Terry, congratulations. Nice going, you continue to do a great job to make sure your brother and his friends will never be forgotten. This is really good stuff.
Text of the "Army Times" piece is below:
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March 01, 2006
Duty, Honor, Country: Copter crews relied on their chiefs in Vietnam
By Robert F. Dorr
Special to the Times
Their contribution rarely earns them much recognition, but helicopter crew chiefs had a pivotal role in the Army in Vietnam.
“The typical crew chief was a very young man put in charge of a million-dollar flying machine,” said retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 John Travers, 57, of Harrisburg, Pa., who piloted UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, known as Hueys, during the war.
“We aviators were supposed to do a preflight inspection before taking off. But if you were in a hurry, and if your crew chief said, ‘She’s ready to fly, sir!’ you could count on it.”
Spec. 5 Franklin D. “Frank” Racine, 23, from Blue Island, Ill., was one of those crew chiefs.
Racine served with the 119th Assault Helicopter Company at Pleiku, South Vietnam, in 1965. Because Racine had five years of Army service and seemed to know helicopters inside and out, he became a mentor to younger crew chiefs who maintained Hueys.
“I’ve been told that when the new guys came over, he had a calming effect on them and guided them as to what to watch for and how to be alert,” said Racine’s brother, Terry Racine, 50, of Midlothian, Ill.
Born in 1942 in Illinois, Racine grew up loving mechanics and automobiles.
“I remember him working at the gas station and helping them prepare a stock car for a Saturday night race at the local track,” his brother said.
Racine enlisted in the Army in June 1961. At the time, the nation was focused on a crisis in Berlin. The U.S. did not yet have a large presence in Vietnam.
After basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and aviation training at Fort Rucker, Ala., Racine went to an assignment in Augsburg, West Germany. Family members remember him returning home three years later proclaiming that helicopters were the wave of the future.
“I can take one apart and put it back together just like a car,” his brother recalled Racine saying. “I think helicopters will be very important in the Army.”
It was inevitable that he would go to Vietnam, where the helicopter was transforming warfare.
On Oct. 19, 1965, the Special Forces camp at Pleime, South Vietnam, came under attack. The next morning, Racine and his Huey crew — pilots Warrant Officers 1 Ron Macklin and Don Knowlton and door gunner Spc. 5 Wes McDonial — were called to escort medical evacuation helicopters to the Special Forces camp and pull out their wounded.
They came under intense enemy fire. Racine’s Huey was about 100 feet above the ground when it was hit. The helicopter went down.
Fighting was intense. Rescuers were unable to return to search for survivors for several days, although other members of the 119th were certain no one had survived.
When Racine’s ship was hit, a soldier from the camp, Sgt. Joseph Bailey, saw the Huey go down and attempted a rescue, Racine’s brother said.
Bailey, too, was hit by enemy fire and lost his life.
Eventually, the remains of the Huey crew were recovered. Frank Racine’s wife, Jackie, and their son, Lenny, who was born in Augsburg, survived Racine. Five days after the crew chief’s death, his second son, Mark Allen, was born.
Mark Allen died of a heart attack in 2001, Terry Racine said. “He never knew his father.”
Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He has written several books, including “Chopper,” a history of helicopter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.