Rio Hato December 1989

marundel · Post by **marundel** » July 28th, 2008, 12:04 pm

Greetings Rangers. I am not a Ranger, nor am I Army. I was the navigator on Chalk 10 for the C-130 assault on Rio Hato during Just Cause. I'm retired from service now, and trying to locate photos anyone might have taken from that operation. In addition, we had one Ranger wounded on our chalk, landed at Howard and ground medevac'd. I've always wondered if he lived, and what his name was. I've got a companion post in Introductions that is 2 years old, and I deeply regret not following up on that thread sooner. I'm now retired and a civil servant at Aberdeen Proving Ground, although I live in western PA (yes, it's a helluva commute.) I have an AKO email address (c.miller26@us.army.mil), but I also check the Yahoo address in my profile regularly now that I am somewhat settled down. Any assistance is appreciated.

Christopher T. C. Miller
USAF (ret)
"the Dancing Bear"

rgrpuck · Post by **rgrpuck** » July 28th, 2008, 4:28 pm

Now there is twist. I pretty sure you will find someone on here that was on your chalk.

I was on chalk 12. It felt like the PDF was getting the windage and elevation down by the time I got over the DZ.

How about you tell the story from your point of view? that would be cool as hell.

RangerJurena · Post by **RangerJurena** » July 29th, 2008, 3:56 pm

Better yet, tell 'em how the Studs from 1/75 got to fly C-141's with plenty of leg room. Obviously, you fly boys knew who the super stars were...

rgrpuck · Post by **rgrpuck** » July 30th, 2008, 4:08 am

RangerJurena wrote:Better yet, tell 'em how the Studs from 1/75 got to fly C-141's with plenty of leg room. Obviously, you fly boys knew who the super stars were...

How many holes were in your 141 ?

ma91c1an · Post by **ma91c1an** » July 30th, 2008, 8:30 am

Ever since I stood up as the last man on the right side of my bird going into Point Salines, and looked up onto the flight deck to see the pilot's hands shaking as he held the bird on course with tracers lofting past the windscreens, I have had nothing but respect for AF special ops pilots.

Welcome aboard.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » July 30th, 2008, 10:15 am

Scuba Wino wrote:
rgrpuck wrote:How about you tell the story from your point of view? that would be cool as hell.
I hope it doesn't take TWO years this time.

He talks about it on his blog.

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/5955/

rgrpuck · Post by **rgrpuck** » July 30th, 2008, 11:54 am

From the time we noticed the ground fire to the time we made our escape, everyone was a little tense. We had packed some extra flack vests onboard, and the window nav and safety pilot were packing them into the kick windows and around the circuit breaker panels. It was funny watching window and safety fighting for standing room on top of the vests laying on the floor as we got closer to the field. The engineer and I were sitting on our steel pot helments, and SATCOM was bunched up in a ball on the lower bunk. Everyone was trying to look very small. Pete Blume was the AC, and you could hear his voice getting higher pitched and faster as we got closer to the zone. My head was buried in the scope with one hand on the antenna knob and one hand on the joystick. Everyone was hotmike, and the noise was terrible. The Rangers were singing in the back of the plane.

Fucking Classic!!!!

I bet it was the Ranger Creed as loud as possible.

ma91c1an · Post by **ma91c1an** » July 30th, 2008, 1:01 pm

rgrpuck wrote:The Rangers were singing in the back of the plane.

Fucking Classic!!!!

I bet it was the Ranger Creed as loud as possible.

Fucking beautiful.

What an immortal moment.

Pondwater · Post by **Pondwater** » July 31st, 2008, 8:00 pm

marundel wrote:In addition, we had one Ranger wounded on our chalk, landed at Howard and ground medevac'd. I've always wondered if he lived, and what his name was.

Don't know which bird he was on but I know of one guy who was wounded by ground fire in the aircraft from 3d at Rio Hato he survived and returned to Bn within a month or so. I believe he was a SSG at the time.

rgrpuck · Post by **rgrpuck** » August 1st, 2008, 5:01 am

I think our own Chuck Cooley was on that bird he would tell a story about the guy in front of him getting hit.....

marundel · Post by **marundel** » August 12th, 2008, 9:40 am

No crap - they were singing loud and strong. It was freakin' amazing to listen to... especially knowing what they were about to jump into. Thanks for pulling the quote for me.

I know the wounded Ranger wasn't the last one in the stick, 'cause there were a couple guys behind him who had to unhook to step over him. The bullet came through the left side of the plane, passed between the crew's parachutes, and dropped the Ranger like a sack of potatoes. When the LMs were closing up, they saw him trying to belly crawl to the door to get out. The wound was near his right scapula and the bullet had apparently lodged in his spine, making his legs useless.

...and I do believe it was 3/75 on our jump.

Looon · Post by **Looon** » August 12th, 2008, 10:01 am

Pondwater wrote:
marundel wrote:In addition, we had one Ranger wounded on our chalk, landed at Howard and ground medevac'd. I've always wondered if he lived, and what his name was.
Don't know which bird he was on but I know of one guy who was wounded by ground fire in the aircraft from 3d at Rio Hato he survived and returned to Bn within a month or so. I believe he was a SSG at the time.

And he was a fucking piece of shit.

His name was Weiling(sp?). I think he was in Cooley's plt. He was unhooked and didn't make the jump. After our return to the states, 3rd plt DX'd his ass because he was petioning the Army for his mustard stain eventhough he didn't make the jump. My plt ended up with him.

As soon as he got there, he started fucking with me. He was another one who didn't like my 'trip'.

He was later RFS'd for an OPSEC voilation.

Looon · Post by **Looon** » August 12th, 2008, 10:07 am

Ranger Luna wrote:
Pondwater wrote:
marundel wrote:In addition, we had one Ranger wounded on our chalk, landed at Howard and ground medevac'd. I've always wondered if he lived, and what his name was.
Don't know which bird he was on but I know of one guy who was wounded by ground fire in the aircraft from 3d at Rio Hato he survived and returned to Bn within a month or so. I believe he was a SSG at the time.
And he was a fucking piece of shit.

His name was Weiling(sp?). I think he was in Cooley's plt. He was unhooked and didn't make the jump. After our return to the states, 3rd plt DX'd his ass because he was petioning the Army for his mustard stain eventhough he didn't make the jump. My plt ended up with him.

As soon as he got there, he started fucking with me. He was another one who didn't like my 'trip'.

He was later RFS'd for an OPSEC voilation.

Where is Cooley anyway? He can verify what Im saying.

Looon · Post by **Looon** » August 12th, 2008, 10:28 am

Richard Wehling is the name.

ArmyRanger.com

Rio Hato December 1989

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