Old friend

All too soon our time in the Keys was over and on Wednesday Feb 18 we departed Sugarloaf Key and drove up to Fort Lauderdale. This is a two day stop to visit a friend and do a quick tour of the area.

First a short note about traffic from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. I believe road rage was invented here. I understand city driving and have no problem participating in it, but this whole area is infected with a radical element. These jihadists’ seem to hate every other driver on the road just because they are there.

We are camped in a nice wooded county park which is right in the middle of the endless urban sprawl that is Fort Lauderdale. Despite the rude drivers we toured the area and enjoyed lunch at the beach.

Dan Jaskey and I both serviced in Vietnam as door gunners on “Charlie” model gunships. These forerunners to the Cobra gunships were basically early versions of what you know as “Hueys” or as we called them “H” or “D” model slicks. The shorter “B” and “C” versions didn’t have a large cargo compartment and were outfitted as gunships. We needed runways to take off because we flew grossly overloaded with guns and rockets. They offered no protection from enemy fire, no advanced electronics, and no missile defense. The gunners sat in an open doorway and fired handheld M-60 machine guns. Looking back they seem primitive but we loved them and day after day we flew the mission.

We didn’t know each other in Vietnam but after our tours of duty we both were assigned to Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah Georgia. We both worked on the aerial gunnery ranges in support of the Cobra school.

Danny and I have remained friends for over 40 years. It is usually years between visits but it’s always good to see him again.