Celebrities of the 281st AHC Intruders

 

Kevin Murphy wrote:

       If you boy's scratch your head a minute, you'll probably remember that we were in our first McGuire recovery training when Bob Hope was having his '65 Xmas program. In fact, we were mentioned from the stage a couple times. Hope couldn't believe those were people on the ends of the ropes!!

       The original McGuire rig was designed for H-34's and used a cylindrical tube hanging over the door to uncoil the climbing ropes. Since this was unworkable in the Hueys, I came up with the 2'X 3' plywood plate with saw slots every inch or so on the sides and rubber bands in the slots. We wove the climbing ropes back and forth, sticking a loop under the band on one edge then the other. I think it was Bo Baker, Ops Off for Delta who called it the McGuire/Murphy rig. I also remember the first trial we used sand bags. The rig worked better than we hoped but the whole aircrew had sand in their eyes. Thereafter it was rice, not sand!!

       Didn't we have an Engineer pilot named Leach?? He kept the fuses working in the 'ville. Jack, you're right on about our first Delta mission."

Kevin E. "Murph" Murphy
Commander "Mardi Gras 6"   '65-'66

 

 

John Wayne

[Picture by Jack Green]

 

Martha Raye
 

 

Raymond Burr

[Picture by Bob Laya]