John Wayne, famous cowboy movie star….John Wayne, Razorback!!

Dateline: 1966.  John Wayne flew left seat with the Razorbacks and had an opportunity to crank up the flex-guns and was awarded a set of honorary pilot’s wings by the team.  He was highly impressed with the professionalism displayed by the Razorbacks.  So much so that when he was doing the Green Berets movie, the “Bulldog” gunships were originally to be Razorbacks.  There are a couple of stories about why the name was changed, but it was probably for the best.  The Army hates to show favoritism, you know.  These wonderful and very rare photographs were provided by former Razorback Crew Chiefs Louie Sanchez, Tony Serratore, and former Razorbacks Pilot John L. Sullivan.

ENJOY!

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John Wayne, Razorback!

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Pilgrim, are you sure this thing’s supposed to fly?

Chicken plate on.

John Wayne becomes a Razorback pilot!  Mr. John L. Sullivan III, “Razorback 8” pins Army Aviator wings on the Duke’s jungle fatigue shirt.

Pilot’s Wings!  This is the stuff dreams are made of!

The Duke wearing his newly awarded wings, Warrant Officer John Sullivan, accompanied by PIO staff, and an unidentified Razorbacks crew chief.  John Writes, “His manager made him wear the hat–he didn’t have his toupee with him on his visit to the flight line.”

Duke, you sight through this little window here and then pull this red trigger over here.  This will fire all four guns simultaneously at what you see through this window.  You can’t miss!

John again writes: “We took him to a free strike zone.  Later, the lead ship called “Receiving fire”, and threw smoke as they flew near a hooch used by the VC at night. Duke had been shown how to pull down the reflex sight and fire the quad 60’s but he was so excited he tried to use the sights but was on the trigger as soon as sights were in position.  You could see his bullets heading out over the South China Sea.  We never told him the hooch was empty!”  After the mission, the folks from Headquarters MACV (pronounced mack vee) in Saigon were concerned about Mr. Wayne and his safety.  In this photo the silver tongued Mr. Sullivan sets their minds at ease.

The old B model  Huey used as the gunship that went down in the movie The Green Berets.

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