Ok so cool we are publishing! We have a picture of the Israeli guy that turned
the table on the Arabs and won a victory in the 1967 Arab Israeli war that was going on just before little tinker went to
Vietnam and NASA landed on the moon! Mosha Dyan is the guys name it was said that after the Israeli airforce struck Arab and
Egyption targets first in 1967 that the Jews won a bunch of territory that unlike a lot of people think is kinda used as a
military venture sort of thing on the people of the west that are kind of pro arab about the subject!
Reality sets in when you look at what has happened in the area they call what was known as Palestien Israel over
the years the jews are very much into building settlements in communities that were once operated by the Arab's there are
thousands if not million's of Arab refugees from the wars over this place and we try and take everything with a positive
connection to a good future but Israeli leaders operate their government through a thing called the Kadesset or something
like that and the guy who won the election is said to be one of the militants that uses provocative manuvers in the peace
process to take a leadership role in the internal politics of Israel! I suppose we should not be surprised as their have been
a series of Wars over the place and a lot of it has to do with the capital city of Israel " Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in which
we find looking through historical references the great explorer Vasco Da Gamma wanted to be the King of Jerusalem so he could
control the trade route's from the far east! Which brought in spices and gold and lots of other stuff to Europe!
We also put a picture of the first Seceretary of Defence that was mysteriously met his death after being in a fight over Israel
and was followed by pro-Zionist agents at the time of his death!
Of course by the time
little tinker had graduated from high school and joined the Army because he could get helicopter mechanic's training( if you
could add multiply and divide and subtact and pass the test), for an enlistment of just 3 years then they told him he could
become a warrant officer and learn to fly army helicopters if everything turned out OK! But back in those days even though
Tinker trained at Ft. Cambell Kentucky home of the 101st air borne division basic training was only a short 8 weeks and then
your MOS school and then after a few classes in judo and Ju Jitz Ju you were thrown right in to a combat zone even though
the 101st airborne had plenty of giant obstical courses we were threaten with Article 15's if we were caught climbing or practicing
on them because of the chance of being hurt and off the active roster! Today not to say they aren't as good as
the Vietnam guys but special forces people often train for years in this professional army they call it! Tinker he is not
so sure whether or not that is a better situation because Tinker thinks a lot of them turn their military career into their
own personal welfare state and we see this a lot on the cable news network where they had for a while an endless stream of
Veterans righting this wrong or that wrong and in reality even though I was younger and did not get Veterans benefits for
years I remember sitting at home on the couch with my wife or girlfriend smoking a doobie ( the name of a Marijuana cigarette
in the 1970's), after Vietnam and thinking it feels good to be a proud "blanking" civilian or PFC we'd call them in a way
with the cost of things today and the terrible cost of war and the growing crime problem and much of America's focus
on Gambling and sports I'm not so sure that we are better off!
Today for instance
Tinker had trouble with his sister over the money I get for things and what we do with our time! First off Tinker will
tell you that in his case after playing a small role in a giant helicopter battle the world's largest I understand it to be
at the time You remember the shit wrecks from 40 years ago one of them was whether or not your orders were good in dealing
with spies sometimes they work for money and they want to get a look at your orders you were carrying simply because they
know they were good orders! True story!
Tinker does not trust people to this day sometimes
when he remembers the events that took place and sometimes every so often he does not trust his older sister simply because
she was born in England! And extremely nosey and we do not know her friends and I would just stay at home and watch TV and
smoke cigarettes but the cigarettes are starting to get to me so I have to try and quit and we have made the complaint before
about Wendy and to me this kind of stuff in important mainly you can see cause really the cost of things now and weakened
economy and war! When You see a pretty girl at the store or something the thing you think about is not how good she looks
but how much baggage do they have as life is very hard at times especially these days!
One of the things about being in some sort of combat situation is the fact how fast the seconds can tick by I remember landing
at Cam Ron Bay and as I was standing in line to get my flack jacket and helmut issue while standing in line the enemy in the
area around Cam Ron started to throw rockets at us there I was no one to tell you what to do you had to decide to stay in
line so you won't lose your place or make a mad dash to a buncker and safety! I can remember actually seeing a freedom bird
( that what we called the airliners that shuttled in and out of South Vietnam) on the runway and rocket explosions close to
it as it taxied down the strip! Then as we were transferred to Saigon and got our placement to units Tinker remembers hair
raising flight down the center of High way one just at dusk to Cu Chi, Vietnam where apon landing they were under a
red alert and we first met our first sargent who told us to stay close to the bunkers till morning! Then later while little
Tinker was still a green weenie ( a soldier who's uniform had not turned grey from washing, he had to pull day time tower
guard and the guy who I was to replace was shot right through the head I can remember he was from California!
Then as we worked on helicopters Tinker excelled as he had had aviation experience from flying airplanes in high school he
flew missions with the 116th assault helicopter company on the week ends after working on helicopters through the week! 12
hour days and we were very lucky that we had a hot meal and could take a shower almost every day!
When your 19 or 20 you think that nothing can touch you until one night being an enlisted man you were required to pull guard
duty towards the end of my first tour on the flight line that I was guarding just before dawn tinker spotted movement in the
darkness by myself and sitting inside a helicopter on the flight line cause there was a slight rain Tinker heart was right
in his throat and had to fight off the complex that I should start shooting up the helicopters that were parked neatly waiting
to be repaired and where he noticed movement I slipped out of the helicopter and got back to the Hanger which was dark and
loaded my weapon I so scared I was taking in gasps of air and my arms and fingers trembled in fear that I was a sitting duck!
Later after reporting the incident we were then informed that the whole base at Cu chi was under dug with tunnels! True story!
Back at home one day I was watching my new young wife come back from the grocery store and was coming through the door when
I had what Tinker thinks was a flash back they call them in which he was instantly transported back to Cu chi and that night
by myself on the flight line and could not believe that I was home back in the states my eyes wheeled up and I broke into
tears just as Karla was coming through the door she wondered was wrong with me and I had no words either to explain myself
or the reason for my tears! After a while it was not so bad I worked several jobs and worked as a civilian helicopter mechanic
for the Iowa Army National guard but found out that I did not have the iron stomeck that certain indivguals had for politicalizing
military service especially it seemed as they were the ones who had no combat duty in there history! It did not sit too well
with little Tinker in Vietnam it was balls to the wall all the time and even though much of it was quite rewarding fixing
up helicopters and every once in a while flying a combat assault National guard service was directly connected to the local
state goverments which included the police this when we were finding out we were very much in a narco drug war with certain
people that had absolutely no good intentions at all!
As far as getting hurt Tinker
had a piece of metal from an exploding object go through his little finger and the speed of the foreign damage broke my little
pinkie on my left hand and I cannot remember the excrushioning pain that rippled threw my body at the time then I had to go
to the aid station and had to sit with my hand in a special holding type thing while the medical aid with his tweezers explore
the wound for bits of metal! Despite all the john wayne movies I saw before going to Vietnam you learned very quckly that
war can be exciting and the last place you want to be and all this can happen inside of a New York minute!
tinker bells MOS or his job title after he past his aviation school was 67N20 huey mechanic and 67A1f helicopter door gunner
and when I went to fly missions down the road from my real mechanical helicopter job I used my MOS number as a door gunner
and because you were going from a non combat unit to a unit that flew combat missions every day You did not want to scew up!
Tinkers job was to clean the M-60 machine guns of the crew chiefs and his own door gunners position if ever through the day
you had to fire the guns. Little Tinkerbell remembers how heavy the ammunition boxes were that we carried and after shooting
the guns after a while it did not take long to find out that after getting a bead on a target that in no time at all
half your ammunition was gone!
Many times arriving at the helicopter at 4 oclock
in the morning when it was still dark and doing the pre-filght cranking up the rotorblades several times flying almost all
day with the shrill wine of the turbin engine and the wop wop wop of the rotating blades we did not shut down until after
dark on some days! walking back to my unit from the helicopter company I could feel the vibration from the whole day just
hammer through your body! Making it to the shower and then your cot several times you could not eat! Then after a good night's
rest where you seem to open and close your eyes and it was the next morning You woke up with a big grin on your face that
you survived your first combat assault mission and telling your mechanic buddies of the past days adventure the next week
end some of them went with little Tinker and we flew missions together from time to time!
Recently with the advent on the news of the legalization of Pot Tinker has told the story recently that as being known as
Mr. goodie two shoes the first marijuana joint I smoked was on one of these flying weekends and Tinker had seen some guys
smoking joints before but up to that time had never partaken and was quite convinced that it would lead to your demise
but one day flying what we called a milk run where we did things like deliver the morning report to Mac-V head quarters out
side of Saigon the crew chief of the huey leaned over and stuck a joint in tinkers mouth and I like a lot of people who remembered
their first time they got high I boggarted it which is to keep the joint in your mounth and not pass it around, the co-pilot
shot back to the crew chief and ask " Is he cool" and the crew chief replied," he's cool", Ok the co-pilot said Hang on and
with that we rolled the huey wopping rotarblades toward the ground and buzzed water buffalo and rice paddy farmers for
good twenty minutes listening to the radio out of Saigon on the intercom!
Many units
in Vietnam whether they were aviation or not were divided into two groups of people that many times were red necks and drank
loads and loads of alcohol and the Pot heads who preferred to smoke and be more up to date in their personal attitude adjustment
as it was some times called!
But the fun and games had a tendency to seem fleeting
sometimes as one day flying at about 4 oclock in the afternoon after flying all day we were flying the 9th infantry ARVIN
troops near a river south of Saigon
when we were coming in the whole landing zone suddenly turn hot ! Cover
my flank cover my flank the A/C commander cried Johnson ( Clalling me by name Cover my flank hit the hutch ( which was a small
house) tinker bell let into it and his M-60 machines gun bullets kicked up dirt and bounced off the wall and chickens
went flying and right in the middle a young Vietnamese farm girl appeared in the door way with a baby
in her arms and then just as suddenly disappeared into the shadowy darkness like a gunfighter in a western movie! When tinker
got back to his unit I ran to find my maintenance sargent who had flown B-25 bombers during WW2, in the area in WW2 and
he said Johnson your going to get into trouble flying these mission's they play a game called Vagas and it is a
real game!
Tinker not quite sure what he was saying exactly it was a long time before I
flew again and he was in a VIP unit when I did and this time it was a call for the door gunner who said he wanted to
go to the PX and if I would take his flight for him! True story!
And Tinker was to find out the reason they were going to the Laosian border from Nha Trang and Tinker was brought along cause
he knew what MIG fighter planes looked like and they were in the area! As funny as it may seem on this mission Tinker wet
his pants!
Years after that when I think of this day in Vietnam in 1971 and they had that
guy do that movie about the radio station in Saigon called Good Morning Vietnam I can remember reading the Hobbit book with
Karla my wife and in it when Gandalf the Wizard first met Bilbo Baggians the hobbit he said "Good Morning"," Good morning",
was the reply, and then out of Gandalf the wizard's mouth came the uttering," My what a lot of thing's we use Good Morning
For",!