Editor’s note: This writeup was provided by Vader resident and Chronicle subscriber Thomas Hicker, who has highlighted interesting community members over the years. To submit community news to The Chronicle, email news@chronline.com.
Curtis Huntley was born at St. Helen's Hospital in Chehalis and lived in Winlock 55 years.
Upon graduation from Winlock schools, he worked at Shaker Town shake mill from age 18 to 19.
Curtis was drafted in 1969 at age 19 for a two-year enlistment. First came Fort Lewis, and then an aviation training school at Fort Eustis, West Virginia, where he graduated with honors. Then he served in Vietnam for 11 months as a helicopter chief and door gunner at the tender age of 20.
He wasn't old enough to drink beer, but he was old enough to fight in a war.
As a door gunner in his helicopter, he handled an M-60 machine gun and an M-16 rifle. He had over 6,000 hours of flight time and learned how to fly the helicopter in case his pilot was in some way disabled. His pilot, by the way, was a professional football player before entering the service. As a part of his mission as door gunner, Curt would spot where ground fire was coming from and drop smoke bombs on those areas. His helicopter would then do a hasty retreat, allowing the Cobra Helicopters to swoop in with their unique fire power.
One day, his helicopter was called on to land on a naval ship, and Curt was treated like a king by the crew, who asked Curt if there was anything he would like. Curt replied, “I would like a banana cream pie served on a real plate and a real fork.” Curt mentioned all of their meals were on paper plates and plastic forks.
It turns out Curt's pilot was somewhat of a practical joker, and the ship's crew found it out the hard way. The pilot took off, with Curt still on board the ship, scarfing down that cream pie. The pilot then came around and, at just above ocean level, flew straight at the ship, pulling out just in time to fly just above the ship's deck. Those sailors on deck at the time all hit the deck. Those helicopters are pretty noisy (but hey, you gotta have a little fun once in a while to help combat the horror of war).
In 1970, they flew into Cambodia to search for a helicopter pilot that was shot down over the river, but nothing was found. Their helicopter had to dodge rockets and ground fire the best they could and, at times, they spotted caches of Viet Cong weapons. The Viet Cong left notes at their caches for their own people that read, “if you shoot down the little helicopter, watch out for the big one (Cobra).”
Surprisingly enough, Curt was able to attend church in a few of the cities in which a chaplain would be flown in near a vacated church.
Curt felt the Lord kept them safe through their 11 months of missions in Vietnam.
