From the December 1967 Aerospace Maintenance Safety magazine

COURTESY OF BILL CRAWFRD

JOHAN RAGAY PROVIDED A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL USAF ACCIDENT REPORT.  TO READ

CLICK HERE

(NEWS ARTICLE COURTESY OF ART BRAND)

It happened 25 OCT 66 at the fire fighting practice field at Grandfield Oklahoma. When I got orders for Vietnam on the 43 the Air Force had the idea that it would be good to have the flight mechanic double as an airborne firefighter. I was sent to the school at Sheppard & had about two more flights to finish the course when the crash happened. The IP was Maj. Ed Duchene, I can't remember the student pilot's name, he was taking a check ride & was in a hover with the FSK attached when the engine blew, we came down on top of the FSK & the IP rolled it onto it's right side. My partner was a real fireman his last name was Blais & was sitting in the seat behind the pilot, he went over the pilots seat & out through the broken plexiglass nose. I was setting in the rear next to the step & I started to exit through the rear doors but the rotor blades were beating them selfs to death back there & what looked like turbine wheel buckets were flying around also, the fire started about that time, I reached for the fire hood that you wear when you go into a fire & the durn thing had fuel inside of it & was burning so I couldn't use it. I also didn't have the heavy firefighting gloves on at that time.That's when the inside of the chopper filled with thick black smoke & I didn't know up from down. I had one arm over my face & was feeling for the side door but because the chopper was on it's right side I was actually feeling the top of the cabin.At that point I was burning & thought to myself, your not going to get out of here, then I heard Blais hollering my name & I lunged toward his voice & he grabbed my wrist & pulled me through the the opening behind the IP's seat & out the nose of the burning chopper. He & one of the pilots pulled me away, they were saying get the boot off get the boot off.It was burning & I slung my left leg & the boot went flying. There was another H-43 refueling at the other end of the field & when the pilot heard the engine blow he started his chopper & flew up to the crash & was outside opening the rear doors on the 43 when they got me out so they got me in the chopper & a medic sat in the seat by the side door, if he hadn't closed the door I would have jumped out before we got off the ground, I didn't want any part of another H-43. My face, neck & ears were burned, the back of my right hand was burned pretty bad.My left foot was really hurting, so I motioned to the medic to pull my sock off, since the sock wasn't burned he just reached over & jerked the sock off & the top of my foot came off with it. The rubber boot had fuel on it & burned for a longer time & held the heat long enough to cook my foot without burning my sock. I was the first patient to land on the new helipad at the Sheppard AFB hospital, I had an 8x10 color photo of them getting me off the chopper. The wing CO came to the hospital to visit the 4 of us & ask if he could do anything for us, I ask him if he would get me some photos of the crash. In a couple of days I had a large envelope full of 8x10 color photos. All of them were lost when I returned from Iceland in 1973. The next day the fire alarm went off in the hospital, they had a small fire, I didn't like that. A couple of days later a guy from the pysch ward got outside & dove under the back wheels of a big truck & died. This was getting to be crazy place.One day the IP's wife came to visit him & I had my left leg out from under the covers & she said you have red streaks moving up your leg,I started pushing the call button,I had blood poisoning & they had to get that under control. When I got well enough to get a wheelchair, I could go downstairs to the library. I had to keep my foot elevated all the time or it became very painful. Well I was sitting in the wheelchair with my foot up on one of the book shelves & the whole bookcase came away from the wall & fell on top of me books & all. I was glad to leave that place. (BILL CRAWFORD)

(COURTESY OF BILL CRAWFORD)

(COURTESY OF ART BRAND)

(COURTESY OF ART BRAND)

"FREEDOM ISN'T FREE"

~SOMEONE PAYS FOR YOU AND ME~

"HELICOPTERS" - THE ONLY WAY TO FLY

~NEVER FORGOTTEN~