1969 Most 18 year olds only think about girls and what they can get from them. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. Myth: Most American soldiers were addicted to drugs, guilt-ridden about their role in the war, and deliberately used cruel and inhumane tactics. Warrant Officer-1 Al Gaddis was a tall, curly haired kid as I remember him. If you are allergic to lead, it is best to avoid a war zone. When you crash, well try to recover your bodies. We grabbed some unsuspecting Schmuck and told him to get his weapon and some ammo and run with us to the aircraft. Congress while the North Vietnamese were very well supplied by China and the Also passed from President to President is a plaque with past Presidents' names on it. m.. No matter what you do, the bullet with your name on it will get you. The VC were surprised and soundly defeated. Age 70 to 74 --------$150.00 The others on board simply assumed he was also headed for dinner, but I knew the true meaning of his statement. Five minutes or more seemed like hours while we sat in the air over the ground troops, taxing every bit of professionalism we hadand the reader better believe we had the utmost professionalism. I think that some of us changed for the better, but some of us did not. 66 founding members. Donations can be made here https://www.vhpa.org/donate.htm, The VHPA has a membership of over 16,600 (8,700 dues current) helicopter pilots from around the world out of the October 20, 2021. Section 501(c)(19) of the Internal Revenue Service. . Occasionally, the gunner and crew chief had to exit temporarily to reduce the weight sufficiently for take off. If you ask people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only 1/2 of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. Scientific research has shown that dioxin degrades in sunlight after 48 to 72 hours; therefore, troops exposure to dioxin was infinitesimal. . On what turned out to be his final mission, they were to pick up wounded on a mountain top, but got caught in heavy fire while making their approach. . [1996 Information Please Almanac] 1995 Information Please Almanac Atlas & Yearbook 49th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York 1996, pages 117, 161 and 292. Don S. the last (in-country) Masher33, 1971, It is not easy to read this stuff. I can throw a rock in there, its so close! was the rest of my thought. The 1990 unsuccessful movie "Air America" helped to establish the myth of a connection between Air America, the CIA, and the Laotian drug trade. Search: Average Age Of Vietnam Helicopter Pilot. come left . Every helicopter flying in Vietnam had one real purpose: To help the grunt. Not only were we not found to be lacking as youthful aviators, as a whole we far exceeded the expectations. sent to. o.. [McCaffrey], MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. 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. Later, the crew became a two-man pilot team. Based on the data, more than 30% of the current for-hire pilots fall within the age range of 50 to 64. Here are some facts to clear up that poor job of reporting by the news media. Without his heroic actions that day we, the Grunts, would have been in severe situation as we were running out of food, ammo and our radio batteries were almost dead. Is that AM or FM? Dario Leone is an aviation, defense and military writer. [3], Battlefield Viet Nam Episode 5 "The Undeclared War", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Chopper_(Vietnam)&oldid=1133354489, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 10:36. In Vietnam, pilots frequently encountered fog and monsoon rain, which severely tested their blind flying skills. or down. ad.. He was an instructor pilot at Downing Army Airfield at Ft. Wolters, Texas, in May of 1968. Can I pick up Armed Forces Radio on it? Myth: The war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated. The night I was wounded, my new co-pilot Don Study put us right on the deck, but all the while I had visions of my first 30-foot hover when I was a Funny New Guyan FNG. The first time I tried to land on the ship at night, I terminated at a 30-foot hover over the deck instead of on the deck, and the Aircraft Commander had to take over and hover us down to the ship. As MedEvac helicopter pilots, we flew the only Army Hueys equipped with the electric hoist/winch. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy. EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW IN LIFE I LEARNED AS A HELICOPTER PILOT IN VIETNAM. There was a down side to the over-sized appendages, however. My father mentioned a pilot and I was curious if this was one of the same. [McCaffrey] Speech by Lt. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, (reproduced in the Pentagram, June 4, 1993) assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Vietnam veterans and visitors gathered at "The Wall", Memorial Day 1993. As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Dustoff 7-1-1, were going down over the sea. nfl open tryouts 2022 dates; liste des parc de maison mobile en floride; running 5k everyday for a month before and after; girls who code summer immersion program Most Agent Orange contained .0002 of 1 percent of dioxin. Also "Estimating the Number of Suicides Among Vietnam Veterans" (Am J Psychiatry 147, 6 June 1990 pages 772-776). (One has to realize that there was virtually no protection for the pilots from the front and little from the sides or underneath.) First of all, there was landing on the Navy Hospital ships, USS Repose and USS Sanctuary, in the South China Sea, very near the Demilitarized Zone. Army Flight School was about 9 months long, this was the shortest calendar time. Tactics such as pinnacle landing on top of steep hills, slopes, and karst outcrops amid destabilizing downdraughts to deliver heavy supplies to US Army firebases and outposts while under enemy fire were also tackled. Soviet Union. The pilots and crews of these helicopters were heroes, one and all. They were immensely important to the troops on the ground as aerial fire power. A MiG-21 of the VPAF which became the primary fighter-interceptor against USAF and USN aircraft. 01/09/2013. rules. Oh, Sugar! (Not my exact word.) As the Aircraft Commander in control of the helicopter, my eyes never left the tree branches that were touching the nose of my aircraft. [2]:4, On 15 April 1962 the United States Marine Corps began Operation Shufly, the rotating deployment of Marine helicopter squadrons, associated maintenance units and air traffic control detachments to South Vietnam to improve the mobility of ARVN forces. Please note: This [People.com] Vietnam 25 Years Later, by 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. of what you can do online at https://www.vhpa.org/memhelp.htm#ODA, To preserve the legacy of all Vietnam Helicopter Pilots, an endowment In UH-1C gunnies, a pilot had to master taking off with a 1,000lb overload, persuade the aircraft to hover at an altitude of just three feet, and then dip the nose slightly to achieve forward movement basically skidding and bouncing along the runway to develop enough speed and lift to rise higher. Whether they took hits at this time or not is speculation, but he tried another tactic. . Decisions made by someone above you in the chain-of-command will seldom be in your best interest. [Nixon]. 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). The claimed flying aces of the Vietnam War, pilots who shot down five or more enemy aircraft, include 19 North Vietnamese pilots (six MiG-17 and 13 MiG-21 pilots), [1] : 228 and five Americans. 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. You will come away from this video with a real sense of the quality of heroism that every one of our Vietnam War helicopter pilots displayed on a daily basis. [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. Topics cover the entire spectrum from Vietnam to . Owned and operated by CharityUSA.com, LLC. VHPA and encourage all eligible individuals to become members. Get the details for all upcoming vietnam helicopter unit reunions. 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. So, too, can the ones addressed To Whom It May Concern. A third tradition is a bottle God bless you all! History of the founding of the VHPA written by These new battalions eventually formed a sort of modern-day cavalry for the Army. . In the last decade, 69 nations have held multi-party elections for the first time in their histories. The early (65-68) Weapons Team was made up of two pilots, crew chief and a door gunner. No Pilot that I know of ever went into a combat situation without both. The additional weight of patients on the end of the hoist as they were lifted off the ground further complicated the stability of the aircraft. Flag, John A. Jelich, Wisconsin, Cecelia Jelich Frost, Killed in Action, Rosary, KIA, Gold Star Family, Gold Star Wife. Back home in the real world, my buddies were at the drive-in, drinking beer and looking for a carload of girls to flirt with, just as I had been doing a year or two before. Restraining the military in Vietnam in hindsight probably prevented a nuclear war with China or Russia. its on the ground . Register in seconds and access exclusive features. Many of these brave men went from High School to Flight School. [McCaffrey] One point I want to make is the the Crew Chiefs and Door Gunners were the and are still the best as well. Show publisher information No this is Pat Bieneman I am the owner of this site. We are now Older and Wiser, and for that I am very thankful. is passed from outgoing President to incoming President at each reunion. And two are in Africa: Tanzania (October 1995) and Guinea (June 1995). VHPA Aviator magazine The movie and a book the movie was based on contend that the CIA condoned a drug trade conducted by a Laotian client; both agree that Air America provided the essential transportation for the trade; and both view the pilots with sympathetic understanding. As he entered the crowded car, he said, Ballroom, please.. From 1965, around 99 percent of each completed class of students were sent to Vietnam. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. Yet undoubtedly every plane in Laos carried opium at some time, unknown to the pilot and his superiors. v.. A free fire zone has nothing to do with economics. an.. A grunt is the true reason for the existence of the helicopter. The further you fly into the mountains, the louder the strange engine noises become. To seek out, using whatever means available, individuals who piloted rotary wing Age 60 to 64 --------$350.00 It was an average age for most of the other Army helicopter pilots I flew with in the 237th Medical Detachment in northern I Corps near the DMZ. Magazines are included with VHPA membership and are available to non-members with a . We all volunteered to do something that only a year or two before we could not have even dreamed that we would be doingsomething that only a very few could ever experience; something for which only a very few could even qualify. [Parade Magazine]. I have posted your reply to Steve on here so he will be able to read it. That was probably the lowest point of my Vietnam flying experience, and I never forgot it. It can be expressed in its mathematical formula of S (suction) + H (height) above ground) + I (interest in staying alive) + T (# of tracers coming your way). Instead of landing and changing seats he tried to do it in mid air. Chart. Phil Marshall, DMZ Dustoff 711, 237th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance) Camp Evans and Quang Tri, Vietnam 1969. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. [CACF]. While it may be possible to ward off this natural event some of the time, it cannot, despite the best efforts of the crew, always be prevented. In fact, not at all, since we usually flew with the doors open, even at night. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture was Vietnamese. Shoot, I had NO idea! Here is an example done at the 2005 We honor the memory of all those who lost their lives in that service. They could often see what we could not and helped keep the enemy off of us and to even the odds for us, so to speak. UH-1 Huey Gunship Vs NVA/VC Forces Vietnam 1962-75 is published by Osprey and is available to order here. Myth: Agent Orange poisoned millions of Vietnam veterans. [CACF] (Combat Area Casualty File) November 1993. it will be forwarded to the appropriate VHPA representative. The Vietnam War was shortly after China got involved in the Korean war, the time of the Cuban missile crisis, Soviet aggression in Eastern Europe and the proliferation of nuclear bombs. Both immigrated Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range from 50,000 to 100,000 - 6 to 11 times the non-Vietnam veteran population. You will meet and hear the stories of three U.S. Army helicopter pilots who flew missions in Vietnam in this video. He has reported from Europe and flown Super Puma and Cougar helicopters with the Swiss Air Force. [Burkett] Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation was Robbed of its Heroes and its History by B.G. A Scout team consisted of a pilot, a Door Gunner and an observer. Loud, sudden noises in a helicopter WILL get your undivided attention. story building where the CIA station chief and many of his officers lived, located at 22 Ly Tu Trong St. It was a well known (and very true) fact that during an emergency exit from an aircraft, if you dont have it strapped to your body, you wont take it with you. Myth: Air America, the airline operated by the CIA in Southeast Asia, and its pilots were involved in drug trafficking. We will never forget you, or the sound of your rotor blades off in the distance, coming to our aid. confidential. Ground troops typically did not enter a sprayed area until four to six weeks after being sprayed. May 18, 2021. Joe Treen, People.com, 21 April 2000. DID after the U.S. Congress cut off funding. Those of us lucky enough to come home learned from the experience and were, without question, changed men, no longer wide-eyed boys. Flight training was preceded by grueling infantry instruction at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and Fort Polk, Louisiana, where recruits, predominantly volunteers, learned through Basic Combat Training that they were primarily soldiers, with a secondary role as helicopter crew members. We still got there in a hurry, but once there, we hovered over the trees like a target at the County Fair 25-cent target-shooting booth. About 12,000 U.S. military helicopters spent 7.5 million hours above Vietnam, flying 2 million missions. They were the ones who flew the troops into and out of battle. If the rear echelon troops are really happy, the front line troops probably do not have what they need. I used to laugh at the occasional Huey slick driver who flew out to let guys from his unit use the shopping facilities on the ships. . was typical of the continual commentary from the enlisted crew members. We fought to an agreed stalemate. The Veterans Site honors the helicopter pilots and crews who fought so hard for us on the ground throughout the Vietnam War. Terry Clark? [Home] [ReunionInformation] [Donations] [OurLegacy] [MembershipServices] [RelatedWebSites] Member Login. r.. The tactical situation is such that the ground troops cannot get the dead or wounded to a secure open area for evacuation. The gunships that were escorting him told Al to put it on the ground right away because of the serious leak. 5.5% of all helicopter pilots are women, while 94.5% are men. They could rotate around a battle site from above, unleashing punishing weapon support from above. All of these, however, are better than extraction by Medavac, even if it is technically, a form of flying. n.. A few were even awarded. Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia - a figure proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of the war." The domino theory was accurate. The rest of the mission went as expected with no more surprises. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It is dedicated to the fulfillment of We HAD no survival radios in those aircraft. 5. Five Thousand pilots and crews lost their lives and 3,258 Hueys alone were lost during the war. The terms Protective Armor and Helicopter are mutually exclusive. Read the latest issue of the Friends of the Vietnam Center Newsletter and subscribe to recieve future newsletters. He was a Dustoff pilot. [Westmoreland] Source: http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html 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.