The following letter and pictures are courtesy of
Angus C. McDougall, PJ - 37th ARRS, USAF Retired

I received an e-mail from John Abbott and Doug McGill that you were seeking more information about Larry Maysey. Let me first say that it is wonderful to hear after all these years that people like yourself are keeping Larry's memory alive. John Abbott is another person who has gone out of his way and done extraordinary things to help honor Larry. John, somehow, tracked me down and contacted me back in the late '80's to tell me about the building they were naming after Larry and the display they were putting together to honor him at Randolph AFB in San Antonio, Texas. I met with at the base and he showed me the display they had started. I left some pictures and other memorabilia with him for the display, which now, of course, belongs to the Air Force.

I hope I can help you with what you need. My memory is fading after almost 34 years.

I first met Larry at the tiny Orlando AFB, in Orlando, Florida in May of 1966. At that time Orlando was the headquarters for the Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Service. The Air Base was mainly a small training center. No runways or planes. It was our staging area to prepare us all for all the different types of training we went through. I believe they do that all at Eglin AFB, but we didn't go to Eglin until the last phase of our training. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the early days of Pararescue, but we were certainly a unique group and many people in the Air Force, and other branches of the service didn't really know how to take us. They knew we were different.

I didn't know Larry prior to Orlando. I remember Larry as somewhat quiet, but certainly outgoing. He was easy to like and got along well with everyone. I would call him laid back, and maybe leaned a little towards the hippie side, which wasn't unusual for those times – the 60's. I don't remember him going out and partying much. He took the training serious and wanted to do well – which he did. Larry was a pretty good size man; I'm guessing now, but probably around 6'1", maybe 180 to 190 pounds.

Back in Morristown, New Jersey, Larry had a girl friend, Elaine, who I would characterize as a flower child of the 60's. She and Larry were definitely in love. She didn't want him to go to Vietnam. Larry told me in Vietnam that while he was on leave prior to leaving she had tried to talk him into going to Canada. He knew his coming to DaNang was very hard on her but he never considered for a second not coming. He loved Rescue, was patriotic and dedicated to the Air Force. He, like most of us, believed in what we were doing.

To give you a little more background about us let me take you back to how it started for me.

I was from Arlington Heights, IL. I processed into the AF on March 16, 1966 at the Chicago processing center. At the center I met a fellow named Dennis O'Conner who was also from the Chicago suburbs and preparing to ship out to Lackland AFB as well. Dennis kind of took to me and followed me around. Dennis is in the picture with Larry and Mike cleaning the floor. We ended up in the same flight (I think that's what they called us in the AF – am I right? How's my memory doing?) I meet Peter Ganun from Queens, New York the next day at Lackland. Peter and I were assigned to the same flight and we hit it off right away. I think both of us, being from big cities, could relate. Peter and I attended the PJ presentation at Lackland and decided to go out for the Pararescue team because it looked like fun. And oh were we right. We obviously both made it. Dennis also decided to try out because of Pete and I. He looked like a big heavy kid with a baby face. Dennis look like he couldn't run around the block, but boy was he strong. He also made the cut so the three of us shipped out to Orlando sometime in May 1966 to start our PJ training. That's how Peter and I hooked up with Larry.

It was there we joined forces with Stu Stanaland, Mike Walker, Jules Smith, Don Claudius, Peter Harding, David Kratz, Lloyd Vide, Louis Felker, John Fellner, Richard Grossman, Bill Johnson, Larry Zettervall, Mike Morris, Angus Waldo Sowell, Jay Lombard, and, of course, Larry Maysey. We were a bit of a wild bunch, especially myself, Ganun, Stanaland, Walker, Kratz, and a few others. Somehow over the 18 months of training our group got the reputation for being crazy and always in trouble. People started to call us F-Troop, so I guess we started living up to our reputation. I remember it being like a fraternity. We were all pretty close and tended to have a lot of fun together.

I will always remember the day in the summer of 1967, at Eglin AFB, when the sarge called us into the meeting room to get our first permanent assignments following training. They had a big chalkboard that contained all the open assignments covered with a sheet so we couldn't see our choices. He explained that the person with the highest overall test scores from all the different schools etc., would have first choice, then so on down the line. A lot of the top scores were talking about Hawaii, Homestead, Azores, etc. We were excited about where we would be going. Then the sarge flipped the sheet off and every single assignment was in Southeast Asia - Vietnam or Thailand. I remember we all sat there stunned for a minute or two, then we started to laugh. A comment was made that they finally got back at F-Troop for all the trouble we caused. Peter Ganun, Larry Maysey, and I looked at each other then said if were going to go let's go together to the heart of the war - DaNang. And that started our journey.

We had one last exercise that we were doing before we headed for DaNang. During that exercise Larry injured his foot or leg. I can't remember now where we were or exactly what we were doing other than some cross-country running around. We were in the woods. I wasn't with Larry when he got hurt so I'm not sure what he did. Anyway, they delayed Larry's leaving the states.

When Peter and I arrived in DaNang they put us up in an in-and-out processing barracks. There wasn't any place for us to permanently move into. Eventually someone suggested we could move into a small empty storage type barracks if we wanted to. It was a mess and needed to be cleaned up, plus it didn't have any sand bags around it for protection. We would have to fill sand bags and fix it up if we wanted it. We said sure, we'd take it. A couple other guys said they would move in with us and help fix it up so that's what we did. We saved a bed for Larry so we could be together when he arrived, about three or four weeks later. It became known as the PJ hut. We basically divided the place in half and built a bar in the front half and slept in the back area. It's hard to remember but I think about 12 PJ's lived in the hut. I do know that Peter Ganun, Stu Stanaland, Mike Walker, Don Claudius, Walt White, Bob Baker, Larry, and myself all lived there.

I do remember very well the night of November 9, 1967. Larry was on alert that night and most of us were taking it kind of easy in the hut when the phone rang. I would guess that is was about 9 or 10 O'clock in the evening. Who ever answered the phone yelled to Larry that they've been scrambled. Larry jumped up, grabbed his coat, and headed out the door. It was extremely rare that we would get scrambled at night because the night belonged to the Viet Cong. When it happened we usually left grumbling because you ended up just sitting around the flight line for a few hours then they would cancel the scramble and you would head back to the hut. I can still picture Larry jogging for the door and we kidingly yelled at him, “well, we'll see you in an hour”. It was about three or four hours later when the phone rang and someone said his chopper had been shot down. We were kind of stunned. We didn't realize they had even taken off. We thought Larry was still down on the flight line. Some of us went down to the flight line and we were finally told that no rescue attempt would be made that night.

I was scheduled for low bird alert the next morning and we took off about 5:00 a.m. and headed to the crash site. We flew over the site and I could see where the chopper crashed. All that was left was a big white ash outline of the chopper. It had burned completely. We didn't know at that time what had happened to the crew. I wanted to go down and look for Larry and the others but the pilot said it was too dangerous right now and then we were ordered out of the area. I did watch two South Vietnamese coppers land on the back side of the hill in some very tall grass and drop off some troops. I was later told that they found the bodies and buried them at the crash site. To this day I still don't know how true that is. Obviously they never brought Larry's body out, if they found it. As you probably know, they did rescue the chopper pilot but he was never brought back to DaNang so I've never talked with him either.

Peter and I cleaned out Larry's locker and packed up his things to be sent home. We never said too much about it and none of us got very emotional. I don't remember seeing anybody cry. I know I didn't.

That may be hard for some people to understand but we still had almost a year to go over there and about every other day we had to get into a chopper and fly out over South and North Vietnam. If you got emotional and thought who is next, is it me, you wouldn't be able to do it. We just buried it in the back of our minds.

About three months after I got back to the states from Vietnam, I was alone with my girl friend one night when it all hit me. I talked about Larry and bawled like a baby. I could barely talk at times it hurt so much. She just held me and listened.

I've attached some pictures that I hope you can open and are OK. You asked about Larry playing the guitar. As you can see, yes he played from time to time. The black and whites I took in our living quarters at Orlando AFB. One of the many times we scrubbed the floors and horsed around.

The one of Peter Ganun and Larry was taken when we went to medical school at Sheppard AFB in January 1967. The last one was taken on a trip that Peter, Larry and I made to New York City when we took some leave time during our training. At that time we didn't know we were headed to Vietnam. That's Larry's MG-B with me leaning on the front and Larry by the passenger door. Larry loved that car. After I got back from Vietnam I bought myself a 1967 MG-B. I guess in remembrance of Larry, but probably because we had so much fun in his car that I wanted one.

I took hundreds of pictures while in the service. Most of my pictures are in slide format so I'm going to see if I can get them converted to digital images so we can use them. I also had many pictures which have disappeared but I still have the negatives, so I'll also see about converting those as well. I had a picture of Larry's crash site. I know I gave a copy to John Abbott, which is now at Randolph. I'll have to find the negative and get it converted. When I do I'll send you a copy.

I'll end this for now. I don't mind talking about everything I've been through. Unfortunately most people don't understand what we went through or can really relate to what I'm talking about.

Larry Maysey's MG-B Angus McDougall standing in front, Larry by right door Taken on trip to New York before heading to Vietnam -1967
Larry Maysey, Mike Walker & Dennis O'Conner Cleaning the floor in the Orlando AFB living quarters - 1966
Larry Maysey, Mike Walker & Dennis O'Conner Cleaning the floor in the Orlando AFB living quarters - 1966	Larry Maysey & Peter Ganun Taken at Medical school, Sheppard AFB, Wichita Falls, TX - January 1967

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