"There Must Be A Way"

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Harold's Military Service
 

January 9, 1953 

Harold Wayne Dennis, Jimmy Hill, Gene Davis & Kenneth Dafft were drafted to go into the Army on January 9, 1953.  We were all from the Carrollton-Farmers Branch area.

We had all graduated from Carrollton High School & were all in our early 20’s.  You might say we had grown up together in this area.  Kenneth didn’t go to Ft. Bragg.

We were sworn in the Army recruiting office in the Santa Fe Bldg. in Dallas.  We boarded a bus & went to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.  We were issued our uniforms.

Jimmy, Gene & I left Ft. Sam Houston & flew to Ft. Eustis, Va.  When we got there it was very cold with about 6” of snow on the ground.  We were about to freeze.  Basic training was eight weeks.  We had a lot of experiences.

Basic Training at Ft. Eustis, VA. in January 1953, this was just one experience.

Jimmy Hill, Gene Davis & I were in Basic Training in Ft. Eustis, VA.  Our company went into the woods to bivouac. (bivwac).  It was cold with snow on the ground in the pine trees.  We had to dig several fox holes up at the front part of the camp.  They were dug in a horse shoe shape, so you could sit a machine gun on it.  The holes were very deep.  Jimmy was on guard duty that night.  He was close to that fox hole, walking his post & some way he accidentally fell in the fox hole.  We heard him hollering for the Corporal of the Guard & one went up & checked on him.  He had sprained his ankle so bad he couldn’t get out.  He had to be carried back to the main base to the hospital.  We all told him he did that on purpose to get out of bivouac.  He swore he didn’t.  When Jimmy finished basic training he had lost so much weight that his clothes could just wrap around him.  They had to issue him all new clothes.

When we finished training, we all went in different directions.  Jimmy & Gene went to fixed wing school, to Ft. Campbell, Ky.  They sent me to Ft. Sill, Ok. to Helicopter Mechanics School.  This school was 16 weeks long.  I had a M.O.S. 3995 helicopter mechanic (job description).  When I got out of school I had orders to go to Austria.  I was on leave & was to report to Camp Dix, N. J.  While I was home on leave I got a call from Ray Clark who worked for the railroad as a telegraph operator, in Carrollton.  He told me I had a telegram from the Army.  He read the telegram to me on the phone.  It said for me to disregard all previous orders & report to Ft. Bragg, N. C. on the same date that I was supposed to go to Camp Dix N. J.

When I got to Ft. Bragg we were assigned to the 509^th Helicopter Transportation Co.  This was the first Helicopter Co. that the Army had.

During the time I was at Ft. Bragg we were proving the capability of helicopters over fixed wing aircraft.  We made Air Shows at Dayton, Ohio (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) 50^th Anniversary of powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N. C. & many smaller air shows.

We would assist the 82^nd Airborne Troop at the drop zones at Ft. Bragg.  We would land at the end of the drop zone & if any of the soldiers got hurt during the jump we would take them back to the base hospital.

One time we were there & one of the air planes lost one engine during the drop & crashed killing several soldiers & crew.

While I was at Ft. Bragg we lost three helicopters.  One in a storm north of Fayetteville with three on board & two ran together .  One taking off & one landing,  no one was killed in this crash.

In 1954 we had a hurricane come through.  We parked trucks on each side of our helicopters & tied them down to the trucks.  After the storm we flew to the N. C. & S. C.

Coast & helped rescue stranded people.

I went to school at San Marcus Air Force Base to learn the H-21 Helicopter.  While at Ft. Bragg I had a H-13 Bell, Hiller, a H-19 Piasacki & a H-21 Piasacki.  These are the helicopters that I crewed during my stay at Ft. Bragg.

I got out of the Army on January 8, 1955.

Harold Wayne Dennis