I've been trying to get one our 119th crewmembers (Pete Forchini) to read some of the stuff that has been posted here but he's reluctant to re-live any of this. I think it would be good for him to hear from others who have been through the same thing he has and actually care about each other. Pete and I have been good friends since we met at Holloway in Oct.1966. We went on R&R together to Hawaii and took the quick trip to SF and back in the summer of 67 before returning to Holloway. Pete was a Crock crewchief and was in the hootch next to mine (blue flt crewchief hootch). We were also at Hunter Army Airfield together for all 68 before coming back here to California.
If anyone out there has any suggestions on how to get Pete to check this out let me know.
His wife Eva who was with us in Savnnah Ga is online at waves@coastside.net. Pete gets the messages but I doubt he gets online much himself.
I have a selfish reason to get him involved. I would like to get him to go with me to Texas next year or whenever the event takes place. There's another crock from the SF area that will probably want to go to Texas. His name is Mike Ebert. He was the only survivor of the crash on May 6 1967 of Crocodile 596 that killed WO Bullington(A/C),WO Kearney(P), and SP/4 Gupton(G) while supporting other ships of the 119th in route to pick up a Special Forces team during operation OMEGA.
By the way I was in Savannah GA last week and the Marines have taken over Hunter Air Field. Other than that it looks exactly the same on and around the base. I also drove through Dothan Alabama home of Ft Rucker. It hasn't changed much either. They have a B model at the rest stop at the border of Fla and Alabama. Nice shape and up on a stand.
Anyway if anyone wants to help get Pete off his ass send him a message.
thanks
Jim