The Annual Meeting of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) is an interesting time where a lot of us gather to renew old friendships, tell a few truths (no lies ever get told) but each telling of a story our flying skills get better....the danger gets worse...the hostile fire more accurate and our derring-do magnifies....along with our youthful handsomeness we never lost.
In past years we used to remind ourselves we could still drink too much....laugh too loud...and very much enjoy being Combat Helicopter Pilots with all that it means.
During the Convention in Nashville, Tennessee....I and some friends happened to be standing on the Mezzanine looking down on the Lobby Bar.....that was filled with lots of portly, balding, bespectacled ofd geezers....all hugging and laughing....arms around shoulders...and talking like deaf persons do after they have a skinful of beer.
I suggested to my friends....that a stranger not knowing what a group we were would probably think they had wandered into a Pride gathering for old guys by mistake.
What I thought looking at those wonderful Men....with their hands making aircraft like maneuvers ....was the amazing things they had done in their younger years that few fully outside the military understood.
We did those things as a matter of fact and show it merely as just doing our job.
Our training and doctrine taught us that the Soldiers on the ground were our reason for being.....if they called...we went and they knew we would come if called.
We paid a terrible price living up to that.
My greatest honor in life has been being allowed to serve. alongside the Soldiers I did....and it is rewarding to see our story being told.
Joe Galloway called us "Gods Own Lunatics"......and I suppose we were at some time to someone that was in a very bad way....and we showed up.