lodestar

Aaaahh, That would be Gene Hasenfuss, captured and sang like a bird about the CIA's involvment in SE asia....he was a heavy drop rigger for Air America, CIA's little private airline.... Some of the tales he told would turn you in flip flops....bales of money, heroin all manner of contraband, guns, explosives all delivered to Laos and south vietnam and the sandunistas guerrillas in Nicarauga. Here's an excerpt from the net: HASENFUSS, THE KICKER Felix came back from his backyard of memories. He was at his office in Miami that October 5, in 1986. The telephone rang. On the line was a man in the communications center at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador. He reported that a C-123 aircraft was overdue, later the plane was listed as missing in action. (3) This was a transport that had been on a supply mission for the Nicaragua Democratic Front (FDN) an anti-Sandinista guerrilla group in the countryside of Nicaragua. The plane had been shot down by a SAM-7 missile. A four-man crew was on board: Bill Cooper, Buzz Sawyer, Eugene Hasenfuss and a Nicaraguan Contra soldier. His contact did not know what had happened to the crew, but Felix felt that his sixth sense was working right. Something was wrong with that flight. Eugene Hasenfuss, the "kicker" (cargo handler) of the crew, was the only person with a parachute, and he survived that historic trip. And Felix was in Miami, far from the battlefield. The Sandinista Army searched the jungle for possible survivors from the plane. Two days after the crash, a 17-year-old soldier found Hasenfuss asleep in his hammock and took him prisoner. On Cooper's body, the troops found a notebook with the name and telephone number of Max Gomez. Hasenfuss told his Cuban interrogators everything they wanted to know. Yes, he had been a kicker working for the CIA during the Vietnam war. Yes, he was working for some Americans in El Salvador. Yes, he met the man who was the boss of the operation. Yes, he could identify him in a picture. Yes, that was the picture of his boss: Max Gomez. (4) No, he didn't know his real name. No, the name Felix Ismael Rodriguez didn't ring any bell. In Havana, Minister of the Interior, General Jose Abrantes Fernandez, was very happy. His men in Nicaragua had scored a significant victory against the CIA. Hasenfuss had positively identified his boss. The jewel in the anti-guerrilla crown, the man of Langley had been identified: Felix Ismael Rodriguez. Pepe Abrantes called Fidel Castro and was told to see him as soon as possible. Fidel wanted to talk to Abrantes about the American mercenary and Rodriguez. The Cubans and the Sandinistas released Eugene Hasenfuss after a show trial. The Sandinista Military Tribunal found President Ronald Reagan, Director of Intelligence William J. Casey. (5)(6) and his man Felix I. Rodriguez guilty of waging an undeclared war against Nicaragua and in violation of the Boland Amendment. (7) When Felix learned of Hasenfuss' capture, he prepared for the worst: the enemy inside. He did not fear Managua or Moscow, but he feared Washington. Every day in Nicaragua more men wanted to join the Contra Army, every day the Sandinista regime was weaker. But Washington was the most dangerous place to wage a war. Everywhere a journalist, roadblocks manned by congressmen and senators, each one of them powerful and vindictive. Every member of Congress an expert, and veteran of battles on the most bloody mountain in the world: Capitol Hill. Winning the battle of Washington was a prelude to winning abroad. The Capitol Hill battle came in the form of a select committee of the Senate and the House in the Iran-Contra Hearings. His identification as Max Gomez, at the same time, was the end of Felix's anonymity. From now on, he would have to fight from a desk, by proxy in a hotel lobby or work without the protection of a false identity. His days were over as a field commander in his war against Havana. Felix Ramos Medina, Max Gomez, Atisor, Lucas, Gladiator, Francisco Suarez, Felix Alvarez, all were names in his file at the Cuban Direccion de Inteligencia (DI), those were files belonging to a glorious but distant past. In intelligence, yesterday is a distant past, a remote past. Whatever you did once, does not matter. The outcome cannot be repeated again. Felix remained in El Salvador, against the advice of many, after his identity was known. Cuba identified Felix in 1961 when he was part of the Cuban Infiltration teams that entered into the island prior Bay of Pigs. He was born on May 31, 1941 in the city of Havana. He came to study high school in the U.S. when Castro was fighting president Fulgencio Batista. After the Bay of Pigs invasion, Felix left Cuba via the Embassy of Venezuela where he had requested asylum. He joined the CIA and the U.S. Army. In 1967, he was part of the American group that was advising the Bolivians. After the capture of Che Guevara, he did many missions for the CIA. He served in Vietnam in a combat role, and in 1976 was retired from the CIA due to injuries to his back. He is married and has two children. This is a simplified biography. However, his records of the (DI) must be very thick. When an agent is identified with a picture and name in the operations zone, his life is not worth a dime. Havana had been on his tail since Che Guevara's death. Felix's life as a secret agent had taken him to Vietnam, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Lebanon . Every time Havana knew his location, an assassination team was sent to kill him. His luck let him escape attempts against his life in Vietnam and El Salvador. He escaped by a miracle a plane hijack in Georgia on January 7, 1971. Havana was obsessed with killing him for the death of Che Guevara. Paradoxically, Castro had sent Che to his death, but wanted to settle an account with the man who had tried to keep Che alive after his capture. Felix, upon hearing of the Hasenfuss capture, couldn't avoid a short period of introspection. He knew that his head would make a good trophy and conversation piece in Fidel's den. He could take precautions, but there was no way to avoid risks. He was not sure who would take care of his back. Washington was a big question mark. The enemies of the Reagan administration were trying by all means to get the President. The "old man" and his foxy CIA chief, Casey, were formidable opponents, and politicians knew that a fight with them could be fatal. But the people around the President were weaker and easy to shoot one by one. Felix was convinced that the Nicaraguan war could be won in the field but lost in Washington. He knew that he had a friend in Vice President George Bush and that the Bush staff would be supportive. Bush knew Washington inside out and not many people would dare to antagonize him. Here was a man of deceptive appearance: a man of steel wrapped in preppy clothes. But Bush was fighting for his political life also. you can google the name and find more, a lot of the information is inconsistent but basically true. Gene came back home after he was released and regaled us all with many tales of his adventures. As far as I remember, he and Bill eventually moved up north and ran a bar/restaurant owned by their parents. Tuna

Having done some cropdusting myself, I can understand the guy's flying under the wires, Usually, you plan ahead so that your spray reaches the outermost plants on the rows since the field owner will bitch if you don't get complete coverage. Quite often you can misjudge ever so slightly and get past the point of pullup/clear the wires so the easiest way is just go under them. Sometimes, when the hopper is chock full of spray, the aircraft is heavy and can actually stall if you try and pull that weight upsharply to clear lines, so, under you go. I have a suspicion though, if the guy was going over the wires when you saw him and came under when you were there, he was likely bored and wanted to scare the shit out of you, which it seems he did....spraying is booooring.....smelly and a lot of work on the stick. Tuna

Here's one for the books... I was flying jumpers for Bill Hassenfuss up at his Omro wisconsin DZ...he had a short grass strip, one runway with a set of powerlines on one end and a tree line on the other. At the time he was running a Cessna 190, kind of a ragged one but it flew. The day was cold, runway really slushy and muddy but enough to allow the 190 to take off and land. I had been dragged out of bed sunday morning to fly an early bird lift, it was probably about 9 am or so, did a preflight, gassed up and loaded up four jumpers, taxied out, did a runup and good to go. This particular 190 was a bit quirky and had a nasty habit of a momentary engine hiccup when you pulled up to clear the wires, the usual MO was get the tail up, pick up the gear off the ground, keep her level till you had enough airspeed to get over the wires and do a little pullup to clear them, go into a climb and continue. I did all that, but when I went to pull up to clear the wires, the stick was fucking stuck solid, nothing I could do to free it, instant pucker factor and no time to think, I flew UNDER the powerlines and managed to get some up elevator with the trim wheel and began a slow climb. Eventually after battering the stick, it begrudgingly broke free and we went up and made the jump. On the way up, the load of jumpers were wired and big eyed, asked the usual 20 questions since they had an inkling something caused the aircraft to go under the wires. We never did figure it out, unloaded the guys, went back to land, pulled up in the parking area, hopped out, walked back and there, packed around the elevator cables was a huge gob of mud. What we figured was that the mud had splashed up while taxiing, perhaps even from the day before ( although i didn't notice it in the walk around before flight.) and what with the near freezing temps and the extra factor of the takeoff prop blast, it had frozen solid.....so.....froze the controls enough to cause the problem. There was so little time to react before the wires were a problem and we were lucky enough to clear under them. Hasenfuss was mildly curious about the takeoff, but figured I was just being funny....(funny!!!! OH ya!!) and laughed about it, he was kinda loose now and then.... So there ya have it..... Tuna-Zhills

Once again Hooper's steel trap mind pulls up an obscure detail from the early 70's....as soon as i read that it instantly re-ocurred in my memory banks.....thanks Hoop, and Roger for digging that one up...it's like peices of a puzzle falling in place..... Yah, Rog, sunday nights in the loft were remembered as piles of rigs gathered up from the days jumping....i do remember working late every saturday to get rigs ready for the sunday jumps, missed half the fun at the DZ cause of that.....oh well, such is a riggers bane in life.

Roger, I think I was in error on the bags, the bags were mil spec, we somehow modified the cone/pin configuration on the closure. Still foggy in my mind but I think it had to do with one cone/pin instead of several....and may have involved the break cord to the apex's. Phew, it's been awhile.....

for sure Roger, as i recall the details of the jump they were going to tie the apex off with break cord to the railing, i vaguely remember the chute was in a big maybe paper bag and thrown after him as he left, I believe the reports were that he got line stretch and opening and hit about the same time, fortunately water is a bit forgiving. Billy was a definite risk taker, he always pushed the envelope beyond safe practices. I have forgotten but a website states: Despite a severe opening shock, the 1940s-50s Paratroopers were able to jump as low as 143 feet in training, the t-10's were 35 feet in diameter, when i was at the hills we had 20-30 student rigs and though my memory is foggy, believe we modded them to a bag deployment system, what were things like when you came to the loft? Jeff had a nice singer 97-10 for harness work and a couple double needle singer commercials and a single needle singer. I remember hooper getting one of the first harness/pack system i made there. I just recently heard from Gary Farnsworth...don't know if you remember that bunch from canada or not, a guy Terry, i recall went in up there.

roger, I'd forgotten about the skyway jump, i think me and a couple of others were down at the base of the bridge on a public fishing pier and were watching through binocs, he had no sooner hit the water than the catch boat grabbed him and took off....don't remember if he ever got arrested or even in trouble for the jump, I do remember some discussions about the jump and whether it would work or not....guess it did...... tuna

Yepper, I remember billy revis, he would always turn back to me when jumping out and crack a huge grin and flip me the bird, often on his back as he fell away from the aircraft. He was a daredevil and loved life....a bunch of us were out back by the gun bunker at the hills one day, and he totally got off on firing one of the automatic weapons, looked like a small Che Guevera....he loved to take my bonneville for a high speed spin on the back runway now and then....he is missed... Tuna

Nice pictures Pat, brought back a slew of memories...I remember Ray Duffy, Jeff had leased the 196 to Thacker for jumps at the fort bragg civilian dz, mostly en the evenings and on weekends... It was arranged that I fly it up there and stay in the Golden Knights barracs. Duffy was the sgnt. then and made me feel right at home, showed me my bunk and stated that PT started at 4:30 am and I would be expected to attend, chow at 6 am and back to the gym to work out...lol...i was a sore puppy for a few days as they started a two mile run every day. the big hullabaloo was that i was the only guy at bragg with a beard....there were so many rumors about what and who and why i was there, in the Goldens barracs it became difficult to go anywhere without guys asking for the real story...(was i special ops, cia, undercover etc etc....more guys bought me beers just to find out....) fun and games for sure... Anyway, Ray was always helpful and made me feel right at home, was a wicked guitar picker and a good guy...

I remember richard bach, at the time, i had the only riggers endorsment to pack seat packs in that neck of the woods and he used to show up in his aircraft when his was due, and wait while I packed it for him... He was usually a pretty self absorbed and generally non conversive while waiting, I knew about his book but never mentioned that or anything else regarding the book and just treated him like any other customer, that is with contempt, ridicule and a holier than thou attitude...worked for me...lol.... And...while i'm on the subject of packing reserves...anyone out there remember my personal "emergency kits" that I used to include in pack jobs, at the owners request, of course? tuna

Being an old fart and having ridden bikes for years without being on the ground....I prefer the ride below...mine is the last one on the right.....07 bonneville.... Nice bike you got though.....much better than a harley, for some reason harley drivers are a breed apart and have strange habits as a result. I have to admit owning a 68 xlch and enjoying it but having to work all week so it would run on the weekends...lol.... Anyway, glad you did the msf, it's one of the best ways to stay alive longer......your gear sounds great as well, as we always say ATGATT, all the gear, all the time......its the time you head out, because of some odd reason like its 90 degrees out and sweltering, that you leave the jacket and helmet home....that you're for sure gonna end up with road rash... Ride safe...

I have a sneaking suspicion that my right shoulder is visible in that same picture...I am headed out to the barn to see if i can find that black jacket full of patches.... Anyone remember the Boquor 8 man patches with the "P" in the middle to designate pilot? I think I may have one on the jacket, if so, i'll snap a pic and post it....lol.. tuna

Howard, Bumped across this picture.... I recognize Hank Ascuttio first one #7 is don fournier 10 is lou howell 2 is phil smith Count the legs of the guys to get the correct number... Tuna

Hey guys... Pat, Roger and 3331, I think I got this thread headed in the wrong direction inadvertently, maybe we should go back to "One for howard white" for any further discussions of golden oldies...lol.....OK? Thanks guys Tuna

Oh yeah... I remember now, you had the anorexic buck toothed skinny girlfriend with two first names...kinda like angle-jolly or something.......I think I have a picture of you both hugging a toilet at Maude's place one saturday evening when every one was playing "expired pismire"...... Tuna

thanks for the fill in on Helen....she certainly did relish her male friends...lol..... Sorry to hear about foggy....Don was quite the adventurer.....he and i were pretty close and i used to visit him now and then....he had a line up of all his crashed vehicles and airplanes in his yard, used to call it his "line of fame" I remember one crash he survived...he and a young lady were flying back from somewhere, at night and rather low to the ground, and she picked a nasty argument with him...subsequently he decided to sever the relationship on the spot, while flying low, and she began to get hysterical and threw herself on the stick, forcing the airplane down into a crash....he commented it was one breakup he never wanted to go through again....he was pretty stove up and I used to go and take care of him on my off days...fix him food, give him massages and hot towel treatments to loosen him up....I'll sure miss fog....one cool dude....but real as he could be.... I don't know for sure if he was involved in any of the "overseas" flights going on back then.....possible though.... Tuna

I was thinking about that last post last night and realized I had two Helen's mixed up. Helene tozier was a stewardess from the chicago area who was a pelvic affiliate of Jim Stoyas who was jumping at rainbow and the para ponderosa... Helen Tyson (nee Horlic) was married to Jerry Tyson, so, in fact, she would properly be Helen and not Helene. Sometimes the mind confuses the past..... tuna

Well, lets see Roger... Not likely I was back in wisconsin in 75..following the "bust" at the hills I had to move away to avoid the 24/7 surveillance I was under at the time, I had moved to Jacksonville and opened a gift shop business in a local mall there, then another one in another mall....around 77-78 I moved down to saint augustine and opened a tourist gift shop there, eventually married and had a daughter (79)....I'm still in saint augustine, retired, still riding triumph bonnevilles, fishing, gardening and chilling out....currently with a wonderful partner and doing pretty well with some physical restrictions....arthritis.....not fun.... I know things at the hills were a bit chaotic and different people ran rainbow and I think Hoop eventually ran the hills.... Funny you should remember Si Fraser...I had introduced Helene Tozier to him, she was a wonderful friend, and they ended up getting married, every time I saw them after that, they would both thank me for putting them together...I ran into them in Toronto some time later and they were having a great time. I had heard Si was killed but don't know what ever became of Helene...her parents were part of the Horlic Malted Milk empire in Racine Wisconsin, her dad was a hoot.....Helene was with Jerry Tyson, a photographer for a time, they split and he kept their child (girl i think). I think she never forgot me because I saved her and Jerry from certain death, they had come down to florida and had pulled up in my yard in the middle of the night...driving a vw bus, I came out, saw the bus and tried to wake them up....they wouldn't answer so I got the door open and found both of them almost dead...they had lit a catalytic heater and closed all the windows in the bus.....I realized they were in trouble and hauled them both out side on the ground....they revived slowly but almost died. That was a close one....I think I met them in chicago when ben laycsak, hank ascuitto and I started Bong air force base drop zone, the Para Ponderosa..... Tuna

Truthfully the only ones I remember are Larry Gosler and Mike Patterson(rumpson) but yep, zhills and the 196...one helluva aircraft....spotting was super easy with the plexi holes in front of the pilot's seat, they were even graduated. As I understood the aircraft was purchased from an aerial photograph outfit and used up in the northeast area. It had a huge camera mounted behind the seats, the port for which was covered over when we used it....there were also two tip tanks and a 40 gallon aux tank behind the firewall in back...that made it capable of over 1,000 mile range. Howard, I must have known you but don't remember you now....can you send a picture of yourself to remember you by? I came to the hills in 69 after flying for searles in wisconsin at the franklin dz.....he had purchased the hills and was looking for staff...I got my riggers license there and ran the loft for him packing student rigs and doing repairs in addition to flying loads....there were a few summers I ran the place by myself since jeff went up north and it was really slow in florida in the hot humid summers. For a long time we used a large building across from bob porters repair hangar with bunkrooms in either end and office and lounge in the middle. Paul Healy had an ongoing chess game on the lounge table and whenever whomever he was playing walked by, they would make a move, then when he walked by he would make one....he was a helluva chess player as I recall. Not sure when the packing area and office moved over by the peas, maybe someone can remember that, it was much more convenient that way. Does anyone remember one night when about 30 of us were out at the peas, smoking non domestic material and we all saw the ufo's? That was a mind blower.... Hmmmm....lots of memories...and good ones at that.... Tuna

Don't remember what year it was but I think maybe 70-71, we were in the middle of a Thanksgiving "Turkey Meet" and were using several DC-3's and a couple of twin beeches and the lodestar to do large star formations... Anyway, I can remember this old battered pick up truck pulling up in the parking lot, I was in the loft at the time, packing and doing rigger stuff, and this old farmer sticks his head in the door and wanted to talk to the owner, I quizzed him and it turns out he was out ploughing his field on his John Deere and this tail wheel slammed down in front of him...he calmly loaded it up, dragged it back, got it into his pickup truck and brought it to the obvious place.... This generated some pretty terse radio messages to the pilots, there were three DC-3's up at the time, until we actually had each aircraft go back and visually check to see if the tail wheels were in place...sure enough...one was missing! I think It was a guy named Eagle....flying...(for those of you who don't know, the tail wheel assembly is held in by one huge circlip that keeps it restrained and in the frame of the tail wheel assembly. This must have been the cause as we later figured out.) The load of jumpers went on out and Eagle brought the three down for a landing....he did a great job and the aircraft ended up doing a gentle ground loop in the soft sand adjacent to the runway...so there we were with an unsteerable aircraft in the middle of the meet. Heads were put together and a call went out over the PA system for everyone to come out to the aircraft....and then...believe it or not, the entire crowd picked up the tail, and pushed the aircraft down the runway, over to the hangar where a jack was put under the tail. I might add, three's have a skid on the tail for just that reason, there was no damage at all to the tail. Bob Porter somehow got the tail wheel back in place since we desperately needed the aircraft and within hours it was back in service..... If anyone remembers this, please correct any innacuracies about it, that was 35 years ago..... Tuna

Okay Howard, This one's for you.... What aircraft, who is in the pictures and where is it? Tuna

Hey Pat, I remember many gatherings at your place and that damn ceramic frog you used to pass off as real.... That would be Arch Deal, right....and you have to remember Carl Wade, his cameraman, carl and his wife are still in the st pete area, I bump into them frequently, he is often at some of the musical get togethers and festivals I attend...he plays a mean guitar.... I sure remember the hills...that was quite a time in my life and it's amazing how many of us have gotten together via this website....many thanks to the owners for that... I'm not flying much anymore, I have a bud with a citabria who takes me up now and then and there is an outfit that offers rides in an AT-6 Texan that will take you up and turn you loose on the controls... I remember you were the only guy I knew who could walk across the bottom of a swimming pool because your muscle density was such that you couldn't float....lol... Also remember many times you would earn beers by doing a standing backflip at Pat's place there in the hills... Good to get in touch, Pat...you take care.... Tuna

Hey Hoop! Give em hell dude...lol...for christ's sake don't get pissy and leave the forum....you have too much to offer to be absent....look how this forum has gotten us together, and many others from the old days at the hills....please don't go stomping off somewhere that we can't find you anymore....your posts are a bright spot in the fog.... Tuna....

Well, You're right about the fireworks...the night jumpers were all wearing caylume light sticks and someone on the ground, who shall remain nameless, decided that the bottle rockets he had might be fun....it was....nobody got pissed everyone had fun. Another time someone had discovered (mike patterson i think) the beer can/tennis ball shooter and it was put to use the same way except in the daytime....although a few got hit by the balls it wasn't a big deal and a lot of fun for those on the ground....the hills were crazy in those days...for sure... Tuna...Pilot/rigger zhills....

Here's an interesting one for you.... It was approximately 1967 or so, and at Aero Park airport in menomenee wisconsin. I had been flying jumpers all day in a cessna 182 with a snohomich door and it was nearing dusk, a favorite time for a bunch of hop-n-pops by the accuracy dudes. I had taken up a few loads and on one of them, a lady jumper,Jan, who was last out, as she stood on the step, she looked back at me with a little grin, jumped off and pulled almost simeltaneously. I watched as her srping loaded pilot chute hit the wing as she stretched out lines and began to fall. When I got to the ground, I looked her up and had a serious talk with her about doing that, knowing it would lead to trouble as some point, she seemed to think I was being picky but I told her, no more of that shit... Two loads later, she was back in the aircraft, first in, last out and as the other two jumped, she got on the step, looked over her shoulder and smiled at me, and pulled. With her back to me, i watched her rig open up and the pilot chute head right at me, it passed under my nose and dropped over the steering wheel and dangled down to the floor. In panic, I looked out the door at her, she was almost at total sleeve deployment but not into the lines yet. I reached down, grabbed the pilot chute and as I threw it out, she hit full line stretch and it was snatched from my hand, just that quick..... Had I been slower reacting, and she had been a millisecond slower, the pilot chute over the steering column would have cought on the steering shaft, bent it and likely caused a malfunction in steering resulting in a crash. I might add that I always wore a harness and always had a chest pack under the seat just in case, but it would not have been a fun thing. When I got to the ground, I blistered the air around her enough that a few guys had to pull me away from her. When I told the jumpmaster about the incident, he suspended her lift privileges for two weeks, when she finally returned, we had a sit down meeting wiith her, the jumpmaster, the owner of the field, the club president (Wisconsin Sky Divers) and was told that one more incident, no matter how small, she was out the door forever. Sometimes you get lucky..... Bill