I first met Jim "Zog" in flight school where he
was my roommate in Bravo company. It was an interesting pairing as Jim was the
youngest Candidate in the flight and I was the oldest. Jim was the most
experienced flyer in the flight as he'd arrived @ age 18 with a private pilot license
and had been a member of the Civil Air Patrol, I had ridden in a Huey twice and
my fixed wing experience was limited to 4 legs as a passenger on commercial
airliners. I was married with 2 (soon to be 3 kids) Jim was of course single.
Sharing a room in flight school is similar to sharing a dorm
in college except a lot cleaner and neater. Socially I think it was more like
living in a Fraternity. In a way, Jim and I became "Brothers from another
Mother" as my sons have said about some of their associates. I pretty much
owe my staying in flight school to Jim. He spent what I'm sure was one of the
longest nights of his life talking with me in our barracks room which I figured
out if I could man up and overcome my newly discovered fear of heights. His youth
and energy offset my more conservative ways of thinking and he made some
profound impressions upon me that guided me to the correct decision to stay and
face what I feared.
I cannot ever recall seeing Jim flustered. He was very
analytical yet he had an incredible sense of humor. His humor got me through a
lot of hard times during the 10 weeks we were roommates. His standard voicemail
on his home answering system was spoken in Russian. He seemed quite fluent
though I have no clue how well he actually spoke it since I don't know the
language. But it sounded good to me and he spoke it with the ease that only
someone comfortable with the language can do.
Like me, after finishing flight school, Jim (2nd in our
class ranking) was awarded a CH-47D "Chinook" qualification
transition. Jim due to his high class standing, was able to choose his aircraft
from the list available, I was awarded mine through dumb luck and a good
aircraft preference list. Out flight was allocated 6 Apaches, 2 Blackhawks and
3 Chinooks. The top 10% of the class got to choose their transition (1 Apache,
1 Chinook and the 2 Blackhawks) then the 5 remaining Apaches were assigned and
I, ranked 11, got the 2nd Chinook. This was important as this brought Jim and I
together again at Fort Campbell KY.
When I arrived at the flight line at Alpha Company, 7th
Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, I found "The Jims" (James Herzog
& James Housand) in the "Pilots lounge" aka the ready room at the
hangar. I quickly went through my initial readiness training only to stop and
help prepare our portion of the unit for the Division Ready Brigade (DRB)
deployment to the Gulf War August 12, 1990. Both Jim Herzog and Jim Housand
were part of the deployment team and I didn't see them again until I too
deployed September 9th.
During the buildup in Saudi prior to the ground war in
February 1991, we spent a lot of time waiting in the Desert. It takes time to
setup infrastructure and while things were better for me then it was for the
team Jim was sent over with, it was much to be desired. Due to our work
assignments, I didn't work with Jim but we did see each other in the company
area. Our wives were friends and that helped on both ends as my wife was an
experience military spouse herding 3 kids and his wife was new to the Army and
needed some guidance dealing with the military. Six weeks after I arrived in
Saudi (Roughly mid-October) our mail service was upgraded to allow packages and
that was the focus of our noon meetings.
When you are deployed, mealtimes are a focal point. You have
to eat, and meals are always a social event in the military. The meal service
had just been upgraded to "B" rations when I arrived in theatre (B
Rations are canned foods in large rectangular service pans that were heated in 55-gallon
immersion heaters) and are quite a step up from individual Meal, Ready to Eat
(MRE) rations. But B Rats still left a lot to be desired and were tolerable,
but there were better things. Better
things came in the mail, and we shared the wealth. Jim suggested we get
together at lunch and see what we all had to share thus started a lunch club of
sorts. Jim always had some good ideas. We made it through the Gulf War
unscathed mostly due to lack of any qualified enemy in the 101st area of
operations and we were returned to the states in April of 1991.
One thing that I found unusual was that Zog and I only flew
together once, in flight school, during basic combat skills where we had 1
student Solo flight (Zog & I no Instructor) and we cruised around southern
Alabama on a fairly nice day. In the 101st, we often studied and did non-flying
jobs together but we were both NVG Pilot's-in-Command which kept us from flying
the same aircraft. We rotated turns as Air Mission Commanders and he was part
of a training flight I was in charge of taking 4 Chinooks full of Infantry to
Fort Benning Georgia. Like all missions, once you left the planning table
things went to hell and we ended up flying as 4 single ships making instrument
flights to Benning.
Most of my memories of Zog center around pilot studies (He
was almost always at the flight line unless he had duties elsewhere) and Foxx’s
Sub Shop where he preferred his meals vs the dining facility.
I guess it was about a year after our return from Saudi that
Zog announced he was taking an early out. He had applied for early release and
there was a Reduction in Force (RIF) brewing so the Army approved his request.
All too soon, Jim and his Wife Darlene moved to Bowling Green Ohio where she
had a job and Jim went to school on his GI Bill. I think we might have gotten a
Christmas card or two, but like so many military friendships, ours just drifted
away. Both of us were in school, I was soon assigned overseas again and I never
heard from Jim again. From time to time, I would try and locate several of my
past comrades and I was usually unsuccessful. Until recently.
Earlier this year, Jim Housand looked me up, and since then
we've tried to stay in touch and Jim has been the main impetus in my continuing
this blog. One of the things we talk about is some of our comrades and he would
on occasion mention Zog. So last night I again was searching around the
Internet (I learn more every day about finding information and people) and I
stumbled across an item that floored me:
James
"Jim" A. Herzog
Resident
of Santa Clara
Age
42, died on April 14, 2010 at the VA Hospice in Palo Alto.
Jim
is survived by his beloved wife and soul-mate, Andrea; his father and
step-mother, John and Janet; his mother, Fran; his sister and brother-in-law,
Patricia and Scott Inscho; their 2 children, Philip and Todd; his brother and
sister-in-law, Stephen and Carol; their 2 children, Allisyn and Andrew; his
step-brother and his wife, Mark and Andrea Schaefer; their 2 children, Torri
and Cohen; his step-brother Matt Schaefer and his partner Serena, and their 2
children Ashton and Braxton.
Jim
is a veteran of the first Gulf War, where he served with honor as a CH-47
helicopter pilot. After returning from the war, Jim graduated at the top of his
class at Bowling Green State University, and then completed a Master's degree
at Stanford University. Jim rose from engineer to director of an engineering
group in his brief career. His wit, humor, and leadership at Ariba and in life
will be sorely missed.
A
memorial service will be held at the Palo Alto VA hospital on April 24 at
11:00am. Funeral service and inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery in
Washington, DC will follow on a future date. In lieu of flowers, please
consider donations to UCSF Cancer Center for colorectal cancer, website
http://cancer.ucsf.edu/howtohelp/.
My ole buddy Jim, the youngest guy in our class dead, 6
years ago, apparently of colon cancer, the same fate my father had met in 2001.
The first thing I did was message my new old buddy Jim Housand and let him know
Zog had died. The next thing I did was just sit and think. I've been to
Arlington once, for my Uncle's interment, it just seemed kinda right Zog ended
up there. It just doesn't seem right that he is gone. Damn!
I have a hard time dealing with my own mortality and the
fact that way too many of my family members left this plain of existence well
too soon, and this was just another blow that came from left field. Jim was
born a decade after me and I've already outlived him by 16 years? His passing
so young is hard for me to fathom. One thing this did cause me to do was start
again in earnest to try and locate some of my past comrades that I might want
to communicate with at least one more time. So far I have found three, and
established some communication with one. We'll see how this all pans out.
Time for more coffee then some work. Maybe tomorrow I'll
have something more upbeat to relate.
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