FOREWORD

 

            Words alone cannot characterize the true ambiance of battle; the sights, the sounds, the smells, the earth-shattering destruction of human life. The stabbing sensation that grips your heart when you see a close friend blown to pieces defies description. Mind-numbing shock displaces the flood of emotion that will come later in quiet moments of reflection. The enormity of this pain can only be comprehended by those who have lived it first-hand and have experienced the inevitable nightmares. With graphic detail, this book brings you, the reader, “up close and personal” to these unavoidable realities of war.

 

            When asked to describe their worst combat experiences, war veterans arrive at very similar conclusions. Many, candidly admit, that when they were shocked by a truly grotesque event, their minds seemed to recede into an out-of-body mode that numbed their senses. In one of the most graphic excerpts, an Army Captain describes his emotions after surviving a devastating blast that dismembered six of his closest companions and wounded several others. “As I watched the bodies twitching with the last semblance of life draining out of them, my mind raced away from my own body, as if to protect my sanity. I was the victim, the one that had survived the ordeal. The dead no longer felt anything; it was I that was feeling their pain.”

 

             Generally, before 9/11, American media carefully edited the ugly side of war. But, after the gruesome carnage witnessed by our whole country, as the World Trade Center collapsed and burned, we could better understand what our servicemen and servicewomen see and feel when their comrades are violently torn to shreds. The gut-wrenching spectacle of 9/11 brought this entire nation to its feet with a clear example of how the mass killing of humans can generate irreversible horror and rage. Add to this the ghastly beheadings in Iraq with audio broadcasts of gurgling sounds made by a person whose throat has just been cut. America is finally getting the real picture of the worst in war.

 

            As a peace-loving society, we tend to quickly shove these powerful events into the rearmost portion of our memory. We would rather they be surrealistic, like a motion picture that we leave behind us when we walk out of a movie theater. Imagine, just for a moment, what the families of the 9/11 victims would have felt if our fellow citizens, untouched directly by this tragedy, had elected to forget the whole 9/11 experience. Thirty-five years ago, we, as a country did exactly that to our Vietnam veterans. Three decades later, the truth about Vietnam is bubbling to the surface in greater quality than ever before. In this book about the 191st Assault Helicopter Company, the author writes the narrative from a collection of excerpts furnished by its pilots, crews, and support personnel. They vividly share minute details of what it’s like to be at war and live amongst death and violence each day. After years of healing, it has finally become easier for the people who fought these battles to talk about them candidly, and their message is infinitely clear: “The price of freedom is painful.” We have a whole generation of Vietnam veterans saying, “We tried to tell you about this pain thirty years ago but you wouldn’t listen. Now that you have seen it for yourselves, in the events of 9/11, it’s time to learn from our experience in Southeast Asia, for the benefit of those we choose to place in harm’s way from now on. If you were among those who found fault in what we did in Vietnam, perhaps now you can understand that we were duty-bound to answer the call of our Commander-in-Chief on behalf of the South Vietnamese people. Like the Iraqis of today, they aspired to taste for themselves the same freedoms that we passionately enjoy. We did what we were ordered to do.”

 

            In this book, the grisly scenes described are accurate and unembellished as they unfold in the narrative. While there are many published accounts of helicopter pilots in Vietnam, most have been written from a first-person perspective. That’s like trying to view a battle through a keyhole. It’s very difficult for the writer to paint the whole picture. This accounting envelops a much broader scope. It records experiences as shared by an entire unit, with a cast of characters changing as often as the officers and men rotated through the 191st AHC.

 

            The Army is a team of people, a human chain-of-action linked by a common objective and coordinated through a regimented command-and-control system. The 191st Assault Helicopter Company functioned exactly that way, and the author presents a comprehensive insight, by depicting the entire range of action as seen through the eyes of many participants. When the 191st AHC flew a combat assault mission, there were numerous fields of view and individual acts that occurred on the same battleground. This was especially true in large-scale airmobile operations where so many factions played key roles that were obscured by the intensity of the action. Slick pilots, doorgunners, crewchiefs, gunship pilots, Air Force pilots, artillerymen, infantry troops, command-and-control pilots, battalion, and brigade commanders, all saw the same event unfold from a different field position. Each made up a part of the whole scene and all are very much a part of the action. No two shared the same threat level or full perspective.

 

             During insertions, the slick crews felt like sitting ducks, naked and vulnerable, while they were on the landing zone loading or unloading troops. The infantry soldiers, on the other hand, were grateful they could hit the ground and take cover immediately while the chopper crews drew most of the enemy fire. Gunship pilots patrolled the area with enormous fire power at their disposal and remained poised with an attack mindset that was far from helpless. Command-and-Control pilots with the infantry Battalion Commander onboard, enjoyed a safe vantage point; they flew at altitudes well beyond the range of small arms. Air Force jets flew at high speeds and carried heavy ordnance, which gave them an even greater destructive power and comfort level. The artillery troops, except for occasions when they had to defend their gun positions from ground attack, were farthest from the battlefield and typically connected with the action only by remote communication. Brigade commanders circled the battlefield at high altitudes in aircraft equipped with sophisticated communication gear that was constantly monitored by ready-reaction-forces. They commanded high-level war machinery and assets that could influence the battle with reinforcements or additional firepower at a moment’s notice. As each of these warriors tells his side of the story, the different descriptions suddenly reveal a panoramic angle that a single, first-person account could not accurately capture.

 

            Among the motivations of the numerous people who contributed their respective stories for this book, there is one that truly touched the innermost soul of the writer: Almost to the last man, the pilots, crews and support personnel of the 191st AHC feel obligated to speak for those who died gallantly serving this great organization. Otherwise their story would go untold. Many years have passed since they were thrown together in war. Yet, the 191st AHC brotherhood of officers and men remains stronger than ever. In a unanimous consensus at their last reunion, they elected to dedicate their story to their fallen brothers who were killed in action with the unit. It is with great pride that their names appear below in honor of their service, and it is the wish of every 191st AHC survivor that the families of these men will embrace this narrative as theirs as well. They suffered the greatest loss of all.

 

 

From the officers and men of the 191st Assault Helicopter Company, 1967 – 1971.

 

 

Every person who fought for this nation has a story, all are important in their own realm, all should be told in their own light, and that gem hidden within can only be found by the true seeker.”

James Fischer, Kingsville, Texas

 

 

             

AT LONG LAST A GRATEFUL NATION HAS RECOGNIZED YOUR ULTIMATE SACRIFICE AND PRAISES YOU FOR YOUR GALLANT SERVICE.

REST IN PEACE BROTHERS

 

 

NORMAN RICHARD KIDD
CPT
26 MAY 1967

JACK LEROY DODSON
1LT
26 MAY 1967

DAVID COLIN HALL
1LT
29 AUGUST 1967

SHAREL EDWARD BALES
1LT
29 AUGUST 1967

PETER STEVEN MARTINEZ
SP4
29 AUGUST 1967

JOSEPH LEON WHITAKER, JR
SP4
29 AUGUST 1967

RICHARD LEE SCADUTO
SSG
29 AUGUST 1967

LOUIS CHARLES MUSER II
SGT
29 AUGUST 1967

TOMMY GERALD SANDEFUR
CW2
1 FEBRUARY 1968

JEFFREY J.  YARGER
W01
19 MARCH 1968

HAROLD SHELBY WOOD, JR
SP5
19 MARCH 1968

GERALD DAVID AITON
PFC
29 APRIL 1968

RICHARD ALWIN WESKE
SP4

21 MAY 1968

 RICARDO ROBERT TEJANO
W01
5 JUNE 1968

NORMAN MICHAEL TURONE
W01
5 JUNE 1968

 RICHARD LARRY VINES
SP5
5 JUNE 1968

 DENNIS OWEN AKERS
SP4
5 JUNE 1968

 ARNOLD WAYNE LUKE
CPT
12 AUGUST 1968

 TERRY ROY JENS, JR
WO1
12 AUGUST 1968

 ARTURO DANIEL MONTION
SP4
12 AUGUST 1968

GERALD ANTHONY WILSON
SP5
12 AUGUST 1968

 DAVID CARROLL BURCH
CPT
3 SEPTEMBER 1968

 RONALD MICHAEL CEDERLUND
WO1
3 SEPTEMBER 1968

 PAUL REID FRAZIER
SGT
3 SEPTEMBER 1968

GLENN ROBERT LAWFIELD
SP4
30 SEPTEMBER 1968

 MORRIS JEROME ROSS
WO1
9 OCTOBER 1968

 JOHN ANTHONY PETRIC
MAJ
2 MARCH 1969

 CARL LEONARD RADTKE
1LT
2 MARCH 1969

 DENNIS SANDERS COKER
1LT
2 MARCH 1969

 ROBERT LYNN HEINMILLER
SP5
2 MARCH 1969

CARL SCOTT DOUGLAS
SP4
2 MARCH 1969

 GEORGE RONALD LOVELLETTE
SP4
2 MARCH 1969

GEORGE ALBERT DASHO
SP4
10 APRIL 1969

RALPH CURTIS EMBREY II
CW2
13 APRIL 1970

TERRY LYNN HENRY
W01
9 MAY 1970

STEPHEN HAROLD HAIGHT
SP4
9 MAY 1970

KRIS MITCHELL PERDOMO
SP4
9 MAY 1970

TIMOTHY CLAY MC CARTHY
SP4
24 JUN 1970

JOHN THOMAS ORRICO
CW2
2 NOVEMBER 1970

DOUGLAS JOHN CAMPBELL
WO1
2 NOVEMBER 1970

KENNETH LAVERN BROWN
SP5
2 NOVEMBER 1970

OSCAR MALONEY
SP5
2 NOVEMBER 1970

JAIME RESTREPO
SFC
4 NOVEMBER 1970

THOMAS PRESTON HARVEY
SGT
16 JUNE 1971



 

Copyright 2005, John Falcon, All Rights Reserved

 

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