These stories bring back a lot of memories.. my brother was in the 101st in Vietnam attached to the 1st Cav in 66/67 and he talks about the Hueys pretty religiously and I fully expect him to bow his head when he does- which doesn't surprise me at all. When my turn came in 72 I signed up for 4 years of infantry and started basic at Fort Ord in Sep 72... halfway through basic I guess they were running short of helo pilots so they offered to send me to helo pilot school . Like a fool I turned it down because I had a commitment to go to Europe and wanted to travel- not to mention all the helo pilots getting killed at the end. Thing was, the last man was sent in January of 73 just a couple days before we were due to be sent over so I would "probably" never have seen combat but hard to tell. The last man didn't come back until 75 so I've always regretted my decision in that one and many other opportunities I had while in the Army...
We used to train with the helo pilots loading and unloading in hot LZ's and it was a real experience. We would fly at tree top levels literally- sitting on the floor of the Hueys and letting out feet sit on the skids while they flew as fast as the bird would travel. When we got to the appointed area, the experienced pilots and usually Vietnam vets would probably slow down to about 5-10 mph and kick us out about 5 feet off the ground and were gone before we could stand up. Always had to pick tree limbs and fir needles out of our shoe laces at the end of the day from following the tree top contours so closely with the skids. Met a lot of the guys coming back from Nam when I was in AIT and later at my assignment units... to this day I am not afraid of too many guys no matter how big they are after seeing that mile long stare some of those guys had after their experience. Nobody in my life will be as spooky as those guys and not nearly as tough... some of their experiences were tough to listen to, but I learned a lot hearing their stories while they were still fresh from the killing fields... those helo pilots I met were some crazy and brave mf'ers, but every vet I met went through more than a guy should have to bear...
