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Old 02-05-2018, 16:23   #1
JJ_BPK
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John Steinbeck's 1st Huey ride

Found on an FB page dedicated to the Huey

An eloquent description of flying in a Huey.

On 7 January 1967, John Steinbeck was at Pleiku, where he flew aboard a UH-1 Huey helicopter with D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry.

He wrote the following about the helicopter pilots:

“I wish I could tell you about these pilots. They make me sick with envy. They ride their vehicles the way a man controls a fine, well-trained quarter horse.

They weave along stream beds, rise like swallows to clear trees, they turn and twist and dip like swifts in the evening.

I watch their hands and feet on the controls, the delicacy of the coordination reminds me of the sure and seeming slow hands of (Pablo) Casals on the cello.

They are truly musicians’ hands and they play their controls like music and they dance them like ballerinas and they make me jealous because I want so much to do it.

Remember your child night dream of perfect flight free and wonderful?

It’s like that, and sadly I know I never can.

My hands are too old and forgetful to take orders from the command center, which speaks of updrafts and side winds, of drift and shift, or ground fire indicated by a tiny puff or flash, or a hit and all these commands must be obeyed by the musician's hands instantly and automatically.

I must take my longing out in admiration and the joy of seeing it.

Sorry about that leak of ecstasy, Alicia, but I had to get it out or burst.”
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Old 02-05-2018, 17:38   #2
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Interesting observation. Mine was more along the lines of, "Is that guy having a seizure?"

Pat
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Old 02-05-2018, 20:43   #3
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Cool post JJ. Any idea why he was in VN? USO thing?
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Old 02-06-2018, 06:09   #4
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Cool post JJ. Any idea why he was in VN? USO thing?
War Correspondent for Newsday

Quote:

Thomas E. Barden’s Steinbeck in Vietnam offers for the first time a complete collection of the dispatches Steinbeck wrote as a war correspondent for Newsday. Rejected by the military because of his reputation as a subversive, and reticent to document the war officially for the Johnson administration, Steinbeck saw in Newsday a unique opportunity to put his skills to use. Between December 1966 and May 1967, the sixty-four-year-old Steinbeck toured the major combat areas of South Vietnam and traveled to the north of Thailand and into Laos, documenting his experiences in a series of columns titled Letters to Alicia, in reference to Newsday publisher Harry F. Guggenheim’s deceased wife. His columns were controversial, coming at a time when opposition to the conflict was growing and even ardent supporters were beginning to question its course. As he dared to go into the field, rode in helicopter gunships, and even fired artillery pieces, many detractors called him a warmonger and worse. Readers today might be surprised that the celebrated author would risk his literary reputation to document such a divisive war, particularly at the end of his career.
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Old 02-06-2018, 06:10   #5
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Cool post JJ. Any idea why he was in VN? USO thing?
Found this info about his visit.


In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson asked John Steinbeck to visit South Vietnam and report to him personally on U.S. operations. (Steinbeck’s third wife, Elaine, and Lady Bird Johnson had been friends at college, and the Steinbecks were frequent visitors to the White House.) Steinbeck was reluctant to go to Vietnam on behalf of the president, but when the Long Island daily Newsday suggested that he travel throughout Southeast Asia as a roving reporter, he accepted. By that time, his two sons were serving in the Army. Between December 1966 and May 1967, Steinbeck wrote 86 stories for the newspaper. Those columns—collected in a book by the University of Virginia Press titled Steinbeck in Vietnam—were the last work to be published during Steinbeck’s lifetime.


https://www.airspacemag.com/military...etnam-3883122/
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Old 02-06-2018, 19:42   #6
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Thanks for the info. Never really knew much bout the guy but remember reading Grapes of Wrath years ago. Only book of his I have ever read that I recall.
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Old 02-06-2018, 20:22   #7
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Thanks for the info. Never really knew much bout the guy but remember reading Grapes of Wrath years ago. Only book of his I have ever read that I recall.
I read East of Eden alongside Journal of a Novel, his letters to his friend and editor as he was writing it. Pretty interesting to watch the process.

With Grapes of Wrath, his published journal is Working Days.

Pat
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Old 02-07-2018, 08:42   #8
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Thanks for the info. Never really knew much bout the guy but remember reading Grapes of Wrath years ago. Only book of his I have ever read that I recall.
I read Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" a while back. Definitely worth reading.
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