Ride of His Life

TARA — At first, Ret. Brig. Gen. John Casey thought nothing of the growing roar he heard as he mingled with friends at the Tara Golf and Country Club Feb. 27 for his 80th birthday celebration.

But as the noise grew louder, his wife, Arlene, latched onto his arm and ushered him from the shade and into the sunlight.

This wasn’t any ordinary helicopter, she says to him.

It’s for him. Just for him.

After walking through an honor guard of golfers saluting with their golf clubs, John Casey, a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, secured his seatbelt and helmet and took off for a nearly hour-long ride with pilot Nigel Milligan.

His smile never left his face.

Arlene relaxed only after determining her husband’s shock had worn off sufficiently. Somehow, she’d managed to keep this surprise a secret from the one-star general for weeks on end.

“I think half of Tara knew about it,” she says, grinning.

COMMUNITY HERO
John’s wife of 16 years, Arlene originally had planned a small cocktail gathering at their modest Tara home but offered her husband a chance to invite whomever he wished after realizing there may be people in his life she may not think to invite.

“He started writing a list, and it kept getting bigger,” Arlene says. “He overwhelmed me (with the number, so we had to change venues). He said there were so many people in his life over the years that touched him. This was his way of saying, ‘Thank you.’”

Of the 131 people who received invitations, only one sent regrets.

“Everyone else said they (were) coming — even the first principal from when he started teaching school,” Arlene says. “That tells you about the man.”

Friends describe John as humble, down-to-earth, patriotic, courteous and gracious.

“He’s a man of great integrity and an all around nice fellow,” friend Art Mullins said.

His wife agreed.

“I’m always calling him a hero, but he doesn’t like that word,” she says. “(Veterans are) all heroes. (John)’s my hero. He’s the Tara community’s hero.”

DECORATED VETERAN
While John Casey quickly waves off all efforts to sing his praise, his wife just chuckles.

“He deserves it,” she says, a glimmer lighting her eyes as her husband walks out of the room to watch “The Price is Right” and give her space to talk unabashedly.

She darts into a bedroom and returns with her hand extended. A black coin with gold trim, gold-etched words and a military emblem shines as if it has been polished 100 times over.

Casey received the coin, now given in the military to show excellence, while he was at a military affair last summer. A middle-aged veteran who served in the U.S. Special Forces approached the retired general, read the medals John donned on his uniform and asked for the honor of shaking Casey’s hand, Arlene says.

John reciprocated the feeling of honor and thanks for service, and once the handshake had finished, John was left with the coin in his hand.

“This gentleman probably received it for (something he did),” she says.

Over his 28 years in the U.S. Army, John Casey worked his way up from a private to a decorated military officer, retiring as a brigadier general in 1979. A senior parachutist and senior aviator with more than 500 combat flying hours, Casey’s distinctions include the Combat Infantry Badge, four Legions of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 23 Air Medals, a Meritorious Service Medal, a Joint Service Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Bronze.

Jamie Day, a representative for Engage Aviation, the company that provided the helicopter ride for Sunday’s celebration, said Engage President Philip Carey couldn’t wait to give the general a chance to relive his passion for flying helicopters after seeing John Casey’s military résumé.

“He was so moved he really wanted to do anything he could to honor Gen. Casey for his birthday,” Day said.

TAKEOFF
John Casey breezes through his nearly 30-year military career in what seems like a matter of minutes.

After high school, John dreamt of attending West Point. His parents, he says, sacrificed everything for him to get an education, and John Casey spent his first year of undergraduate studies at Georgetown College in Kentucky before transferring to Georgia Military Academy for another year of schooling.

Then, he enlisted, following his father, who was recalled to active duty for World War II, into military service. Although the senior Casey had never pushed either of his sons toward enlisting, he was proud of both their decisions to do so.

“We made our own choices,” John says of himself and his brother.

“I grew up an Army brat, but I had no idea what it was like to be a soldier,” he adds.

John Casey began his military training in 1951 with basic training in Ft. Rally, Kan. The training site, which was flooded at the time of arrival, seemed desolate to Casey, who had always enjoyed the comforts of home. The barracks had no heat, and sand covered the floor.

“In the 16 weeks I was there, I ate the worst food I’d had in my entire life,” John says with a chuckle. “They’d sent all the cooks to Korea.”

After boot camp, John Casey completed six months of Officer Candidate School. Soon thereafter, he was promoted to 2nd lieutenant. But instead of going to Korea with many of the other soldiers, John was retained to run two cycles of Officer Candidate School classes.

“It’s a long, hard six months,” John says. “You run every morning with them. You go to their classes with them.”

The next several years proved adventurous. John Casey spent the next year guarding radar sites in Iceland — a country he describes as windy and somewhat barren and having some of the most beautiful and literate people in the world — before spending three years in Ft. Benning, Ga., as a weapons instructor. He then joined the Army’s newly created 3rd Brigade 1st Calvary Division, also called Airmobile, where he learned to fly helicopters. After a year of training, he became a tactical instructor for military aircraft in support of troops on the ground.

Then in 1961 during the Cold War, John Casey headed to Germany, where he commanded a rifle company, among other duties.

“You had to keep your infantry trained,” he says.

After returning to the United States in 1964, John went to command at General Staff College for additional officer training.

“They train you for more responsibility,” John says, noting his next assignment was at the Pentagon before he volunteered to serve in Vietnam in 1966.

After commanding the 128th Assault Helicopter Unit for a year, John returned to the Pentagon and attended the National War College, the last step for completion of his officer training.

“It’s designed to introduce you to international affairs and that type of activity,” John says. “It’s designed to have you look at economics, politics, cultures. Everything.”

After completing his training, he served as the division operations officer for the 82nd Airborne Division from 1969 to 1971.

Then, everything changed.

SACRIFICE
John Casey pauses, turning his attention to the end table in his office. The glass display that doubly serves as a tabletop holds one of Casey’s most cherished possessions.

An Army green chest plate sits, a quarter-sized hole ripped in the fabric.

“That saved my life,” he says.

His permanently cupped right hand tells the other half of the story.

Six months into John’s second tour in Vietnam with the 3rd Brigade 1st Calvary Division, a 51-caliber machine gun sent bullets through the doorpost of the helicopter, through Casey’s wrist and into his chest plate.

The shots nearly severed Casey’s dominant right hand off, and he was transported immediately to a military hospital in Saigon, where he underwent surgery — the first of two in Saigon.

“They weren’t sure my hand would stay on (at first),” John recalls.

He then was transported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he spent the next 18 months undergoing five more surgeries as well as physical and occupational therapies.

Surgeons gave John the option of how he wanted his hand permanently bent, since motion in his fingers would be limited, at best.

“I said to fit a golf club,” he says, chuckling. “You can see a golf club can fit in there.”

Arlene chides in: At the time of surgery, rumor had it that the surgeon even had someone go get a golf club, sterilize it and bring it into to surgery for just that purpose, she says.

Although his hand had been shaped for it, John Casey never thought he’d play again until a golf pro at Tara took him under her wing. And in 1992, he picked up the sport he’d enjoyed since he was a teenager.

LANDING
A crowd reappears on the green behind the Tara Golf & Country Club as the whirl of the helicopter again fills the air.

Upon landing, John Casey begins un-strapping himself as the helicopter’s blades come to a standstill. Friends push forward, snapping pictures and smothering him with birthday hugs as he dismounts.

“It was really a thrill,” he says of the ride. “You never forget it. It’s been 30 years since I touched the controls. It’s a lovely feeling to be above everything.”

The hugs continue as John slowly makes his way toward the reception inside.

This birthday would be one he’d never forget.

“I never thought I’d get (to 80),” John says. “It’s really special. It came about because I have a lot of great friends, and the medical profession took great care of me.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].