Scarface at Work

Doing What it Takes...The Ground Crews

Engine change...Circa 1975 Futenma Okinawa Photo courtesy Steve Hornberger

Night Shift Phu Bai Photo Courtesy: Mike Kujawa [mikekujawa@hotmail.com]

Maintenance 367 Line Futenma Photo courtesy Steve Hornberger

Most Marine Corps Huey gunships were originally equipped with the TAT-101 turret system which mounts a pair of M-60 machine guns.

When the system was first introduced to Vietnam there were serious problems with the turret, and all other Marine Huey squadrons soon scrapped the turrets as excess weight.

Only HML 367 was able to make the system work properly when its ordnance personnel showed that a minor modification would make the turret perform beautifully. Time after time Scarface copilots skillfully proved wisdom of the decision to retain the TAT. SCARFACE Phu Bai Cruise Book

SCARFACE Ordnance...Phu Bai Republic of Vietnam. Phu Bai Cruise Book

Jack Chaney and John Bonness, VMO-3 Avionics. Photo courtesy Mike Kujawa [mikekujawa@hotmail.com]

I had just become the Maintenance Admin Officer in the squadron in mid 1975. The aircraft was scheduled into depot for rework or PAR (affectionately known as Paint & Return) in Tainan, Taiwan. My job in this evolution was merely to take the aircraft's log books and have the KC-130 pilots sign for them, though I added another job and that was to record a rather small incident in the life of an aircraft and the people around it.

This took place on an already sultry sunrise at MCAS Futenma. From our butler building hangar it was a long "walk" to VMGR-152's hangar at the other end. This was not a "big deal", but it was to those of us that had not seen a Huey stuffed before. With all the big parts "nailed" on, there would be room for only one bird inside along with its blades and rotor head lying on mattresses on the deck between the skids, mast in a box, boxes of goodies to be installed at the depot, such as the "shitpot" tail pipe.

The story of the load is seen in the people. They are casual, unhurried, but precise. They know what to do and how to do it. They are supervised by a grizzled GySgt who watched "his" charge be properly tucked in for it's flight.

This particular aircraft I saw again November 10th 1975 in Tainan when I was sent to test and accept it prior to it being torn down again for the reverse flight. For those of you that had never been to the Air America Facility in Tainan (it had just been recently purchased by E-Systems I believe), it was a unique experience to say the least. Those folks were still at war. Guards were everywhere. A test crew had to get a "No Shoot Pass" to go turn up the aircraft. If the time ran out, then you could be assured that a rifle would get stuck into the window announcing that the time was up. These guys meant business and didn't play games. One A-4 pilot didn't think it applied to him....he got his tires shot out as he taxied to take off (I was told). These guys ALSO didn't play games when it came time to fix "gripes" on the bird after turn or flight, they swarmed around it like flies fixing everything in seconds. They were certainly customer oriented.

This GySgt. I believe is M. V. Whitaker from 367 at Phu Bai. Webmaster

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Brad Ryti bryti@scarface-usmc.org .

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