Once upon a time there were some young men who liked to fly and ride around in helicopters. They were almost as glorious in their youth as the aerial steeds they flew. The one and only UH-1H “Heuy” helicopter.
Oh we few, we happy few. We were soldiers of the Minnesota National Guard and we ranged far and wide in our olive green aircraft, beating up the countryside by day and drinking mass quantities by night. It was a glorious time to be alive.
But as time wore on things changed, as they must. Some of us left the unit as their lives changed direction while others stayed on as the Hueys were put out to pasture and the UH-60 Blackhawk was brought online.
More glorious times were had in the newer, more powerful Blackhawks as the unit was eventually sent off to the war in Iraq to test their mettle. They came back intact and resumed their lives.
As time went on our little band of brothers retired one by one, most with over 30 years of service to their country. A lot of us stayed in aviation as civilian medevac pilots, DNR pilots or as commercial pilots of one form or another.
A lot of us stayed in touch but we missed being a unit. So being problem solvers we fixed that. And the Red Devils motorcycle club was born. Which is a really really long winded we of saying my Army buddies and I got together last week for our annual mortorcycle trip. Or as we call it AT (Annual training) It;s what we used to call the two weeks we spent every year up at Camp Ripley Minnesota playing Army for theNational Guard. . . .Well we thought it was cute.
Anyway, We rode up to Grand Rapids Minnesota and stayed in a beautiful house on a lake owned by one of our founding members. From there we rode out on our daily trecks in search of twisty turney roads, steak and eggs and the occasionally liquid refreshment. At night we gathered round for to debrief the day with more food and lubrication. (SHOTS!)
It was a great 4 days with only one warning ticket given to the Sergeant Major and one bike stuck in the mud.
