Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Jim Johnson stood in his back yard and stared at the sky.
It was 7 in the morning and the Vietnam veteran was listening for a familiar sound – the chop-chop-chop of an approaching helicopter.
Johnson, 58, has pancreatic cancer, which he attributes to exposure to Agent Orange during the war. His wife, Shirley, said doctors have estimated he has two to six months to live.
Johnson was a flight engineer on a CH47 Chinook helicopter crew in Vietnam in the Vietnam Delta during his stint in the Army, from January 1967 to January 1970, logging 1,100 hours in the air. After his tour of duty in the war, he served on a training command team at Fort Rucker, Ala., training pilots. When he was discharged, he returned to his hometown, Lebanon, and served another 14 years in the Oregon National Guard.
He worked as a heavy truck mechanic for most of the 29 years until he retired, in 1999.
Through a local hospice, attempts are being made to grant him one of his chief desires, to ride once again on a Chinook, a powerful craft that in Vietnam seated 33 and could carry as many as 70 passengers. There are eight of the helicopters in Oregon, based in Pendleton, Johnson said.
But really, he just wanted to get up in the air in a chopper – any chopper.
“I said I’d even go on a Blackhawk,” he said.
That’s when his younger brother, J.R., stepped in.
J.R. Johnson works for Meisel Rock Products in McMinnville and he got owner Mike Town’s permission to have the company helicopter fly down to Sweet Home from Hillsboro to give Jim a ride.
So on Wednesday, July 26, Jim Johnson stood with about a dozen friends and relatives, including members of the Lebanon Prayer Warriors chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association chapter he and Shirley helped found in the area in 1997.
The group watched as a white Bell Ranger 2 swooped in from the east and landed on a flat patch of grass behind his house on Juniper Street, behind Hawthorne School. An American flag on a pole stuck in the ground served as a windsock.
J.R. and pilot Rich Ashenbrenner jumped out.
Soon Ashenbrenner, who piloted helicopter gunships in Vietnam, was swapping war stories with Johnson.
“He told me he always had to ask Chinooks to wait for him to catch up,” Johnson said later. He said he helped fly Chinooks, which usually carried an aircraft commander, a pilot, a flight engineer, a crew chief and one or two gunners.
Ashenbrenner, who flies both helicopters and airplanes, said Town “is pretty gracious to do this type of stuff.”
He said the company chopper is sometimes donated for search-and-rescue operations and other community needs.
“People complain all the time about the noise (made by helicopters), but they’re sure glad to see them when their kid is lost,” he said.
After some photos, Johnson, his wife, JR and Ashenbrenner climbed in and lifted off for what would be an hour-long flight.
Johnson said he was made aware of the trip, but “my impression was that it wasn’t going to be in my back yard.”
He said it was a delight to “experience some of the old times.”
“We had a good ride,” he said.
Johnson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February, soon after he and Shirley adopted his two grandchildren, Bobby, 12, and Jennie, 10.
He said he had diabetes but no real symptoms until, one day, he woke up with a sideache.
Johnson said he is one of “several” veterans in the Sweet Home area who are suffering from Agent Orange problems, “from minor to quite serious.”
“The VA is doing a good job of working with us,” said Johson, who recently was transferred into the care of a local hospice. “We’re plugging along.”
His son Andy, of Lebanon, is also very familiar with choppers, having served as a Navy gunner’s mate during the first Gulf War.
“Right now it’s his time,” Andy Johnson said. “He needs to have fun while he can.
“This is something he really wanted.”
Johnson added, glancing at the makeshift heliport. “He had no idea that this land, when he purchased it, would make a landing pad for a helicopter.”