Mohawk's Return Sparks Some Old Memories

Story and photos by Staff Sgt. Roy Henry
Georgia National Guard
Public Affairs Office

WINDER-BARROW AIRPORT, April 10, 2007 – It’s been nearly 37 years since Grumman’s OV-1 Mohawk reconnaissance aircraft graced the tarmac outside Winder's Georgia Army National Guard’s Flight Facility.

That changed, at least for one day, when a fully restored OV-1B dropped in to help former Georgia Guard pilots and maintenance crewmen of the Winder Flying Club who flew and worked on that aircraft celebrate their first reunion.

Chief Warrant Officer Robert Standridge, one of the retired OV-1 pilots, also flew UH-1N Huey helicopters for the Guard. Standridge said this particular Mohawk was one of the six the Georgia Guard flew from 1970 to around 1995 when the OV-1 was removed from service.

“The only thing missing is the side-seeing radar antenna that sat along side the nose wheel,” he pointed out.” That antenna, said retired Master Sgt. David Shelton, allowed him as a tactical observer to see a distance of 55 miles to the aircraft’s left and right.

“You can’t help but admire these guys,” said Sgt. 1st Class Steve Burkes, the flight facility’s avionics supervisor, while watching the crowd of more than 50 former Georgia Guardsmen gather around the Mohawk and welcome its crew, retired Lt. Col. Tony Walsh and retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 Ed Bearden to the festivities. Walsh and Bearden are also members of the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation, which maintains the aircraft at Fort Rucker, Ala. “It’s like they’ve come home again and been pleasantly surprised by an old, life-long friend.”

The group welcomed back its "old friend" by spending much of the morning climbing in and out of the cramped Mohawk cockpit, taking pictures and reminiscing about their days with Guard aviation.

Colonel Brent Bracewell, who commands the Guard’s 1st Aviation Group in Marietta, called these former Guardsmen his “heroes.” If it hadn’t been for them, he said, he never would have made aviation his career.

Recalling how he’d seen Army aviators on the news as a youngster during the Vietnam era, Bracewell said it was those images that made him decide that being a pilot, an Army pilot, was what he wanted most.

“I recollect telling my father, ‘dad, I want to be just like them. I want to be one of those guys right there,” he said. “Today I and many like me, here and out there, are living that dream and serving our country in its time of war, just as you did.”

Bracewell said it didn’t matter that they no longer wore the uniform; they would always be his brother aviators, and brothers-in-arms to all who serve.

While there are many among this group of former Guardsmen who have tales to tell, it was two among the group who helped turn the Winder flight facility into “Mohawk Country.”

It was Feb. 2, 1970, that now retired Capt. John H. Towler and retired Lt. Col., then captain, K.B. Pearce brought the first two OV-1s to Winder. Those aircraft and the other four would be split among the former 158th (Winder) and 159th (Marietta) aviation companies, both of which were part of Georgia’s 151st Aviation Battalion.

Towler, now 72, was 35 and the personnel officer for the 158th when he was strapped in the pilot’s seat. Pearce, now 68, was 32 and flying for Delta Airlines at the time. Both had also flown the Mohawk with the active Army in Vietnam.

“We flew them here from the Grumman factory in Stuart, Fla.,” Towler said while he and Pearce walked around the aircraft, looking it over from top to bottom. “What an exciting time that was, and what a great feeling to be here, remembering those days, with our fellow aviators.”

Nothing could have been better, he and Pearce agreed. That is other than getting back into the cockpit and heading for the sky again.