As The Crow Flies

A mascot worth crowing about

A beloved old crow left Omaha over the weekend, but not before a ceremony that left a few old soldiers in tears.

This crow doesn’t fly. But it has been flown around the world by the Army’s 172nd Transportation Company — Vietnam, Desert Storm and Iraq. The black-and-yellow company mascot — a caricature of a crow — stands 7 feet tall and is made of papier-maché and fiberglass. More important than what the crow is made of is what the soldiers are made of.

“You talk about camaraderie,” said Vietnam veteran John Gass, 65. “After the ceremony Saturday, officers, sergeants and enlisted guys were all together laughing and talking. It was really neat.” Gass and Charlie Lee of Omaha were among about 150 Omaha area guys in the unit who served in Vietnam for a year starting on Oct. 12, 1968. They had trained at Fort Lewis, Wash., where one day the crow landed outside the first sergeant’s quarters. Where it came from and how it got there draws chuckles and evasions. Said Lee, 60: “That has always been a closely held secret.”

The crow was shipped to Vietnam, where trucks from the 172nd were decorated with crow logos. When the unit came home, the flight was delayed while the crow was brought on board. “We wouldn’t leave without it,” Lee said. “We said, ‘Load it up.’ No one was going without the crow.”

Over the years it traveled to many summer reserve camps, but then deployed to Saudi Arabia with the 172nd in 1991. Home base is Fort Omaha, where the crow has stayed in the Booker Armory. The bird went to Iraq, but the 172nd was mothballed last fall. The crow is battered and has undergone many repairs. It contains soil and sand from all of its deployments. Veterans worried that the crow might be pitched. But it will go to the Transportation Corps Museum at Fort Eustis, Va. Some of the veterans contributed memorabilia. The crow was loaded on to a truck Saturday for its final trek across country.

Staff Sgt. Eric Welch said about 100 vets attended the farewell ceremony Saturday. The 172nd, he said, was the oldest reserve unit in the Omaha area. “A lot of people from around here have been involved with that unit the past 40 or 50 years,” Welch said. “The unit itself has driven more than 12 million miles in combat zones.”

Charlie Lee — civilians know him as Chuck — is a Westside High graduate who recalls delivering everything from howitzer shells to dried milk in Vietnam. He became a command sergeant major in the reserve. John Gass graduated from the old St. Joseph High and became training supervisor at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.

The 172nd traveled around the world, not always as the crow flies. But wherever the unit went, its crow mascot went, too. “We’re a very close-knit unit,” Lee said. “The crow represents a very honorable thing that we did. We’re all proud of what we accomplished.”