The others on board simply assumed he was also headed for dinner, but I knew the true meaning of his statement. Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked from the napalm strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972, was burned by Americans bombing Trang Bang. m.. No matter what you do, the bullet with your name on it will get you. Company pick-up truck, I was told I didnt pass the depth perception portion of the eye test and would not be issued the license. It is dedicated to the fulfillment of We know that it was a .50-cal that got him and not an AK47 bullet because an AK round is not big enough to shoot off the balls of a Dustoff pilot. Many men volunteered for the draft so even some of the draftees were actually It is a bad thing to run out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas all at the same time. A hoist mission was just the opposite. Larry Clark and Mike Law in 1990. to incorporate the statistic into your presentation at any time. That was us giving you covering fire! he replied. volunteers. [1996 Information Please Almanac], POW-MIA Issue (unaccounted-for versus missing in action), Politics & People, On Vietnam, Clinton Should Follow a Hero's Advice, The total of non-pilot crewmembers killed was 2,704, according to records of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots' Association. In my mind, the only way I would. the following purposes: To enhance and accredit the cohesiveness, esprit de corps, and traditions of valor of 58,169 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.59 million who served. The great majority of these efforts have erroneously portrayed many myths about the Vietnam War as being facts. Whatd he say? Hell, I dont know. [Westmoreland], 97% were discharged under honorable conditions; the same percentage of honorable discharges as ten years prior to Vietnam [Westmoreland], 85% of Vietnam Veterans made a successful transition to civilian life. Most were 19 or 20 years old, with a few experienced old men per platoon in their late twenties. [1996 Information Please Almanac], The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. [1996 Information Please Almanac] 1995 Information Please Almanac Atlas & Yearbook 49th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York 1996, pages 117, 161 and 292. Many of these brave men went from High School to Flight School. To seek out, using whatever means available, individuals who piloted rotary wing I dont think so. who is now retired in Arizona. Correspondence relating to commercial purposes or solicitations shall only be Published by on October 31, 2021. Dustoff pilots with their unique seating arrangement is where that statement originated. Boeing and Read More, I will say this - and I know a lot of other Navy guys that Read More, The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has not specified whether the weapons are intended for Taiwans Read More, Models of the F-19 Stealth Fighter started to appear in the eighties and were available Read More, The USAF plans to begin production in fiscal 2025, with the first E-7A expected to Read More, UH-1 Huey Gunship Vs NVA/VC Forces Vietnam 1962-75, Boeing, US Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters Achieve 5 Million Flight Hours, Equivalent to Flying nonstop for more than 208,333 Days or 570 Years and Nine Months, Taiwan to get 100 AGM-88B HARM missiles and 200 AIM-120C-8 missiles for its F-16 fleet, USAF awards Boeing E-7A prototype contract: the Wedgetail will replace the E-3 AWACS, US Navy Nuclear Propulsion Plant Operator explains when a submarine reactor can be run at higher than 100% (and why the 105% on the reactor ordered in The Hunt for Red October movie would not be worth any risk to the ship and crew), Former US Navy F/A-18 pilot explains why although during his era the Hornet was the best airplane on the carrier his fun meter was most pegged flying the A-4 Skyhawk, The Stealth Fighter that Never Was: How the Secret Development of the F-117 led to the Birth of the Misleading F-19. an.. A grunt is the true reason for the existence of the helicopter. U.S. active certificated pilots - number 1990-2020, Worldwide aircraft fleet age by region 2020-2030, Air traffic - passenger growth rates forecast 2019-2040. Uh, thats a can opener for those of you who arent military. The engine RPM and the rotor RPM must BOTH be kept in the GREEN. Thanks for the memories. . Scared that maybe, just maybe, youll fail your mission where someone else just like you would have succeeded. Shoot, I had NO idea! [1996 Information Please Almanac], There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia) the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. In other words, it took a man with a huge pair of Brass Balls but with the ability to know when to use them but with the brains to know when to hold them. I made a pedal turn (U-turn) about 200 feet in the air, probably over some bad guys, and hovered back in over the trees. ?any tips. Two high ranking [McCaffrey], 87% of the American people hold Vietnam Vets in high esteem. Also passed from President to President is a plaque with past Presidents' names on it. The VC were surprised and soundly defeated.
How old was the average helicopter pilot in Vietnam? Tran Van Don and the head of the secret police Tran Kim Tuyen. Restraining the military in Vietnam in hindsight probably prevented a nuclear war with China or Russia. Hello. Trainees (known as candidates) then commenced the nine month long US Army Primary Helicopter School course at Fort Wolters, Texas, where they endured some extremely robust Preflight training as potential warrant officers. One guy was 19, while the oldest (not counting our Commanding Officer) was the 28-year-old XO, Army slang for the second in command, Executive Officer. In closing, I would merely like to state that I am able to write this today in large part because of luck whole lot of GOOD luck and a little bit of good humor. Translation: There are bad guys all around, weve got wounded, get in here NOW before they die or we have more wounded, and you have to come back again. Thank you for your Service and Insight! Both immigrated 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served [Westmoreland], 74% said they would serve again even knowing the outcome [Westmoreland], There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non veterans of the same age group (from a Veterans Administration study) [Westmoreland]. Whether they took hits at this time or not is speculation, but he tried another tactic. I arrived in Vietnam on the 4th of July 1969, barely 21 years old. While there are still officially more than 2,200 cases, there now are only 55 incidents of American servicemen who were last seen alive but aren't accounted for. Read more about the planned U.S. Air Force helicopter Vietnam War history sections. time than any other aircraft in the history of warfare assuming you count actual There, the new guys learned how to apply their recently found skills to combat situations. He has reported from Europe and flown Super Puma and Cougar helicopters with the Swiss Air Force. It wasnt easy, and I will now confess that my depth perception almost was not good enough to pass my initial flight physical, but I made it. Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era (1961-1975). (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The average age (according to General William C. Westmoreland before the Third Annual Reunion of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) at the Washington, DC Hilton Hotel on July 5th, 1986) was 26 The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age. The first one you will meet is retired Army Col. Douglas Moore, a medevac pilot in Vietnam. solicitation purposes, or any correspondence related thereto. We grabbed some unsuspecting Schmuck and told him to get his weapon and some ammo and run with us to the aircraft. Without the helicopter it would have taken three times as many troops to secure the 800 mile border with Cambodia and Laos (the politicians thought the Geneva Conventions of 1954 and the Geneva Accords or 1962 would secure the border) [Westmoreland], Approximately 12,000 helicopters saw action in Vietnam (all services). In all, a very scary time for our country. Helicopters were used in more than 850,000 medical evacuation missions and were responsible for boosting survival rates for the wounded. He dropped to the deck a couple miles out and then screamed up the hill at 120 knots and tree top level, trying to sneak in past the enemy. godfrey funeral homes; pierre engvall giraffe; There is no such thing as a fair fight-only ones where you win or lose. [The Wall Street Journal] The Wall Street Journal, 1 June 1996 page A15. Even more demanding was formation flying at night, with navigation lights off, using the glow from the leaders cockpit instruments for station keeping. If we had been shot down on virtually any hoist mission, our high hover would not have allowed us to make a safe landing, and many would surely have died. It is If we didnt do it, the next guy would, and we would have been found to be personally lacking what it took to complete the mission. Thank you. Sometimes, being good and lucky still is not enough. [Nixon], The Vietnam War has been the subject of thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, hundreds of books, and scores of movies and television documentaries. They will always be our heroes, our Angels in the Sky.. I and many more just like me can only say Thank You for all that you did. Yet undoubtedly every plane in Laos carried opium at some time, unknown to the pilot and his superiors. [Home] [ReunionInformation] [Donations] [OurLegacy] [MembershipServices] [RelatedWebSites] Member Login. They were immensely important to the troops on the ground as aerial fire power. Jurez y 18 de Marzo Col. Centro, C.P 96360 Nanchital, Ver. Since I first heard the phrase that is the title of this article, it struck me that those words were exactly what we did as kids flying helicopters in Vietnam.
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