This past fall I had the opportunity to attend the rollout of the UH-1Y at the Bell plant in Ft Worth. The Yankee is an upgrade program run for the USMC. (With the exception of the NG and Reserve, the Army has taken a bye on Huey.) The bird sitting on the floor that day in the hangar was a twin engine of the sort that has been used by Navy and USMC for years, tail number 159153. It will fly farther and higher than its predecessor and carry a larger payload. Has one of those new glass cockpits. I managed to get in because the guy who managed this job for the Marines is now an associate at my company. He also ran the AH-1Z Super Cobra Program.

It was a very formal affair. Politicians and generals, plenty of food and drink, a dramatic curtained off area, music and more Marines than you could shake a punji stick at. When they raised the veil with the Marine Corps Hymn playing in the background it was a real tear jerker . Me included.

This ship has everything including fore and aft ECM dispensers and a digital moving map that would make Lexus owners salivate. About the only common feature it has with the ones we flew in is that universally recognizable Huey profile. Even the Whop Whop has changed since this is a four bladed rig. I doubt if I could accomplish so much as a fuel filler cap inspection of this thing, assuming I could find the location of the cap that is. But this visit did serve a purpose.

I began to reminisce about the 119th with a friend from Lockheed who had been a Cobra Pilot and a LRRP (A mountain removed him from flight status and nearly from existence but he decided to keep his hand in) and he told me about the web ring that contained sites from variouos old companies. I found one for the 119th and it renewed my interest. I registered on that site and noted I had crewed on Boo-Boo-a-Go-Go-II, Gator 376. I got an email from a former 376 gunner, Joe Quinn from Philly and then one day here not long ago Carl Duke sent me a message and told me about the HighPockets page on Campholloway.com.

It's amazing what Huey's can do

rgh