Vietnam Helicopter Pilot’s Toughest Days in Combat

Vietnam Helicopter Pilot’s Toughest Days in Combat

I was born in upstate New York, Skenctity, New York in uh 1943. I grew up in that area. I went to a military prep school. So that was my introduction at age 15 to the military and wearing a uniform. And then I went to a military college in Vermont and graduated with an ROC uh commission plus a degree and went into the active army in 1967.

 Um, I was an armor officer by branch. I went to Fort Knox in 1967 when on active duty. Uh, when I was there for this, uh, 8week program, somebody happened to say, “If you go over to the airfield on the weekend, you can probably get a ride in a helicopter.” And so I did. I loved it. You know, we were flying all over con southern or uh the area of Kentucky and got out of the uh aircraft after we landed and I asked the pilot, “How did you get into flight school? How do you get into flight school?” And he said, “You got to do these things.” I did them and before I left that program, I had a slot for flight school in Fort Walters, Texas, and then Fort Rucker, Alabama. Typically the scenario for a helicopter pilot would be um you would um finish and then be assigned to some unit, not 100% of the time, you’d be assigned to some unit that was getting ready to go overseas to deploy.

 And so I went back to Fort Knox in March of 68 when I graduated. And almost immediately I was assigned to fly with uh uh another lieutenant by the name of David Taylor. And so uh he transitioned me into the O6 which was an aircraft we used for reconnaissance. It was just like the sports car of helicopters. Still today. I mean it’s maneuverable, it’s safe.

 The design of it, the shape of it uh was more crashworthy than anything. and uh we became good friends and uh and then I got diverted on my way over with a unit to U University of Southern California to go to about a 4month training program on how to investigate aircraft accidents. So then I got to Vietnam in uh November of 1968 and there was Dave Taylor.

 Sadly, in December December 20th of 1968, Dave told all of us that his wife had uh just delivered their first child. And uh it had an impact on me because like Dave, I was newly married. Um didn’t have any kids yet or anything, but um that made him even more special. Exactly a month later on January 20th of 1969, Dave and our brand new company commander were out in an area uh checking out a new area we’re going to be operating in and they didn’t come back. Um, we found the aircraft later.

 It had burned and um must have been shot down. We never knew for sure. But uh I would say I served two tours and that was my hardest day. Um, good guy. Good guy. And, uh, I’ve since made contact with his younger brother and Dave’s son. And, um, it’s, it’s nice to be able to tell those people who’ve done well in their lives that they lived a life that was worthy of their brother or their father’s sacrifice.

 So, just a Dave Taylor. I don’t have any dramatic combat stories that other people might tell you. Um and I told you I went to USC for this accident or aviation safety program course. So whenever something happened, whenever there was an accident, whatever I was doing, I was called back and deployed to go out and uh take pictures of accidents and uh start the investigation.

So there were some interesting stories. Um, one, um, one was where I was told there was a U O6 on its side in a rice patty. And, uh, so I went out there and started asking people what had happened. And I found some witnesses and and uh the witness basically said there was this 086 flying low level around and all of a sudden it went out of control and crash landed in this rice patty and fell on its side.

 So um it turned out that the pilot had found a cargo parachute on the ground, landed, and picked it up. We didn’t fly with doors on. He stuffed this big parachute between the ammo box in the back and the back wall. There was a space about this big and he just stuffed it in there. Well, apparently the wind blowing through the back blew the chute out and it flew back.

 It got tangled in the tail rotor and he lost control and crashed. So, that was kind of an interesting story. Um, but there were other more tragic stories. Uh, we had a lot of young kids flying helicopters. Kids basically out of high school and within a year they’re flying helicopters. And you know, that’s the kind of time when you’re trying to learn how to drive a car well and safely and you do some crazy things.

 And uh, we had some um, we had a lot of unfortunate accidents. About half of the uh aircraft lost in Vietnam more or less were due to accidents which is a surprising number. But you come back from a mission and you’re flying back, you know, you’re at the height of paying attention and focus and then you’re just on your way back to your base and you let down and you do stupid things sometimes.

 We had aircraft that ran into high tension lines. Uh we had in another case that I investigated, aircraft was flying low level, came up to a hedge row or a tree row at the end of a rice patty and did a a climb, a steep climb, cyclic climb, and at the top with no forward air speed, the engine quit because he was out of fuel. and uh he crashed and killed uh a sergeant that was in the back seat of this O6.

Um stupid accident and uh the loss of a military member. Um, I was able to reconnect with that family in Colorado um, much later because our unit had a website and listed, you know, our losses and every once in a while you’d find a contact about to get, you know, so I got a hold of that family and was able to tell them what happened.

 Um, in my year there, I might have done 6 to 10, I can’t remember exactly. Um, but I’d get the thing started. We’d appoint an accident investigation board who would then fill out the forms. There was a standard set of forms that you had to fill out. But, uh, that was my secondary duty in addition to flying. That was my first tour.

 Um, yeah, there’s a lot of anecdotal information about Vietnam veterans coming back. Um we all went as a unit but often we well we came back separately and somebody came in and replaced us as the war matured. When I came back in 196 late 69 that was the height of the anti-war protests.

 We had heard about all of this stuff. When we got back, I got back to Travis Air Force Base and was going to go to SFO to catch a flight to Texas where my wife lived. We were told, you know, put on civilian clothes. We did, but I never had any incidents. When I picked up my wife in Dallas, we were driving to Fort Rucker.

 We stopped in New Orleans. I think it was my second or third night in the States. I found the best restaurant I could in New Orleans. And we went out to dinner. Um, we’re at a small table in a nice restaurant. It’s called Brennan’s. It’s still in business. Um, she was sitting up close.

 We’re at the corner of the table in a big room. Finally, the waiter said, “Um, you two are just married.” And she said, “No, he just came back from Vietnam a couple days ago.” And I thought, “Oh, okay. Not sure I wanted that shared.” But, um, next thing I knew, he’s in the middle of the dining room. He claps his hands. Ladies and gentlemen, this man over here just came back from Vietnam a couple days ago and I thought, “Yikes, where’s the door?” My head was kind of spinning, you know, it was in a cloud.

 And when I came to um everybody was on their feet in that dining room, um they were clapping and uh I heard people say, “I got his meal. Get him a bottle of wine.” Uh, people came over and pal me money when they shook my hand. I remember getting a $50 bill from somebody. That was my homecoming. And uh you know, it was a memorable event.

 It did a lot of good for me because it basically said there’s a lot of people that were there supporting you. So that was a lesson. All of us, uh I was an officer. Um you know, we were there until we decided to get out or until our commitment. I think I had a 5-year commitment from flight school. Um, so I was due to go back and I knew I had friends who were on their third tour when I was on my second tour.

 Um, I think we had 18 months to 24 months of time in the States between tours. I went back in uh November of 71. Things were winding down. They were starting to draw people back. And I had a desk job. I was a aviation group safety officer, but I’d go out and fly with units just to do inspections and see how they were doing, you know, try to help things along.

 But, um, I got an extra duty as soon as I got there. Uh, I was told that I’d be flying a guy. I had to go pick him up about 10 miles away. I probably flew him every 2 weeks. And my orders were well, it wasn’t an order, it was suggestion. Don’t ask him any questions. Take him where he wants to go. And so I picked up this guy twice a month.

 And he was interrogating prisoners at war that we had captured. He was a Cuban and always smiling, happy face, nice guy. His name was Felix Rodriguez. And so I had somebody take a picture of me and Felix in front of my O-58 one time and I wrote his name on the back of the picture. Well, I knew he was developing actionable intelligence.

 I figured he probably worked for CIA or DIA or something like that, but I didn’t know. Um, in about March of 71, he said, you know, I’m going back to the States. Um, I’m going to be going to Central or South America probably. I’d love to take you along and I need a pilot. And I thought, I’ve been doing two tours. I want to go home, see my wife.

 I told him, you know, thanks, but no thanks. And that was the end of that. I didn’t know much about him. And until 1986 when I was out of the military active, I was in the guard driving home from work one day and when the news was about the Iran Contra hearings going on and the news was that Felix Rodriguez was going to be appearing before this Senate Select Committee on Iran Contra.

 And I thought, “Wow, I wonder if that’s the guy.” And next night, I’m looking at the news and there’s his smiling face. And a lot came out about him. So, I think I learned in 1986 that the CIA had sent him to Bolivia in 1967 as an intelligence analyst and asset. And he led them to Cha Gavvara. The last picture of Chay Gavvara is with Felix Rodriguez.

 Chay looks bedraggled like he’d been in without a shower for months and months. And uh so he’s standing there in this last picture with Felix. And I thought, you know, I got a picture of me and Felix in front of a helicopter. So um years later at my first VHPA 196 uh 19 2004, I’m talking to a guy. He says, “Yeah, I think I know a guy who knows Felix Rodriguez.

” So, I got in touch with Felix and I’ve been to his house, he’s been to my house, and he autographed those two pictures I was telling you about. Told a little story about each of them. So, that’s Felix Rodriguez. Um, you know, things were going pretty well for US forces in 1971-72. Really well. I mean, they were still um the NVA was still doing attacks, but they were surprisingly unsuccessful.

Um they’d try something and they were wiped away. And the uh South Vietnamese army and air force were doing pretty well. They were doing most of the fighting. I think in middle of 72 uh we were down to about 30,000 troops from a high of over half a million in uh 6869 when I was there on my first tour.

 So you’d have to say things are going really well. Um and I came home in August of 72 a little early. I think 10 months or uh 10 months rather than 12 months. Um, so yeah, my conclusions were things were going well. And of course, we all know that in 74 after we pulled all our troops out, got our P some of our PS back, um that Congress um really dramatically reduced support for South Vietnam so that they couldn’t count on a gallon of fuel for a gallon of fuel used or a part for a part or an aircraft for an aircraft anymore.

And that was a big green light for the NVA to do a conventional invasion of the South. And they did in 1974. Difficult time for me because I lost friends and I felt we had betrayed the South. We’d lost 58,000 people. And uh um it was another very hard time for me when the South fell in April of u 75, April 30th, 1975.

 I was beside myself. I was still on active duty. I was in recruiting in Minnesota. I was wearing my uniform every day. Never had a problem in downtown Minneapolis every day wearing my uniform. Uh so a lot of emotions. But my big conclusion, my takeaway from all of that, our time in Vietnam, our losses in Vietnam, is that other countries in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia area benefited from our being there.

 It’s a hard thing to maybe understand or accept, but Vietnam wasn’t the only communist resol revolution that was started in the early 60s. Um, a lot of countries, uh, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, even the Philippines, um, Malaysia, there was communist activity in all those places. And because we went in full force starting in ‘ 65, China and the Soviet Union focused on us in Vietnam and kind of stopped focusing on all those other countries.

 And today, they’re prosperous countries. They didn’t go through what South Vietnam went through. Um, only Laos and Cambodia really paid a a heavy price uh for what happened. But I think there’s a lot of reason to um think that we did some good in that part of the world.