Roy Hopkinson - Memories of Keith
Years may fade, but memories linger. Join me as Roy recall's a friendship forged at Wankie FAF, where a pilot, not just by rank, but by spirit, made a lasting impact on a young soldier. Prepare for laughter, shared adventures, and a glimpse into a bond that transcended ranks and time. Below is a letter that was written to me about Dad from Roy Hopkinson. He met Dad once - but we all know that would have been enough to make a lifelong impact - I share with you below. @ Roy thank you for support and memories.
I know you have been waiting for some news about your Dad and I’ll apologise in advance – he spent a very short amount of time at our camp, so there’s not a lot I can tell you. In that short time though, we became good friends and had a lot of fun. He took me for a couple of rides in the chopper, we enjoyed drinks together, and music, and as you know he introduced me to the Grass Roots. It doesn’t take long though, to work out that someone is a good guy, and although it was brief, he still stands out in my memory as one of the best guys I ever met. So much character. So there is not much more I can tell you.
The way things worked in Rhodesia then, is that we had a civil war brewing, which became much worse after your Dad went back to South Africa. We had to do National Service (NS), which at the time was a year, later became 18 months, and eventually 2 years. From ’77 to ’79 it got really serious and there was a lot of bad shit going on. Sorry – don’t have a better way to phrase it. I started NS at the age of 19 and for my year I was stationed at FAF1 (Forward Air Field) which was at Wankie – near the Game Reserve and about 60 miles from Victoria Falls. I don’t know where the name came from, but it was many years ago and had nothing to do with the rude word that makes people laugh when they see the name now. It was increased to 18 months after I finished, so they left me alone for 7 months, then they called me back in for another 7 months. After that you had 6 weeks in, and 6 weeks out. When you got old (around 22), they gave you 2 months at home, and a month in the military. So I did from the end of ’74 to the end of’79.
Our role at Wankie was airfield defence – 4 crews with 2 armoured cars, and one crew was always away on R&R. One crew would have a day off, and the other 2 would be on standby for the armoured cars, and do guard duties. I could send a few photos of the camp if you would like. So we were really at the bottom of the ladder, which makes it stand out more that your Dad was so relaxed with us. There would be a chopper, a small fixed wing aircraft, and the support crews – radio, stores, operations etc.. The air crew and radio guys were often “SAP”, but were really South African Air Force. That stopped a bit later but SA gave us a lot of support. A lot of the time crews were sitting around waiting for something to happen, so in quiet times I got a chance to get to know air crew. There were a lot of great guys but as I said, your Dad stood out with his character.
I don’t recall any specific call-outs that he responded to – it was all pretty normal stuff, until he landed his chopper in Lake Kariba. Kariba was the second largest dam in the world. It used to be the largest, until they built the Anwar Dam in Egypt. Now it is the third. Tammi has seen the story on ORAFS, and hopefully will still have access to it – you may even have a copy. So you will have the official version, and maybe some comments from other guys.
However, I thought you may be interested in the story the way I remember him telling it to me, when he got back. Obviously I’m a bit older now, so memory may be vague, but this is the way I remember it. Straight from him, and not the official version.
Firstly, if you look at Google Maps, you will see that Hwange (what it’s called now) is not far from Victoria Falls (top left of Zim), and then as you go right on the map, you will see that not far from there, are the western reaches of the lake. There is a “pest” in the water of the dam, that is called Kariba Weed. It mainly grows around the edge of the water, but in some places it has spread out and covers a large area, which can look like a field from above, rather than a weed growing in the water. It can grow so thick on the shore that a grown man can walk on it, and only sink up to his ankles.
The Zambesi River is the border between Zim and Zambia, so at that time there was already a bit going on, with insurgents crossing to Zim from Zambia, and the resulting skirmishes were the scene of most of the action.
So one day your Dad and Bill (Reilly, his tech) were called out to do a casevac (casualty evacuation). I don’t know the location of the pick-up, but an African guy had been shot in the upper leg, and they were tasked with getting him back to Wankie so that they could get him to hospital.
As they were heading back to FAF1, and as they were heading over the western reaches of the lake, the drive shaft sheared, so there was no longer any drive going from the engine to the rotors. Tammi can explain it to you. So the pilots are trained to “auto rotate”, which means that the downward force of the chopper will still turn the rotors to provide enough lift to land comparatively safely. They don’t have much time to choose a landing spot though, but can manoeuvre to an extent. Your Dad looked around and saw this nice open, level green field, not far from bush cover, which would be an ideal spot to put down.
When they landed, things started to bubble and move, and the chopper began to sink. Must have felt weird, and totally unexpected, but they obviously realised that they had landed on a patch of Kariba Weed. They didn’t have much time to collect anything, and had to get out of the way so that they didn’t get dragged down by the chopper. Unfortunately they didn’t have time to pick up any weapons.
The African guys didn’t particularly like swimming, especially when there were crocs and hippos around, but even so, the casevac with the hole in his leg got to shore before your Dad and Bill did. They had their flying overalls on though, and footwear, which would have slowed them down. They said it was difficult to swim, but I can’t remember whether they kicked their footwear off. I can’t remember what footwear they wore, but I’m thinking it would have been something like veldskoene, rather than boots. If I remember correctly, they took shelter under a large tree by the lake. It was late afternoon, and in those days they couldn’t fly a helicopter without a horizon, so they knew the chances of being picked up before the next morning were slim. I think they were able to get a message out on the radio.
As you know, although Africa is a hot place, when you’re up at 5000 feet in winter, it can get vary cold. I can’t remember what month this was, but with their wet overalls on they were feeling the cold. You’re not supposed to light a fire because you make a target of yourself, but the fire usually keeps the big animals away. They were cold enough that they decided that if they were going to die, they were going to die warm, so they somehow got a fire going. They survived the night but hadn’t eaten anything for some time. Another chopper found them in the morning and got them back to Wankie. I don’t recall timings. The casevac made it, so obviously his wound didn’t involve a major artery, otherwise he would have bled to death.
That’s the story he gave me when I was able to catch up with him. Since he no longer had a chopper to fly he was flown back to SA and another crew replaced them. That’s why the time he spent with us was so short, otherwise it probably would have been about 6 weeks.
Tammi would have seen the report on the recovery of the chopper, and the fact that the low loader taking it back to Salisbury hit a land mine. So it became the first chopper ever to land in Lake Kariba, and the first one to ever hit a land mine.
After your Dad had left, the crew from the low loader stopped at our camp on the way back. I felt so sorry for the driver. The vehicles were built with a V shape from the bottom up, with ½ inch armour plating, so that if they hit a land mine, the force of the explosion was diverted up the sides of the V, rather than directly up into the vehicle. An explosion will always take the direction of the least resistance. Then they have conveyor belting on the floor of the cabin in the vehicle, to stop shrapnel from coming through and slicing up the people inside. The driver was okay, except that the floorboards of the truck had hit the bottom of his feet with such force, that the bones in the bottom of his feet were broken. He had inflatable plastic casts on that I had never seen before, rather than plaster paris.
So, I’m sorry, but I don’t really have any more for you. I’m sure you were expecting more than that. If you have any questions, I will try to answer them.
- If you decide to listen to your Dad’s favourite music, just listen to these ones:
Live For Today
Things I Should Have Said
Midnight Confessions
Temptation Eyes
Sooner or Later
Two Divided By Love
Especially the middle 2.
The one in the bar – myself on the left, one of my crew mates on the right, another guy from our intake , and your dad in the blue shirt, playing up. He was a real character. ( Below)
The third one is a view of the FAF (Forward Air Field) from the chopper. That was where I spent 12 months doing my national service, and where your Dad was based during that stint in Rhodesia. That was at Wankie (now called Hwange), which is 60 miles (100 kms) from Victoria Falls
Comments
Post a Comment