C-47 Skytrains “Placid Lassie” and “Chalk 40” and a pair of UH-1 Hueys are among the many unique aviation assets helping to deliver supplies and aid in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Hurricane Helene left a trail of devastation along the east coast of the United States. Stepping up to the plate are two World War II veterans – “Placid Lassie” of the Tunison Foundation in Oxford, Connecticut, and “Chalk 40” of The Liberty Foundation in Douglas, Georgia. Doing some of the heaviest lifting are Vietnam War veteran UH-1 “Huey” helicopters of the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation from Hampton, Georgia.
C-47 42-24064 “Placid Lassie”, the pride of the Tunison Foundation, is a veteran of Operations Neptune (D-Day), Market Garden, Repulse (the Bulge), and Varsity. “Lassie”, on her way to Toccoa, Georgia, for the Currahee Military Weekend, volunteered to carry 2,500 pounds (1134 kg) of relief supplies to Rutherfordton, North Carolina.
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“Chalk 40” of The Liberty Foundation is also a World War II veteran, but served with the Royal Air Force as KG395. The airplane took part in Operation Mallard, towing a glider for the airborne operation in support of D-Day. She later went on to be fitted with skis to support the recovery of the P-38J Lightning “Glacier Girl” in Greenland. It is now painted as C-47A “Chalk 40” that participated in the American airborne effort on D-Day.
“Chalk 40” participated in the Military Aviation Museum’s Warbirds Over the Beach airshow this weekend, October 5-6, 2024. The airshow featured a food and supply drive that ended with the C-47 being loaded up for transport to an area affected by Hurricane Helene. By the end of the show, 5,000 pounds (2,268 kg) of supplies were delivered to the Lincoln County Airport in North Carolina. The Skytrain had also delivered supplies to affected areas in southern Georgia on their way to the Virginia Beach airshow.
Making huge strides in recovery efforts are two of the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation’s UH-1 Iroquois helicopters. Based out of the Legacy Chapter in Hampton, Georgia, the “Hueys” have been actively delivering food, supplies, and other essentials to remote and stranded communities in Helene’s wake. The organization, in a post on Facebook, told of one of their missions in the Asheville, North Carolina, area… “We flew up into the mountains and dropped cases and cases of water to a group of about 25 people that had gathered in a field where their homes had been. We also delivered some generators up there and evacuated those that wanted to come down the mountain and be processed and treated medically.”
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It is unclear which of their four UH-1s are participating in the relief efforts, but all but one of their Hueys are veterans of the Vietnam War. Another example of warbirds still flying strong decades after their retirement.
“Happy to report that our efforts coupled with your donations and support are still making a difference in the devastated Asheville area. We are taking all types of supplies either directly into the mountains and right to the victims or flying loads into remote distribution centers that are moving them on with trucks or other means. We’re still hauling water, water purification equipment and generators mostly, but the more recent developments are loads of winter weather clothing. It’s October in the mountains and getting cold. Sadly, we moved a load of 260 HRP’s, Human Remains Pouches, you know them as body bags. I so hope they go unused, but my more logical side knows this is unlikely,” the organization posted on Facebook.
If you would like to donate to the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation’s relief operations, they have a donation page set up here. Without a doubt, keeping 1960s and ‘70s helicopters flying isn’t cheap and the organization needs your help to keep flying the missions.
The North Carolina Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing also announced that they had airlifted over 100,000 pounds (45,359 kg) of supplies using their C-17A Globemaster IIIs.
The hurricane relief response has seen everything from U.S. Army CH-47 Chinooks and UH-60 Black Hawks to U.S. Air Force C-17A airlifters to the vintage World War II C-47s and Vietnam War UH-1s listed here. On the ground, local volunteers, first responders, and Army and Air National Guard units from 16 states have made a dent in rescue and recovery operations though there’s still a long way to go. As of today, there are 230 confirmed deaths as Helene was announced the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
All eyes are now on the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida as another major storm.
