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From: george grandstaff
Date: 2/11/2004
Time: 2:31:42 PM
Remote Name: 65.130.96.255
rmaffie, I remember the CanTho Rat Finks well, having made many pre-dawn trips to CanTho airfield to catch a ride to one of my many delta sites for a radio TTY repair mission. One morning we had a long delay because the preflight check revealed the lucky penny went missing from behind the safety wire in the middle of the Otters prop nut and we naturally waited for a crew member to go find a replacement, which thankfully he did. Also on one routes around the bottom of the delta a stop would be made at CamMau and twice I was left off alone at the runway for about an hour to wait while the otter took a full load to the last stop south and brought people back to CaMau. During this time I was left with some RVN looking troops living in a APC shell with poncho flies and hammocks strung to it by the runway. I hung out in the high grass and prayed for you guys to make it back safely. On one Otter flight noticing the crew chief on the head set looking out all the windows, when we landed I asked him what was going on and he showed me the bullet holes in the plane. Though I probably shouldn't have been, I was always surprised I never heard the bullets hit any of the aircraft over the engine noise. Thanks for the many safe flights.
George