Fort Hunter Liggett; four hospitalized when a tent collapses
Stars & Stripes reports that 22 soldiers were injured, four were sent to the hospital when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter landed near their tent at Fort Hunter Liggett, California;
A helicopter blew down a tent at a Central California military base Wednesday night, injuring 22 soldiers — but the injuries were mostly minor, a spokeswoman said.
A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was landing about 9:30 p.m. when the wind from its rotor caused the tent to collapse, said Amy Phillips, public information officer at the Monterey County base.
That took some real piss-poor planning.
Category: Army News
Fortunately there were no fatalities. I saw a blurb about this on the TV at my hotel this morning while I was having breakfast.
Fort Hunter Liggett… BRRRRRRRR!!!!
My boss in Song Be Viet of the Nam had a Good Idea Fairy visit suggesting setting an antenna pole (50′ telephone pole) in a hole next to the TOC using a CH47 sling load. It was an Airborne BDE so we didn’t have wreckers etc to set a pole.
It was a marvelous sight watching the Hook settle into its air cushion in Song Be talcum power dust with a 50 ft pole suspended under it. Opps, the BDE CG and all the G Staff were in a briefing in the TOC when the wind and dust came roaring in. The G2 folks were inventorying classified in a next door tent and had them laid out on tables as the tent sailed away. Awesome day. The MAJ was always known as “Hook Man” afterwards. He was a great officer so he didn’t get fired.
Just going to say, the Union Pacific set up new Telephone Poles on the hump behind the houses where I grew up in the 60’s. Pretty sure it was a 5 man crew. Used a 4×10 in the hole, rolled the pole to the board, 4 men grabbed the pole, while a rope went from the top to the bumper of the truck. They knocked em out like hammering nails. Spent most of the morning drinking Schlitz.
When I was in Iraq we were working a plan to bring the USMC QRF into Karbala in case things went sideways during Ashura. The only LZ available was at a Polish hospital consisting mostly of tents.
The plan was to bring in various aircraft to get an idea of LZ parameters and know how many Marines we could expect in a set amount of time. We started with the UH-1s, then the CH-46s. By the time we were getting ready to bring in the SH-53, the Polish had lost a few tents and were about ready to toss us of their FOB. We decided that the LZ wasn’t 53 capable despite its size.
We blew some roofs off in Colombia during a CA/HA Mission. I was ground liaison team, and we had to go check and see the damage and try to repair. We blew off some of the school roofing, good thing we were there to help them build shit. They were 53’s I hate being near them when they land.
No serious injuries is a good thing, but there must be 22 new names for the crew of the helicopter.
Note to self: Erect not the GP on the LZ.
War story alert!
As both a battalion and brigade staff NCO, I couldn’t count the times we had CP tent problems from too-close helicopter operations. Resetting a blown down tent was just part of the job description. I almost had a too-quickly loaded CP tent push me out of a Huey at 500 feet or so when the pilot banked sharply as he gained altitude and the damned thing began shifting against my back. I was looking straight down at the jungle with my feet dangling out the downward side. The rope supposedly securing the heavy tent was the only handhold I had and the damned tent was about to exit the aircraft with me attached to it. I was yelling like crazy but no one could hear me over the wind noise. Just as I was about to piss into my jungle boots, the hotshot flying the Huey pulled a quick leveling off and saved ol’ SSGT Poe from an ignominious fate.
Boots on a skid taking in the view. Ah yes. Took Mrs SJ on her first helo ride in Jan. Pilot looked strange at me when I asked if he’d leave the doors open so I could sit in the door. He was a youngun and didn’t know what I was talking about. Would have rather seen a crusty W3 or 4 up there.
SJ, the craziest damned chopper pilots I saw in Nam were the Wolter’s Wonders, those junior warrants who didn’t look like they were old enough to shave. They could make those Hueys dance though.
If you ever get to D/FW Metroplex. Do try to visit the Bell Heliocopter plant in Hurst. After the tour see if you can get a ride down Vietnam Alley. HeHeHe Joe
What you didn’t want to see was an O4!
Forgot to add, Miz Poe loves helicopters as well. Got her first ride in a medivac after a car hit her and her bicycle on Gulf Beach Highway out west of Pensacola back in the 70’s. She’s loved ’em ever since–go figure.
Forgot to add, Miz Poe loves helicopters as well. Got her first ride in a medivac after a car hit her and her bicycle on Gulf Beach Highway out west of Pensacola back in the 70’s. She’s loved ’em ever since–go figure.
MRS D will go to her grave pissed at me due to pictures I took of the Italian coast. One of the photos plainly showed my boots dangling over the ocean. Best way to fly in a Chinook is on the hatch.
“Sears & Stripes?”
Those new Keyboards will get you everytime!
(Or Jonn may be devastated by the closing of all those SEARS stores..I, for one miss looking thru a Sears catalog..)
😉
Could have been worse.
They could have landed *ON* the tent.
Playing “tent” has it’s dangers….
Then there was the day (Thanksgiving ’67) the 1st Inf Div band visited units in the field to boost our morale or something. The band’s Ch47 flew onto our NDP along QL 13 north of Lai Khe and blew down our tents. The band marched off and while they played a medley of tunes we put our tents back up. Done, the band got back on the chopper, took off, and blew our tents down again. Oh,well, it’s the thought that counts, I guess.
Good training?
As I was looking at the article, I saw this article below in the links. Not sure if you saw, but holy crap that’s a biggie:
https://www.stripes.com/news/good-morning-vietnam-dj-and-air-force-veteran-adrian-cronauer-dies-at-79-1.538398
MSG Eric: ???
Sorry, when I refreshed the main page, that’s when I saw the other article about it. It wasn’t there when I first opened this one.
No, that wasn’t it… I thought you meant something in the article that we needed to see that wasn’t posted before.
Thanks for the clarification! 👍
Just curious if any of the Soldiers were wearing their reflective PT belts and their APEL-approved eye pro….
It pisses me off that Hunter-Liggett is still open but Fort Ord isn’t. That being said, Hunter-Liggett is a great place to play army and doesn’t get much attention. Glad nobody was hurt….as I wonder about how many GP Mediums I’ve erected there.