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Huey was in charge of scheduling at the 6990th Security Squadron at Kadena in 1967-70.....A job that would drive any man to drink..... We were severely undermanned with Vietnamese linguists and our mission was far ahead of projections....We were going to start flying four RC-135 18.5 hour long, 2 mid-air refueled missions a month in Sept 1967 and four or five months later 8, then four or five months later 15, then finally 30 missions a month.....We also were going to pick up 30 missions a month starting 1 January 1968 from Danang AB, South Vietnam, that had been ongoing and flown by linguists from the 6988th at Yokota AB, Japan. Well, we flew the first RC-135 mission on Sept 12, 1967, and things exploded.....We immediately went to eight missions, then a month or so later 15 and three of four months later 30.....and 6 months later 60! We also picked up the Danang AB C-130 missions as scheduled AND a commitment to put linguists and 292s on the EC-121 Connies flying from Korat AB, Thailand -- just four troops, but two or three missions a day.....This meant that Huey (without benefit of computers!) had to, in his head, keep track of who was TDY, who was flying, who was crew resting (we got 12 hours premission crewrest and 18 hours post mission), who had flown over hours (we were waived far beyond usual USAF flying maximums to 160 hours per month and 330 hours per calendar quarter), who had been placed DNIF (Duties Not to Include Flying) by the Flight Surgeon for being sick or having blown eardrums, whose wives were pregnant and expecting in that month (we called it "Baby Watch"), who was on what intramural team playing for Base Championships, who was on leave, who was in training and who their trainers were, who was being evaluated and who the evaluators were, and put 25-30 people of the right qualifications on every RC-135 that took off!...... Well, you get the idea (and I've left lots of other factors out....)....It was an impossible job.....But Huey pulled it off....and kept Major Lee Wolinsky, the Operations Officer, and Lt Col (later Major General) Doyle Larson out of jail......Incredible.....
In 1971 or 2, I had moved to Hawaii and was the "Fix it" Captain.....Huey was at Korat as the NCOIC of the Detachment and the Captain OIC was med-evaced for a serious illness.....I was TDY to the 6990th and the then Commander asked me if I wanted to sit in as the Det OIC in his absence...and oh, by the way, the Command Inspector General and team was due in to Korat in two weeks......I accepted...Well, the med-evaced Captain was tired of starting up Operating Locations and Detachments around the world with NO HELP from anyone and he was going to show the IG Team what that was like by having NO written regulations, etc at all! That was a great idea, except it would have gotten him fired..... and taken down some great NCOs as well.....So I asked Huey to "get" some standard typewriters -- which he did (All NCOICs have the ability to "procure" amazing stuff "somehow"....) and Huey and I sat at them for the next two weeks, typing unit Regulations, Operating Instructions, Policy Letters, Emergency Action Plans, Crew Pass-on Logs, Crew Information Files, etc, etc, etc..............Spilling coffee on them, wrinkling the pages, forging the OIC's signature, backdating them, etc, etc, etc.....We created a unit from not much.....Huey got anExcellent on the inspection......
In 1976 or 1977, I and Lt Col Wolinsky were on the Air Staff at the Pentagon with Col Larson......Huey called...from somewhere in the Pacific I think but I'm not sure about that.....He said he had one more assignment before he retired, but he needed to get back to Alabama (or Mississippi?) close to his parents and the "farm" as they were ailing.....So Lee and I went down to the Personnel Section to see what we could do....There were no Senior Master Sergeant jobs open for 292s of course, but we found one SMSgt slot open for a Hospital NCOIC at a base in the Southeast.....We talked the personnel folks into sending Huey......The story goes that Huey arrived and, on the day he was to report in, got into his Class A Blue Dress Uniform, with all his medals (he had quite a chest full by then, a Distinguished Flying Cross, I think, and 35 or so Air Medals and tons of other ribbons, his wings were up under the epaulet almost) and walked into the Commander's office suite......Someone screamed "ATTENTION" and everyone leapt to their feet......Huey looked back to see what General had come in behind him.....but there was no one there......The SSgt at the first desk, said, with his eyes wide, "Sarge, you can run this place...We've NEVER seen ANYone like you!".......
Huey came back to Kelly AFB here in San Antonio for the Memorial Service we had for LtCol Wolinsky in 1996 and for one or two "Old Spies' " reunions we hold every year.....We chatted a little about the "old days" each time and I remember him on oxygen the last time we met....We all smoked back then, they gave us cigarettes in our flight lunch boxes on the airplane......Your Father was a great man, Ron....An integral part of every unit he was ever assigned to.....And a huge part in their successes....I assume someone has told you about his PRIMARY job....A Morse Intercept Operator...About how, on every mission he flew, he had to break the radar tracking codes of every country we flew near to see where they thought we were, but more importantly, where they thought the fighters that were sent up to "escort" us (and sometimes to shoot at us....) were......Huey was great at that too...A Distinguished Flying Cross awarded to an enlisted aircrewmember was as rare as hen's teeth.....You can be VERY, VERY proud of him......
-- Bob Cope