[Also visit the Chickenman homepage at
http://mysite.verizon.net/chknmn]
About the "Chickenman" callsign
To confirm a couple of things - "Chickenman" was the callsign unique to A/227 -
a slick company flying UH-1H's in the time period you were in-country. The Chickenman
call sign is a corruption from Drumstick.
I arrived with A/227 shortly after the "change"
was made.
HQ had recently assigned new call signs to the 227 AvnBn - I don't remember
(CRS) C/227 - but B/227 was potato masher (Masher) and A/227 was officially assigned
"Drumstick". Must have had something to do with Thanksgiving? Anyway those there said
EVERYONE hated drumstick. At that time a popular radio serial was The 'Further' Adventures
of Chickenman - the great white winged warrior - Benton Harbor's alter ego - etc. etc. etc.
-- Bawk, Bawk ,Bawk, Baaaaawwk! and the change was inevitable. Who started it no one knows
(or admits) but when the CG 1CAV heard pilots using the unauthorized call sign the rumor is
he went ballistic - (we were officially told to use Drumstick or else - which we dutifully
ignored) - then after a tense couple of weeks, better sense prevailed and the CG realized
the positive morale involved (and that we weren't changing anyway). I don't think Chickenman
was ever made "Official". While flying as Chickenman, we all prided ourselves on living up
to the image (?) - and had a lot of fun parroting the familiar Chickenman sayings in radio
transmissions. "Bawk, bawk, bawk, baaawwk!" being a common acknowledgment of a message.
Chickenman 102 would refer to the specific aircraft - not pilot. When we flew individual
aircraft missions we used the last three digits of the aircraft tail number to identify
ourselves - thus Chickenman 102 was used by any pilots flying that individual aircraft.
My tour with the CAV matched yours - from the summer of 68 through the summer of 1969 - and
if you were involved in any combat assaults led by "Chickenman Yellow One" then it is about
certain that we flew together.
My tour with the CAV took me first to Camp Evans up in I Corps from July 68 - October 68 when
we moved the CAV south to III Corps. I led the first aviation units south - spent a week sitting
on the ramp at Bien Hoa waiting for orders then flew into Quan Loi north of Lai Khe for a couple
of weeks flying CA south of the fishhook - then Lai Khe was ready for us to move into new
revetments there. We also had D/227 (Lobo) (with brand new cobra gunships at that time) with
us at Lai Khe. I flew CA into the area north and west from there until I was reassigned to HHQ
(Lightning Bolt 4) at Phouc Vinh around February 69 - June 69.
About the Chickenman 102 story
The story brings back memories of working with troops on the ground. We often developed
relationships with the ground contact personnel (who often were identified with the call
sign 6-India) while running resupply missions. On the days we were assigned this job (we rotated
these "choice" assignments - otherwise we were flying CA with the rest of the flight) we worked for
one unit to complete all the resupply missions they had. This usually consisted of delivering ammo,
hot food and/or C's, personnel, and whatever else was needed.
One trooper even crashed with me up in I Corps - he was running the base camp resupply LZ and had
hounded me all day to fly with us. He wanted to fly (I suspect he was thinking of a joy ride) with
us as we delivered to his unit. I finally agreed on the third and final trip and we got shot down
while hovering above the trees four clicks west of LZ Barbara - everyone on the aircraft made it out
OK - although the aircraft was a pile of ashes - and I never heard if he ever wanted to fly again.
Going back to the story from your site that I downloaded - we did have a WO with red hair and a
handlebar mustache who sounds like the description given. We also had others with mustaches and
the incidents described could have occurred with anyone in the unit.
