Know Roy Heibel, Trans-quebec Helicopter Pilot?

[ArniePye]

Hello everyone:

If you are familiar with this story, feel free to add deteils. Here's what I remember:

Over dinner, Roy told me about one of his experiences during the famous evacuation from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon.

While outbound to an aircraft carrier with a load of people, Roy noticed another Huey following him. He tried contacting the crew on the radio but got no answer. He changed course and, sure enough, the other Huey followed him.

For these reasons (and perhaps others that I can't remember) Roy became convinced that this aircraft was being crewed by hostile forces bent on getting to the carrier so they could attack or crash the aircraft onto the carrier.

Not wanting to lead the enemy to the carrier, Roy flew a big dog-leg route. As expected the other Huey continued to follow him no matter where he went.

Just as fuel considerations got Roy thinking about making tracks for carrier, the other Huey ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean. Roy headed to the carrier with no further incident.

Anyone else familiar with this story?

ArniePye

 

[sharkbait]

Hello again:
Strangely enough Roy actually mentioned to me that he could not swim one night when we were talking about the "Boatlift" when Castro emptied the jails and let everyone depart for Florida - late 70's? It was the Medeien ( SP? pronounced Medi yeen Boatlift as I recall) I remember when I heard of Roy's passing and the fact of the matter one of my first thoughts was " Damn the boy couldn't swim!!!" I also worried about the weight of the bracelet and watch. I remember thinking it strange when he mentioned he could not swim but did not think much about it at the time. It rose to greater importance a few years later. TQNiece if you saw him swimming and waterskiing it is mucho strange that he said he could not - wierd! I can remember exactly where we were when he mentioned it - sitting at the Bar at the L'Enfer in Chibougamau.
As to the David Jansen story when Green Berets was filmed Roy was on the base ( In Florida I seem to remember ) and did some of the flying for it - can't remember if it was on camera or moving crews and actors around but he met David Jansen and they got along pretty well I guess- He did not say much about John Wayne - anyhoo that's how it was told to me.
Remember David Jansen in a great film about Helicopters called Birds of Prey - he flew a Hughes 500C and the bad guys had a Lama or an Allouette.
Jeepers this is all becoming long ago and far away is it not?

 

[twinstar_ca]

the bad guys in birds of prey flew a lama... it was a great movie...

on a more serious note, i've been reading this thread with rapt eyes and have to say that all of you have stories that no movie or novel could ever do justice to... and it makes me think that the way you are sharing with TQniece says loads of the kind of people you are and how you felt about her uncle... very, very classy comes to mind...

cap, i've never met you other than on here, but you sir, have my deepest respect for what you have accomplished and endured...

 

[transquebecniece]

ArniePye and sharkbait, there you are...I'm glad you came back! And welcome aboard, twinstar! I'm LOVING THIS! It's like hanging out with Roy and his buddies! You guys have great memories!

Well, ArniePye...I'm glad that other Huey ditched in the sea if it was a seized U.S. Huey! About Saigon, Roy rescued both Americans and South Vietnamese from various rooftops in Saigon and other pickup points. Though he did not rescue those from the top of the U.S. Embassy as most of the press focused on, he did evacuate U.S. and U.N. personnel from a six-story private apartment and looters were already on the second floor by the time the operation was completed. As a safety precaution, he tossed tear gas down the elevators and blocked a stairwell. Woo-hoo!

He was frustrated with public misconceptions concerning the evacuation. Charges that many South Vietnamese were left behind during the evacuation were unfounded. He witnessed first-hand South Vietnamese breaking down gates in order to loot who had no intention whatsoever of leaving and Roy always re-emphasized the difference between those who wanted to leave the country and those who had no desire to depart Saigon when given a voice.

He was one of 15 Air America pilots who participated inthe evacuation along with U.S. military pilots. Everytime I see old footage or old photos, I strain my eyeballs for a glimpse of who's in the cockpit, but haven't spotted him yet; there's ususally bad camera angles or the focus is on the pandemonium and rarely the pilot. And here's another story about Roy conserving fuel: The Huey helicopters he flew in the evacuation were designed to hold 11 passengers, excluding a crew of three and roughly 1,450 pounds of fuel. By conserving fuel, the capacity could be increased. If he and the other pilots could do without 200-300 pounds of fuel they could carry more people. And so they did!

As for the swimming thing, he actually told you he couldn't swim?! Wow. I'm dazed and confused. I'll have to ask my aunt; she'd know for sure. Funny that we've never talked about it in the family; at that time we thought he'd been killed in the crash and not via drowning. And after reality set in, it was just too painful for any of us to talk about. Too ironic to survive so many tours but die the way he did. I'm pretty sure he could swim though, but perhaps not an expert swimmer. I've treaded water for an hour, while disrobing and then redressing in a mountain lake in May, as a life-saving certification drill to be a youth camp counselo---and it kicked my butt. And though I never mastered the pretty freestyle or breast stroke, I could give swimming a fighting chance to save my life if I had to. But I know there were strong currents deep down below where the copter came to a rest and that's why it took four months to find his body. Regardless what skill-level swimmer Roy was, temps in Harrison Lake in February had to put him into shock and hypothermia pretty fast. And the more you work and wrestle to get free, the more energy you expen, hastennig the effects of hypothermia. Saw that on Discovery channel once and thought of him immediately. Had he come out of it alive though, he would have laughed at the joke about the watch and bracelet weighing him down. Good one, sharkbait. I can see why you were friends! And where in the heck is L'Enfer in Chibougamau?

As for The Green Beret, it was shot in 1967 (released in '68) and was Hollywood's first attempt to depict the controversial war that was still going on. Much of it was shot at Ft. Benning, GA (FL was close!), which is why you see pine trees in some of the background instead of jungle. I don't know either if he was transportation crew or on camera but I do remember him telling my Dad how cool it was hanging out with David Janssen and that the Duke always had too big an entourage around him to pay Roy or others much notice. But Roy was such a jokester that I was never really sure if that was a real story or prank...like the gold bracelet from a girlfriend. It's still a cool story, though. Not one of the Duke's better flicks but I like it for sentimental reasons; besides, I was in elementary school at that time and we learned the song in choir...way back when they used to teach things like patriotism in public schools...but that's a whole 'nother topic. I'll have to look into the Birds of Prey; pretty good flick, huh?

And twinstar, YOU are absolutely right. Truth is always better than fiction and always will be. AND these guys ARE a class act. AND I am a writer, historian and pretty good detective, but I'm fascinated in these stories and these wonderful people and all those unsung heroes of that bygone era purely for personal reasons...it affected my family, our history and our future and I want my four boys to know from whence they came. Good evening guys!

P.S. Photos...anyone got any good photos of Roy or you with Roy for my scrapbook? (Sorry, I had to ask; I'm a scrapbook artist, too! Boy, I sure look gift-horses in the mouth!)

 

[transquebecniece]

By the way, is Canada where all the Vietnam-era pilots who made it out alive went to work and play? Must've been good money! Did you guys train other pilots while working in Canada, too? I'm also interested in hearing from pilots that Roy trained if anyone's out there! I just don't ask for much, do I?

 

[GoldMember]

Wow. I just read the whole thread and I have to say that I'm sorry that I never met the man. Good luck in your quest tqniece.

 

[transquebecniece]

Thanks for visiting, Goldmember. Haven't met anyone yet who didn't like him; he was a likeable kinda guy.

 

[Biggles]

Hello Transquebecniece!

My my, haven't read a thread like this for a long time. Its incredible and quite moving. Just like Goldmember, I too am blown away by the stories brought forth. A few have yanked a tear from my eye (yeah - thanks to you Mr Cap! 😉 )

Your uncle was seemingly quite the man - sadly, I didn't get to know him. I however have the good fortune of knowing some that did. See, my beginnings with this heli industry (or should I say love affair) began with Trans Quebec in the early 80's. Sharkbait would be among the first that I met and till today, we share an amazing friendship. He, along with others (Agent XK47) have our monthly meets for more than 20 yrs (yeah- I know Sharky I haven't been faithful to our meets lately - but will get back on track soon !). Thats what happens in this industry, there's a bond that no words can correctly or with precision define the comraderie that "happens". The "Cap's, Blackmac's, CharlesR, among a whole bunch of others have given this industry a flavor unlike any other. Hey Cap, betchya Fred Wayte would know Roy, I should be seeing him next week, I'll ask (and let you know transquebecniece).

Anyhow, welcome aboard transquebecniece, thank you for sharing your uncle and the stories with us and all the best in your search for more.

Biggles

 

[transquebecniece]

Thanks, Biggles. Boy, I'd sure like to know the stories behind all these interesting Forum monikers you use! Easy to tell you guys are tight and it's no wonder; the daredevils who take to the air are a much smaller crowd than we ground huggers. You're bound to run into and bond with your own bold and beloved kind!

I've flown as a passenger countless times on airplanes, but no helicopters...not even sight-seeing tour ones. Don't like flying because I fear heights, thanks in part to Roy and my Dad. On a Ferris-wheel ride in Bemidji, MN, at the waterfront carnival on Lake Bemidji in the mid-1960s, I at the age of 6 or 7, sat between the two of them in the little bucket "so I'd be safe." We sat and waited at the very top while the wheel stopped to let more riders on at ground level and they rocked that sucker back and forth so much that I was looking at the lake, the crowd, the street, the buildings and the cars below upside down AND backwards in 180-degree panoramavision. I should've lurched on them both! Today, I probably would.

Speaking of kids and flying, here's a quote for you guys:
"Never stop being a kid. Never stop feeling and seeing and being excited with great things like air and engines and sounds of sunlight within you. Wear your little mask if you must to protect you from the world but if you let that kid disappear you are grown up and you are dead." — Richard Bach, 'Nothing by Chance,' 1963.

 

[cap]

twinstar_ca--------I didn't join to fight for Canada, the US or save anyones' rights or freedoms. I joined because I didn't know what I wanted to do yet. I was promised $125/mth, a rifle and a posting to Germany. Someone found out I had a Canadian Commercial and offered me a 700% raise per month to join something called the 38th Pursuit Squadron. This fool took the offer, it got joined to something called the 1st Air Cav and had me go a little farther "East" then I had been promised. Then they put me on a freighter for 2 weeks with my a/c and had me vomit over the guardrails for the whole time on the "bounding" Pacific Ocean on this damn freighter that would "roll on wet grass".

We all gotta be someplace and we all gotta make decisions......some make good ones and others...well they "stumble into circumstances". Since the military ain't a democracy you don't get to vote too often on your postings. If I had the chance and knew what was in store for me, I would have gone back home and chased girls around the back seat of my car (that's when cars actually had big back seats) 😀 . So much for "what I accomplished and endured".


TQniece ---------- next time you are viewing one of those films, look r-e-a-l close for an almost all white Huey with just a bit of dark color on the top part of it. You'll have to look closely and quick, but if/when you spot it, you're looking at your uncle. All of the shots were from far away so don't expect to see his face.....and don't go looking for an "Air America" decal or insignia on the a/c.

You make me feel very old and very far away, but thanks for letting me remember a first class "dude" and that "dude' couldn't have picked a better person to speak for him than you. Only problem is, that if he was here to witness all this, he would have left the room a long time ago for one of his "quiet moments to get away from all the B.S". 😀 😀

 

[transquebecniece]

Geez, cap. Sounds like you were initiated by fire. I'm sorry things didn't go the way you'd planned or hoped. You gotta admit a 700% pay increase would be pretty hard for anyone to turn down. But yeah, they kinda have control of you once you're in. I'll have to find your other Forum posts; sounds like you've had an interesting ride. And you're right: Roy would've left the room with my first posting. He didn't mind talking about himself when HE felt like it, but he didn't like other people talking about him like he wasn't there. But, very sadly, he isn't here anymore and you guys breathe life into him for me and my family once again for which we are grateful. And I know it was all long ago in a land far, far away but it's good to talk. There's comfort in old familiar places. Well, maybe not all the time, but atleast some of the time.

I'll look for that all-white Huey with a little bit dark on it, and I'll freeze frame and peel my eyeballs. But i won't hold out hope; I've known for decades it's really hard to see familiar faces in cockpits very well!

On the subject of helicopters, I have a photo of the Quasar copter (white/orange or white/red; can't tell the color; it's a Polaroid from 1981) that Roy went into Harrison Lake in after selvage recovered it and it's sitting up on a big dock pretty as you please. I was expecting to see a mangled mess but I didn't. It almost looked as though once it dried out a bit, it could take off again. But what I really enjoyed seeing was the name Quasar on the side. Until I'd seen the photo, I didn't know for which Canadian helicopter company he worked for at the time of his death. Not that it matters now anyway; it was always just a curiosity because he worked for a number of different companies in Canada.

From the girl with ten thousand questions: Do you know what work Roy did in Yukon, Northwest Territory and the Arctic? I remember once when my aunt was so worried about it (around the Arctic time) that she called Canadian and U.S. offices all over the place to find out if Roy was okay; she hadn't heard from him in a long time. After a number of weeks, he finally called her and said, "Hey, Sis. You gotta stop doing that. You're going to get me fired!" And he didn't tell her where he was or what he was doing; the Arctic only came up later. No idea the year. But again, another Roy curiosity.

Hey, cap. Here's a "feel old" for ya: My oldest son restored a 1980 Camero and proudly proclaimed it a "classic." That's the year I graduated high school! The morale of the story: you're only as young as you feel? Or, you're only as old as you feel? Aw, what the heck. Just feel!

 

[cap]

TQniece -------ahhhh hell, I'd have probably got into some other kinda trouble anyway. It cost "Uncle Sam" in the long run because he paid the costs for me to get my university degree many years later.

I mentioned the all-white Huey only because in all the films that were made, there is only one that appears consistently on the vast majority so it stands out from all the khaki and other dark colored ones. Rodger Ojeiro was not with him on that adventure. He was with him though when they were given orders to fly around shooting-up and destroying various static a/c and fields of huge power-generating diesel motors that were large enough to power a large town or military base. Rodger said that Roy had a grin on his face for the whole time as they were destroying Hercs, fighter a/c and fuel dumps.

I assume that you realize that Roy was not at the controls of that a/c when it went in and had no controls installed on his side? I trust that you knew that, otherwise I've "crossed a line" here by even mentioning it.

I don't know what Roy did in the Yukon, NWT or Arctic. I suspect that he may have worked for something called the Canadian Arctic Polar Shelf Program in the Arctic Islands because Quasar had the contract for that about that time-frame. The Program has been around for eons and continues to this day. You can find it on the internet under that heading, if you want to know a but more about it.

One of my hobbies for eons has been automobile restoration and "yes", anything of that year is defined as a "Classic". To be "Antique" requires quite a bit more age. My definition of old is when you can remember "when the air was clean and sex was dirty" 😀. So judging from your year of graduation, I'm sorry to inform you that you qualify and fall somewhere in between "Antique" and "Classic" 😀 😀 I thought I'd throw that comment in here because Roy's sense of humor and mine was the same and he'd appreciate that dig. He could say that with a straight face though.

 

[sharkbait]

TQNIECE:
Nice to see more people getting involved in this thread.
I notice you quote Richard Bach. Before he flew off to left field in his last couple of books he wrote some great stories. I highly recommend "Stranger to the ground." I am sure you have read "Chickenhawk " by Robert Masson which is about flying Hueys in Vietnam.
In the early and middle seventies a very large percentage of pilots on the James Bay project were American Vets.
The James bay project used a large amount of Helicopters and fixed wing a/c.
I recall that in sumer 1974 there were 125 helicopters working in the James Bay area - all on the same radio frequency - throw in a bunch of Beaver, Otter, Cessnas on floats- even a couple of Norseman! Add a gaggle of DC-3s and the odd Hercules and it was a crowded area. When the weather got bad it was positively fascinating. I remember 35 helicopters in one Camp LG-4 for lunch one day.
The reason we had so many Americans as helicopter pilots was that there were just not enough Canadian pilots around - being as we were transitioning to turbine powered a/c such as the Jetranger and Huey the only guys around with turbine time were Vietnam vets. There was still a lot of Helicopter work in the rest of Canada so there was a big shotrtage. Some of the guys had only been home for a couple of months so we had some real characters.
Where was the L'enfer in Chibougamau? Well it was a bar in a mining/lumber town in Northern Quebec called Chibougamau. It was located near the route of the powerlines from James Bay southwards to Southern Quebec and onwards to the US. A web search should gain some info on the place. Suffice it to say you never identified yourself as a pilot to any women you met - itinerant ditch digger OK - pilot or engineer- say goodnight! Smart girls there - once bit twice shy.
You might want to do a web search on a town called Matagami Quebec also. It was for a time TQH's main base until the head office moved to a small airport called Les Cedres near Montreal - the head office of Canadian Helicopters today.

PS - Biggles is a real nice person - just don't mention oysters or good wine- you've been warned.

 

[cap]

Sharkbait ------ just to make you feel a whole lot older, I'll update you on something that you may not be aware of..........Matagami is almost a ghost town and dying fast. You would never recognize it and as soon as it does become a ghost town you then will qualify for the Smithonian or the Musuem of Man and Nature yourself . 😀


Biggles ------ you bet Fred will remember Roy, as will another guy working for Eurocopter in Ft. Erie........Jack Pearson. Fred Misset at Bell/Mirobel as well as Mark Santee at Bell/Ft. Worth will also have fond memories of Roy. Roy even passed the "Jim Masse test" and that was reserved for very few pilots.

 

[transquebecniece]

Cap, I imagine after receiving fire through so many rescue missions that getting to fire on enemy aircraft or fields of anything "enemy" would be sweet retribution. I can just picture him with a Cheshire-cat grin, like a kid at a penny-arcade shooting gallery...knocking down all those tin ducks sitting in pretty rows. Easy targets. Yeah. I bet that was a great release!

And you didn't spill the beans about Roy not being at the controls when the Quasar went swimming. That's what made his death all so ironic and so surreal; to survive so many tours and walk away unscathed from some pretty hairy, risky work in Canada and then die training pilots. And when we heard the others made it out alive but Roy didn't; oh man, that hurt. We couldn't understand it. And we were all in the U.S.---so far away that all we could do was speculate. And with his work for AA, we even tossed around the notion of a cover-up. Heck, we were so disillusioned and delusional some family members believed they'd seen him! When you just don't get any answers for what seemed like an eternity, your mind tends to wander where it probably shouldn't, you know? We'd heard about the other pilots and that Roy wasn't at the controls long before they found Roy's body, so there was no closure for us...just lots of questions that went unanswered and waiting and waiting and waiting for word...any word...about Roy.

As incredulous as the whole Harrison Lake incident was, our family was glad for the families of the pilots who made it out alive. And I just heard about "the punch" this year. I also heard from another TQH pilot who was friends with Roy; he'd vowed to kill the pilot who was at the controls that fateful day if he ever met him. Fate would have it that they did meet a few years later and once the whole story was out, they had a good cry together. That tells me everything I need to know about Roy's friends and the other pilots in the Quasar copter on 15 Feb 81. I wish I could meet that pilot, or at the very least, talk to him. I would want him to know that our family harbors no ill will to him and never has. And I would hope that he has had a peaceful, productive and happy life. That's what Roy would've wanted for him. And me, too. That would be a helluva thing to have hanging over your head, wouldn't it?

It's all about destiny and fate though. To a certain degree we all control our own destiny by the very choices we make and the things we do and the chain reactions we cause. But fate...now that's another thing. Fate's elusive and we really have no say in the matter. Perhaps another friend of Roy's---they'd shared beers and stories at AA's bar at Udorn, the Orion Hotel bar in Laos bumped into each other at refueling pits at the CIA base at Long Tieng---said it best: "It has always been my contention that if you fly helicopters long enough you'll die in one." Perhaps some of you guys would beg to differ on that one. But clearly Roy's fate was in the cards that day. That's the long and short of it. The swimming thing still bugs me. I'll get an answer there!

I appreciate the info on the Canadian Arctic Polar Shelf Program; way back when, was it a hush-hush thing? Top secret or something? Could never figure out why Roy couldn't tell anyone where he was or what he was doing. I mean, he'd been done with AA for some time by then. Who knows; maybe he just wanted to be left alone!

Anyway....hmmm....so I'm somewhere between Antique and Classic. Yeah, I can hear the chuckles...my uncles, my dad and you guys, too! "Good one, Cap!" Gonna think of a good comeback for that one; you'll see...