Re: 53 vs 53 midair

Ref. the Feb. 18, 1975 mid-air, the name of the PUI onboard Les Petty's aircraft is 1stLt. VanAlstyn (sp?). Both he and 1stLt. Belai checked into the squadron from Okinawa as PUI's. 1stLt Bob Walton and I were assigned to fly with Capt. Les Petty on our 'H2P' Checkride. I was scheduled to fly first but at the last moment, Bob and I switched places and I remained behind at LTA awaiting there return and pilot swap! The rest unfortunately is history.

SEMPER FI

S.A. Maxwell

Re: 53 vs 53 midair

In addition to the fact that it has crashed, there are a lot of parts, which may be useful to MAINT school.

Just joined with much help from LZ...Thanks! Reading about Captain Jim Watson killed in "53 crash. So very sorry to see that. He was a good friend and great pilot. I got out in June of '73 and I thought he was going into reserves, transitioning to the '46. Actually called him a couple times after my discharge to try to keep up. If its the same James Watson, we called him JR. We were in HMH 361 together with lots of great guys, Bud Crumpler, Garrett Hatcher, Paul Hooper, Bull Bland. I was in S-3 with Crumpler but got to fly with JR as our squadron aerial gunnery instructor. Can any of you 361 guys confirm for me that it was JR? I'm sure his wife's name was Sue. John "Obie" O'Bryon Sgt HMH-361 Operations

Dang Obie, when I worked at G-3 for Col. Rex Denny out in the bunker, a mustang Captain decided that I was too junior to be working directly for the Col. They brought SSgt Crumpler out from the G-3 admin side and put out there to take charge. Funny thing was, Col Denny pretty much ignored him and kept coming to me. He must have been transferred to Santa Ana when the wing pulled out in April of 71.

You're right LZ. He was a SSgt at the time. I met him briefly at a party on the beach at Marble Mountain where we both had too much and actually got into a pretty good scrap. I didn't know where he was assigned then. My last day in country was 1 June 71 and I left with the remnants of Mag 16. (After we finished filling 10,000 sand bags to rebuild all the blast walls for the army taking over!) When I reported at LTA in Santa Ana I was briefly assigned to HMH-363. When HMH-361 needed a gunnery instructor, I moved over there into operations. I walked into S-3 and guess who was NCOIC? SSgt Crumpler! After our fight on the beach I figured I was in trouble working in this shop. Not so! He turned out to be a great friend and we had a lot of good times together over about a year and a half. After you got me signed up, I called another good friend, Garrett Hatcher who was also in 361. He didn't know Bud had passed away but filled me in on his promotions and return to the drill field. Turns out both were career marines...I've always admired them both. Hatcher is legendary, the real deal, crew chief on H-34's with HMM 363 before my time. Just really sorry to hear about both Bud and JR Watson. Obie