01-07-2005, 12:16
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Williamston, SC
Posts: 2,018
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Thrillng Rides.
Reading Bru's latest reminds me of several interesting rides I have had. I would bet we could make this into an interesting thread. Has anyone out there been snatched up by a Sky Hook, aka Fulton Recovery System? I always wanted to but was never chosen. My ream set up a few extractions but "VIPs" seemed to get the ride.
Once we extracted a downed chopper pilot by hooking his seat up to the ropes. He donated the seat to us and you may spot it omongst the "patio furniture" in some of my web site pictures. 
Last edited by QRQ 30; 01-07-2005 at 12:18.
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QRQ 30 is offline
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01-07-2005, 12:21
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#2
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Consigliere
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland (at last)
Posts: 8,845
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Excellent topic!
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Roguish Lawyer is offline
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01-07-2005, 15:35
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Vermont
Posts: 3,093
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Never rode one but almost got myself court-martialed over one. Never really understood why anyone had to practice something that you had to do right the first time and over which you had no control. When they removed your only chance to recover from an USAF screw up by taking away the reserve attached to the harness they really left you "dangling". We lost a good man during a Flintlock exercise just because of that.
Jack Moroney
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Wenn einer von uns fallen sollt, der Andere steht für zwei.
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Jack Moroney (RIP) is offline
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01-07-2005, 16:34
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Williamston, SC
Posts: 2,018
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My one and only McGuire Rig ride.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the McGuire Rig, it was the precursor of the STABO rig. It was named for the man who developed it and I think he was in the Delta Project (CRS). It simply consisted of a loop of 2 inch webbing at the end of a rope and a wrist loop for "safety".To penetrate jungle it was attached to a ruck full of rocks or a sand bag.
We were at the top of a hill and surrounded by some PO'ed folks we had screwed over in the norning. There were no LZ's and our only option was to get out on "strings". The first slick made a serious attempt to cut his way through the canopy with his rotor blades. I never figured if some of our pilots were all balls or totally lacking in sense -- probably both. He finally had to drop the rigs. As he lifted us out I believe one leg became slightly longer than the other. I wasn't sure which was going to give first, my leg or a vine that had caught it. Luckily the vine finally snaped. To try to prevent uncontrolled spinning we were to grasp each other's harness. Being somewhat larger than my "Yards" I managed to grab a pair of legs.
I looked down and saw the bad guys all over the top of the hilll. We had gotten out just in the nick of time. We also took some fire which made the ride even more "exciting". The preferred procedure was to lift a team out and then set them down as soon as it was safe and get them into the choppers. For some reason they took us all of the way back to Kontum. After a few minutes the pain was gone. As they were setting us down I watched my feet touch the ground but felt nothing. I ended up on my backside and it was a while before I could walk unassisted.
It was a very scary and exciting ride but beat the $hit out of the alternative. We were snatched right out of the jaws of the tiger. 
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QRQ 30 is offline
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01-07-2005, 18:28
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#5
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: DFW Texas Area
Posts: 4,741
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The Ride !!
While at One-Zero School at Camp Long Thanh, there was a leg S4 Captain who had been bugging the Instructors for months to let him go for a Stabo Ride. The day our Class got to go on a few rides, to learn how to safely use the rigs, our Instructors spied said Capt. with a rig and talking with the Helicopter Pilots. After we were through, and headed back to the classroom, the Instructors stopped us and said to wait a minute. After we heard the Choppers take off, we were called back to the heli-pad and there went the Captain straight up a few hundred feet. The chopper, with him in tow, then pitched over and sort of dove a little to gain translational lift. The Capt. was screaming his head off. He was then flown around the camp a few times and then the Instructors, laughing their asses off, said WATCH THIS !!! The chopper took him almost out of sight, to where the 25th ID "Waste Treatment Pond" was located, descended, then proceeded to DRAG THE CAPT THROUGH IT !!!! They brought him back, set him down to the side of the pad and cut the rope then left. !!! His Jungle Fatigue Pockets were BULGING !!! He was totally covered with extremely smelly waste.
Back in the classrooms we found out that the instructors had made a deal with the Pilot to give him the extra special ride. Before we graduated, said Captain had requested and was granted a transfer to a leg line unit.
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Martin sends.
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Ambush Master is offline
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01-07-2005, 18:33
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#6
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Consigliere
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland (at last)
Posts: 8,845
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ambush Master
While at One-Zero School at Camp Long Thanh, there was a leg S4 Captain who had been bugging the Instructors for months to let him go for a Stabo Ride. The day our Class got to go on a few rides, to learn how to safely use the rigs, our Instructors spied said Capt. with a rig and talking with the Helicopter Pilots. After we were through, and headed back to the classroom, the Instructors stopped us and said to wait a minute. After we heard the Choppers take off, we were called back to the heli-pad and there went the Captain straight up a few hundred feet. The chopper, with him in tow, then pitched over and sort of dove a little to gain translational lift. The Capt. was screaming his head off. He was then flown around the camp a few times and then the Instructors, laughing their asses off, said WATCH THIS !!! The chopper took him almost out of sight, to where the 25th ID "Waste Treatment Pond" was located, descended, then proceeded to DRAG THE CAPT THROUGH IT !!!! They brought him back, set him down to the side of the pad and cut the rope then left. !!! His Jungle Fatigue Pockets were BULGING !!! He was totally covered with extremely smelly waste.
Back in the classrooms we found out that the instructors had made a deal with the Pilot to give him the extra special ride. Before we graduated, said Captain had requested and was granted a transfer to a leg line unit.
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LMAOROTF!!! Great story, AM!
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Roguish Lawyer is offline
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01-07-2005, 19:37
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#7
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,829
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But was he a good S-4?
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-09-2005, 23:03
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#8
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 178
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ambush Master
While at One-Zero School at Camp Long Thanh, there was a leg S4 Captain who had been bugging the Instructors for months to let him go for a Stabo Ride. The day our Class got to go on a few rides, to learn how to safely use the rigs, our Instructors spied said Capt. with a rig and talking with the Helicopter Pilots. After we were through, and headed back to the classroom, the Instructors stopped us and said to wait a minute. After we heard the Choppers take off, we were called back to the heli-pad and there went the Captain straight up a few hundred feet. The chopper, with him in tow, then pitched over and sort of dove a little to gain translational lift. The Capt. was screaming his head off. He was then flown around the camp a few times and then the Instructors, laughing their asses off, said WATCH THIS !!! The chopper took him almost out of sight, to where the 25th ID "Waste Treatment Pond" was located, descended, then proceeded to DRAG THE CAPT THROUGH IT !!!! They brought him back, set him down to the side of the pad and cut the rope then left. !!! His Jungle Fatigue Pockets were BULGING !!! He was totally covered with extremely smelly waste.
Back in the classrooms we found out that the instructors had made a deal with the Pilot to give him the extra special ride. Before we graduated, said Captain had requested and was granted a transfer to a leg line unit.
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We used to do the same thing at Mott Lake during Helicopter Ops. We'd take students up 100 ft to rapell out of the chopper, then they'd hook up into STABO rigs for a ride around the lake area. If the weather was ok, the pilots'd take the students for a dip in the lake.
Good times!!!!!!! 
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"Mistakes in combat are unpardonable sins, punishable by death."
Joe Walker, 1-0, RT California
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TerribleTobyt (RIP) is offline
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03-27-2005, 20:17
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#9
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Castle Rock, CO
Posts: 2,531
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jack Moroney
We lost a good man during a Flintlock exercise just because of that.
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Cliff Strickland, FL 1982...3rd Bn 10th SFGA...i was one of the guys that lost the lottery to get picked up...
__________________
""A man must know his destiny. if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder. if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.""- GEN George S. Patton
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lksteve is offline
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05-15-2005, 16:18
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#10
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: LA
Posts: 1,653
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I would have ridden the Fulton if asked, with a square as back up. I bet it's a helluva ride.
__________________
Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.
Still want to quit?
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NousDefionsDoc is offline
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05-15-2005, 18:12
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#11
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Castle Rock, CO
Posts: 2,531
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
I would have ridden the Fulton if asked, with a square as back up. I bet it's a helluva ride.
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i bet it is, too...but i think the back up was problematic to the AF...
__________________
""A man must know his destiny. if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder. if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.""- GEN George S. Patton
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lksteve is offline
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06-18-2006, 08:30
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#12
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"SF Loggie"
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 250
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Do I Remember Right?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by lksteve
Cliff Strickland, FL 1982...3rd Bn 10th SFGA...i was one of the guys that lost the lottery to get picked up...
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If memory serves, been failing lately, was that the incident that caused all live training Fulton ops to be stopped?
By the way, S-4's are people with feelings, too; even flash/tab-qualified ones.
P.S. I was at a State of Florida surplus property point in Marianna a few years ago and saw components of several actual Fulton rigs. I don't know what they they were doing there and not in a PDO yard.
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Soft Target is offline
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06-18-2006, 12:51
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#13
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Vermont
Posts: 3,093
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Soft Target
If memory serves, been failing lately, was that the incident that caused all live training Fulton ops to be stopped?
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Yep. I tried to get the use of it modified to realistic scenarios in 80 and it almost resulted in a courts-martial!
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Wenn einer von uns fallen sollt, der Andere steht für zwei.
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Jack Moroney (RIP) is offline
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