Huey part 2

The rest of the story... So why was I in a Huey helicopter? as many of you know I've been busy as a bee with photography, and particularly photography of veteran or military events. I was asked to photograph a historical Vietnam reenactment at the Clay Shooting Tournament benefit for "Homes for Our Troops". Homes for Our Troops builds or remodels homes for service members who have been disabled during military service. So here is how the story went.

Karie ... listening to Shawn, President of the 6th Cav Historical Association explain to her where he wants her.

Karie ... nods her head and takes note of his instructions.

Shawn ... pauses.... then says "Hey... maybe we could better use you in the helicopter? go in as a combat photojournalist and be the first one to jump out when we land in the middle of the the action"

Karie ... acting like she does this every day says "sure, of course, that would be great, count me in" while inside she was jumping up and down like a kid in a candy store thinking to herself "Oh yeah, Oh yeah!!! me, me, me, I'll do it, I'll go, I'll be the first to jump out"

Karie ... fast forward a few moments later, now wearing new green clothes and helmet, along with camera and bag, climbs into the Huey. Practices unclamping belt and jumping out a few times to make sure she didn't fall flat on her face. Combat boots are hard to jump and run in (note: I knew it would be muddy out there because it rained for a complete week straight. I don't have any boots, so on a whim I tried on Dustin's desert combat boots. Folks, I actually fit in my 8 year old's boots. Very sad indeed) My seat was the one facing out, doors open during the flight. When the blades start to turn you hear "whoop whoop" as it gets louder and faster. Then we took off and the pilot gave us a great ride. He went all over above the river as he tilted us so far that I could actually look straight down without pointing my head down, I got some fun shots there. I know that all of you are waiting for pictures of me dressed in green clothes in that Huey helicopter but I don't have any yet. Particularly because I was the one taking pictures and it's hard to take pictures of yourself effectively. At any rate, it was a great experience and I was glad to participate. The next great experience will be sifting through the 1500 photos I took. Sigh! taking pictures is the fun part .... sorting and editing is work.

This is one of the shots I took after I jumped out and ran as far as I could to capture the men coming out of the helicopter.

This is not me but some young man who like all the other men there still like to play "little green Army men", but this was the seat I sat in on the first drop. The door is open during the whole flight and is quite an experience.