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.