Hello from Vancouver, Washington USA

[Sergeant]

My name is Harold and I use the screen name Sergeant because I was a Sergeant during the Vietnam War. Vancouver, Washington where I live is in the USA about 400 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Both Vancouver's are in the Pacific Northwest of North America where we have rain about seven months every year and the winters are relatively mild. I am retired from 52-years of work in the electronics manufacturing and building construction industries. I have been building scale models for about five years, mostly Second World War armor, but I have a passion for aircraft and ships.

 

I am the oldest of a large extended family of seven brothers and five sisters. Most of the men in my family and a few women before my time have served in the US and Canadian military. From 1963 to 1975 I served in both the US Navy on board a Guided Missile destroyer and in the US Army in an M109 SP Howitzer Field Artillery Battalion. My father was a Staff Sergeant in the US 20th Army Air Force, My aunt was a First-class Petty Officer in the US Naval Air Force, and my uncle was a Flying Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force serving in the RAF. Military and history are my interest in scale modeling although I have also been a fly fisherman and fly-tier for 50-years.

 

Vietnam era M109 SP Howitzer

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2021 by Sergeant

[dogsbody]

Greetings from off to your northeast and welcome to the forum!

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Sergeant]

8 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Greetings from off to your northeast and welcome to the forum!

 

 

 

 

Chris

Thank you Chris. I have been as far north as Edmonton to work on your light rail transit system, but never in the winter. My family in Montana think they have big sky country, but they have never seen Alberta sky in the summer.

Edited December 5, 2021 by Sergeant

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Sergeant, welcome aboard, from West Oz. You and you family have certainly served your country over the years. I salute you. (Yeah, I know, technically NCOs don't get saluted but you know what I mean. 🙂)

I'm a ship modeler myself, and that second vehicle in the photo shows where you got your passion for ships. Or did it become a submarine? 😁 Looking forward to seeing your models. Regards, Jeff.

P.S. - I'm glad you explained about the two Vancouvers. I only knew about the Canadian one. It must be confusing for the postal service.

[Sergeant]

On 12/4/2021 at 4:57 PM, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Sergeant, welcome aboard, from West Oz. You and you family have certainly served your country over the years. I salute you. (Yeah, I know, technically NCOs don't get saluted but you know what I mean. 🙂)

I'm a ship modeler myself, and that second vehicle in the photo shows where you got your passion for ships. Or did it become a submarine? 😁 Looking forward to seeing your models. Regards, Jeff.

P.S. - I'm glad you explained about the two Vancouvers. I only knew about the Canadian one. It must be confusing for the postal service.

G'day to you Jeff. That M109 SP Howitzer was not water-tight, so to go through deep water meant everything got wet inside. My passion for ships started as a Sea Scout in Junior High School. In 1963 I joined the US Navy and spent six years at sea, four in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean, and two in the Pacific Ocean. Below are the two ships I served on most of that time. The USS John King DDG-3 and the USS Leary DDR-879.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Sergeant

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday again, you've certainly had an eventful life. The USS John King was a Charles F Adams class? The RAN had three of those, modified a little, and I spent a short time on one (HMAS Perth II) as a reservist in 1981. I made a simple model of her.

I've also made a small model of a Fletcher class and have a Gearing (which I believe USS Leary was) in the stash. Personal taste of course, but I think the USN destroyers from the Fletchers to the Charles F Adams in particular were good looking ships.     Regards, Jeff.

[Sergeant]

Jeff, you certainly know your ship classifications. I have looked for several years, but at the time could not find any Gearing or Adams class models to purchase. I planned to build a DDG-3 out of the DDG-2 Adams and I can’t recall what hull number was able to create DDR-879, but none were in stock or even in production about five years ago.

 

The Leary was originally a DD (destroyer) and when I was on aboard it was a DDR (radar picket destroyer). A few years ago I was looking for information online about this change when I found a YouTube video made by one of the officers while we were in Europe. The video is just over 18-minutes long, but I am in the video starting around 14:08 minutes. I was 17 years old at the time, a tall skinny Fireman (three red stripes) chewing my nails because there were French women on deck modeling clothing I had never seen on a Navy ship. I was a farm boy from Vancouver’s rural county and only in the Navy a few months, so this was new to me. Anyway here is the video link, see if you recognize me. I should tell you this video was originally made 59-years ago while on a Mediterranean deployment with the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Sergeant

[RainierHooker]

Greetings from Tacoma, about halfway between the two Vancouvers...

[stevehnz]

Hi Harold, greetings from New Zealand. I had no idea there was a US Vancouver, learnt something today. That sure is an interesting resume, you've seen  & been some interesting places. I'll look forward to some contributions from you. 

Steve.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Sergeant, thanks for the link. Regarding you I've identified two 'possibles'. At about 14.10 there's a guy who appears to have a red stripe on his sleeve and seen between the dancing couple (officer and the girl), and at 14.28 a guy chewing his nails while watching the girl in black. It must have been a great cruise. One thing I really liked about the video was the narrator. I have a hearing problem, I can't often understand what people are saying so I have trouble with conversations and I almost never watch movies any more. But that narrator spoke slowly and clearly - I understood everything he said.

     Regards, Jeff.

[Sergeant]

11 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Sergeant, thanks for the link. Regarding you I've identified two 'possibles'. At about 14.10 there's a guy who appears to have a red stripe on his sleeve and seen between the dancing couple (officer and the girl), and at 14.28 a guy chewing his nails while watching the girl in black. It must have been a great cruise. One thing I really liked about the video was the narrator. I have a hearing problem, I can't often understand what people are saying so I have trouble with conversations and I almost never watch movies any more. But that narrator spoke slowly and clearly - I understood everything he said.

     Regards, Jeff.

Hello RainerHooker from Tacoma and Steve from New Zealand. Jeff, I'm glad you enjoyed the video, I attached a screenshot, but I think you found me standing at the taffrail. I loved the Navy, but my rate (work) required me to be at sea all the time and that was no life for a family man. The Vietnam War was still raging when I finished my enlistment in the Navy, so I joined the US Army and stayed in the service until the end of the war in 1975.

 

Steve, I have been a fly fisherman most of my adult life and traveled to Canada and Mexico as well as many states in the continental US, but I have read that your country has some of the best fishing in the world. I never made it to New Zealand or Australia, but that would be the first item on my bucket list if I had one.

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Sergeant

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, yeah that's the second possible. 🙂 Regards, Jeff.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello Harold…  from 2000 miles east of you in Chicago, I salute your service sir. Im mostly aircraft with the odd piece of armor or sci-fi to break the single mindedness of my builds. 
 

Dennis

[Sergeant]

52 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Hello Harold…  from 2000 miles east of you in Chicago, I salute your service sir. Im mostly aircraft with the odd piece of armor or sci-fi to break the single mindedness of my builds. 
 

Dennis

Thank you Dennis. You have an interesting screen name Corsairfoxfouruncle, I bet there is a story behind that call-sign?

 

Harold

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

23 minutes ago, Sergeant said:

Thank you Dennis. You have an interesting screen name Corsairfoxfouruncle, I bet there is a story behind that call-sign?

 

Harold

Not as exciting as you would think. Its just the Phonetic description of my Favorite aircraft. Which happens to be the F4U Corsair. I chose to reverse it so no one would confuse it with the A-7 Corsair II. Though Oddly enough my real name is connected to Vietnam. I’m named after my uncle Dennis, sadly he was KIA in October of 67. Im sure you don't need to hear the whole story though. 

 

Dennis

[Sergeant]

Dennis, when I was in the Army my job was ‘RATT Team Chief’ which meant I was the Battalion Radio Sergeant or Radio Teletype Team Chief. The MOS for that job was 05F40, or zero5foxtrot, 40 just indicated supervisor. In military radio operation call-signs are normal to identify individuals or units and that is what I thought you were going to tell me.

 

The Navy F4U Corsair is also one of my favorite aircraft. My Aunt Rose was a First-class Petty Officer at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia. She supervised repair of Corsair and PBY instrument panels during the war.

 

My uncle Harold was KIA too. He died 17 December 1944 when the Avro Lancaster BP633 he was piloting crashed out side the town of Laon, France while returning from a bombing mission over Ulm, Germany. So no anytime you want to talk about what happened to your uncle Dennis feel free to message me or share it with the Forum. I spend a lot of my time with Vietnam veterans every week at the VA Hospital and American Legion.

 

Harold

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Sergeant

[opus999]

Hello and welcome from Richland, WA, where we get only 3 inches of rain a year!    I have an Uncle who lives in Vancouver WA and was in the Army Reserves down there until he retired about 10 years ago.  Nice city!

[Sergeant]

1 hour ago, opus999 said:

Hello and welcome from Richland, WA, where we get only 3 inches of rain a year!    I have an Uncle who lives in Vancouver WA and was in the Army Reserves down there until he retired about 10 years ago.  Nice city!

Hello to you in Richland. How is it possible your area only gets 3-inches of rain each year and we get 42-inches on average? Richland is only 225-miles from Vancouver, that is not fair. You must be in the shadow of some mountain?

 

Harold

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello Harold, 

      Ive told the story before here for others. My Uncle was safe at a Nike missile battery in Massachusetts. At the end of 66 his best friend was killed in country so he volunteered to go. When he arrived in April while still processing in, he was asked if he was interested in joining a special group. He said yes and was given a civilian passport and ticket to travel to Malaysia. Upon arriving he was enrolled into a Jungle warfare school operated by the British. It was run by the Royal Veterinary Corps and the Gurkha’s. For the next 8 weeks he and about 120 others were trained to do deep recon with dogs behind enemy lines. Upon graduation he was sent to Vietnam and assigned to Combat Tracker team 8 attached to the 1st Air Cav. For a few months all went ok but on October 11th his teams dog handler broke training and started advancing faster than the four cover men could keep up. My uncle doing his job advanced with him trying to protect him and the dog. They ultimately wound up 400 yards ahead of the other three team members. At this time they were ambushed by the enemy and killed. From descriptions of everything my uncle took a fatal round to his head but not before taking the fight to the enemy. We are not sure on everything as everything is post contact. However he earned a Bronze star and five other medals posthumously for his actions so it was something right. I have been inducted in as an honorary member and been to many reunions over the year's. I have added a link to his units website if you are interested. Warning there are graphic images of combat in the photo’s, please view them knowing this. 
 

 

Dennis

 

http://www.combattrackerteam.org/

 

My uncle Spec.4 Dennis Beuke is top center with his M-16 leaning on an angle magazine up. This is tracker team 8 in the local villiage “Bong Son” at a mom/pop soda stand taking a break.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Sergeant]

Dennis being named after a combat hero is a very special honor. In your life you carry on his memory and the sacrifices he chose to make for his team mates. I was also named after a combat hero who chose to give his life so three of seven crew members could live. Our uncles didn’t need to be in harms way, they chose the direction their lives ultimately took. We honor them every day by their memory.

 

One of the questions most family members ask about their loved ones, is what happened? In many cases there is little or no detailed information either because no one was left to tell the story, or it happened so fast that no one saw anything. Dennis I too have a report from surviving crew members. For many years the Air Ministry had the report marked secret, but it was finally declassified and release to public records.

 

Harold

 

 

 

Information below is a retype of the Air Ministry report above. HH Schopp was my uncle Harold, he was 26-years old when he died, an American Royal Canadian Air Force Lieutenant Flying Officer with the Royal Air Force 153 Squadron of Bomber Command under Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris. Uncle Harold was a Flight Sergeant Pilot in this photograph. Air Marshal Harris had ordered close formation bombing of Germany at night with Avro Lancaster bombers that did not have instruments able to determine where other aircraft were in their formation. Many mid-air collisions occurred in fog and bad weather during this period in the war.

 

153 Squadron Appendices November 1943 to April 1945

The National Archives AIR 27/1031, page 12

Report No. 1G/K 18

Position    Name                          Rank                     Experience     Fate

Pilot          H H Schopp                  F/O                       11 trips          Dead on ground

Nav           D G F Hetherington       F/O                       10 trips          Dead on ground

W/Op        R Taylor                       F/S (Now P/O)       10 trips          Unhurt (Since missing, 15/03/45)

F/Eng        E W Davies                   Sgt                        10 trips          Dead on ground

A/B           J D Leckie                     F/O                       10 trips          Dead on ground

M/U/G      A G Pratt                      Sgt (Now F/S)        10 trips          Unhurt

R/G           N Cuthbertson              Sgt                        10 trips          Unhurt (Since missing)

After successfully bombing the target, aircraft proceeded homeward on ordered route without incident until at approximately 2115 hours, position 4914N 0456E, height about 4000 feet, 150 R.A.S course 310o true, an unidentified and unobserved aircraft crashed into forward underside of 153/J. Immediately afterwards Captain was heard on intercom, to call three times, ‘Jump’ following which F/Eng asked ‘Are we OK’, to which Captain replied ’Emergency Jump’. Meantime the a/c appeared to hold a reasonably steady course but was losing height gradually. The rear gunner after acknowledging the order to jump left his turret, switched on light by rear fuselage door and put on his parachute. He was joined almost immediately by the M/U/G and the W/Op, who also had their parachutes in position, and whose movements were greatly facilitated by the fuselage door light being on.

These three members of crew then baled out successfully in the order M/U/G, R/G, W/op. and the M/U/G considers that not more than ½ min. had elapsed since the collision occurred. By the time the later was ready to jump aircraft had nose well down and was losing height and increasing speed rapidly; it also appeared to swing, causing W/Op at first attempt to be pushed back against the flare chute by the slipstream. He experienced no difficulty at his second attempt. It is estimated that the heights at which these members of the crew baled out were, about 3500, 3000 and 2000-2500 feeet respectively. All the above three members of the crew landed in shallow water and in swampy surroundings, but without injury of any kind.

All the survivors could state regarding the condition of the aircraft after collision was that all lights were apparently serviceable and that the pilot had the aircraft at least partially under control during the time they made their way to the fuselage door and baled out.

The W/Op however, as stated above, noticed by the time he left the aircraft that is was descending as an ever increasing angle and speed within 30 seconds of his baling out (i.e. about 1 minute after collision) it crashed and exploded on the ground at a position approximately 4915N 0454E. the same member of the crew (since missing) is stated to have told the M/U/G that the other aircraft involved dived straight to the ground and exploded after the collision, and the next day he identifies the wreckage – about 5 miles east of the wreckage of own aircraft – as another Lancaster (but noted no markings). At the time of the collision Fishpond was not in just as the W/Op was taking a broadcast and the direction of approach of the other aircraft is unknown to survivors.

In the opinion of the three survivors, the clear, and cool manner in which the Captain, F/O Schopp, Gave the order to jump, prevented any tendency to panic. There is no doubt that his quick appreciation of the situation, and presence of mind in temporarily retaining partial control of the aircraft, made it possible for at least some members of the crew to bale out in time.

Notes

P/O R Taylor, RCAF R181584, was killed on 15th March 1945 when Lancaster (NG488 (P4-A) went missing on an operation to Deurag oil plant, Misburg, pilot P/O E J Parker became a       POW the rest of the crew were killed

F/Sgt H Cuthbertson, RCAF R257639, was killed on 1st March 1945 when 153 Squadron Lancaster NG 184(P4-U), returning from Mannheim, exploded crossing over The Wash on its homeward flight, killing F/O Jack Rhodes and all his crew.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Sergeant

[Sergeant]

                                                 Remember this date: December 7, 1941

Edited December 7, 2021 by Sergeant

[opus999]

On 12/5/2021 at 5:27 PM, Sergeant said:

You must be in the shadow of some mountain?

Yeah, we're in the Cascade rain shadow.  It is very hot here in the summer too.  Sagebrush, tumbleweeds and sand here!