Construction 5

PREVIOUS PAGE

After the disassembled TSQ-81 arrived at Udorn the containers were arranged in the order they were to be transported to Phou Pha Thi. They would be sent to the site on an anticipated need basis


Container arrivals at Phou Pha Thi Landing Zone	Tom Flaherty standing on container unhooking it from the Chinook

Keith Johnson Comments on these pictures: "The downdrafts were the most dangerous. I was unhooking a box once on top, the chopper came down on a downdraft and I was talking to the crew inside, then it lifted. Tom Flaherty almost got it hooking up a box on the strip below. Again a downdraft and he was trapped on top of the box. Luckily the Chinook just brushed him against the box. We only lost one box and that as it was coming in, and just fell the last few feet. Andy had insisted we use two cable clamps as we rigged them but someone had talked him into using one for awhile. Needless to say, we went back to two clamps. Once we were guiding a box in, one of us on each corner, and we got an updraft, Heinz Hardy was holding on and went right back up with the box. His legs swung under the box but being taller I didn't get pulled off my feet. I remember reaching over and grabbing Heinz by the belt and pulling him back as the box came back down." {Source: e-mail Keith Johnson to Ron Haden 7 Jul 2002}

Smaller items were transported by mule up to the installation site

(top to bottom)

Billy O'Dell

Andy Born

Johnny McLaughlin

Bob Destatte comments: "When I visited the site in December 1994 and July-August 1998, this area looked much the same as it did in 1967".
[Source: e-mail Bob Destatte to Ron Haden 4 January 2003]

Lt/Col Farnsworth comments: "On days weather precluded chopper arrival, and there were many such days, the men carried the building materials to the site brick by brick, item by item on a long, uphill, difficult trail".
{Source: ltr Lt/Col Farnsworth to Dr. Timothy Castle 28 August 2000}