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Born: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1946
Served in Vietnam, U.S. Army
15th Medical Battalion, 1st Air Cavalry Division
Quang Tri, Dong Ha, and Khe Sanh
Medevac Helicopter Pilot, 1967-68
From the Artist:
From a letter, July 1968: LZ Sharon, 158 days to go.
This picture will probably haunt me for a long while. It was taken at just after 7 p.m. We had been flying almost nonstop since 4 a.m. We picked up almost 100 wounded today (and 20 killed, including a gunship crew shot down the day before). Dad, we are nothing but a bunch of scared kids being 40-year-old men. I'm the oldest one in this picture at 21 [far right]. That's Walt, my copilot, on the far left (we call him Lt. Fuzz). We are pretty cocky because we think we're good at what we do. I suppose the bravado gets us through the day, but every night I feel like a zombie.
Dad, I shake when I'm alone because before each mission they all look at me like I have all the answers. If they only knew how many times their "hotshot" aircraft commander was guessing about whether to zig or zag!