{"id":1209,"date":"2024-05-17T12:07:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T19:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/187thahc.net\/wp\/?p=1209"},"modified":"2024-09-13T14:39:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:39:50","slug":"bad-bill-bauman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/?p=1209","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bill Bauman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u00a0was a helicopter pilot with the 187th AHC, I think we had the most\u00a0extraordinary commanding officer in the entire military. \u00a0 I must say, that to\u00a0this day, I have never had a CO, Boss, Associate, Partner, anything to compare\u00a0with Bad Bill Bauman,\u00a0Blackhawk 6<\/em>. Major Bauman had made it up through the\u00a0ranks to Sergeant before he went to West Point.\u00a0 He knew the Army from both\u00a0sides, he had gray hair and a voice of pure gravel, I was Major Bauman’s Peter\u00a0Pilot. I loved my job. Major Bauman led from the lead helicopter, not the C&C\u00a0over head. \u00a0 So flying with Major Bauman was the best for a young Warrant\u00a0Officer, everyone checked in with Blackhawk 6, I was in the middle of the\u00a0action all the time just where I liked it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major Bauman had built his reputation as a strong leader, and he always took\u00a0care of the enlisted men first.\u00a0 When the Blackhawks moved to Tay Ninh, the\u00a0Officers slept in dirt\/mud floored tents until all the enlisted quarters were\u00a0built.\u00a0 Fly all day bang nails at night.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tay Ninh was a large flat dusty spot with burms and barbed wire all around it.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone slept in tents and the only structure around was the hospital next\u00a0door.\u00a0 It was made of air filled tubes arched to make a U shaped structure.\u00a0 They were air-conditioned and very nice.\u00a0 One of the hospital structures was\u00a0the Officers Club, the only Officers club on the entire Tay Ninh Base Camp.\u00a0 Frequented by most of the Blackhawk pilots.\u00a0 I think it would be safe to say\u00a0that Blackhawks Six and his company of pilots camped out there every night. \u00a0 I would not want to brand all the Warrant Officers as the same, but most of the\u00a0ones I knew were real party animals, serious adrenaline junkies, looking to get\u00a0laid, and with nurses around it was like adding Gasoline to a roaring fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night after a long day of surgery, the hospital commander, a full bird\u00a0Colonel, stopped by for a drink at his very own Officers Club, to find a full\u00a0blown party going on.\u00a0 He stopped the music, walked over to Major Bauman and\u00a0said, “get your animals out of my club!” Big Bill Bauman stood up knowing full\u00a0well that he was the largest animal there, and said, “if you call one of my men\u00a0an animal again, I will smear your face all over that wall,” then he turned and\u00a0faced the crowd.\u00a0 “This place is off limits to all Blackhawks,” he said, then\u00a0turned to his slick platoon leader Airborne Ranger Captain Rock Lungarella and\u00a0said, “You have ten days to build a club on Blackhawk turf, use all the\u00a0helicopters you need, use all the men you need, now all my Blackhawks come with\u00a0me.”\u00a0 We all walked out of the room grumbling. \u00a0 Jack McGrady and Sam Bose could not believe their ears, just after you learn\u00a0the low crawl home, they give you a new test, a different club.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every man in the 187th Assault Helicopter Company helped build the structure.\u00a0 I had worked as a framer at home in the summers, and could drive a framing\u00a0hammer with the best of them.\u00a0 I don’t know where Rock came up with everything,\u00a0but the club was beautiful.\u00a0 It was open light and airy, and we held everything\u00a0from briefings to card games there, and the nurses, well they were there for\u00a0the opening, and they stayed as long as I was there.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wayne R. “Crash” Coe Blackhawk 54<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock Lungarella Blackhawk 69<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tay Ninh, Summer of 1967
Rock and I laughed and laughed when we talked about this story on the telephone.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a91997 Wayne R. “Crash” Coe.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0was a helicopter pilot with the 187th AHC, I think we had the most\u00a0extraordinary commanding officer in the entire military. \u00a0 I must say, that to\u00a0this day, I have never had a CO, Boss, Associate, Partner, anything to compare\u00a0with Bad Bill Bauman,\u00a0Blackhawk 6. Major Bauman had made it up through the\u00a0ranks to Sergeant before he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":13962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-tins"],"modified_by":"Webmaster","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}