W E B Griffin - BoW 03 - The Majors
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YH-40 aircraft. Criteria established include seven (7) years experience as a rated aviator; 2,500 hours total flight time; 1,000 hours rotary wing flight time.
3. Further, the flight testing mission placed upon the
USAAB by the DCSOPS is such that available flight time for the available aircraft is fully scheduled through
31 Dec 1955.
4. Consequently, the request of the basic communication must be denied.
TO : President
U.S. Army Aviation Board
Camp Rucker, Alabama
I. Inasmuch as the USAACDA is charged with determining the future role, if any, of YH-40 aircraft presently undergoing flight testing by the USAAB in the field forces, it is considered absolutely essential that the
5. Should the USAACDA wish to furnish the USAAB with any specific flight tests it wishes to have accomplished, the USAAB will make every reasonable effort to have such tests conducted by USAAB personnel already qualified in YH-40 aircraft. The USAAB feels this would be the most economical use of available assets in any case.
William R. Roberts
Colonel, Artillery
President
2nd and
Hq -IJSAACDA Cp Rucker Ala 24 July 1955
To: Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Hq Dept of the Army Wash 25 DC
VIA: Chief Avn Br DCSOPS Hq DA Wash 25 DC
1. Attention is invited to basic communication and
1st indorsement thereto.
2. Unless USAACDA personnel are trained in YH-
40 aircraft and YH-.40 aircraft are made available for a minimum of 250 flight hours, the USAACI5A will not be able to generate performance and other data on which to base its recommendations for the utilization of the
YH-40 in the field force.
3. Request guidance.
Robert F. Bellmon
Colonel, Armor
Director
3rd and
Avn Branch DCSOPS Hq DA Wash DC 5 Aug 1955
TO: DCSOPS Hq DA Wash 25 DC
1. The situation described in 1st and 2nd and hereto has been investigated by the undersigned, and the following determined:
a. The three YH-40 aircraft assigned to USAAB for USAAB testing are barely adequate for that purpose, and production of additional aircraft in the foreseeable future will be assigned to the USAF for airframe stress and other testing, and to the Transportation Corps for the determination of maintenance and spare parts requirements.
b. The USAAB testing program would be severely hampered by the loss of any YH-40 flight hours, either by the loss of YH-40 aircraft to another agency, or in the event of an aircraft accident.
c. Prudence requires that the available YH-40 aircraft, which, because of their size and power, and because their flight characteristics are not now known, should be flown only by experienced aviators in order to reduce the possibility of their loss due to pilot error or inexperience to an absolute minimum.
d. With the exception of Major MacMillan, the
USAACDA aviators for whom flight instruction in the
YH-40 has been requested are recent graduates of flight school. Specifically, the provisions of AR 1-670 requiring a one (1) year initialization tour had to be waived in the case of both Col. Bellmon and WOJG Greer in order to permit their present assignment.
e. A review of USAACDA test programs (proposed) by the undersigned indicates that the great majority of such testing could be integrated into present
USAAB test programs.
2. It is therefore recommended that the USAACDA be directed to effect such liaison with the USAAB as necessary in order to incorporate those test programs they feel are necessary into present USAAB test programs.
This would insure a more efficient use of available assets, and simultaneously reduce, through the use of aviators of long experience, the risk permitting USAACDA aviators to pilot the experimental aircraft would entail.
Arthur D. Gregory
Colonel, Artillery
Chief, Aviation Branch
4th md
Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations,
Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington
25, DC, II August 1955
To: Commanding General, USA Aviation School &
Camp Rucker, Ala.
Chief, Aviation Branch, DCSOPS, Hq DA Wash
25 DC
President, US Army Aviation Board, Camp Rucker,
Ala.
Director, US Army Aviation Combat Developments
Agency, Camp Rucker, Ala.
1. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations wishes to remind all concerned that the USAACDA was established at Camp Rucker for several reasons:
a. In order to provide the DCSOPS with an independent agency capable of basing its recommendations concerning the future of army aviation in the field forces on its own independent judgment.
b. In order that it would be in a physical position to receive what logistic and training support it required from both the US Army Aviation Board and the US Army
Aviation School and Center.
2. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations believes that very little meaningful data concerning operation of
YH-40 aircraft by personnel with little flight experience, as would be encountered in a mobilization situation, can be obtained from test programs in which all of the aviators have seven (7) years flight experience, including
2,500 hours total flight time, and 1,000 hours helicopter experience.
3. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations has received permission from the Vice Chief of Staff to have twenty (20) graduates from the next two (2) Warrant
Officer Candidate Rotary Wing Right Classes assigned for a period of six months to the USAAB for utilization as pilots of YH-40 aircraft undergoing test. Aviators of great experience presently assigned to the USAAB will be assigned to monitor such flight testing, but will not participate in flight testing under normal circumstances.
It is believed that the pool of aviators possessing seven
(7) years and many thousands of hours of flight experience will not be large enough to man the field force envisioned for the future, and that therefore large numbers of inexperienced aviators must be trained.
4. The President of the USAAB is directed to train the officers listed in the basic communication as YH-40 pilots as soon as possible, and to make available to the
USAACDA YH-40 aircraft for a minimum flight test program of 250 hours.
5. The Deputy Chief of Staff wishes to state that while he has found this correspondence interesting, he is sure that he will not again be required to devote his time to solving problems that should not have arisen.
BY ORDER OF THE DCSOPS:
Howard G. Kellogg
Brigadier General, USA
Asst DCSOPS
"Jesus H. Christ!" WOIG Greer said. "You sure as hell won that one, Colonel."
"Colonel Roberts went a little too far," Bellmon said. "It was both too obviously chickenshit, and too obviously a grab for power. He lost that fight, but he's smart and he won't make the same mistakes the next time we get into it. Even this, if you think it through, Greer, is not all peaches and cream. I'm really on the Hying Club'sŽ" he caught himself just in time, deleted "shit," and concludedŽ"list, now."
"Fuck em," WOJG Greer said, cheerfully.
"Close your sewer of a mouth, Mr. Greer," Colonel Bellmon said, very sharply, and when Greer looked at him in surprise, added: "And stand at attention, too, please."
Greer came to attention, a look of bafflement vanishing as he froze his facial features.
Colonel Bellmon pushed a lever on his intercom.
"Major MacMillan!"
"Yes, sir."
"Please report to me immediately," Colonel Bellmon said.
"On my way," MacMillan replied cheerfully.
MacMillan came into the office a moment later, walking like Groucho Marx, grinning broadly, and tipping off his fiber tropical helm
et.
"Look what I found in the clothing store," he cried, happily.
It was too much for Colonel Bellmon. In the Frank Buck hat, and khaki short pants, MacMillan looked like a burlesque comedian.
"I asked you to report to me, Major," Bellmon said, icily.
MacMillan looked at him in surprise, and then saw he was serious. He sailed the Frank Buck tropical helmet out the door, came to attention, and saluted.
"Major MacMillan reporting as ordered, sir," he said.
MacMillan, Bellmon thought, didn't look much older than he had ten years before, when, as Technical Sergeant MacMillan, he had been with Bellmon in the stalag.
"The reason I have asked you gentlemen in to see me,"
Bellmon said, "is that it has come to my attention that you are guilty of conduct unbecoming to officers and gentlemen.''
MacMillan and Greer stole quick, confused looks at one another.
"And the reason I have you standing here at attention is to convince you that I consider this whole matter quite serious."
"May I inquire what the colonel makes reference to, sir?"
MacMillan asked, still at rigid attention.
"Your filthy mouth, Mac," Bellmon said. "And yours, Mr.
Greer."
They both looked confused. Bellmon let them sweat a minute, and then went on.
"Mrs. Heatter was in here," Bellmon said. "In tears. Crying.
She said she had to have a transfer."
"I'm not sure I follow you, sir," MacMillan said. "What was she crying about?"
"She said she liked her job, but that she was a Christian woman, and she could not continue to work under such conditions."
"What conditions, Colonel?" Greer asked. Bellman thought he looked about sixteen years old.
"Your filthy god damned mouth is what I'm talking about,
Mr. Greer," Colonel Bellmon said. "Your constant blasphemy and obscenity."
"Yes, sir," Greer said.
"Just Greer's filthy god damned mouth, Colonel?" MacMillan asked, too innocently. "Or my god damned filthy mouth, too?"
Bellmon stared at MacMillan in disbelief. Was MacMillan actually daring to mock him?
And then he recalled his own words.
"Shit!" he said. They all laughed.
He got control of himself in a moment.
Oh, stand at ease," he said. "But listen to me, you two.
I'm serious about this. Mrs. Heatter was really in here. She was really crying, and she was really upset. I've got enough trouble without her filing a complaint with civilian personnel about you two."
"I don't know what the hell she's talking about," Greer said, seriously. "I know what she's like. She carries Bible study lessons in her purse and reads them when she eats lunch. You don't think I was making a pass at her, or anything like that, do you?"
That thought hadn't even occurred to Bellmon.
"She's the kind who thinks that hell' is a dirty word, Greer,"
Bellman said. "So don't use it."
"I thought I was watching it," Greer said. "But yes, sir, I'll watch it even more closely."
"We're all guilty, I'm sure," Bellmon said. "But she especially complained about you, Greer."
"Not about me?" MacMillan said.
"She said you don't seem to care what kind of filthy language he uses," Bellmon said. "So you watch Greer, and I'll be watching you. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Take a look at this, Mac," Bellmon said, and handed him the YH4O correspondence.
"Jesus Christ," MacMillan said. "When Gregory and Roberts saw this, the shit must have really hit the fan."
Colonel Bellmon did not correct him, Greer noticed. Because it would have been necessary to eat his ass out if he had?
Or because he had agreed with MacMillan's assessment and really didn't notice the language?
"So we're going to get a YH-40 to play with, are we?"
MacMillan said.
It was another of MacMillan's classic examples of saying the right thing the wrong way. They weren't going to "play" with the YH-40. MacMillan knew as well as he did what they were going to do with it.
The YH-40 was a nine-passenger helicopter, powered by an 1,100 horsepower turbine engine. It was intended to replace the Sikorsky H-19 and H-34, which had a reciprocating gasoline engineŽneither efficient nor entirely safe in helicopter operations.
It was faster, smaller, and carried as many passengers
(nine, without equipment) as the H-34. It was obviously going to be the helicopter with which the army would be equipped in the 1960s.
The "Y" in the designation stood for prototype, an acknowledgement that the production helicopters (the H-40s) would be different from the prototype YH-40s in detail. They would be changed to reflect what would be learned about them when they were tested.
It was Bellmon's job as director of the Aviation Combat
Developments Agency to test the machine to see what it was capable of and to adapt this capability to what had become known as the "Flying Army." He would then request that changes be made to the machine so that it could better accomplish its duty.
Both looking after the changes and testing to see if the modified aircraft did what it was supposed to do was the function of the Aviation Board. They had tried and failedŽby painting themselves as the only expertsŽto usurp Bellmon's responsibility and authority. The fight had gone as high as
DCSOPS, and DCSOPS had cut the Cincinnati Flying Club off at the knees.
But getting a YH-40 for 250 hours was only the beginning of the fight. Bellmon could count on the Cincinnati Flying Club finding fault with any conclusion he reached which did not entirely agree with one of their own. He would have to be able to prove every point he made about the YH-40.
That was not, as MacMillan put it, getting a "YH-40 to play around with."
But Bellmon didn't correct him. He knew he hadn't heard the end of the battle with Colonel Bill Roberts. He felt very much alone, alone in a way neither.MacMillan or Greer could understand. Right now, they were the only two people he could really count on. It would have made no sense to hurt Mac's feelings by correcting him.
I
VIII
(One)
The Officer's Open Mess
Camp Rucker, Alabama
22 August J9SS
"Mrs. Hyde? I'm Barbara Bellmon," the woman said, walking briskly over to Rhonda with a smile on her face, and her hand extended. "I'm so glad you could come."
"It was very nice of you to ask me," Rhonda Wilson Hyde,
Administ' ative Officer (Probationary) of the USA Aviation
Combat Developments Agency said to the wife of the Director of the USAACDA.
"I thought we should get to know one another," Barbara
Bellmon said. She led Rhonda into the barroom of the officer's open mess and waved her into a chair at a table. A GI waiter was immediately at their side.
"What can I get you, Miz Bellmon?" he asked.
"Oh, I think I'll have one of your wave-the-vermouth-cork- over-the-neck-of-the-gin-bottle martinis," Mrs. Bellmon said.
"Yes, Ma'am," the waiter said. He looked at Rhonda.
"The same for me, please," Rhonda said.
She liked this. Respectable married women in Dale and
Houston counties did not go by themselves to a bar and order martini cocktails at lunchtime.
"-1 always like a martini before lunch," Barbara Bellmon said. "But I feel wicked if I do it at home."
"I know what you mean, Mrs. Bellmon," Rhonda said.
"Oh, call me Barbara,' please," Mrs. Bellmon said.
"And you call me Rhonda,"' Rhonda said, pleased with that too.
"We should have had lunch sooner," Barbara Bellmon said.
"But I was out of town."
"Oh?"
"A wedding," Barbara Bellmon said. "Scotty Laird's sister's boy married my cousin Ted's daughter. That's pretty involved,