Charles “Chick” Harrington – Helicopter Pilot
Charles "Chick" Harrington Audio
“That was in 1967. I was in university not doing well.” Recalls Chick. “It made me vulnerable to getting drafted.”
After he passed a battery of aptitude tests, Chick found himself sitting at a table across from three Army Majors in uniforms. He remembers the exchange as follows:
“So, Harrington, why should the United States Army spend all this money to teach you to fly a helicopter?”
I said: ”Why, I don’t care about helicopters. You got any jets?”
And he says: ”No, the Army does not have any jets (…) but we need helicopter pilots.”
After a couple of months of basic training, Chick was sent to flight school in Fort Wolters. He remembers that even before they completed ground school, about 20% of the candidates dropped out, due in large part to the constant harassment by officers.
“They’d ask you dumb questions, and if they didn’t like your answer, you were doing push-ups and all that stuff.”
Flight training in Hughes 269 helicopters consisted in an intense regimen of ever more complex maneuvers and emergency procedures. Students progressed to instrument and formation flying, cross-country and tactical training an eventually transitioned to the more advanced Bell UH-1 Iroquois “Huey”.
After a year-long training, Chick was flown in a commercial jet to Japan, then to the Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon, Vietnam where he was loaded in the back of a Huey that flew at very low level to avoid artillery passing overhead
“You could see beautiful palm trees Just zipping by… And then we got to Pleiku and we were what’s called ‘FNGs’: F’ing New Guys”
Chick mostly flew the Cobra gunship. He remembers that pilots could fly three different types of helicopters: The Hueys to transport troops or pick-up downed pilots, the Cobra gunship, or the Hughes scout helicopters nicknamed “Loach”. Pilots had no choice in the matter, except if they wanted to volunteer to fly as scouts, the most dangerous role. Chick recalls: “The tour of the scout was 6 months, 500 hours, or twice shot down. I mean we lost a lot of scouts all the time. They got picked up mostly. Mostly, but not always. Basically you’re a fishing lure. You’d go out there and hover around the trees. When they shot, you’d get out of the way, and the gunships would beat the hell out of the area.”
On one occasion, on a scouting mission, Chick’s helicopter was shot down and his observer was killed: “I didn’t know he was gone until I turned around and there he was until I came back and pulled him out. Climbed into the other aircraft and off we went. And it burnt up right there.”
Chick had heard that Air America pilots earned 5 times as much money as Army flyers. While still on his tour in Vietnam, Chick sent in his resume on a whim in response to a magazine job ad.
“It was in ballpoint pen on notepad paper and I sent it in.”
It wasn’t until more than a year later that Chick was invited to an interview in Washington, DC, followed but a lengthy written psychological profile test. To his great surprise, Chick found out he had passed the test with flying colors.
“We had these different jobs. Regular jobs that they did and one of them was to go around and pay the South Vietnamese military. There was a route to these little out-places and you land and then you pay… Pop out and go to the next location.” Chick recalls that while it could get dangerous at times, the work was much safer than his time in the Army and paid about 8 times as much, entirely tax free. Chick recalls living in a luxurious villa: “I was in Saigon doing what 24-years-old guys do: Chasing girls […] drinking and hanging out living like lords.”
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