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We are now Older and Wiser, and for that I am very thankful. l.. U.S. active certificated pilots - average age 1993-2020; . [Parade Magazine] August 18, 1996 page 10. As they entered a one year combat tour, many pilots heard the ominous rumor that the average life expectancy of a US Army Aviator helicopter pilot in combat was only 19 minutes. It turned out to be the best thing that happened to me, even though I was wounded before the year was out and sent home before my tour was over. Although I was sworn to secrecy at the time, with the Freedom of Information Act, I believe that I can now break the silence. The movie and a book the movie was based on contend that the CIA condoned a drug trade conducted by a Laotian client; both agree that Air America provided the essential transportation for the trade; and both view the pilots with sympathetic understanding. I cannot talk about how tough flight school was, nor can I state what the washout rate was because I did not go myself. With the front of my Huey still kissing the tree leaves and my crew keeping me posted as to what was going on, I took a quick, curious look out my left window to see where the friendly fire was impacting. is passed from outgoing President to incoming President at each reunion. Caicos Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican . They also acted as the means of supply of ammunitions, equipment and food. As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic. [People], The evacuees were Vietnamese not American military. Decisions made by someone above you in the chain-of-command will seldom be in your best interest. Both immigrated The first time I tried to land on the ship at night, I terminated at a 30-foot hover over the deck instead of on the deck, and the Aircraft Commander had to take over and hover us down to the ship. "In all the years we've been working on this we have found that's not the case." I will always thank Warrant Officer Study for his late-night, picture-perfect landing on the round end of the boat. Published by on October 31, 2021. Larry Clark and Mike Law in 1990. VHPA and encourage all eligible individuals to become members. Please call HQ on 800-505-VHPA (8472) to sign up to be a life My opinion is that he was as afraid that he could not complete the mission, as much as he was afraid to die. On one particularly difficult night MedEvac in the mountains, all our windows fogged up as we dropped from 7,000 feet through a hole in the clouds to pick up a Soldier with a head wound. Shoot, I had NO idea! They could rotate around a battle site from above, unleashing punishing weapon support from above. If everything is as clear as a bell, and everything is going exactly as planned, youre about to be surprised. It was a small price to pay for the successful completion of our daily rescues. . The Pilots of Charlie Troop 1st Squadron 9th Cavalry Regiment 1st Cavalry Division (AM) were the best Pilots of the Vietnam War and today they are the best men America has to offer. I found a can of olive drab (OD) spray paint and . In all, a very scary time for our country. Add to that, it is also the most unforgiving mission flown in a helicopter. The third seat was for our testicles. Harnage, As one of those troopers on the ground, I can honestly say how proud I am to have served with Brave men. VHPA Aviator magazine I and many more just like me can only say Thank You for all that you did. [3], Battlefield Viet Nam Episode 5 "The Undeclared War", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Chopper_(Vietnam)&oldid=1133354489, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 10:36. 1969 Hello, I enjoyed Reading the blog. ag.. Currently, you are using a shared account. Business Solutions including all features. By contrast, there still are 78,000 unaccounted-for Americans from World War II and 8,100 from the Korean conflict. Myth: Most American soldiers were addicted to drugs, guilt-ridden about their role in the war, and deliberately used cruel and inhumane tactics. d.. A paid subscription is required for full access. By the end of the war half of them had been lost. See an example of our magazine, The [Westmoreland] Approximately 70% of those killed were volunteers. Scared that maybe, just maybe, youll fail your mission where someone else just like you would have succeeded. One guy was 19, while the oldest (not counting our Commanding Officer) was the 28-year-old XO, Army slang for the second in command, Executive Officer. (CACF and Westmoreland), Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently published book "All That We Can Be," said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam "and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. [CACF]. Experienced pilots with proven records of successful, aggressive combat could be invited to join a platoon in a fire team of one or two gunships operating with a scout helicopter and escorting slick assaults. On what turned out to be his final mission, they were to pick up wounded on a mountain top, but got caught in heavy fire while making their approach. This freed Marine quotas at Pensacola which could be used to . Most of our Door Gunners and Crew Chiefs were also 18-21 years old. approximately 40,000 who served as helicopter Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture was Vietnamese. [McCaffrey], MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. It is unfortunate that many helicopters never had the opportunity to fulfill their one true mission in life, simply because someone forgot this fact. I arrived in Vietnam on the 4th of July 1969, barely 21 years old. "Average Age of Active Pilots in The United States from 2002 to 2020, by Category*. As mentioned earlier, there was little protection from weapon fire for the pilots, and with body parts exposed on a third seat, we were especially vulnerable. I told my roommate, This is it. [The Wall Street Journal] The Wall Street Journal, 1 June 1996 page A15. We were an easier target during the day, but unlike at night when we kept all the lights off, we could see what we were doing! They will always be our heroes, our Angels in the Sky.. Instead of landing and changing seats he tried to do it in mid air. Whether their responsibility was to fly the troops into and out of battle, become the Medical Evacuation bird when required, be the forward eyes of the ground troopers or provide them fire support when needed. Here is an example done at the 2005 . v.. A free fire zone has nothing to do with economics. There is a reason why these medevac pilots were called our angels in the sky. We who fought the enemy face to face on the ground, whether infantry or recon, knew that if we were wounded, these guys would do anything necessary, face any danger the enemy could present, to get us out of hell and back to the care we needed. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and schoolteachers. I knew that if Don got in trouble on the approach, I could not be of much help because of the gunshot wound in my left arm, but we were Young and Stupid and we made it. g.. Owned and operated by CharityUSA.com, LLC. Back home in the real world, my buddies were at the drive-in, drinking beer and looking for a carload of girls to flirt with, just as I had been doing a year or two before. Uh, thats a can opener for those of you who arent military. These men never refused to fly into harms way. It is a bad thing to run out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas all at the same time. His writing has appeared in The National Interest and other news media. Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam. Over the ten years of the war, Operation Ranch Hand sprayed about eleven million gallons of Agent Orange on the South Vietnamese landscape. This is a true testament for any theater! When they saw one flying balls out, they knew it was a Dustoff on an urgent mission. The average age of an employed helicopter pilot is 44 years old. Information contained herein shall not be used for commercial Company pick-up truck, I was told I didnt pass the depth perception portion of the eye test and would not be issued the license. Failure to heed this commandment can affect the morale of the crew. It can be expressed in its mathematical formula of S (suction) + H (height) above ground) + I (interest in staying alive) + T (# of tracers coming your way). Most were 19 or 20 years old, with a few experienced old men per platoon in their late twenties. [McCaffrey] Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era (1961-1975). After training, they entered transport or gunship platoons referred to simply as slicks or guns. Most would complete at least two combat tours. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. If everyone does not come home, none of the rest of us can ever fully come home either. ), Once out to sea, landing on the ships was an interesting experience, especially when the decks were bouncing up and down like a fishing bobber with a carp under it. "Average age of active pilots in the United States from 2002 to 2020, by category*." ad.. Provide food and supplies to veterans at The Veterans Site for free! c.. NEVER get into a fight without more ammunition than the other guy. its on the ground . Your email address will not be published. "We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that time. In, Federal Aviation Administration. You only have access to basic statistics. historical reference directories, CD-ROMs and DVDs. It was a fact that Dustoff crews had three times the casualty rate of other helicopter crews. [Nixon], The Vietnam War has been the subject of thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, hundreds of books, and scores of movies and television documentaries. Being scared in the sense of risking ones life for others, for sure, but also a sense of being scared that you will not be up to the standards of your fellow pilots. Prayer may not help . He was an instructor pilot at Downing Army Airfield at Ft. Wolters, Texas, in May of 1968. Maybe we could have used our survival radio once we were in the water or forced down over the jungle. survival radio, whats that? As he entered the crowded car, he said, Ballroom, please.. Age 75 to 79 --------$100.00 sent to. I can tell you what in my opinion made the best pilots. Five Thousand pilots and crews lost their lives and 3,258 Hueys alone were lost during the war. We dont have any place for you to land, so just hang your butts out in the open sky for several minutes so any kid with a bow and arrow can shoot you down, and Gee, those red crosses on your helicopter sure make great aiming points, dont they? come left . Sometimes, being good and lucky still is not enough. Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action). Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. One pilot lost a testicle to a .50-caliber round and was able to father only 44 children (at last count) after returning from overseas. Maybe it was only three miles . 66 founding members. Don S. the last (in-country) Masher33, 1971, It is not easy to read this stuff. And what was even stupider, I suppose, was the fact that if the doors were closed when we reached the water, we opened them so we could get out easier if we did go down. Based on the data, more than 30% of the current for-hire pilots fall within the age range of 50 to 64. information contained in this publication shall not be distributed to non-VHPA We put him in the back of the cargo compartment with his M-16 and a helmet, hooked him up to the intercom, and we were off. a.. Once you are in the fight, it is way too late to wonder if this is a good idea. What is important is what you are doing-NOW-to solve our problem. it will be forwarded to the appropriate VHPA representative. In June of 1967, Marine officers destined to become fixed-wing pilots began reporting to Air Force bases for flight training. EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW IN LIFE I LEARNED AS A HELICOPTER PILOT IN VIETNAM. U.S. active certificated pilots - number 1990-2020, Worldwide aircraft fleet age by region 2020-2030, Air traffic - passenger growth rates forecast 2019-2040. American involvement in February 1973. The second pilot you will meet is retired CWO2 Allan Potter. "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. (EC), [Home] [ReunionInformation] [Donations] [OurLegacy] [MembershipServices] [RelatedWebSites], This Joe Treen, People.com, 21 April 2000. r.. Our single-engine UH-1H Hueys did not float in the water very well. ", Federal Aviation Administration, Average age of active pilots in the United States from 2002 to 2020, by category* Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/919100/aviation-industry-average-age-of-active-pilots-in-the-united-states-by-category/ (last visited March 04, 2023), Average age of active pilots in the United States from 2002 to 2020, by category* [Graph], Federal Aviation Administration, May 18, 2021. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter Warrant Officer Shelly Berryman flew Huey helicopters in Vietnam War But it also exposed American servicemen and women to a chemical that now has them dying on average 13 years earlier than their counterparts who did not serve in . When the Army decided to use helicopters as the Eyes, Protection and Horses of the 1st Cavalry Division, men both young and older were chosen to become pilots. You can only download this statistic as a Premium user. It took all of our skill and luck to avoid flying into the valley walls as we stuck our heads out the windows to find our way to the LZ without balling up the helicopter. If we had been shot down on virtually any hoist mission, our high hover would not have allowed us to make a safe landing, and many would surely have died. Can I pick up Armed Forces Radio on it? Here are some facts to clear up that poor job of reporting by the news media. Small, two seat TH-55 Osages were also used. Steve DaCosta, Cavalier15, June67-June68. As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail. I suppose we would have survived; we had water wings! I would never dispute that, but I would argue that putting a helicopter on the tiny pad of the hospital ship is like landing on a corner of that postage stamp. A Huey pilot later with the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion (AHB) at Pleiku, recalled one student who, flush with success after his first solo, decided to see what it was like in the empty instructors seat, but knew he would have to change back to land. As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic. You need a Statista Account for unlimited access. I enlisted in the (WOFT) Warrant Officer Flight Training. tail number N4 7004, were Bob Caron who lives in Florida and Jack o.. It was called "shell shock" and other names in previous wars. Reunion dates and locations have been announced for the following units: The latest quarterly issue has the agenda and registration details for Vietnam War conference scheduled for March 2-4, 2023 that will focus on the year 1973: The Paris Peace Accords and the Allied Withdrawal from South Vietnam Also included are updates on the Oral History Project and volunteer opportunities.Stay in touch and help us preserve your legacy. The most incredible, dangerous, high pucker factor, exhilarating thing a man can do with a helicopter is to pull an insecure hoist mission, day or night. t.. See also The History of the Ranch Hand Epidemiologic Investigation. hostile fire exposure versus battle area exposure. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. There, the new guys learned how to apply their recently found skills to combat situations. [VHPA 1993] Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association 1993 Membership Directory page 130. . You were a good friend and much appreciated by my parents. Communications with the Executive Council Information contained herein shall not be used for commercial They were immensely important to the troops on the ground as aerial fire power. i.. Chicken Plates are not something you order in a restaurant. No matter what the make up of the team was they flew in helicopters that were made with the intention of dispensing a superior amount of fire power on the enemy. Knowing that my depth perception left little margin for error on the night approaches (especially), I had to totally concentrate on what I was doing and not relax for a second until we were down on that rockin and rollin ship. Funds are paid by Greater Good Charities to benefiting organizations as a grant. Average age of active pilots in the United States from 2002 to 2020, by category* [Graph]. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter.