I have written some of them down, but have so many more to go. So you can see the images and stories that run through my mind when I walk past our Huey at the Udvar-Hazy Center. At the end of that assignment in 1973 I stopped flying. I returned from Vietnam in February 1970 and became an advisor to the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. It was during this assignment that I was asked to help rescue a half-battalion of the 2/27th Regiment who had been pinned down in a rice paddy by laying down a smoke screen between our troops and the VC. While I didn’t log as much flight time (800 hours) there were many interesting and sometimes terrifying experiences. Rucker, I returned to Vietnam as a battalion operations officer then a company commander. When I departed the 121st, I had experienced much and accrued 1,100 hours of flight time.Īfter 18 months as a flight leader of an instructional group at Ft. To this day some of my best pals are from that time. As is so often true, in war intense personal relationships develop under the pressure of combat. The members of the unit were a wonderful team.
The 121st had been at Soc Trang since the summer of 1963, so it was well experienced and well led. Fortunately my prior experience stood me in good stead and soon I became an instructor and a platoon leader. Because of the rapid buildup of forces, many aviators were pulled from non-flying or fixed wing assignments, given a quick Huey checkout and sent to Vietnam. I arrived in July 1966, close to my birthday. I was blessed to be assigned to the 121st Assault Helicopter Company located at the southernmost airfield in the Vietnamese Delta. and after completing the Infantry Officers Career Course at Ft. In late 1963, I was moved to an Air Cavalry unit and when we got brand new 1963 UH-1B gunships it turned out that I was the only one who was qualified in Hueys, so I got to become an instructor pilot and put in many hours checking out members of D Troop, 3/8 Cav. Then we began to hear about the buildup of forces in Southeast Asia. But then in 1962, I was reassigned to Germany and ground duty so I soldiered on as an infantryman and struggled to get my required flight time by doing test flights on other helicopters. We were one of the first two units to get the HU-1A, Iroquois and we thought they were pretty special.
I first learned how to fly the Huey at Ft. While it is but a machine, it constantly takes me back to my days as a helicopter pilot and the many experiences I had with this wonderful flying machine. Frequently I like to take a minute and walk past the Huey helicopter on the floor. But being fortunate enough to be a volunteer at the National Air and Space Museum, I am constantly reminded of my service to my country. Veterans Day brings back many memories both good and bad. Sometimes in the press of everyday activities, one tends to forget past events. What does Veterans Day mean to you? How do you honor Veterans on this day? We are pleased to share their stories below, and encourage you to send in your own. These are the same volunteers you might encounter on a tour-tours where our volunteers often weave in their own personal experiences. To kick off Stories of Service, we asked the many veterans among our volunteers to share their own stories. We have created a space- Stories of Service-where you can share your experiences as a veteran, or on behalf of the veteran in your life. Today, especially, we are doing that by telling the stories of our veterans. One aspect of the Museum’s mission is to commemorate the past. Less than a month later, the first atomic bomb was tested successfully in New Mexico.īelieving the Japanese should have one last chance to avoid the use of the atomic bomb, Truman issued an ultimatum: surrender unconditionally or face "prompt and utter destruction." The Japanese ignored the demand.Today is Veterans Day, a day in which we honor our veterans, past and present, for their service and sacrifice.
Douglas MacArthur said it could take 10 years and at least 1 million soldiers' lives to wipe out resistance. On June 18, 1945, President Harry Truman approved military plans for the invasion of Japan. "My job, in brief, was to wage atomic war," he wrote in his 1989 book, "Flight of the Enola Gay." Tibbets was summoned to a secret military conclave in Colorado, where he was told that he had been selected to head the 509th Composite Group. He later led bombing runs in North Africa. bombing raids over German-held targets in Western Europe. into World War II, Tibbets was flying some of the first U.S. By summer 1942, nine months after the Pearl Harbor attack pulled the U.S.