My father was a Playboy from1963 to 17 JAN 64, when he was KIA. If anyone ready this knee Charles Martin “Marty” Hasper, please contact me at shellieraehasper@icloud.com.
Thank you!
Shellie Hasper
03-Apr-2019 05:35
My dad was Playboy from May 63 to when he was KIA 17 Jan 64. His name was 1LT Charles Martin “Marty” Hasper. If anyone knew my dad, please contact me at shellieraehasper@icloud.com.
Thank you,
Shellie Hasper
Andy Hutchinson; Dragon 39
25-Jun-2014 06:29
David
I was a "red hat" at Ft.Wolters and Ft.Rucker. I was a WOC, class 67-11. What is a DLP?
I saw your photos of Wolters. My wife and I drove there a couple days ago and what a shock! As you pointed out everything past the Main Gate seems to have just died. It reminded me of an old abandoned desert town.
Red Hats were worn by the 1st WOC (Warrant Officer Candidate) Company and surprisingly, all of our three story buildings where we lived are still standing along with the other three WOC Company buildings. This whole WOC area included mess halls and administration buildings. Initially I couldn't understand why these buildings were all boarded up, surrounded with a 7' chain-linked fence with razor wire at the top and bottom and all of this surrounded by a 30' high net. My wife said "it looks like a prison" and I just laughed telling her that "maybe they are trying to keep vandals out." We continued driving around the area and we saw at least 50-100 goats grazing away in the fenced area.
We could not believe what we were seeing at one corner. In the middle of the street was a 10' wooden tower. It was not manned nor could we see anyone in the area. And then we found a sign stating "CCA" at the top and this underneath "Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility". This was now a federal prison! Nothing has changed over the years except, goats cut the grass instead of a young pimply faced kid wondering when all of the abuse would end and a set of silver wings would be pinned on our chest. We graduated from flight school at Ft Rucker on August 1, 1967. On September 1, 1967, I walked into the 334th Armed Helicopter Company. What a relief it was.
Last summer we had our 50th reunion at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Our company originally was assigned to Saigon, South Vietnam. We had all brand new UH1-A helicopters and our mission was to see if the helicopter was capable of protecting H-21 helicopters which carried Vietnamese soldiers. Up to that point all the helicopter did was carry people and pickup the wounded. We were called the UTT or the "Utility Tactical Transport" in 1962. We changed names three times before becoming the 334th Armed Helicopter Company. We had three platoons of gunships, the Playboys, the Raiders and the Dragons. When I left Vietnam the first time we were stationed at Bien Hoa. I understand we may have moved to Phu Loi. I was told we have changed names again but the UTT is still on their unit patch but the aircraft are now all Longbow Apaches.
This week a group of Vietnam helicopter crew members are meeting in San Antonio, Texas for a yearly reunion.
