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“Chicken-man, what can I do to make this better?” Dog-meat Six asked. Using my peripheral vision, I started looking around.
“Dog-meat Six, do you see this large tree off to my right? The one with no limbs except up at the very top??
?
“Roger, Chicken-man.”
“If you could blow that tree, that would be a major help. Over.”
“Chicken-man, I’ll have a load of det cord9 on the next load and blow it.”
“Roger, that will help. Chicken-man is coming out.” And we reversed the process of sliding out from under tree limbs, turning the tail boom and slowly climbing up. As we finally cleared the treetops and nosed over for speed, I turned to Grandpa.
“You got the aircraft.”
“I have the aircraft,” he said. My uniform was soaked with perspiration. My right hand was shaking. Grandpa’s cigarettes and lighter were on the console.
“Can I have one of your cigarettes?” I asked. I knew he was going to say yes, so I was reaching for the pack.
“I thought you didn’t smoke,” he said.
“I don’t.” And I lighted up, inhaling a long drag as I looked upward. Three cigarettes in fifteen months shouldn’t hurt me too much. I wished I had something stronger than a beer right now. Grandpa put us on the log pad, and another fifteen cans of water were loaded, along with a case of det cord.
“Ready to come up,” Grandpa said.
“Clear right.”
“Clear left.”
“Clear up,” we all responded, and he pulled on power. Checking his power, he was satisfied we had enough with this load and we headed back.
“Dog-meat Six, Chicken-man One-Nine. Over.”
“Chicken-man One-Nine, popping smoke. Over.” Dog-meat had anticipated our request. Good, we were thinking alike.
“Dog-meat Six, I have Goofy Grape.”
“Roger, Chicken-man One-Nine.”
Grandpa brought the aircraft around and lined us up. We had no choice but to repeat my approach. I was as nervous as a cat in the middle of a dog pound.
“Clear right.”
“Clear left.”
“Clear front.”
I was looking to the front as Lovelace and Peters cleared us on the sides and behind. Grandpa started working us down.
“Stop. Need to come forward,” Lovelace said.
I was watching the main rotor. I honestly couldn’t tell how much room we had to go forward.
“Clear to come forward,” I said. I was watching the tips of leaves on the closest branches. I started to see movement in the leaves, and still we moved forward.
“Stop,” I said as I saw a leaf disappear from touching the main rotor.
“Clear to come down on right.”
