Hosted by PJs in Vietnam
Last Update: Thursday, February 28, 2008

Site Mission: Provide Pararescue and Air Rescue History

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Introduction by Robert LaPointe

I am pleased and privileged to be able to host some of the drawings created over several decades by Pararescueman  Udo C. J. Fischer. Most Air Rescue crewmembers have seen some of these drawings during their USAF careers. But many are unaware of who drew them and few realize how many of these graphics Udo made. In fact, I do not believe that even Udo knows how many he created. Most of his drawings represent some instance of Air Rescue history that Udo decided needed to be documented. Udo's art depicts many of the high points of ARRS history. Occasionally, when Rescue headquarters made a decision that made absolutely no sense, an irreverent Udo cartoon would pop up and if nothing else, the displeasure of the field troops became known to a sometimes distant staff. I know for a fact that more than one general officer gave a second thought when he saw one of these pictures.

Probably, his most famous creation is the PJ "Jack of All Trades." It is picture number 1 on this page. That image has been copied into hundreds of documents, silk screened on T-shirts, embroidered on ball caps, and painted on walls and any other place some PJ thought it would look nice on.

Udo typically would create a drawing and then give it to a person who had something to do with the event in question. The recipient of one of these pieces of art was always extremely grateful. These pictures now proudly hang in the homes of  many of his friends. To my knowledge, Udo has never profited financially from his creations. He epitomized the concept that it was better to give than to receive.

 With computer scanners becoming common, many of his creations have been scanned and sent back for him to see again. This has brought him a great deal of joy.  Over the past 18 months, I would receive one or two of these graphics as an e-mail attachment he was sending out. I filed them away until recently when I suddenly realized that I had 30 of them. I contacted Udo and asked if he would give me permission to post them on this website, and now here they are. I encourage anyone who has an original Udo drawing to scan it and e-mail it to Udo through me. It would be appropriate for copies this art to come home to roost. A consolidated collection would be a great gift for his family and grandchildren. I also know that he would enjoy seeing them again.

 Udo was a Pararescueman from 1952 until 1976. During this period he served in both the USAF Reserve and active duty components. In addition to being an exceptional PJ, he was the NCOIC of several PJ teams and mentored many Pararescuemen, including this webmaster. He retired from military service in 1983 and now resides with his wife Rosalie in Alamogordo, New Mexico. 

Udo is also an accomplished poet. Check out his poem titled "No More"

The graphics on this page are copyrighted and the sole property of Udo Fischer. Anyone wishing to use them must contact Udo and obtain his permission.

      Click on the thumbnail of your choice for a larger picture. After viewing the enlarged graphic, use your browsers back button to return to the thumbnail page. These graphics intensive pages may load slow. The pages should load in approximately 18 seconds assuming a 56K modem

Captions written by Udo

1  "Jack of all Trades" came out in the mid-seventies, in response to the apparent requirement for PJs in the various team locations to "stuff 35 Lbs beans into a 5 Lbs capacity bag" - which mostly was done, including putting some "Xs on the board" to make the HQ wienees happy....	2  Air-Refueling of a Jolly Green made many (not all) PJs nervous, more than going into a 'hot area' for a pick-up of a downed aircrew member - whenever the PJs aboard could, they were near the open back ramp to bailout instantly, should the need arise....	3  Air-Refueling of a Jolly Green made many (not all) PJs nervous, more than going into a 'hot area' for a pick-up of a downed aircrew member - whenever the PJs aboard could, they were near the open back ramp to bailout instantly, should the need arise....
4   "The Bragger" was a pet peeve of mine in regard to (a very few) unnamed PJs' comments of 'kills' during a hot mission - it did not happened too often.....	5   "BUFF Sucks!" - I made this cartoon per request of PJ Gene Nardi, when he was at DaNang and I at Udorn - we had HH53 BUFFs and they still had HH3s, which were to be replaced....	6  "Daisy Chain" of Sandies, who were our baby-sitters on combat missions, and who did their best to 'sanitize the area' before and during the Jolly Green Low Bird went in for a pickup - SUPER SIERRA HOTEL GUYS!
7   Drew this one in 1964 while NCOIC PJs at Selfridge, 305ARRSres.....	8 "Hard Landing" - this cartoon was used by Ted Hawkins, "Royal Order of Whomp" for those PJs who could prove to him that on such and such date, at such and such place, and under such and such circumstances the applicant actually experienced a super-hard parachute landing - the one he certified for me, was for 4 June 1954 at Zambowanga, Philippines, where he was the jumpmaster and I went out first as the Wind-Dummy.....	9  "Royal Order of Whomp" certificate. Example of a request to be recognized as a WHOMP!
"Parascuba" display used in PJ section for visitors to understand what gear PJs wear during a parascuba jump	10  "H-19 Exit" - this actually happened in 1953, 32ARS, Clark Field, when I was 'ground party' and John Shumann came down, trailing the ripped-out seat - he pulled the reserve and made a 'good' landing.....	Sent to this site by Jolly Pilot Joe Fouts. Drawn by Udo after the PJs on a Jolly bailed out after a maintenance problem caused the helo to temporarily become uncontrollable.

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These graphics are copyrighted © 1999 Udo C. J. Fischer. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without the expressed written permission of Udo C.J. Fischer is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.