Lt. Gen. Charles "Chuck" Pitman Sr - Marine Hero - dies

USMCGrunt

USMCGrunt

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The decorated Marine pilot whose heroics helped stop the 1973 New Orleans sniper attack has died at 84

taskandpurpose.com

The decorated Marine pilot whose heroics helped stop the 1973 New Orleans sniper attack has died at 84

Retired Lt. Gen. Charles "Chuck" Pitman Sr., the decorated U.S. Marine Corps pilot who risked his life and military career to help New Orleans police halt the hotel sniper attack that claimed seven lives in 1973, died following a lengthy battle with cancer, according to his family
taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com

I don't recall this event at all. Wonder if we will ever see that type of action/ reaction in today's world?

Semper Fi Sir.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Had many many of them landing and taking off every day on the Beirut deployment.

Later on that year, had a VERY memorable flight in the Caribbean aboard a USN CH46 piloted by a future NFL player.
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You can tell me who. I won't tell anybody else.
 
AROTC-dad said:
Phil McConkey graduated USNA in 1979 and served until 1983 as a Navy helicopter pilot before playing for the Giants, Packers and Chargers from 1983 to 1989.

My guess is that it was him.
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Correct, our trip was in '83 so well before his NFL days but I'd remembered him from USNA. We were taking part in a very large exercise in the Western Carib and near the end of the exercise, I was off of my ship to observe an exercise on another ship. McConkey's helo happened to be aboard this ship for the night as well. As is generally the case, when the exercise ends, the ships are all in a hurry to get home, to liberty ports or wherever they are going next. Well, the exercise ended at midnight of that night and the next morning the ship we were on wanted to get moving so they send McConkey's help off to his ship and instead of using their own aircraft to move me back to mine, they tasked him (a junior LT) to take me. It tuned out that when the exercise ended, the ships separated in three directions and the ship we were on was in one, my ship was in a second and McConkey's ship was in the third. We flew for 45 mins or an hour to get to my ship and low and behold, it was not where the briefer had briefed! We flew for a very long time and the flight crew was starting to think about bingo fields when contact was finally made and eventually got me home to homeplate.
 
Gosh, Hogs, Phrogs, and Snakes, got to ride in the 46 as the station helo at Rota going out to the ships on the hook, and in various places all over the Med. All I can remember is the sweat smell, the fuel smell, the hot metal smell, the endless noise, the shaking, the bite of those webbed seats after too long in them. Workhorses of the Navy and Marine Corps. Bringers of mail!
Did I mention the sweat smell. Of course, I wasn’t much better, if I’d already been in mike boats visiting ships at anchor, hoofing down the pier in the relentless Rota sun, riding in no-AC Navy trucks, standing on boiling tarmac on the flight line waiting to board the 46 and more waiting while they put in pallets and mail sacks, all while spooled up.
 
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AROTC-dad said:
Phil McConkey graduated USNA in 1979 and served until 1983 as a Navy helicopter pilot before playing for the Giants, Packers and Chargers from 1983 to 1989.

My guess is that it was him.
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I remember him. Good thing he had the Belichick connection. Phil is also in financial services according to his Wiki page.
 
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