More detail on this person: Billy C. Bliss (Army Aviator and Vietnam Veteran) age 45 of Emmett,
ID employed by Woody Contractors This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site:
08/31/2024
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NTSB summary: Killed in Kaman HH43F during a long line logging operation when at a hover under
load a fatigue failure of the rotor transmission drive system caused main rotor pylon separation
followed by inverted crash into steep terrain along the Grande Ronde River near Anatone, WA. He
died 12 May 1993.
Strange things we realize so late in life. I was reviewing members of my flight school class on the
VHPA site. I knew when Billy showed up at my unit in country that I knew him from some where. Only
now do I realize we were in the same class. He had come to my unit to become a glamorous Loach
driver. I remember teaching him how to use the minigun. After talking my head off his first
attempt was better then my instruction to the point my cobra was giving him rave reviews. Anyway it
doesn't show a unit for him and he was a Kamakaze in C/3/17th CAV I think he got there in early 69.
I know we went on R&R in Hawaii in Sept 1969.
From: Chuck Emmons