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Lt. Col. Robert L. "Viper" Brown, USAF (Ret.)
(15 March 2009)
As for the Ravens of Team 2, we went on to other assignments, some good some bad, including tours of duty in South East Asia during the Vietnam War. Most of us survived to retire, but at this writing we have since lost two team members -- Al Hansen and Tom Dodds -- to health problems. The rest of us are scattered around the country, following various pursuits or just watching our grandchildren grow up and ourselves grow older. Few can fit into the old flight suits any more. It has been only recently that we have begun to make contact with each other again and talk about our time together as Team 2 on the Rivet Ball. King Hawes, who is a semi-professional photographer today, recalls the amazing sight of the aurora borealis during one of the flights and how everyone took turns going up into the Manual Tracker's dome to see the lights and take pictures. Bob Armentrout still has several of the Japanese green fishing net floats picked up on the beach at Shemya, along with a small black stone cutting blade from the time of the prehistoric Aleuts who passed along on their way to the North American continent. Several of us also have our handmade sheath knives Bob made from WWII vehicle leaf springs and brass fire hose fittings found in Shemya's "million dollar dump" and which we carried on the missions there and later in other places like Vietnam. Everyone still has a copy of the photograph of the Rivet Ball that hung in the crew lounge at Shemya which we all signed the day after the crash and wrote on the top, "We Walked Away." Most of us have the photo hanging on a wall along with the small piece of aircraft aluminum skin mounted on a simple wood plaque that John Achor gave everyone later as a memento of our last flight on the Ball.
Mostly we laugh at ourselves and what we did. Ed Wakeman and Russ Howard remember Al Hansen calmly standing at the rear escape hatch putting on his gloves before he would go down the escape rope, and how they regretted that they had not also done so when the rough hemp line peeled the skin off their hands. Russ also remembers when his hands were bandaged up like boxing gloves the rest of the team would deliberately leave him standing outside the Shemya messhall, unable to open the heavy doors, while everyone else went on in to eat. Russ also found the bandaged hands a challenge when going to the bathroom, and still says, "It was times like these that you found out who your real friends were." Brad Perry still swears that after the airplane came to a stop he heard the surf and was sure that we were in the water, but denies that he tried to get one of the life rafts out over the wing. Joe Hall still enjoys telling about those Bisons flying over him the next morning, and every year the Soviet bombers get a little lower. For years afterwards, Tom Dodds would always laugh about being blown out of the airplane while hanging onto the escape door. He and Art Reid also liked to tell about the Captain sitting between them who called out "Ride 'Em Cowboy!" when we went sailing over the edge of the runway.
We are all a little surprised when our children, who are now grown, show an interest in what we did or ask questions, but we are a little unsure about talking about our missions, as old habits of secrecy die hard. Much of what we experienced seems strange to us today, as if it were another world that was more than a little unreal. As we look at the old pictures and home movies from that time, the figures on film seem almost to be strangers, and even we are somewhat puzzled, and perhaps a little awed, by these younger versions of ourselves who smile at the camera and remind us of who we were back then at that time and in that place.
Robert L. "Viper" Brown
Ltc. USAF (Ret.)
Team-2, Rivet Ball
1968-69
ravensnest@ftc-i.net
