| James Robert Bodish |
|
 |
 |
|
Jim and I arrived
in-county
at about the same time and we bunked together for our
first few
months in the 213th. I think Jim arrived a day before me.
We worked
for Sergeant Sexton in the maintenance platoon for two
months
and then volunteered for the flight platoon. Sergeant
Sexton didn't
want us to leave his group (his wisdom was much greater
than ours)
but we appealed to his sense of fairness and he let us go.
We
seldom flew together since we were both at the same level
but
I do recall one day Jim and I were together and we were
"bombing"
a river with cans of hydraulic fluid from about 5,000 feet
(hey,
flying around all day hauling trash got boring after
awhile!!).
Jim was lying on the ramp and let three cans fly. I was
watching
from the right door when, to our horror, a Huey came into
view
flying below us in the other direction. It seemed like the
cans
just missed the Huey by a few feet. Jim and I both had
quite an
adrenalin rush and we were quite content to just watch the
scenery
from then on.
Our company had one helicopter
that had
a blade strike and landed hard on some blivets. (Tail
#222)
Some time after it was repaired from that accident and
returned
to our company, I was flying on it as crew chief. I was
working
the hook when we were trying to pick up an APC. I say
"trying"
because we had just refueled and the weight was too much
for
us. We finally got it off the ground about 20 feet and
one of
the engines apparently blew and took out the hydraulics.
We
all made it out o.k. (the pilots were banged up pretty
well
- one had a broken leg, I think) and we were sitting
within
the armored group's circle listening to the ammo cook
off from
the fire consuming 222 when one of our sister ships
landed to
pick us up. As I was walking to the rear of the Chinook
I saw
that Jim was crewing it. I can't describe the feeling I
had
when I saw Jim and his look of concern.
For this 19 year old kid that had
just
had the most harrowing experience of his life, Jim's
smile and
slap on the back was like a mother's hug. I always
wished I
could have provided Jim the same comfort when his
helicopter
later crashed.
- Ron
Eckhart
|
|
|
JAMES ROBERT BODISH was born on April 18,
1951 and joined the Armed Forces while in PITTSBURGH, PA.
|
|
He served as a 67U20 in the Army, and
attained the rank of SP4/E4. He began a tour of duty on March 10, 1970.
|
|
On September 16, 1970, at the age of 19,
JAMES ROBERT BODISH perished in the service of our country in South
Vietnam, Tay Ninh.
|
|