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Humans have always been fascinated by flight.

Back in the 1100s Chinese children were playing with a flying top toy made from a sprig of bamboo partly split with two wings folded downward.

By spinning it between their palms, the gadget would float off into a short flight. Leonardo da Vinci was often thinking ahead of his time, and in the 1400’s would sketch but never build a vertical flying device.

Throughout recorded history, people had been studying the flight of birds and would begin thinking of ways to copy those birds.

Experiments with gliders, along with balloons that could be lifted by hot air and soon after by lighter than air gases were becoming more common by the 1780s.

Human flight would take off quickly after the Wright brothers flew their airplane in 1903. In a short 10 years airplanes were being planned for military and commercial uses, with multiple motors soon being added.

Those airplanes would depend on a runway of sorts to get the airplanes up to speed to take flight. A sideline would develop for a controlled aircraft which wouldn’t require a runway and the idea of vertical flight would develop. In 1936 a Focke-Wulf craft would be an early successful, practical and controllable helicopter which would lead to the full-scale production of the Sikorsky R-4 helicopter.

With the beginning of World War II in 1939, Germany would early see the use of a vertical takeoff aircraft. Their Luftwaffe would find uses for helicopters in reconnaissance, transport, supply and evacuation missions. During the war, the U.S. would follow closely behind the Germans and would begin development of a small helicopter group under the U.S. Army Air Force and the Coast Guard. In April, 1944, Army helicopter pilot Second Lt. Carter Harmon would rescue three wounded soldiers and the pilot from a crash site in the jungles of Burma.

With the Korean War coming five years after the end of World War II, the development of helicopters had become significant. Larger models could carry troops, while smaller models could quickly carry the wounded from battlefields. The television show “M*A*S*H” would later display the use of the medical evacuation helicopters of the Korean War to the general public.

By the coming of the Vietnam War, the use of helicopters would become greatly varied. Helicopters became a common and welcome sight to the ground bound soldiers and Marines who experienced transport, ground support, resupply and medical evacuations often in venerable “Huey” helicopters. While I served during the war, but not in combat, one memory of another helicopter, a large and powerful craft with dual rotors and carrying an artillery piece hanging from its belly remains in my mind. That helicopter was the Boeing CH47 “Chinook.”

With the popular and well attended Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual “Fly-In” returning to Morristown this fall, honoring those Vietnam veterans of the war 50 years earlier came to mind. After taking the idea to event organizer, I would learn that Huey helicopters were no longer in the military inventory and had been updated by more modern, effective and versatile aircraft.

That would lead to the question of whether the Chinook from the same era was still in use. Some would tell that the Chinook had been retired and was a museum piece, but I would learn differently.

After hearing that UT LIFESTAR’s Robert Cudd had flown four tours in the Afghanistan War piloting a Chinook, I headed to the UT LIFESTAR station at the Morristown airport.

Pilot Rich Oglesby was on hand prior to Robert arriving for his shift and had piloted a Black Hawk helicopter during that war.

Robert would soon arrive and it was apparent that both men, now retired military pilots, were still in the top physical condition from their military days.

It was obvious that the UT LIFESTAR that we often see flying overhead is in good and experienced hands.

While Robert awaited calls, we had a chance to hear his story.

Robert was born in 1969 in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of Robert and Rebecca Jones Cudd and had a sister, Rebecca.

The family would soon move to Spartanburg, South Carolina for father Robert’s truck driving job. Following his graduation from Broome High School in 1988, Robert would work at a convenience store before entering Polk County Community College at Lackland, Florida.

Seeing that college wasn’t for him at the moment, he would join the Air Force in 1991. Basic training would be at Lackland Air Force Base before moving on to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, to study the Arabic language. That would be followed by a move to Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas to learn how to put his training to work.

Robert’s would move on to the Royal Air Force Base in England where he would work aboard an aircraft as a linguist.

His next post would find him based at Ft. Gordon, where he would spend much time in Turkey serving in the Northern Watch exercise.

Having a strong yearning to fly, Robert would find that he was too old for fixed wing flight training, but would learn that he could qualify for Army helicopter flight school. Discharged from the Air Force in 1997 and moving to the Army, he would redo basic training at Ft. Benning before entering the Army flight program at Fort Gordon.

“Eye-hand coordination was a difficult and hard part of the course,” Robert would tell. “The hardest part was to learn to hoover. I trained on the TH67 Bell for 18 months before getting my wings and graduating in May ’01 before starting the Chinook course in August ’01. I loved it and the Chinook was my hands down favorite.”

The Boeing CH-47 Chinook was a heavy lift dual-rotor craft which in an emergency can be flown by one rotor. Powered by gas turbine engines, the Chinook made its maiden flight in 1961 and was introduced to the military in 1962.

A loading ramp can accept its inside carry capacity, while underslung cargo hooks can carry an external load. With a speed of up to 200 mph, the Chinook is still one of the fastest helicopters in the U.S. inventory, and is still being produced in upgrades. Along with its military use, the helicopter is used by a number of countries and can serve many other practical uses.

Assigned to Ft. Bragg in September ’01, Robert would head to Afghanistan for his first tour in June ’02. He described the country as dark at night and warm during the days in the desert and mountainous environment. Stationed at the Bagram base, he would fly resupply missions, carry 30 assault troops in and out of conflict, haul cargo and politicians and carry in artillery in sling loads. Along with the crew, the craft could include a machine gunner. After four months and sometimes under enemy fire, he would return to the U.S. for six months of training before heading back to Afghanistan for another tour.

During his time in Afghanistan, Robert interacted with NATO troops and was especially impressed with the Canadian and British SAS soldiers. Following a third tour of four months, he would then spend two months in North Carolina before heading to Honduras for counter-insurgency work.

“I saw a lot of stuff in a year there and was in every country in Central America. We have the most advanced military out there,” he said.

Robert’s military career would then see a trip to Grand Prairie, Texas, for Singapore training and to Ft. Rucker to spend two years as an instructor at flight school. along with a 4th 11-month Afghanistan tour.

“We left a lot of people hanging,” he felt.

Robert would retire from the Army in 2015 as a Chief Warrant Officer 4 and would work under government contracts from 2017 until 2019. A job with UT LIFESTAR would find him moving to Morristown where a typical shift would involve him being on alert status for EMS calls. Now engaged to Jasmin Mize, Robert has two children, Eliott, a student at Morristown West, and Natalie who attends UT-Chattanooga.

“I love this job”, he ended. “UT LIFESTAR is in good and experienced hands.”