Any Veitnam pilots here?

Gerhardt

Gerhardt

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Gerhardt
Over the years I've read hundreds of books written by VN vets, many by VN pilots. Most seemed exaggerated, but of the ones that weren't, when the contact info was easily found I wrote several of the authors. And was pleasantly surprised to receive responses to almost all of my letters.

So I'm curious if we have any Vietnam pilots here. If so, if you don't mind sharing some of the history...
 
Some of my favs: Rampant Raider, The Adventures of a Helicopter Pilot:H-34 Vietnam, Thud Ridge, Low Level Hell, DUSTOFF. Of course, Chicken Hawk being a classic as well.

When you look at the sheer number of aircraft losses, there’s no doubt, the stories are real.
 
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When I was a young Airman, I used to listen, first hand, to many stories conveyed by guys who were there... I worked in the Command Post, so I spent my shift with an officer of at least the rank of Captain. There were 2 I especially enjoyed listening to; an F-4 jock and an O-2 pilot. Some real hair-raising tales. There was another guy that flew huey's as an Army pilot and had later transferred to USAF... Man, talk about pucker factor...
 
I know two pilots that fly for Vietnam Airlines, if that helps haha
 
I got drunk in Cambodia a few times if that counts lol
 
Velocity173 said:
Some of my favs: Rampant Raider, The Adventures of a Helicopter Pilot:H-34 Vietnam, Thud Ridge, Low Level Hell, DUSTOFF. Of course, Chicken Hawk being a classic as well.

When you look at the sheer number of aircraft losses, there’s no doubt, the stories are real.
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I've read Dustoff a few times. And incredible read and I never doubted a word. What makes some more believable than others is when they admit their mistakes. Someone who talks about how tough he is and never made a mistake...meh.
 
Gerhardt said:
I've read Dustoff a few times. And incredible read and I never doubted a word. What makes some more believable than others is when they admit their mistakes. Someone who talks about how tough he is and never made a mistake...meh.
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Yep, Mike was an awesome guy. He was hanging out at the Ft Rucker O Club when my class was celebrating aircraft assignments. Here we were drinking it up with an MOH legend, at an O Club located on a street named after him. Crazy!

15492DA3-B4BD-4E3B-AB22-E98063B1D403.jpeg

In order to grasp the magnitude of what they went through vs war today, you can see the difference in human loss between Army helo airframes. Just the Huey alone and you can see the pages are divided into years during Vietnam. Now, look at the Black Hawk and see only one page with wartime (Iraq and Astan combined) fatalities being a small fraction compared to Vietnam time frame. Sadly, the Black Hawk’s latest (19 Aug) casualty was a former student of mine.

http://www.armyaircrews.com/blackhawk.html
 
My father in law flew Huey's. Have been having dinners at his table for 19 years now and the stories from him are extremely rare, and always shockingly terrible. He has a bracelet made out of a piece of one of the helicopters that was shot down with him at the controls, killing most of the occupants, and a silver star... Neither of which would I know a thing about if not for my mother in law.

He'll certainly not be writing a book.
 
Velocity173 said:
Yep, Mike was an awesome guy. He was hanging out at the Ft Rucker O Club when my class was celebrating aircraft assignments. Here we were drinking it up with an MOH legend, at an O Club located on a street named after him. Crazy!

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In order to grasp the magnitude of what they went through vs war today, you can see the difference in human loss between Army helo airframes. Just the Huey alone and you can see the pages are divided into years during Vietnam. Now, look at the Black Hawk and see only one page with wartime (Iraq and Astan combined) fatalities being a small fraction compared to Vietnam time frame. Sadly, the Black Hawk’s latest (19 Aug) casualty was a former student of mine.

http://www.armyaircrews.com/blackhawk.html
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I was the acting Adjutant and got to Duck Walk for his retirement parade “Pappy” Novosel gave an hour long speech in the Alabama heat and close to 40 soldiers passed out in the heat...Pappy kept talking...close to 2500 in formation and the S2 standing beside me face planted as well...it was epic...
 
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One I've read several times is "Cleared Hot". The author was a marine pilot that did two tours, one as a helo pilot, the second as commander of an OV-10 squadron.
 
Two tours, '71,'72.
Primarily in the F4-D/E. Not my favorite airplanes.
Dropped a lot of napalm, dropped a lot of old iron bombs, used up a crap load of 20mm ammo on ground targets. Loved the gun. Hated the missiles. The Sparrow and Sidewinder really put the "miss" in missile.
Got shot down twice, once on each tour. Stayed in the plane both times and walked away. Wrecked a bunch of airplanes, getting shot up or trying not to get shot up. Never got a scratch while flying or wrecking airplanes.
Shot twice, stabbed three times, on ground missions, and picked up a small baby food jar almost full of teenie, tiny little pieces of shrapnel during a rocket/mortar attack up in the highlands. Stuff still occasionally surfaces on my arms, back and legs.
Never saw a Mig except on radar. sigh........
I didn't see any reason to worry anyone back home, so no one in my family knew I was a pilot or served in S.E.A. until I reenlisted in 2012, as an Army Chaplain.
It was kind of hard to hide the facts after that, what with having to wear a uniform with all my "stuff".
Dad had died 12 years before I reenlisted. Dodged that bullet. That would have been an interesting conversation.
Mom was a mite perturbed, and beat me about the head and shoulders. She was 83 years old, dying of cancer, and still packed a heck of a wallop.
Everyone else just shook their heads and proclaimed that's why I was so nucking futs.
Fooled them all. I was already crazy when I enlisted in '69. hahahahahahahahaha.
 
Velocity173 said:
Some of my favs: Rampant Raider, The Adventures of a Helicopter Pilot:H-34 Vietnam, Thud Ridge, Low Level Hell, DUSTOFF. Of course, Chicken Hawk being a classic as well.

When you look at the sheer number of aircraft losses, there’s no doubt, the stories are real.
Click to expand...

I didn't recall the numbers, so I did a search and copied the results:

The F-105 was one of the primary attack aircraft of the Vietnam War; over 20,000 Thunderchief sorties were flown, with 382 aircraft lost including 62 operational (non-combat) losses (out of the 833 produced).

Theres no doubt there were a buncha tough guys flying those Thuds.

My favorite Vietnam flying book is Ed Rasimus's When Thunder Rolled.
 
Thank you for your service Shepard. Your line about
Shepherd said:
tiny little pieces of shrapnel during a rocket/mortar attack up in the highlands. Stuff still occasionally surfaces on my arms, back and legs.
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I found interesting. My boss was was a ground pounder in VN, Army ranger in a LRRP unit mostly in Cambodia and Laos. The few times over the last 20 years that we got enough coctails in him to talk about it, one thing he mentioned was shrapnel and claymore bb's coming out of his skin for years after the war.
 
I didn't know surfacing shrapnel was even a thing until now. Shepherd, I'm at a loss. Thanks. And if you ever got around to putting a few words down...
 
The back of my arms are covered with tiny white scars. Looks a little odd. They were the only exposed skin, and took the brunt of the hit. I was face down with my hands protecting the back of my neck. Almost none of the scrap metal went more than skin deep. Tin pot, pack and a guy sprawled across my legs pretty much protected everything else. He took a small chunk in his right shoulder that got him a ride out. Seriously, I think he stabbed himself when he realized he was unhurt. :)

The opinion of the Marines I was with at the time was that a Viet Cong 105mm rocket impacted with a 105mm artillery shell directly over us. Made one heck of a noise, that's for sure.
None of my injuries, including the shootings and stabbings were worth a ride back to the world, or more than a week off duty.
Just really, really lucky.
 
Shepherd said:
The back of my arms are covered with tiny white scars. Looks a little odd. They were the only exposed skin, and took the brunt of the hit. I was face down with my hands protecting the back of my neck. Almost none of the scrap metal went more than skin deep. Tin pot, pack and a guy sprawled across my legs pretty much protected everything else. He took a small chunk in his right shoulder that got him a ride out. Seriously, I think he stabbed himself when he realized he was unhurt. :)

The opinion of the Marines I was with at the time was that a Viet Cong 105mm rocket impacted with a 105mm artillery shell directly over us. Made one heck of a noise, that's for sure.
None of my injuries, including the shootings and stabbings were worth a ride back to the world, or more than a week off duty.
Just really, really lucky.
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Have you told your neighbour, the one who is constantly concerned about your death-wish motorcycle and airplane habits, about any of this? :oops:
 
Hey Shepherd - thanks for your service and thanks for sharing a little of your story.
 
To all you Viet Nam vets.... thank you... my brother was there, he wasn't the same afterwards, the alcohol finally got him... tore my dad apart.
 
My dad flew bird dogs in Vietnam and I have a friend who flew Huey medivac. Dad doesn’t talk about his experience much but my medivac fried has some horror stories.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Friend of mine was a Thud Pilot with 100 Missions up North. After a few glasses of wine, his Finland accent gets stronger and the stories get more “interesting”:eek:.

Cheers
 
My first rescue was a 105 pilot that shot himself down. The gun had a time limit, he got target fixation and overheated the gun, which then blew up and went in the engine. He said he pulled up, went full throttle... and knew he wasn’t flying it home. Got about 50NM SW of Hanoi before he had to punch out. We had him on board within less than three hours.

I still have the pewter cup their unit gave each JG crew member after a rescue.
 
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