long time no see !

[Joseph B. Wegener]

My name is J.B.Wegener , my nickname is "Wheels" and I was the squadron scrounge for HMM-165 from around May of 1968 to Dec 14th 68. My OIC was Capt. Larry Adams and I was shot down in Happy Valley on Oct. 10th 1968 ...any of you flyboys on board ?

SF
WHEELS

[Joe Reed]

Who were you flying with when you went down? I was crewing YW-11 and we went over and plucked out a crew that lost a flight boost and landed hard... (from memory) time frame is about right..we were flying out of Marble Mountain...Took a recovery team back that p.m. That you? Where are you from?

[Joseph B. Wegener]

while inserting recon team from hill327 that was lead by 1st LT Art Weber who is now a retired Col, and teaches at the War College !

Our Crew Cheif was Fred M ? .....got as blank going for me now...anyway it was the morning of Oct. 10th 68 and wew were pulled off of a resupply mission to Hi Van pass and got hit while going into a landing zone bombed out by the AirForce....it was one of there birds that went down and we were trying to get the black box and see if anyone lived ! Tenn Crewd the bird that picked of up !

SF
WHEELS

[Joe Reed]

May have been Fred Wayand? Don't know who Tenn was....

[Joseph B. Wegener]

Yes Fred was our crew chief when we were shot down !!!

Tenn was Grits...do you remember Grits ?

SF
WHEELS

May have been Fred Wayand? Don't know who Tenn was....

[cnowotny]

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/09/N...e.php?ID=69597

I believe that I know who you are looking for and had the nick name of Grit. Unfortunately it was Scotty Brank. In talking to Jimmy Tyler today he started reminiscing and called his good friend "Grit”. Jim said he could not understand the how and why Scott Brank would do what he allegedly did last Tuesday as according to Jim he was the kind of guy who shortly after moving to Erwin Tenn, crashed his old Japanese car crumpling it and was being pinned inside. Jim said that Scott in extricating himself almostsevered his foot and toes. Jim advised that Scott pulled himself free and then wrapped his almost severed foot in duct tape and walked over five miles along the Rural Tennessee roads to get aid for himself.

As Jim was telling me this story I recalled reading this inquiry and thread about someone wanting to know who [SIZE="4"]“Grit”[/SIZE] was in HMM 165 earlier today when I learned of Scott’s death.

[cnowotny]

Joe,

Grits or Grit, was Scott Brank who died last Tuesday of an apparent gunshot wound and arson of his home in Tenn. I tried posting earlier but hit some SNAFU. I wrote...

I believe that I know who had the nick name of Grit. Unfortunately it was Scotty Brank. In talking to Jimmy Tyler today he started reminiscing and called his good friend "Grit”. Jim said he could not understand the how and why Scott Brank would do what he allegedly did last Tuesday when he was the kind of guy who shortly after moving to Erwin Scott crashed his old Japanese car crumpling it was pinned inside. Scott extricated himself ands almostsevered his foot and toes. Jim advised that Scott pulled himself free and then wrapped his almost severed foot in duct tape and walked over five miles along the Rural Tennessee roads to get aid for himself.

As Jim was telling me this story I recalled reading this inquiry and someone wanting to know who “Grit” was a Crew Chief in HMM 165 earlier today when I learned of Scott’s death.

[Joe Reed]

Chuck,
Many of us from the south were nicknamed "Grit" for at least part of the time, but with Scott, it stuck! I also knew Gary Brown, I believe he was my section leader when I returned from RVN to LTA, HMM-163. You mentioned him in another thread, maybe a PM.
Sad news for us all that knew Scott. May have been the result of being a cancer sufferer....RIP Scott