More detail on this person: OH-58 explosion in
flight near Grafenwohr, Germany while with CO A
501 Combat Aviation BN.Email dated 25 Aug 2001
titled CW3 Jim McCall died at 1300 25 Aug 1978,
near Grafenwohr, Germany from Mike Sloniker.
I have been thinking about Jim today, a lot. As
his company commander, I always made sure I
knew what missions the pilots were flying,
condition of their aircraft, and how they were
doing. The morning of Aug, 25, 1979, a Friday, I
had talked to Jim at base operations at Graf. He
was the pilot for the 2d Bde Cdr, and had been at
Graf for 2.5 weeks already. He wanted a break, so
I made arrangements for him, and his aircraft to
be replaced that afternoon after he had flown the
2d Bde Chaplain and an enlisted man back to their
homebase. The EM was a bit nervous because his
wife was already in the air to Germany and he was
to meet her at the large German airport at
Frankfurt. Around noon, I went to our Battalion
Headquarters (501st Avn Bn at Katterbach Army
Airfield) to hassle with the battalion staff. This
day was different. Ace Cozzalio, the Bn Operations
officer (S-3) said there was an OH 58 down near
Graf. I had a UH 1H that I flew that morning
standing by, so I launched with the company
(A/501st CAB) safety officer. Mistake number one.
NEVER fly to a crash site while the commander of
a company going to see a fresh crash site. Let the
warrants fly the aircraft. We got to the crash
site 25 minutes after Graf tower called on Guard
that an aircraft went down.
Jim's OH 58 tailrotor came apart 500 feet over a
lake where many Germans were vacationing. The
vertical fin, 90 deg gearbox also ripped off when
the TR departed the aircraft. The main rotor came
thru the cockpit twice, hitting Jim's feet before
mastbumping caused the main rotor to snap off.
When I got to the crash site, all three were dead
and in a German ambulance heading for the Army
installation at Graf.
Things took off at 1330. First of all, Jim's wife
worked in the hospital at Nurnburg that would have
to receive the body, we had to get word to the
Hospital commander to get her out of there. The 2d
Bde Cdr had to dispatch another chaplain to
Frankfurt to meet the 20 year old widow, who we
had NO CLUE what she looked like. I had an
excellent group of Captains, Warrants, and NCOs
working for me, who jumped in and took over. CPT
Greg Smith the survival assistance officer was
just outstanding in his efforts. We had Jim's
widow, Johnnie, and his 9 year old son, going back
to the States ASAP, the body going back ASAP,
all their possessions packed and secured by wives
from the company working with the packers and
movers, and their car back in port by Monday the
28th.
In Oct 1978, my maint officer, a CPT Green, was
leaving the Army and we gave him the entire packet
of information on how the Bell Helicopter parts
failed. Johnnie McCall reached an out of court
settlement in 1979 with Bell Helicopter Company
and started her own Real Estate company with the
funds. The son is now 32 years old. I was 33 on
Aug 27th 1978.
At 0300 on 29 Aug 68, at FSB Buell II barely north
of the Black Virgin mountain, Nui Ba Dinh, at Tay
Ninh, my battery was in the firebase with 3/13 FA
from the 25th Inf Div. My battery was C/2-319 FA,
101st Abn. Div. At 0300, the firebase was hit with
82mm mortars, followed by a ground attack that
seemed to be led by rocket propelled grenade
(RPG) gunners. Our ammo for self defense was the
"Beehive" round that fired "nails." We had never
fired the rounds in combat until that night. One
of the section chiefs on the guns swore after he
fired off a round into the NVA, they were able to
get up. He panicked, took out an HE round, cut the
fuze at .05 seconds, charge one and let it fly.
The nanosecond the round killed the tube, it
exploded out in a cone...and the NVA attacked
stopped. I was 23 years and two days old that day.
Jim McCall was born in 1948, so he tallied only 30
years on the planet. His son is now older than his
father will ever be. I learned a lot that night in
68, and much more that afternoon in 78. Lots of
things happened around my birthday. One of the
neatest, that I will never forget, was a surprise
birthday cake at Owego NY by my co workers. It
meant a lot. I feel sorry for folks that can't
remember the small things. The small things make
the difference.
From: Mike Sloniker
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