More detail on this person: Leon V LaShomb Extractions from a Fort Worth Star-Telegram news article, 3 March 1980 Leon Lashomb, a former Army helicopter pilot from San Antonio, was riding in the observation craft as part of a project to evaluate the effectiveness of the spray program. The aviation consultant said that pilots and navigators in the last week had spotted 40 large opium fields - their tell-tale rows giving them away from the air - among the rugged peaks of the sector. "The peasants start planting the fields at the top of the mountains, about 8,500 feet, where there is water, and come all the way down the ravines to 3,000 feet," Lashomb said. "It's all over the country, wherever there are mountains. "You'll never eradicate it completely, but this is a good program. I think they are stopping about 80 percent of the crop." * * * THE FORMER military aviator gave the Mexican spray pilots a high rating, and noted they earned little (between $600 and $1,000 monthly) for the risks they assume. "They don't pay them enough for the kind of flying they do," Lashomb said. "If the engine so much as sneezes or flames out, they bought the farm. In a single engine-copter, there's no way to walk away from a mechanical failure in this terrain." By noon the mission was over and Garcia had sprayed 16 fields, including one Lashomb calculated was nearly an acre. No shots had been fired at the spray ship or the observer craft that stayed overhead, making an endless circle of steep, right-hand turns to cover the other ship.
Burial information: Fort Sam Houston National Cem, San Antonio, TX
This information was last updated 02/20/2019
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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