Meet The Army Helicopter Pilot Who Re-Supplied Thousands Of Hippies At Woodstock

[douglas9]

In the summer of 1969, hundreds of thousands of people descended on a small dairy farm in Bethel, New York for a watershed moment in recent music history: The Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

The four-day festival was a celebration of peace, youth, life, love, long hair and incredible music. However, the fiestival might have ended in disaster, were it not for an unexpected ally.

This is the inside story of how the U.S. Army ran a resupply mission to party-goers at Woodstock.

It was August 1969, and Clark Stahl was enjoying temporary duty at West Point in New York. It's what the former Army helicopter pilot referred to as "a really good assignment" in a phone interview with Task & Purpose.

Recently returned home from the Vietnam War, Stahl was a 23-year-old warrant officer who'd flown medevac missions during his tour downrange. Now he was enjoying a stint as the lead pilot flying West Point cadets around in a Huey; part of their familiarization training ahead of graduation.


https://taskandpurpose.com/army-resupplied-woodstock

[FSogol]

1. Woodstock was running low on hippies? Glad the pilot could bring in more.

[geardaddy]

5. Ha!

[blaze]

2. Nice read.

Thanks for posting!

[PJMcK]

3. Bethel Woods, New York is lovely

They've built a wonderful concert venue and museum near the site of the original festival and the concerts feature a wide range of talented acts. The museum accurately depicts the times, the plans for the festival and lots of information about the music and the artists.

The area has many hints about the 1960s including peace signs, a statue of Joe Cocker playing air guitar (some reports claim he invented it at Woodstock) and lots of artworks. There are restaurants, taverns and inns and it's a wonderful place for a weekend get-away. It's about a two-hour drive from New York City.

We have a house about 15 minutes further Northwest and drive through the village often. It frequently amazes me that so many people were able to get there in 1969. There's only one two-lane secondary road, Rte. 17-B, leading there and if you've ever seen pictures or the movie, it was clogged with abandoned vehicles and people had to walk the remaining miles to get to Yasgur's Farm. In fact, during the festival, the governor closed the NYS Thruway to prevent even more people from getting there. This is remarkable because the Thruway is about an hour away from Monticello (where you get onto 17-B).

This was a great story to read. Thanks, douglas9!

[babylonsister]

4. You might want to read this and plan accordingly...

https://www.wjhl.com/news/national/woodstock-site-to-host-50th-anniversary-concert-aug-2019/1690034396

Woodstock site to host 50th anniversary concert Aug. 2019

[PJMcK]

6. Thanks!

We had a visitor recently and we went to the museum. They had a list of the events planned for this summer and we'll have to make our travels in the off-hours.

Thanks for the heads-up!

[babylonsister]

7. You're welcome! I wish I had gone all those years ago, but

now I know it'd be too peoply for me out there.

[3Hotdogs]

8. --- and every Saturday around noon, there is a peace demonstration in Woodstock.

But bureaucratic regulation encroaches on the town. Up to about 10 years ago, some guy put together a kind of bicycle. It was built on the ends of a long metal bar. On one end was a seat for passengers. On the other end was a seat for pedaling (as I recall). The seats would go up and down while going forward.

The owner charged for a ride.

Then the town got involved and closed down the business as unsafe.



I saw it a couple of times. Wish I had taken photos.