This book is being written after many years of procrastination
and after years of encouragement by family and friends who had read
the original journal. Also, the formation the 114th Aviation Company
Association played a major role in motivating me to complete it for
publication. My primary purpose is to provide the Americans now
living, many of whom are the adult children and grandchildren of
those who served, a first-hand, contemporary view of our part in the
war. Hopefully, this book will help them understand what our daily
routines were like and how we were involved as helicopter pilots and
crewmen. I am also writing for those men, who for some reason or
another, did not keep a journal.
The initial entries of this journal upon which this narrative
is based were recorded on the 5th of August 1965, as I waited at an
air force base in California, for airlift to South East Asia. I was
very careful to keep as accurate an account as I could of the names,
dates, places, and events because I wanted to be able to prove to my
family and others’ families what we did in the Vietnam War. I have
kept my original thoughts and opinions unvarnished and as I felt them
at the time. This has been very difficult for me as an older man with
the wisdom of another thirty years. My respect and understanding of
the men who were my leaders at the time has grown since I walked in
their shoes. In 1965, I was a green Second Lieutenant, fresh out of
The Military College of South Carolina and the U.S. Army Infantry
Officer’s Basic Course and Flight School. I had little or no
experience with which to judge them.
I have decided not to edit or omit the truth in any way. What I
record really happened. I have not changed the names to protect the
innocent or the reputations of the dead. This has been difficult and
very painful for me. I saw and recorded acts of incredible heroism,
personal bravery, and gallantry that would honor any battlefield in
history. I also witnessed incompetence, cowardice, and stupidity on
a grand scale. Some may be shocked at what they read here. Others will
remember. I do not apologize. I tell the truth.
The day-to-day entries contained in this publication were actually
taken from my original journal, except for the last day of my first
tour in Vietnam. The last day has been reconstructed from events as
I remember them, from conversations with the members of the 114th
Aviation Company Association and from members of the “Cobra” platoon
who were actually on the scene.
