Falk Jr [P]
SSG Siebert Everetts [FE]
SGT Alphonso C. Ferguson [CE]
SPC Christopher J. Carey [C]
PFC Matthew J. Barker
AH-1s
CWO Donald C. Miller Jr.
WO1 David M. Thomas