January 21, 2010 Curtis and Jim

The Liberty Gazette

January 21, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Our friend Curtis Laird thought of another story from his days in Vietnam. Actually, he’s thought of more than one, but we can only fit in one at a time.

Curtis: Back in November of 1966, I had a small detachment of UH-1D helos with crews at a place called Phan Rang. Our mission was to provide support to a Korean regiment, which was in turn providing outer security for the construction of the Phan Rang air base.

One morning, as we were preparing to launch for our missions, a young Air Force dog handler walked up and asked if he could fly as my gunner on some of the missions. He stated that he was current on the M-60 machine gun, which was our primary armament.

When time permitted, my crew and I took the Airman out over the South China Sea and checked his gunnery skills. Everything went well, so we started working him in on some of our missions. This gave me the opportunity to give my crew members a day off. I kept my fingers crossed that Army headquarters would not find out about this.

A few days later, an Air Force captain stopped by and asked if he could fly as my co-pilot someday. I said, “Sure, why not?” I already had an Airman flying with me, one more wouldn’t hurt.

So, on this particular day, half of my four-man crew were Air Force personnel. This was about the time that Army headquarters found out about it. Needless to say, I was reminded of my careless and negligent manner in which I was flying and operating my aircraft.

Now, we fast-forward 45 years to 2011. I received an email from an individual asking if I was the officer who let him fly as gunner on occasion. I immediately replied that I was the guilty party. We have been in touch ever since.

One more fast-forward. In October 2019, the gunner notified me that he and his wife would be flying down from New York to visit with me and my family. They arrived on November 7. It had been 53 years to the month since I had seen Jim, and we both agreed that we had gotten a little older.

Jim has done well since our Vietnam days. He got his college degree, started a business in the aviation industry, and wrote a book, titled, “The Sky is Not the Limit.” And, he has a wonderful family.

Linda: What winding paths our lives take. Who would have thought how the lives of a young Air Force dog handler and an Army helicopter pilot would end up 45 years later?

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