Event on our ranch five years ago, October 11, 2010

[Soapweed]

I put this on Ranchers.Net back when it happened in October of 2005. Having messed up my earlier Photobuckets account, the pictures were no longer with the original post. With company visiting, I reloaded the photos so thought the rest of you might like to see them again.

Some of you may recall that last evening I mentioned that there were helicopters flying close to our ranch buildings. We watched them hover around, and then they went out of sight, though we could still hear them. Soon thereafter, our son returned from a ball game in Cody. He came excitedly up the steps and announced, "Do you know there are three big helicopters that have landed down in the meadow?"

It was real dark and foggy, but I told the Kosmo Kid, "Guess we have made peace with our Maker. Let's go see what's up." We jumped in his Blazer, and he let me drive. We drove up pretty close to the first helicopter, and a soldier wearing night goggles stopped us. Soon the commander, a Lieutenant Colonel, walked up out of the darkness to visit with us.

It seems that the foggy weather had the pilots worried about the high-dollar brand new Chinooks that they were in charge of. They had left Fort Campbell, Kentucky, earlier yesterday morning and had re-fueled in Topeka, Kansas. Their intended destination last night was Rapid City, where they had transportation and motel reservations. Originally there were four of the big Chinooks that landed on our meadow. The second one in line was instructed to again become airborne, and see if it could get through the poor visibility to the Martin, South Dakota, airport. It was too thick to set down in Martin, so the helicopter continued on to Rapid City, and wallowed through the fog to set down there.

The commander in charge came up to our house and used our telephone to get in touch with the Rapid City Airport. It was good news that the fourth helicopter had arrived safely there, but with the weather situation such as it was, the other 'copters felt it best to stay on the ground. The main reason for this was that they were brand new, and were not approved and certified to fly in such bad visibility. They are very capable of flying through the murk, but legally they were just not ready for the test. As the value of these big birds is between 80 and 85 MILLION dollars each, the risk was not worth it.

Eventual destination of these new Chinooks is in the Fort Lewis, Washington, area, where a new unit of these helicopters is being set up. There were 41 soldiers (none were females) traveling with the three helicopters that spent the night on our meadow. They all bedded down for the night in the copters, and made do with the supplies that were with them. Several cases of MRE's (meals ready to eat) kept them from getting hungry. Our contribution was several rolls of toilet paper, and a shovel for each helicopter. :? :wink:

With the value of these Chinooks calculated, when all four of them were landed on our meadow, there was a third of a billion dollars represented. Even after the one left, the other three added up to a quarter of a billion dollars. Payload on these big outfits was 26,000 pounds each. In other words, they could haul half of what a big semi-load of livestock would represent. The back door was big enough that several small cars could drive into the cargo area. It was all pretty impressive.

It was foggy until after ten o'clock this morning, but they were finally able to take off. Peach, Kosmo, and I went to Rapid City today, and as we went through Martin, we could see the big 'copters in the sky headed northwest. It didn't take long for them to pass us and disappear over the horizon. Anyway, this was the recent excitement for the Soapweed outfit, and at least the mystery from last night was solved.

One of three Chinook helicopters that spent the night on our meadow

Pretty big old whirlybird

Chinooks and fog can happen at the same time.

A million dollar kid and a quarter billion dollars worth of helicopters

Three Chinooks and a Soapweed

Fearless fighters in the fog

Bleary-eyed crew members

Resting after a slightly sleepless night

Munching MREs in the murky morning

Breakfast

Couple of the crew

Some of the crew with Peach and the Kosmo Kid

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Gosh has that really been 5 years ago? I remember when you posted this the first time. Wow!!!

 

[bverellen]

That is a neat story, Soap.

Those birds seem alot bigger than the UH-46's we used when I was in the service.

 

[Anonymous]

We've still got a few of all types of copters in the area as of today- because of last weeks disaster drills- and hazmat exercises...
The best part is that several of the "experts" in here for the drill got to take part in - and assist the local authorities and FBI in a take down of a good sized "meth lab" just across the line in the Reservation...