Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "Flak Traps", Vietnam aviators worst nightmare.

Double FACT.

They used to have a reunion in Indiana for members of the Green Hornets and other units. We attended this event with my wife’s immediate family. My father-in-law Lt Col D. E. Oldenburg (then Major Oldenburg) was a Huey gunship pilot in 68-69 flying with Operation Pony Express which provided arial gunnery support of team insertions and extractions of US special forces and Montagnard teams with the 20th SOS 14th Special Operations Wing. Their mission has since been declassified, and in the meantime (over 30 years since I first met him) he didn’t talk about it. However we did get him to open up a bit when his wife shared the collection of awards he received including Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart for injuries he sustained from small arms ground fire rounds that passed through the cockpit, as well as other parts of the aircraft. In one his many missions recalled in the book “Secret Green Beret Commandos in Cambodia” by Lt Col Fred S. Lindsay, Major Oldenburg silenced an enemy machine gun nest with a shot from his tube fired rocket and continued close support and suppressing fire amongst continued heavy ground fire. When I asked him about this particular mission, he simply stated in his low key manner, “it was a lucky shot.”

You all are hero’s and we don’t get enough chances to say thank you for your service to our country. Hearing of their bravery and accomplishments are inspiring. Rocky, the books you graciously sent us based on your experiences are greatly appreciated by Del and his family.

After Vietnam my father-in-law flew Leer jets for a private company and then retired from Northwest airlines when he worked as a 757 simulator trainig protocol designer and instructor. He is now 91 and still driving very well (often like a pilot). He is a solid rock of the Christian faith, and for his family.

I am deeply honored whenever anyone benefits from my books. Please convey a crisp salute and a handshake to Del. The "Horny Greenets" (as we called them) were iron men.

If you have not read Rocky’s two books, you need to. They may be just a small snapshot of the war but eye opening nevertheless. Thank you Rocky for writing them.

HR talked about the AWADS system on the C-130. By the time I served as a navigator on them, we updated the system using onboard radar. We were able to get within 100 yards most of the time even dropping in clouds. The AWADS went out in the late 80’s.

Thanks to all you Vietnam guys. You’re all heroes in my book.

Off the subject just a bit, but this has me thinking. I could be way wrong, but the meaning I am seeing here is that warfare may not necessarily settle anything definitively, but it will change the course of history and sometimes in ways we can't foresee.

I seriously suspect the motives of those who ran that war, but the perspectives shared here really do give me pause for thought. I don't think I'll ever think it was worth the lives of 58000 young men, but those lives are spent and I'd rather believe that something of value was acquired than nothing at all...that notion makes my insides ache.

You guys that went were just a couple of years ahead of me. What you did and what you went through spared me having to experience the same. A simple thank you is not enough, but that's all I got.

To most that is enough, and more than a lot of Americans never gave. miles

Warriors of your ilk trained me during my humble enlistment in B2/75. I never tire of the stories and would hope I get to buy you gents a beer some day, if not in this life , then the next. Slow hand salute, gentlemen!

Not ready for the slow salute yet, thank goodness. That's for the lost warriors.

I render it to all the warriors I know, doesn't mean they have to be in a hurry to get somewhere!

Woody, Rocky, Dan, Mr York, et al.

Thank you Gentlemen for your service and what you boys did over in Vietnam and thank the Good Lord for Bringing you home.

I spent two years on a Huey medevac crew in the post Vietnam era, so it certainly gives me a closer idea of the bravery you gentlemen gave in doing the missions you did in Vietnam.

Woody, thanks for sharing that.

and Rocky, I think I've read and re read the two books I got off you at least 6 or 7 times. Thank you for those.

to the rest of the campfire members who served over there... Thank you for putting your lives on the line for our nation.
A Salute of Respect and Appreciation.

The men who served did more than was asked of them. The failures of Vietnam were the politicians, as usual.