Stranger than Fiction

[Rick Iverson]

Gents;

Happy Birthday all you current and former Marines. Semper Fi.

I used to fly with a former USMC Officer in Rick D. Erlandson. Initially, he was the Miller Army Airfield (RYM) CO, and I was the Senior MEDEVAC Pilot at Camp Ripley. I probably have 500+ hours in the cockpit with Rick over a career, who went on to become MG Rick D. Erlandson, Commanding General of the 34th Infantry Division. Being cooped up for shifts of 48 or 72 hours on MEDEVAC duty, you get to know a great deal about everyone at the airfield. As a matter of fact, in 1983, I learned Rick had participated in Operation Eagle Pull, the evacuation of Phenom Pehn in Apr 75.

Now I graduated from HS with a Gent in John Philion, June 1967. John finished college and enlisted in the USMC, went to OCS, then flight school. On visiting with him on FB, I found out that he also participated in Operation Eagle Pull. I asked him if he new of an Aviator in Rick Erlandson, and he said, “He was my Pilot in Command (PC), and I was his Co-Pilot.

I reunited them today on Facebook. Small world.