When the Olympics came to Los Angles in 1984, so did the 126th.Medical Company ( Air Ambulance ). We went as a company, along with anything else in the country that had rotor blades. There was fear of a terrorist action occurring at the games, so a very strong military and law enforcement presence was on scene. We even had Delta Force on stand by.

We stayed in the Los Angles area for about six weeks. We were paid as State Active duty some of the time and other times as Annual Training. If you were injured, it depended on the day of the week as to which benefits you would receive.

Prior to the Games a number of our crews went down to Los Angles to train with the LAPD SWAT teams and to transport the LAPD EOD team's bomb robot. One a couple of occasions the crews would transport the robot to a suspected bomb during the Games.

We had a fellow who was a great cartoonist who would put his work up on the walls of the school we were billeted in. One work descried "weather as aluminum overcast." The was very apropos, as there were an incredible number of aircraft available. It seemed there were more aircraft then people.

After arrival we were combined with other units into the 19th Composite Air Cav. No kidding, oh well, I always wanted to be in the "Cav." Duty was not hard, we worked one day and had three days off to enjoy the sights.

One of the duties our personnel I found professionally satisfying, was our augmentation of the Los Angles City and County Fire Dept. Air Ambulance service. Los Angles County Paramedics were placed on our aircraft and we would run 911 Air Ambulance calls. These Paramedics were required to work in teams of two, which could lead to a crowed aircraft. The crowding problem was solved by having our Flight Medic fly on the Fire Dept. aircraft, they normally had a crew of three.