Lieutenant Colonel Randy Olson presented the film Fates Call about his Huey crew experiences in Vietnam.
Rett Benedict
The Catalina Mountains Satellite Chapter met on October 17, 2015, at the MountainView Clubhouse in SaddleBrooke. The speaker was Lieutenant Colonel Randall (Randy) Olson, Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam and an Air Force T-37 and A-10 pilot and retired in 2000 with 28 years of service and over 6500 flying hours. His presentation included a film entitled Fates Call about his Huey crew experiences in Vietnam and their reunion 43 years later.
In Vietnam, as a warrant officer, LTC Olson commanded the “Super Slick” Huey with a crew of four in Vietnam accumulating 1420 combat flying hours in one year flying mostly the nighttime warrior missions of combat assault and emergency rescue. In the film, the crew chief described many of their missions, including one nighttime rescue where LTC Olson hovered the Huey about three feet off the ground while the crew filled the ship with wounded ground troops, the max load plus, and then flew them safely to the base and medical help.
In 2012 their crew chief learned that their “Super Slick” aircraft had been restored and put on display at the Marion County Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Fairmont, West Virginia. As a result, the team held a reunion after 43 years and filmed a documentary of their experiences in Vietnam and their reunion in 2013. It was a moving film and was highly rated at the GI Film Festival in Washington D.C. in 2014. Our members greatly appreciated sharing the history and reunion of LTC Olson and his very capable crew.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, November 21 at 11:30 a.m. in the East Room, MountainView Country Club, 38759 S. MountainView Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85739, phone 818-1000. Lunch can be ordered starting at 11:30 a.m. The meeting will begin at noon with Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu as our speaker. Subsequent meetings will be held on the third Saturday of each month at the same time and location.
Sheriff Babeu entered politics early in his career by being elected to the City Council of North Adams, Massachusetts, at age 18. Sheriff Babeu was elected in 2008 as the first Republican Sheriff of Pinal County. He was recognized by his peers as “America’s Sheriff of the Year” in 2011 and currently serves as the Vice President of the Arizona Sheriffs Association. He joined the National Guard as a Private and retired after 20 years as a Major. During his career he served in Iraq and supported Border Patrol operations as commander of Operation Jump Start in southwest Arizona.
For additional information, contact Colonel Rett Benedict at 825-7424, [email protected] or Colonel Tom Owens, MOAA Tucson President, at 760-3476, [email protected]. Check the website: www.tucsonmoaa.com for more information.
The Catalina Mountains satellite encompasses northwest Tucson to include Catalina, Oracle, parts of Oro Valley and Marana, SaddleBrooke and Sun City.
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a nonprofit veterans’ service association dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and to preserve the earned entitlements of members of the uniformed services and their families and survivors.