Bullwhip Squadron Association

Jim Kurtz dropped out of UCLA after reading "The Green Berets," fearful he'd otherwise miss out on his generation's war.  After Basic and 11B AIT, he went to OCS at Fort Sill and came out a 19-year-old second lieutenant.  He did a tour in Vietnam as an artillery searchlight platoon leader, arriving at 9th Infantry Division headquarters in Dong Tam a few days before Tet of 1968 and flying home on the day Richard Nixon was inaugurated.  During that first tour he came to believe that aviators had all the fun, so he applied for flight school and was sent to Fort Wolters.  One of his roommates there was Jack Kilcrease, who "rode the boat" to Vietnam as a squad leader in the Bravo Troop Blues and was shot up in the Hospital Fight.  After hearing all about the 1st of the 9th from Jack, Jim made it a point to tell anyone who'd listen that he wanted nothing to do with the Air Cavalry, and instead wanted to go to the Blue Max (2-20 ARA).  On hearing that, the personnel system naturally sent him to Apache Troop in Song Be, where he became the operations officer.  He served briefly as Apache Red (11 Nov 70 - 16 Mar 71, not long enough to get AC-qualified), got sent to Charlie Troop in Tay Ninh (17 Mar - 25 May 71) after a "misunderstanding" with the squadron commander, and finally made it to A/2-20 ARA Blue Max (26 May -30 Jul 71) when the 1st of the 9th stood down.  His time at the ARA was short, however, as that unit stood soon after he joined it.  Since he still wasn't "short" enough to qualify for a drop, he got sent to take Al Demailo's place as assistant S-3 of the 11th Combat Aviation Battalion (31 Jul 70 -10 Nov 71) in Phu Loi.  Back in the States, he went to the artillery advanced course and then to a cannon battalion in Germany.  He never had another operational flying assignment, but as a "Category B" pilot flying OH-58s out of Friedberg Army Airfield, he did what he's always thought of as his most dangerous flying.  Toward the end of June and the end of December each year, the real aviators who flew for a living moved their families to shelter in basements while Cat Bs who commanded companies and batteries bored holes in the sky to complete their semi-annual minimums.  Among his fellow Cat Bs at Friedberg were Kit Beatton and Bo Bludworth, two other alumni of Apache Troop.  Jim retired from the Army in 1998, and today lives in the Washington, DC area, where he does studies and analyses for the Department of Defense.  One day he happened to see Bert Chole's name in the address block of an email, so sent Bert a note saying "Don't I know you?"  Bert answered back "Yes you do" and enclosed an application to join Bullwhip.  Jim joined in 2002, became a Life Member in 2004, and agreed to succeed Al Tyre as Vice President in 2008.

Larry Wright became the BWS Membership Director in January 2007.  Larry was assigned to D Troop 3/17 Cav in 10/64 which was then redesignated to A Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Air Cavalry Divisionin June 1965. He was a Crewchief/Gunner in the Weapons Platoon and flew with Tom King, Jim Plante, James Grady, and Ed Mullen. In 2/66 he became Scout/Apache 6CC and flew with Bob Garrett, R. Stevens, A.J. Fenton, John Nielson, Jim Cronen, Blake Mc Ilwain, Pat Haley, Russ Simpson, and Bob Andrews. The Base Camp was Camp Radcliff, An Khe Vietnam with operations throughout II Corps. Larry departed Vietnam in November 1966 - Discharged 6/67.