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McCook Gazette

Impromptu tour

Friday, July 10, 2009
McCook Daily Gazette

McCook youngsters -- and not-so-youngsters were treated to an impromptu tour of a Chinook helicopter when it landed for fuel here Friday afternoon. The aircraft was on its way from Colorado to the new National Guard maintenance facility in Grand Island. A crew member said the craft was built in 1967 and served in Vietnam, the Gulf War and Iraq. It was rebuilt in 1987 and should serve a few more years before needing another rebuild. It can carry more than 30 fully-equipped troops or 28,000 pounds of cargo, and can even land on the water, in a pinch.

McCook Daily Gazette
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  • It is nice to see they landed in McCook. A lot of people don't know that during the WW2 there were a lot of Army Air Corps bases throughout Nebraska, that is when the Air Corps was really tough and the people were rugged and lived a hard life not so specialized and pansties as they are now.

    -- Posted by salamat on Fri, Jul 10, 2009, at 4:47 PM

  • A great many glider pilots were trained in the area.

    One top welding shop owner in Cambridge was an instructor. Back in the 50s, he was one of the few qualified heli-arc welders with aluminum irrigation equipment.

    He reported they trained the glider pilots by taking them up in the standard monoplane trainers, liaison planes and leased civilian aircraft -- reached altitude of 8,500 to 10,000 feet, cut the engine and glided in for dead stick landings.

    A lot of the housing at these training bases were square squad tents, some with wooden floors and 4-5 foot high wooden side walls.

    During much of the year, they were sitting in a sea of mud, sometimes the wooden or dirt floors flooded. Then came the dry months -- standing in the remains of the mud swamps within the camp, with dust blowing in your eyes.

    -- Posted by HerndonHank on Fri, Jul 10, 2009, at 5:00 PM

  • I saw this helicopter go right over the top of me as I was outside walking our dogs. It was really interesting to open this up and see a close up of a different angle of the copter as well as to read about it!

    -- Posted by zrundel on Fri, Jul 10, 2009, at 11:26 PM
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