Carl Slaugh’s military history is atypical to many of those in the armed forces. It has taken him from the plains of Texas and mountains of Utah to the skies of Germany, spanning his 20-year career with the U.S. Air Force. Today, Slaugh is Iola city administrator. SLAUGH was assigned to the Mountain Rescue Unit in Ogden, Utah, following his time in Texas. SLAUGH served two tours in Germany, after some “politicking” on where he would take his next step in the Air Force. The tours spanned 1982-85 and 1988-1991. SLAUGH said the military has given him a wealth of experiences while serving his country as well as providing some of the happiest memories as a family.
His story begins at the tail end of the Vietnam War, when he was attending Utah State University. The draft still active, when Slaugh received “a fairly low” draft number, he and a friend joined the Air Force ROTC preemptively — enlisting as officers.
“We would have gone straight to Vietnam,” Slaugh said, if they hadn’t joined ROTC.
The war ended before he finished his flight instructor’s training at Webb Air Force base. Although he did receive a medal at the end of the war, what the men called an “Alive in ’75” medal for the conclusion of the conflict in Vietnam. Slaugh trained pilots in a T-37, a small side-by-side jet at the base.
Then, his officers threw him a curveball.
He was selected for an involuntary program that would transfer “fixed-wing” pilots to the helicopter program.
“They gave me seven days to accept or reject it,” Slaugh said. He went to his supervising officers in San Antonio to confer, and decided to go with the program.
“There’s a certain status about what you fly in the Air Force,” Slaugh said. “It was kind of like going from driving a Corvette to driving a Volkswagen.”
He said the jets were meant to be fast and efficient, while the helicopters did a lot of “the dirty work” — specifically retrieval and extraction of troops. The next step in his career would be a much more unique version of the helicopter pilot’s regular tasks.
What he described as “one of the more unique” units would open his eyes to a whole new side of the military.
He and his team trained in the Wasatch Range of Utah, where Slaugh grew up, dropping para-troopers in the mountains during winter time (with skis on backpacks) and in the desert. His unit also served in search and rescue operations as well, rescuing lost hikers and climbers.
Assisting with plane crashes was some of the most harrowing experiences, Slaugh said, recalling an occasion that left an impact on he and his flight engineer:
“We were first responders for a plane crash in the Utah/Nevada desert,” Slaugh said. “You could see pieces of aircraft, and the black scar on the desert floor.”
He said the images of the wreckage, along with the remains of the pilots, had quite an effect on him and his partner.
“He (the flight engineer) went out and got wasted that night, he was upset,” he said. “They ended up finding him in someone’s backyard the next morning.”
“Some people take it differently than others.”
Another occasion had a much happier ending.
He was given the task of transferring a heart-attack patient to a larger hospital from Rock Springs, Wyo. Their primary landing area was in a school playground, which was having recess at the time.
“We had to go to our secondary landing area — a baseball field,” he said smiling. He and his flight engineer surveyed the landing area before dropping down, not noticing a telephone wire running through the trees, across the field.
“We started to land, and he yelled ‘wire! wire! wire!” Slaugh said. “We managed to stop our descent just at the wire bounced off of the skids on the bottom of the helicopter.”
They avoided an incident by mere inches.
“That would’ve messed up our day,” Slaugh said with a laugh.
During his first tour, he was in charge of flying dignitaries — “senators, congressman and generals” — to and from Ramstein Air Base, where he was stationed.
The transition was easy for him, he had spent 1967-69 in Austria as a missionary for his church, and his family enjoyed their time there.
“We had the best of both worlds,” Slaugh said of the American base, partnered with the German economy and culture. All of his children, Joseph, Karla, Jennifer, Heidi and Russell — along with his wife, Cheryl — were in Germany with him at the time.
He recalled flying passengers across Europe, to the United Kingdom.
“It’s fun to give yourself guided helicopter tours up the Thames River, and the Cliffs of Dover,” he said.
After a “less desirable” stint in North Dakota, Slaugh returned to Germany in 1988 — during Desert Storm. This time, he was stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base (named after the merging of the Rhein and Main Rivers).
At that point he was a major and had the title of air field manager for the base.
He said approximately one-third of the air traffic that went to Iraq during the first Gulf War came through the air base.
“We took care of the C-5s and 747s,” Slaugh said. “They gave me a lot of assignments to coordinate with the German operators.”
After serving during the war, he finished off his career with the Civil Air Patrol at McClellan Air Base in Sacramento, Calif.
It’s the simple things for man who has seen so much.
An unconventional service Slaugh’s military career a wealth of experience
