what day you were most afraid in Vietnam?

[GEORGE CURTIS]

Email question

Sir could you tell me what day you were most afraid in Vietnam?


Briana

I arrived in Vietnam in Nov 1967 and was there for TET 68 and as you can imagine we had a lot of nervous times during TET 68.
I remained in Vietnam until late 1971 and the time period I was most aware that things may go crazy like TET 68 again was on September 4th 1969. You see, Ho Chi Minh died of heart failure in Hanoi on September 3, 1969 We were all concerned that a new offensive would begin. Those of us that were there for TET 68 understood that another TET would be very costly in losses of men and equipment. This was at a time that the U S was trying to pull troops out and turn areas of Vietnam over to the RVN troops to defend.

I will post your question on our NOTAM BOARD for other members to list their own memories for you to use in your school project. I have an agreement with your teacher not to list your email address , you may however read those responses on the NOTAM BOARD and may feel free to contact those members that post responses by using the PM system provided at the bottom of their post.

Thank you for your interest in our experiences in Vietnam.

FYI

Briana is 13 and in the eighth grade

[orlando ingvold]

On a Medevac mission ('66), in the pick-up zone, waiting for my crew chief and corpsman to get back with the wounded Marine, a bullet came through the cockpit hitting my copilot and wounding me. We waited until all were on board and I flew us to a medical facility (C-Med). While waiting for everyone to get on board, it took a few minutes, I felt like I was sitting, as a kid in a high chair with no protection, we had no armor protecting us. I just knew the shooter would put his gun on automatic and blow us away but with good protection from a squadron mate in a UH-1E gun ship, we made it out ok.

But most often, my fear came when I thought that I could not get my Marines through/out of, their situation on the ground. I flew. They did the real work. I helped as I could. I was a UH-1E, VMO pilot, not a "grunt" doing the real work.

Lanny