"Jump Over to the
Other Side"
This happened during the mid 70's when the Comancheros were D. Co. We
had a crewchief in our unit named Harry D Rogers who was just a
little bit behind the power curve. This is his story as it
was told to me. We had just got a new pilot fresh out of flight school who
needed an orientation flight of the Fort Campbell AO. Harry D Rogers was
the crewchief for the flight. Everything was going well until our
unit IP had the new pilot try his hand at landing in a confined area. The
newbe pilot was concerned about clearing the tail of the Huey, so he told
Harry, "Chief, jump over to the other side and clear me down".
The pilots felt a slight rolling motion. "Hey Chief, are we
clear?" Silence. "Chief?" More silence. The IP glances down on the
left side and there is Harry flat on his back on the ground! He must
have fallen twenty five to thirty feet! Fearing the worst, the IP takes the
controls and lands in a LZ about 100 yards away from the confined area. While the
IP is shutting down, he sends the pilot to the hover hole to see what
became of Harry. About halfway there, the pilot saw Harry walking his way! They
walk back to the aircraft and check out Harry for any injuries. He had a
few bumps and bruises, and the wind knocked out him, but was
otherwise fine! The pilot and the IP asked what happened. Harry said
that he thought he heard the pilot say, "Jump over the side and clear me
down". So that's what he did. This is a true story. I have changed Harry's
name to protect the innocent. And innocent he was.
Tom Cavanaugh
D/101 Comanchero 4/74-7/76
© All Stories are under copyright to the
authors and may not be copied and/or Used in any matter without the permission of
Author. All Rights Reserved.
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