WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.720 organization and I think that if you get the 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:04.360 opportunity you want to help somebody out because 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:06.540 this is a non -profit organization and these 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:08.500 men and women are traveling all over the world 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.460 trying to help people out you can go to teamrubicon 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:16.480 .org that's teamrubicon .org R U B I C O N and 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.039 maybe you can help them out and it said if you 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:21.329 need help anytime for a national disaster or 00:00:21.329 --> 00:00:23.609 a natural disaster for any type, he said just 00:00:23.609 --> 00:00:26.149 go to their website and send them an email and 00:00:26.149 --> 00:00:27.629 they'll get in touch with you and see if they 00:00:27.629 --> 00:00:30.890 can help you out. So that's Team Rubicon. We're 00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:33.409 going to be back in just a moment with our guest, 00:00:33.530 --> 00:00:36.729 Major General Patrick Henry Brady, Medal of Honor 00:00:36.729 --> 00:00:40.109 recipient for his duties in Vietnam. You're listening 00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:49.770 to Veterans Radio. We'll be right back. Now we 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:52.189 would like to serve you. The Marine Scholars 00:00:52.189 --> 00:00:54.710 Program covers the total cost of attending Ave 00:00:54.710 --> 00:00:57.450 Maria University by combining resources from 00:00:57.450 --> 00:00:59.750 the Ave Maria University Marine Scholars Fund 00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:02.990 Bank, federal financial aid entitlements, and 00:01:02.990 --> 00:01:05.769 the GI Bill. The benefits are granted for the 00:01:05.769 --> 00:01:07.810 duration of the recipient study at Ave Maria 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:11.069 University contingent upon good conduct and good 00:01:11.069 --> 00:01:14.069 academic standing. The Marine Scholars Program 00:01:14.069 --> 00:01:16.849 is open to all reserve and active component Marines 00:01:16.849 --> 00:01:19.709 and other combat veterans of Operation Enduring 00:01:19.709 --> 00:01:22.250 Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom who have 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:25.450 honorably served our country. Please visit us 00:01:25.450 --> 00:01:30.909 online at www .avemaria .edu or call the Assistant 00:01:30.909 --> 00:01:37.310 Director of Admissions at 239 -280 -2552. You 00:01:37.310 --> 00:01:43.909 helped us. Now let us help you. Semper Fi. And 00:01:43.909 --> 00:01:46.450 we're back on Veterans Radio and we're welcoming 00:01:46.450 --> 00:01:49.170 our guest today Major General Pat Brady who served 00:01:49.170 --> 00:01:52.549 over 34 years in the army and duty stations around 00:01:52.549 --> 00:01:55.269 the world in Berlin at the building of the wall 00:01:55.269 --> 00:01:58.310 as a commander on the DMZ in Korea and the Dominican 00:01:58.310 --> 00:02:00.709 Republic in the Pentagon as a chief spokesman 00:02:00.709 --> 00:02:04.390 for the army and two tours in Vietnam and during 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.569 his two tours as a Dust -off pilot he rescued 00:02:07.569 --> 00:02:09.729 over 5 ,000 wounded. I think the number is probably 00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:14.250 higher flew over 2 ,500 combat mission and he 00:02:14.250 --> 00:02:16.770 has won both the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished 00:02:16.770 --> 00:02:18.849 Service Cross, only one of two Vietnam soldiers 00:02:18.849 --> 00:02:22.349 to do that. His awards are too lengthy to list, 00:02:22.889 --> 00:02:25.689 but just an incredible man and I'm very excited 00:02:25.689 --> 00:02:27.889 to have him on the program today. If you want 00:02:27.889 --> 00:02:29.870 to get in on the conversation, give us a call 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:35.210 at 877 -573 -7825 and welcome to Veterans Radio, 00:02:35.289 --> 00:02:38.960 General Brady. Good to be with you. It's a pleasure, 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:42.819 sir. And I want to tell you, your book, Dead 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:47.020 Men Flying, was really a time trip for me and 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:49.479 probably for a lot of pilots who read it. I love 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:51.819 the story and I love what you did over there. 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:55.319 Thank you so much for your service. Were you 00:02:55.319 --> 00:02:57.840 a pilot in Vietnam? Yes, sir. I was one of those 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:05.919 Wally Warrant guys. I flew with the 195th Assault 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.639 Helicopter Company in III Corps. We were the 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:12.439 Sky Chiefs. What year were you there? I was there 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:17.240 in 1969. Okay, you were a little after me. I 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:22.020 worked the three core area early, 64, 65 time 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:24.139 frame. Right, you were flying around in your 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:27.680 B model Hueys. Yes, yes, indeed. I loved the 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:32.219 B model. We did a lot of night work. The B model, 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:35.680 of course the H model, which we used later on, 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.210 carried a lot more patience. But the B model 00:03:38.210 --> 00:03:43.150 was so flat and handy for night work. You could 00:03:43.150 --> 00:03:47.750 make an approach really flat. And I loved the 00:03:47.750 --> 00:03:51.400 B model the way it performed at night. I'm going 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:53.539 to try to, every time we come up with an acronym 00:03:53.539 --> 00:03:55.740 here for our audience, I'll try to correct and 00:03:55.740 --> 00:03:58.340 fill in the blanks for all of the spaces that 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:01.099 we may leave out when we start talking about 00:04:01.099 --> 00:04:03.680 helicopters. But my wife said, what are you doing 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:05.219 over there? I was reading the book and my hands 00:04:05.219 --> 00:04:09.000 and my feet were moving as I'm reading some of 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.280 the rescues that they did, which I think is what 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:13.960 every helicopter pilot seems to do. We can't 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.819 tell a story without moving the controls. Yeah, 00:04:17.379 --> 00:04:20.829 that's for sure. The fighter pilots don't like 00:04:20.829 --> 00:04:23.269 to be around us because, you know, they count 00:04:23.269 --> 00:04:25.250 their missions in the hundred. We counted ours 00:04:25.250 --> 00:04:28.670 in the thousands. And the other thing about it 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:32.449 was that I tease my fighter pilot friends about 00:04:32.449 --> 00:04:35.569 the fact that they're not really pilots. They 00:04:35.569 --> 00:04:39.129 don't fly, they ride. Your only real pilots are 00:04:39.129 --> 00:04:41.350 helicopter pilots because it takes both hands, 00:04:41.449 --> 00:04:43.990 both feet. And probably when you and I started 00:04:43.990 --> 00:04:46.769 to fly, it took a risk to a motorcycle grip to 00:04:46.769 --> 00:04:48.810 keep that sucker in the air. That's true, because 00:04:48.810 --> 00:04:55.209 I also trained in the the the Hiller H -23. Hiller 00:04:55.209 --> 00:04:57.990 the killer, they called it. Down at Fort Walters, 00:04:57.990 --> 00:05:03.769 Texas. And it was quite the adventure, I can 00:05:03.769 --> 00:05:07.470 tell you that. My story to fighter pilots is, 00:05:07.569 --> 00:05:09.689 you know, it's amazing that you guys can go, 00:05:09.689 --> 00:05:12.649 you know, 800 miles an hour. But I said, how 00:05:12.649 --> 00:05:15.529 fast can you go backwards? Yes, that's right. 00:05:15.949 --> 00:05:19.670 And sideways, and stop. And how many times do 00:05:19.670 --> 00:05:25.029 they land? And where do they land? In our case, 00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:27.370 and in your case especially, anywhere you wanted. 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:31.269 That's true, and most often on the battlefield. 00:05:31.889 --> 00:05:34.029 I think so. We're talking with Major General 00:05:34.029 --> 00:05:36.269 Patrick Brady, a Medal of Honor recipient, about 00:05:36.269 --> 00:05:39.569 his book, Dead Men Flying, and I guess I'd like 00:05:39.569 --> 00:05:41.470 to kind of go through this chronologically with 00:05:41.470 --> 00:05:44.870 you, sir, if we can. You mentioned that in your 00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:50.009 book you were not the, let's see, the image of 00:05:50.009 --> 00:05:51.949 the perfect officer in the military, were you? 00:05:52.029 --> 00:05:56.160 You had some issues. No, it's very, very true. 00:05:57.620 --> 00:06:03.939 When I came out of high school in the 50s, I 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:07.500 had an opportunity to go play football and I 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:10.459 had this little girlfriend, and she was going 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:14.220 to a university that didn't have a football team, 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:18.040 but it did have OTC. And so I thought I'd better 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:20.660 keep an eye on her, and so I followed her, gave 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:24.279 up the scholarships, and ended up policy she'd 00:06:24.279 --> 00:06:27.379 been mandatory for me well i had a bad attitude 00:06:27.379 --> 00:06:30.699 about it and by the way i married that gal i 00:06:30.699 --> 00:06:35.319 got even with her uh... so still the uh... yes 00:06:35.319 --> 00:06:38.959 still after fifty five years so but in any event 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:42.680 uh... i had to go i had to go into all of these 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:45.540 who had no choice and by the time i got out of 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.500 college and uh... was married and had a couple 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:52.439 children and uh... so i figured well uh... they 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:54.720 they actually through me out after two years 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:56.939 which was a first two years and then try but 00:06:56.939 --> 00:07:00.480 they hadn't been when i came back to me they 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.720 took me back and i got commissioned but i i had 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:06.379 my my thing was just to serve my time and get 00:07:06.379 --> 00:07:08.899 out because i did not like the uniform i didn't 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:12.000 like saloon saluting and i couldn't march very 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.600 well so i was not your ideal soldier president 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.370 in any event But in any event, when I went to 00:07:20.370 --> 00:07:22.569 Berlin my first assignment, I met some incredible 00:07:22.569 --> 00:07:25.709 people. My commander later became chief staff 00:07:25.709 --> 00:07:28.170 of the Army. Norm Schwarzkopf was there and some 00:07:28.170 --> 00:07:31.410 other great soldiers. And I just thought, gee, 00:07:31.490 --> 00:07:33.290 it would be nice if I could grow up and be like 00:07:33.290 --> 00:07:37.310 them. And so I was a mess as far as a soldier 00:07:37.310 --> 00:07:42.949 goes. I just wasn't suited to it initially. And 00:07:42.949 --> 00:07:47.089 so my record showed it. And it had some great 00:07:47.089 --> 00:07:51.670 difficulties. You know, getting along and doing 00:07:51.670 --> 00:07:53.930 the disciplined things, but the military taught 00:07:53.930 --> 00:07:58.290 me discipline and thank God I had the military. 00:07:58.329 --> 00:08:00.189 No telling what would happen to me otherwise. 00:08:00.649 --> 00:08:02.970 I think there are many, many of us that can relate 00:08:02.970 --> 00:08:07.290 to that. It was there when we needed it to be 00:08:07.290 --> 00:08:11.870 there, I think. You bet. And so you really did 00:08:11.870 --> 00:08:14.009 kind of live through history and I was fascinated 00:08:14.009 --> 00:08:15.810 because you were in Berlin, you said, when the 00:08:15.810 --> 00:08:20.639 wall went up. Yes. That was my first experience 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:23.279 with communism. You know, I'm a young idealistic 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:26.240 guy coming out of college, and I'd read of Mao 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.500 Tse -Tung in the Long March, and thought, you 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.779 know, this is a pretty tough guy. And Russia 00:08:30.779 --> 00:08:34.700 was into space, and they had their system, and 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:36.500 I just didn't know. And then all of a sudden 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:40.840 we wake up August 13th, 1961, I think it was. 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:43.720 And they divided the city. As you know, or many 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.720 people may not know, the city was 110 miles behind 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.860 the Iron Curtain. And it was occupied by the 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:56.019 four forces. And all of a sudden, they're shooting 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:58.340 their own people off the wall. I was a medical 00:08:58.340 --> 00:09:00.259 platoon leader, and we were picking up a mess. 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:03.440 And I thought, what in the heck is going on here? 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:06.340 These people are killing their own people. And 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:08.960 we had, believe it or not, as a second lieutenant 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:12.500 in Berlin, I had a maid and a babysitter. And 00:09:12.500 --> 00:09:16.360 my babysitter was engaged, her fiance was in 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:19.100 the East across checkpoint Charlie in East Germany, 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.019 East Berlin. She never saw him again. And our 00:09:23.019 --> 00:09:25.960 maid, her mother and father, when they died in 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:28.220 the East, she could not go to their funeral. 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:31.539 So that was my first experience. And then, of 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:33.759 course, I saw the real horrors of communism in 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:38.309 Vietnam. and also in Korea when I was working 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:42.110 in the DMZ so it was a horrible, horrible evil 00:09:42.110 --> 00:09:44.870 system and of course that's why we went to Vietnam, 00:09:45.250 --> 00:09:47.710 very simple thing there just to help the helpless 00:09:47.710 --> 00:09:50.850 people be free of the evils of communism and 00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:56.009 show them the fruits of freedom and the GI did 00:09:56.009 --> 00:09:57.750 a great job and that's part of what the book's 00:09:57.750 --> 00:09:59.929 about, the humanitarian effort over there. Right, 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.730 I did want to get into that in a little bit. 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:05.870 I have a question for General Brady. Give us 00:10:05.870 --> 00:10:11.029 a call here at 877 -573 -7825. How did you end 00:10:11.029 --> 00:10:15.990 up going to flight school? Well, my father was 00:10:15.990 --> 00:10:19.049 with Darby's Rangers in World War II, and so 00:10:19.049 --> 00:10:22.009 when I went in, I says, well, I got to be a Ranger, 00:10:22.370 --> 00:10:24.929 and then I want to be airborne, and then I want 00:10:24.929 --> 00:10:27.169 to go to flight school, and the reason, the motivation 00:10:27.169 --> 00:10:29.809 was always because I make more money doing that. 00:10:30.049 --> 00:10:36.559 That's true. So I applied initially when I was 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:40.840 in basic officers training and I got a response 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:43.980 when I got to Berlin saying whoops you're in 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:45.720 Berlin we can't send you to flight school. So 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:49.980 when I came out of Berlin I applied once again 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:54.080 and they took me this time. And I trained at 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:57.840 Fort Walters and volunteered for Vietnam because 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:00.059 you got more money over there and besides it 00:11:00.059 --> 00:11:02.330 was It was the only place where there was any 00:11:02.330 --> 00:11:05.870 action. Well, that is true. And you turned out 00:11:05.870 --> 00:11:08.250 to be what I used to call was an RLO, which was 00:11:08.250 --> 00:11:12.690 a real live officer. And you had a different 00:11:12.690 --> 00:11:15.529 name, and I'm trying to find it in here. I don't 00:11:15.529 --> 00:11:18.309 know my list of what you called them. It was 00:11:18.309 --> 00:11:22.129 an RFO, and your listeners can figure that out. 00:11:22.169 --> 00:11:25.750 Right, yeah, we don't need to do that. We run 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:28.450 into that word quite often as we read, although 00:11:28.450 --> 00:11:32.419 it's all kinds of symbols there. So that's what 00:11:32.419 --> 00:11:36.519 was going on there. So you went to Vietnam for 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:40.580 the first time in 1964, did you say? Yes. Yes. 00:11:41.500 --> 00:11:46.379 Go ahead. I got there when Charles Kelly was 00:11:46.379 --> 00:11:51.679 one of the great heroes I've ever known. He was 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:57.059 a veteran of World War II. He'd been severely 00:11:57.059 --> 00:12:01.220 wounded in World War II and came out At the time, 00:12:01.580 --> 00:12:04.879 the only living veteran with all the four of 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.440 the medals, you know, flight wings, jump wings. 00:12:07.820 --> 00:12:09.879 And he also had a combat infantry badge and a 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:13.820 medical infantry badge, or combat medical badge. 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:20.259 And he got there to Vietnam. We didn't know, 00:12:20.539 --> 00:12:22.899 we really didn't know how to use the resource. 00:12:23.539 --> 00:12:26.240 And neither did the leadership. You've got this 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:30.450 expensive machine and four lives. And you got 00:12:30.450 --> 00:12:34.370 combat going on. And the idea initially was just 00:12:34.370 --> 00:12:37.070 to protect the Americans. We only had 16 ,000 00:12:37.070 --> 00:12:40.509 Americans in Vietnam when I got there. And so 00:12:40.509 --> 00:12:42.809 they just didn't know how to use that resource. 00:12:42.809 --> 00:12:45.230 And it wasn't flying a lot. So the leadership 00:12:45.230 --> 00:12:48.450 decided to take it away from Kelly and put a 00:12:48.450 --> 00:12:50.350 portable Red Cross on it. Well, Kelly says, you're 00:12:50.350 --> 00:12:53.129 not going to do that. That's insane. And a guy 00:12:53.129 --> 00:12:57.350 named Stillwell, the son of vinegar Joe, was 00:12:57.350 --> 00:13:00.330 his great adversary in that thing. So Kelly came 00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:02.529 back and he said, listen, guys, they don't wish 00:13:02.529 --> 00:13:06.070 us well. For the first time since the Civil War, 00:13:06.070 --> 00:13:08.450 they're going to confiscate a medical resource. 00:13:08.529 --> 00:13:12.049 We have to prove to them that we can do better 00:13:12.049 --> 00:13:15.450 than they can do, do what we do better than they 00:13:15.450 --> 00:13:19.269 can do. And so he went about to prove it. And 00:13:19.269 --> 00:13:23.470 we did our best to keep up with him. Flying night, 00:13:23.669 --> 00:13:26.210 we were the only unit that flew at night. and 00:13:26.210 --> 00:13:28.629 to fly onto the battlefield during the battle. 00:13:29.470 --> 00:13:32.809 Nobody else did that. And so he set incredible 00:13:32.809 --> 00:13:35.330 records for patient caring. And when he would 00:13:35.330 --> 00:13:38.690 land in a village, the entire village would turn 00:13:38.690 --> 00:13:41.570 out. And they would say, here's the Americans 00:13:41.570 --> 00:13:45.610 taking this valuable machine for lives, risking 00:13:45.610 --> 00:13:48.149 them for a peasant and a rice paddy. And it made 00:13:48.149 --> 00:13:52.450 a great impression on the people. So as I tell 00:13:52.450 --> 00:13:57.379 in the book, The battle went on to take the aircraft 00:13:57.379 --> 00:13:59.299 away from us, and I don't think it was settled. 00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:02.639 I know it wasn't settled, until Kelly was killed. 00:14:02.940 --> 00:14:06.379 And he was killed during a pick -up once again 00:14:06.379 --> 00:14:09.940 on the battlefield, under fire, and the people 00:14:09.940 --> 00:14:13.740 on the ground screamed at him to get out. And 00:14:13.740 --> 00:14:17.580 his dying words were, when I have you wounded. 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:20.360 He would not leave until he had been wounded. 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:22.480 And after he said that, he took a bullet right 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.580 through the heart. and folded up the aircraft, 00:14:25.580 --> 00:14:29.299 died on the spot. And Westmoreland had come in 00:14:29.299 --> 00:14:31.940 by then. And they tell me that Stillwell broke 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:34.259 down and cried when he heard that Kelly was dead. 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:37.879 But in any event, that ended it. And to this 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:41.720 day, his dying words are the standard for dust 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:44.120 -off, aeromedical evacuation across the world. 00:14:45.019 --> 00:14:50.830 And he set the example for all of us. from that 00:14:50.830 --> 00:14:53.210 moment on and nobody ever tried, until recently, 00:14:53.309 --> 00:14:55.169 by the way, that's another issue. They've done 00:14:55.169 --> 00:14:58.210 the same thing they did to Kelly, which is insane, 00:14:59.049 --> 00:15:01.610 but that's what's going on today. Yeah, I want 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:04.870 to get into that later on in our interview when 00:15:04.870 --> 00:15:08.049 we talk about what's going on today. But I think 00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:12.549 all pilots had heard it of, you know, Kelly through 00:15:12.549 --> 00:15:14.929 flight school. He was one of those people that 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:17.169 was held up as an example that, you know, this 00:15:17.169 --> 00:15:19.419 is what This is what a pilot's supposed to do. 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:22.399 This is, you know, our mission. I mean, we did 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:24.980 a lot of ash and trash. We did some other stuff, 00:15:24.980 --> 00:15:27.000 you know, working with some special forces units. 00:15:27.399 --> 00:15:29.840 But we always felt that it was our obligation 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:31.879 to help people. And I was not a medevac pilot 00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:34.360 or a dust -off pilot. And as I was reading your 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:35.779 book, I was going, oh, my God, I should have 00:15:35.779 --> 00:15:38.840 waited for those guys to show up sometimes. But 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:40.759 we would go in and help people. It didn't make 00:15:40.759 --> 00:15:43.299 any difference what side they were on. And I 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:44.960 don't think the American public knew that we 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:49.279 were doing that. No, and that's one of the great 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:53.059 victories in Vietnam, the humanitarian effort 00:15:53.059 --> 00:15:56.120 over there. For the first time, I think, in history, 00:15:56.679 --> 00:15:59.840 up to this point in time in history anyhow, the 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:02.840 humanitarian, in the midst of his heroic actions, 00:16:03.059 --> 00:16:06.000 the GI also had time for a humanitarian effort. 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:08.279 Usually we go in and we blow things up, we kill 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:10.240 people, civilians, or whoever else is in our 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.500 way. In Vietnam we didn't do that. During the 00:16:13.500 --> 00:16:16.659 battle we fixed and we vaccinated and we built 00:16:16.659 --> 00:16:20.620 hospitals and orphanages and adopted those children. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:25.759 Dustoff rescued some 900 ,000 patients, men, 00:16:25.799 --> 00:16:28.740 women, children, enemy as well as friendly. We 00:16:28.740 --> 00:16:31.159 carried them all, even scout dogs, when they 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:36.720 got hurt. So it was a great humanitarian effort 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.059 and that was the purpose, you know, win the hearts 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:41.879 and minds and show the people the difference 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:44.250 between the evils. And by the way, You know, 00:16:44.309 --> 00:16:47.889 when I go back, and I've been back about three 00:16:47.889 --> 00:16:52.070 times, the people there really treat me great. 00:16:52.509 --> 00:16:54.950 And the kids on the street, especially in Saigon 00:16:54.950 --> 00:16:58.909 or Ho Chi Minh City, when I talk to them about 00:16:58.909 --> 00:17:01.950 America, the place they want to go more than 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:06.130 anywhere else is America. So we left a great 00:17:06.130 --> 00:17:08.210 impression on them. I think they love America 00:17:08.210 --> 00:17:12.640 to this day. And I attribute that to the GI because 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:14.680 those people who were children then are grown 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:18.099 up now and they've taught their children about 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:22.759 how caring the American GI was when he was there 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:25.119 trying to protect them from communism. And I 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:29.019 think communism is essentially dead. They just 00:17:29.019 --> 00:17:31.579 don't know what to do with the corpse. That's 00:17:31.579 --> 00:17:36.140 true. They tried it. They tried their confiscating 00:17:36.140 --> 00:17:39.200 property and education camps and all that. It 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:41.740 was a disaster. And so they had to retreat from 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:46.039 it, the same as Lenin did in Russia. And so now 00:17:46.039 --> 00:17:48.099 you see enterprise, you see property ownership, 00:17:48.380 --> 00:17:50.619 you see an industrious, wonderful people, hard 00:17:50.619 --> 00:17:53.180 -working, wonderful people, the Vietnamese are. 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:56.380 And they're doing very well economically. I wish 00:17:56.380 --> 00:17:58.839 our growth was like theirs. Well, I know. I have 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:02.119 a number of Vietnamese students, actually, at 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:03.980 the community college where I teach. And they 00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:07.500 always talk about how much they appreciate what 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:09.269 we have. you know, what we have done to help 00:18:09.269 --> 00:18:12.049 them out, and especially coming here. And they 00:18:12.049 --> 00:18:13.750 said, you know, it's pretty much all true what 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:17.529 they heard. And I like it when they say that. 00:18:17.829 --> 00:18:21.549 So let's go back to Vietnam, 1964, 65. As you 00:18:21.549 --> 00:18:24.150 mentioned, there were only about 16 ,000 American 00:18:24.150 --> 00:18:27.329 troops there at the time. And your area of operation 00:18:27.329 --> 00:18:31.710 was everywhere, wasn't it? Yes. We covered the 00:18:31.710 --> 00:18:37.150 entire country then with five helicopters. We 00:18:37.150 --> 00:18:40.769 had them located in Saigon and two down at Sok 00:18:40.769 --> 00:18:42.630 Trang. And initially when I got there, we had 00:18:42.630 --> 00:18:45.630 one up at Pleiku in Quy Nhon covering the North 00:18:45.630 --> 00:18:51.170 Country. And Kelly consolidated the two from 00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:53.589 the North in Sok Trang because that's where the 00:18:53.589 --> 00:18:55.509 action was. That's where the casualties were. 00:18:56.250 --> 00:18:59.390 And he went down there and took what we call 00:18:59.390 --> 00:19:03.950 Detachment A. He promised me because his headquarters 00:19:03.950 --> 00:19:06.049 was in Saigon. That's where he should have been. 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:08.660 But there was not as much flying there, and he 00:19:08.660 --> 00:19:11.299 wanted to be where the flying was. And you would 00:19:11.299 --> 00:19:13.940 appreciate this, I think, as an helicopter pilot. 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.720 His last month, June, before he was killed, he 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:24.039 flew 149 hours. And the limit on, I don't know 00:19:24.039 --> 00:19:26.380 how much you slick guys flew, but I think you 00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:29.230 probably flew more than we did. But the limit 00:19:29.230 --> 00:19:31.470 was like 90 hours, and they tried to stop him. 00:19:31.650 --> 00:19:33.450 They said, you can't fly that much just against 00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:34.910 the regulations. And he said, what do you want 00:19:34.910 --> 00:19:38.549 me to do with these guys in the field? So they 00:19:38.549 --> 00:19:41.569 didn't mess with him. Yeah, they limited us, 00:19:41.769 --> 00:19:46.470 I believe it was to 120 hours in a 30 -day time 00:19:46.470 --> 00:19:49.549 period. And they'd sit you down for a day, and 00:19:49.549 --> 00:19:51.309 then you'd go back up and start over again, it 00:19:51.309 --> 00:19:54.039 seemed. Is that the way it worked? I think so. 00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:56.680 It was kind of a rolling 30 -day average, is 00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:58.079 what they were trying to tell me. Yeah, well, 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:03.299 I thought it was 90 hours and 30 days, and it 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:06.880 came from the Air Force. It made no sense. That's 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:08.640 true. It's fascinating when you were telling 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:10.700 about that earlier, about the number of landings 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:12.619 and takeoffs and things like that. Obviously, 00:20:12.660 --> 00:20:15.599 we don't want to offend any other Air Force or 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:18.740 other types of pilots, but you think about how 00:20:18.740 --> 00:20:21.890 many times you landed in just one day. Yeah, 00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:25.069 and how many missions that you would go on and 00:20:25.069 --> 00:20:28.609 keep track like you did But I can imagine I know 00:20:28.609 --> 00:20:30.690 you know we would fly six or seven different 00:20:30.690 --> 00:20:34.130 types of missions every day Yeah, hey by the 00:20:34.130 --> 00:20:36.170 way, I don't mind offending the Air Force guys 00:20:36.170 --> 00:20:39.670 Doesn't bother me a bit I still have to get them 00:20:39.670 --> 00:20:43.609 on the program as guests everyone No, they're 00:20:43.609 --> 00:20:46.369 my friends, but it's it's all in good humor, 00:20:46.390 --> 00:20:51.869 but yes they in fact We came up with the number 00:20:51.869 --> 00:20:54.049 of missions when we left it. That's 30, 40 years 00:20:54.049 --> 00:20:57.930 ago. Recently, a guy went back through my flight 00:20:57.930 --> 00:21:01.130 records and I made, while I was in Vietnam, two 00:21:01.130 --> 00:21:07.210 years over 4 ,000 landings. In one day, I think 00:21:07.210 --> 00:21:11.230 45 or so landings. That's landings and some of 00:21:11.230 --> 00:21:14.450 them are at the hospital, of course, but most 00:21:14.450 --> 00:21:16.750 of them are in the field, confined areas, jungles, 00:21:17.009 --> 00:21:20.190 mountains. and stuff like that. So the landings, 00:21:20.210 --> 00:21:23.390 that's what separates. To me, that's the thing. 00:21:24.390 --> 00:21:27.230 When you have to land in a confined area on a 00:21:27.230 --> 00:21:32.450 pinnacle or at night in the weather or in fog, 00:21:33.789 --> 00:21:40.250 then that's very challenging. It brings your 00:21:40.250 --> 00:21:44.049 anxiety level up sometimes. Yes. I was thinking 00:21:44.049 --> 00:21:47.279 about about that segment in your book this morning 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:50.420 because it's very foggy here today. And as we 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:52.140 were coming into the parking lot for the studio 00:21:52.140 --> 00:21:54.480 and I'm going, I wonder what he would do here. 00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.440 Next time you do that, just roll down your window 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:03.220 and look out the side window and see how much 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:05.380 further you can see as opposed to the windshield. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:09.339 I adopted your procedures without even knowing 00:22:09.339 --> 00:22:12.339 it when I was in country when we would run into 00:22:12.339 --> 00:22:14.240 fog and stuff. You just kind of kick it out and 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.339 trim a little bit and look out the window and 00:22:16.339 --> 00:22:19.079 you can see quite a ways. It was really quite 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:22.240 surprising. Better. And keeping the, giving the 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:27.359 secrets away. Anyway, tell me about when you 00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:29.839 were in Vietnam the first time, could you kind 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:31.420 of describe to our audience, we've got about 00:22:31.420 --> 00:22:32.799 three minutes before we're going to take a break, 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:35.339 what a typical mission would be and how it operated 00:22:35.339 --> 00:22:39.079 at that time? Well, we got better, as I said, 00:22:39.099 --> 00:22:43.700 later on. Initially, in the early days, you get 00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:46.619 a call. Most often, it would come through a Vietnamese 00:22:46.619 --> 00:22:50.119 operations center direct to us at the flight 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:53.680 line. And we would run to the aircraft. Later, 00:22:53.900 --> 00:22:55.980 when we set standards, my second -to -hour standard 00:22:55.980 --> 00:22:58.720 was two minutes to get off the ground. And then 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:00.640 we'd head out. Very often in the early days, 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:03.579 we had no radio contact with an English -speaking 00:23:03.579 --> 00:23:06.869 person. So we had a set of coordinates, heading 00:23:06.869 --> 00:23:10.930 in distance, and we knew the terrain. And so 00:23:10.930 --> 00:23:14.509 when we get there, they initially tried to say, 00:23:14.970 --> 00:23:18.109 we'll say Alpha Bravo, and you say Charlie Delta, 00:23:18.150 --> 00:23:20.509 and then you know it's friendly. But that never 00:23:20.509 --> 00:23:23.809 worked. And so what we would do then is very 00:23:23.809 --> 00:23:26.750 often make a low pass to see if they were friendly 00:23:26.750 --> 00:23:29.779 or if we got shot at. And if it looked friendly 00:23:29.779 --> 00:23:33.240 and it looked good, then we would land. Very 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:35.559 often, we had no radio contact. And the other 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:40.619 thing, I learned to speak just one mouthful of 00:23:40.619 --> 00:23:43.279 Vietnamese. I could say, cha dia chi cu oong, 00:23:43.299 --> 00:23:45.680 which means pop smoke or show me your signal 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:48.720 or show me your address. But the smoke could 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:52.900 be problematic because if we said, if they would 00:23:52.900 --> 00:23:55.500 pop smoke and they would say, yellow smoke is 00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:58.390 out, You would look down there and you see two 00:23:58.390 --> 00:24:00.549 or three yellow smoke. The bad guys would throw 00:24:00.549 --> 00:24:03.009 out yellow smoke. The bad guy would throw it 00:24:03.009 --> 00:24:06.410 out. So after a few bad experiences with that, 00:24:07.089 --> 00:24:09.009 we said, all right, you pop your smoke and I'll 00:24:09.009 --> 00:24:11.750 identify the color. And when we can talk to them. 00:24:12.069 --> 00:24:15.730 So but in any event, that was typical. We learned 00:24:15.730 --> 00:24:18.069 how to make tactical approaches, trial and error, 00:24:18.069 --> 00:24:20.670 and we can talk about that. And we'd go get the 00:24:20.670 --> 00:24:23.269 patients, and we would take them right to either 00:24:23.269 --> 00:24:26.210 a Vietnamese or the Navy hospital in Saigon. 00:24:26.809 --> 00:24:31.190 At that time, we didn't have a lot of Army medical 00:24:31.190 --> 00:24:34.809 or other hospitals, surgical hospitals, field 00:24:34.809 --> 00:24:38.309 hospitals. In the early days, we had mostly Vietnamese 00:24:38.309 --> 00:24:43.130 hospitals. And in the highlands up in the north, 00:24:43.819 --> 00:24:46.759 They wouldn't take mountain yards. The first 00:24:46.759 --> 00:24:48.720 load of mountain yard patients I took into a 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:50.500 Vietnamese hospital, they left them on the ramp. 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:54.119 I could not believe it. Kind of like the blacks 00:24:54.119 --> 00:24:56.660 and American in the early days. But then we had 00:24:56.660 --> 00:25:00.240 Doc Smith up there and she, an American, great 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:04.579 American who founded a mountain yard hospital 00:25:04.579 --> 00:25:06.660 up there and her story is in the book and she 00:25:06.660 --> 00:25:10.640 was a great person. There are some amazing stories 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:12.940 in this book. We're talking with Major General 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:16.279 Patrick Brady about his experiences as a dust 00:25:16.279 --> 00:25:18.579 -off pilot in Vietnam, Medal of Honor recipient. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.240 And we're going to be taking a break here in 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:22.660 just a second, so I'm going to ask you to hold 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:24.960 on. If you want to give in on the conversation 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:26.799 or ask the general question, you can give us 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:31.599 a call here on Veterans Radio at 877 -573 -7825. 00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:37.059 That's 877 -573 -7825. When we come back at the 00:25:37.059 --> 00:25:38.779 bottom of the hour here, we're going to be talking 00:25:38.779 --> 00:25:41.779 with General Brady about his second tour in Vietnam. 00:25:42.789 --> 00:25:44.849 the Tet Offensive and some other things and we're 00:25:44.849 --> 00:25:46.269 going to get into some tactics because I think 00:25:46.269 --> 00:25:48.470 that will be fun to talk about because I want 00:25:48.470 --> 00:25:50.549 to talk about some of the tactics that we adopted 00:25:50.549 --> 00:25:52.910 when I was there that we tried to bring back 00:25:52.910 --> 00:25:55.269 to our students. So you're listening to Veterans 00:25:55.269 --> 00:25:58.650 Radio and we'll be right back after this. The 00:25:58.650 --> 00:26:00.670 Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor 00:26:00.670 --> 00:26:02.869 in combat given a member of the Armed Forces 00:26:02.869 --> 00:26:05.170 of the United States. There have been over 3 00:26:05.170 --> 00:26:08.250 ,400 recipients of the nation's highest award. 00:26:08.890 --> 00:26:12.859 This is one of them. Major Patrick Brady rescued 00:26:12.859 --> 00:26:17.859 51 men in one day. Details after this. Brady 00:26:17.859 --> 00:26:20.000 was flying Medevac helicopters on his second 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.380 tour in Vietnam when he volunteered to rescue 00:26:22.380 --> 00:26:24.759 two badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers in 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:28.039 enemy territory. When he arrived, the site was 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:31.000 shrouded in fog. He descended slowly until he 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.359 saw the tops of trees and then moved sideways 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:37.180 to the landing site. Despite heavy enemy fire, 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:40.200 he was able to locate the soldiers and evacuated 00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:43.599 them. Brady was called to another Faudin area 00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:45.640 where American casualties lay close to enemy 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:48.500 lines. He lowered his chopper through the fog 00:26:48.500 --> 00:26:50.619 and found a stream bed that led to the wounded. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:54.599 In all, he made five flights to rescue 39 GIs. 00:26:55.420 --> 00:26:58.220 On his third mission, the controls on his chopper 00:26:58.220 --> 00:27:00.819 were hit, but he managed to get home. He got 00:27:00.819 --> 00:27:03.759 a replacement chopper and returned. On his fourth 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:06.420 mission, Brady watched a mine explode near the 00:27:06.420 --> 00:27:08.500 landing site, forcing another medevac to leave. 00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:10.839 Brady went in and set his chopper in the skid 00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:13.660 marks of the other craft. Two crew members were 00:27:13.660 --> 00:27:15.759 carrying a stretcher to the chopper when one 00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:18.480 stepped on a mine. The explosion blew a hole 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:20.940 in Brady's craft. He managed to get it off the 00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:22.819 ground and delivered the six severely wounded 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:25.740 men to the aid station. He picked up another 00:27:25.740 --> 00:27:29.200 helicopter and kept flying. In all, he evacuated 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:32.819 51 men that day. 400 bullet holes were counted 00:27:32.819 --> 00:27:35.900 in the helicopters he flew that day. Brady went 00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:38.369 on to become a Major General in the United States 00:27:38.369 --> 00:27:41.329 Army. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President 00:27:41.329 --> 00:27:45.309 Nixon on October 9, 1969. The Medal of Honor 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:48.910 series is a production of Veterans Radio. And 00:27:48.910 --> 00:27:50.569 we're back on Veterans Radio. You'll have to 00:27:50.569 --> 00:27:52.410 excuse me for doing a little time tripping with 00:27:52.410 --> 00:27:55.750 that particular song. I was trying to find our 00:27:55.750 --> 00:27:58.529 guest today is Major General Patrick Brady, a 00:27:58.529 --> 00:28:00.190 Medal of Honor recipient. And I know that you 00:28:00.190 --> 00:28:02.029 like Up, Up and Away by the Fifth Dimension. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:05.539 But I couldn't find it this morning, so I thought 00:28:05.539 --> 00:28:07.220 I'd get a little Ghost Riders in the sky. For 00:28:07.220 --> 00:28:10.400 all the Ghost Riders out there that were in Vietnam 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:13.180 in the late 60s, early 70s, that song was dedicated 00:28:13.180 --> 00:28:16.140 to you today. Well, there's a chapter in the 00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:19.539 book about what we call Ghost Riders, I think, 00:28:19.660 --> 00:28:22.099 in my book where something was chasing us one 00:28:22.099 --> 00:28:23.900 night and we never have figured out what it was. 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:29.529 Yeah, you did say that. We were stationed at 00:28:29.529 --> 00:28:31.150 Longman every once in a while and we would go 00:28:31.150 --> 00:28:33.910 to the, when we were allowed to go to the officer's 00:28:33.910 --> 00:28:36.170 club there because everybody was so, you know, 00:28:36.329 --> 00:28:37.670 in starched fatigues and everything they couldn't 00:28:37.670 --> 00:28:41.589 understand pilots to begin with. And we would 00:28:41.589 --> 00:28:43.769 always ask the Filipino band to play Ghost Riders 00:28:43.769 --> 00:28:48.150 and we would stand up, you know, and shout it 00:28:48.150 --> 00:28:52.670 out. Let's put it, let's put it that way. So 00:28:52.670 --> 00:28:56.029 you survived your first tour and you came back 00:28:56.029 --> 00:28:59.089 and. And what happened when you got back to the 00:28:59.089 --> 00:29:04.250 states? Well, we went to, I went to Fort Benning, 00:29:04.809 --> 00:29:07.589 and we flew in support of the Ranger train camp 00:29:07.589 --> 00:29:12.029 down in Florida, and also the airborne school 00:29:12.029 --> 00:29:15.289 at Fort Benning. We were flying H -19s, which 00:29:15.289 --> 00:29:18.549 was really a beast after coming. Have you ever 00:29:18.549 --> 00:29:20.670 flown an H -19? No, I've just seen them shift 00:29:20.670 --> 00:29:25.069 themselves apart. Oh, yeah. Oh, Lord, they are... 00:29:25.119 --> 00:29:29.460 But anyhow, it actually improved my flying skills 00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:31.740 because it's difficult to get off the ground 00:29:31.740 --> 00:29:35.680 and we flew single pilot in those days so you 00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:37.920 had to fly, you had to navigate, you had to handle 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:39.900 the fuel, you had to do everything and the patient 00:29:39.900 --> 00:29:43.480 was downstairs from you kind of. So that did, 00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:45.980 I think, improve my skills and then all of a 00:29:45.980 --> 00:29:47.880 sudden we got word we were going back to Vietnam 00:29:47.880 --> 00:29:51.039 and they took everybody out of the unit but me 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:54.970 and two other guys. And all the pilots who were 00:29:54.970 --> 00:29:57.990 going back with us, the second tour, had graduated 00:29:57.990 --> 00:30:00.849 in flight school on the same day. And of course, 00:30:00.990 --> 00:30:06.029 by then, Dustoff had a good reputation. And these 00:30:06.029 --> 00:30:09.430 guys thought they were hand -picked to fly Dustoff. 00:30:09.470 --> 00:30:13.190 These were the worn officers. And all their names 00:30:13.190 --> 00:30:18.150 started with an S. So they had taken this class 00:30:18.150 --> 00:30:21.299 and they gave them to me. And so I got all these 00:30:21.299 --> 00:30:24.319 wobbly ones, and I got to get them ready to go 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:27.559 into combat in a very short period of time. And 00:30:27.559 --> 00:30:30.619 I think I had like 22 hours to, but I did the 00:30:30.619 --> 00:30:33.799 best I could. And then we went to Vietnam. And 00:30:33.799 --> 00:30:36.720 by this time, there were half a million Americans 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.980 in Vietnam. First tour, we carried 4 ,000 patients 00:30:40.980 --> 00:30:44.720 the whole year. Second tour, we're carrying almost 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:51.150 that many in a month. because kelly i think was 00:30:51.150 --> 00:30:53.589 a hundred forty -ninth american killed you know 00:30:53.589 --> 00:30:56.470 they're telling me in the week and more so that 00:30:56.470 --> 00:30:59.150 was the second to all these uh... and of course 00:30:59.150 --> 00:31:01.609 we went where we went to a mountainous area where 00:31:01.609 --> 00:31:04.569 weather and terrain were very difficult more 00:31:04.569 --> 00:31:07.470 more of our pilots were being killed and i'm 00:31:07.470 --> 00:31:09.529 sure the same is true of your units were killed 00:31:09.529 --> 00:31:11.549 at night and in weather than were killed by the 00:31:11.549 --> 00:31:15.730 enemy yes and especially the ones up north yes 00:31:15.730 --> 00:31:18.589 and so we've we uh... I was scared to death. 00:31:19.150 --> 00:31:23.130 I'm a hardcore Irish Catholic guy and my faith 00:31:23.130 --> 00:31:26.569 is so important. I was praying like crazy to 00:31:26.569 --> 00:31:32.490 find ways to get the patients out at night, in 00:31:32.490 --> 00:31:36.309 weather, low valley fog, in the daytime, and 00:31:36.309 --> 00:31:38.650 keep these young worn officers who I knew would 00:31:38.650 --> 00:31:41.329 do anything in their power to go get the patients 00:31:41.329 --> 00:31:44.630 to keep them from killing themselves. So we found 00:31:44.630 --> 00:31:48.750 some techniques to do that. and turned out to 00:31:48.750 --> 00:31:51.150 be an extraordinary unit and that was the reason 00:31:51.150 --> 00:31:53.329 I wrote the book because of the numbers associated 00:31:53.329 --> 00:31:57.109 with that unit my second tour. They really are 00:31:57.109 --> 00:32:00.410 astronomical as far as the number of patients 00:32:00.410 --> 00:32:05.950 that you call them that you were able to save 00:32:05.950 --> 00:32:08.430 and we talk about in the book and I'll let you 00:32:08.430 --> 00:32:10.430 talk about it, the amount of combat that these 00:32:10.430 --> 00:32:14.190 infantrymen were in Vietnam and we always admire 00:32:14.190 --> 00:32:17.069 all of the other Service members from World War 00:32:17.069 --> 00:32:19.309 I, World War II, of course, but these guys were 00:32:19.309 --> 00:32:22.049 constantly exposed to it, much like the the troops 00:32:22.049 --> 00:32:27.250 are in Afghanistan today. Yes, I don't know that 00:32:27.250 --> 00:32:29.549 we've ever fought any war where the combat was 00:32:29.549 --> 00:32:33.309 as intense as it was for the Grunts in Vietnam. 00:32:33.509 --> 00:32:37.410 The average guy in World War II in four years 00:32:37.410 --> 00:32:40.809 was in combat about 40 days. The average guy 00:32:40.809 --> 00:32:45.730 in Vietnam in one year was in combat about 240 00:32:45.730 --> 00:32:50.390 days. We had such great empathy for those guys. 00:32:50.589 --> 00:32:52.490 They were down there in the mud and the blood 00:32:52.490 --> 00:32:55.069 and they had these incredible loads that they 00:32:55.069 --> 00:32:57.930 had to carry and so we were going to do everything 00:32:57.930 --> 00:33:00.970 in our power to help them because I don't know 00:33:00.970 --> 00:33:02.890 that there's ever been a soldier anywhere who 00:33:02.890 --> 00:33:06.769 had it anywhere. It was very hot and everything 00:33:06.769 --> 00:33:11.390 there bit you or stung you and sucked your blood. 00:33:11.559 --> 00:33:14.180 And so they're out in the middle of that stuff, 00:33:14.859 --> 00:33:17.200 and we flew home at night to an airfield, and 00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:19.200 we had sheets on our beds. I think we had sheets. 00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:21.400 But in any event, we were sleeping in a bed, 00:33:21.779 --> 00:33:25.460 and they were sleeping in the mud. So yes, those 00:33:25.460 --> 00:33:29.099 guys had it as hard. And the way they were treated 00:33:29.099 --> 00:33:32.339 when they came home was just horrible. I totally 00:33:32.339 --> 00:33:35.460 agree with you. And at the time, I didn't realize 00:33:35.460 --> 00:33:38.440 how much I should have admired them then as much 00:33:38.440 --> 00:33:41.779 as I do today. you know, for what they had to 00:33:41.779 --> 00:33:44.440 go through on a daily basis. And as you say, 00:33:44.539 --> 00:33:46.960 you know, we flew in, flew out, and, you know, 00:33:47.220 --> 00:33:51.140 went to bed in a bed. And with relatively normal 00:33:51.140 --> 00:33:55.799 food. I kind of exaggerate that. But the, you 00:33:55.799 --> 00:33:58.490 know, they lived on. whatever they could find 00:33:58.490 --> 00:34:01.349 out there in the in the jungles with not only 00:34:01.349 --> 00:34:04.430 the the creatures of the insect variety but they 00:34:04.430 --> 00:34:06.430 also ran into animals you had a story and we've 00:34:06.430 --> 00:34:08.670 talked to another gentleman on the program we 00:34:08.670 --> 00:34:11.710 talked about tigers up north yeah and you had 00:34:11.710 --> 00:34:14.750 eaten in action where they had lost somebody 00:34:14.750 --> 00:34:18.250 I think it was the book was the Matterhorn and 00:34:18.250 --> 00:34:20.869 he had talked about losing somebody to a tiger 00:34:22.750 --> 00:34:25.889 Yeah, that's true. You know, you got the WIA 00:34:25.889 --> 00:34:29.730 wounded in action, KIA killed in action, EIA 00:34:29.730 --> 00:34:31.690 eaten in action, and that may have been with 00:34:31.690 --> 00:34:35.429 tongue and cheek a bit, but that happened while 00:34:35.429 --> 00:34:39.849 I was at Placoo where a tiger fell into a foxhole 00:34:39.849 --> 00:34:43.849 with a guy and aiding, or mostly aiding, before 00:34:43.849 --> 00:34:47.030 they could get to him. So yes, it was dangerous. 00:34:47.610 --> 00:34:49.929 what those guys were doing, not only because 00:34:49.929 --> 00:34:54.110 of the enemy who was very, very proficient in 00:34:54.110 --> 00:34:57.130 the jungle and in that kind of warfare, but because 00:34:57.130 --> 00:35:00.650 of all the stuff around them. When we went to 00:35:00.650 --> 00:35:03.730 Plague Coup, they still had plague patients. 00:35:04.789 --> 00:35:09.190 So we would drop these medics out in the villages, 00:35:09.610 --> 00:35:14.989 surrounded by the enemy, dental technicians, 00:35:15.210 --> 00:35:17.530 dentists, to take care of the peasants. and the 00:35:17.530 --> 00:35:22.389 Vietnamese people, they could do so much in such 00:35:22.389 --> 00:35:24.610 a short period of time, but they're exposed to, 00:35:24.670 --> 00:35:26.889 you know, if you get bit by a flea or something, 00:35:26.949 --> 00:35:29.730 you got the plague and there's leprosy. They 00:35:29.730 --> 00:35:33.730 told us that it wasn't communicable, but, you 00:35:33.730 --> 00:35:38.289 know, that's hard to believe. Somehow they got 00:35:38.289 --> 00:35:40.710 that. But anyhow, they had some exotic diseases 00:35:40.710 --> 00:35:42.849 over there, not to mention hepatitis and those 00:35:42.849 --> 00:35:47.360 other things. So the guy was exposed. Yes, and 00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:50.639 and your malaria and your oh yeah, yeah malaria 00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:57.360 that was Those wonderful pills Yeah on a daily 00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:00.599 basis, but could you describe your your crew 00:36:00.599 --> 00:36:03.800 what what made up a crew on a on a dust -off 00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:09.260 aircraft the crew was For it was a pilot a co 00:36:09.260 --> 00:36:12.139 -pilot an aircraft commander one of the pilots 00:36:12.139 --> 00:36:13.920 was the aircraft commander He was in charge of 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:16.440 the mission And then in the back you had the 00:36:16.440 --> 00:36:20.539 medic, a very, very highly trained, maybe not 00:36:20.539 --> 00:36:23.179 initially, but became very experienced in traumatic 00:36:23.179 --> 00:36:26.380 injuries. In other words, treating amputees, 00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:29.659 gunshot wounds, sucking chest wounds, belly wounds, 00:36:29.800 --> 00:36:32.239 stuff like that. He became very good at that. 00:36:32.300 --> 00:36:34.760 And then you had the crew chief. He owned the 00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:37.440 aircraft. It was his job to maintain the aircraft. 00:36:38.179 --> 00:36:40.139 And these were the highest quality soldiers I've 00:36:40.139 --> 00:36:48.280 ever been around. The building is named after 00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:52.599 him down at Fort Rucker, who was an absolute 00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:56.340 genius when it came to maintenance. He kept us 00:36:56.340 --> 00:36:58.139 in the air. We had an aircraft shot up about 00:36:58.139 --> 00:37:02.639 every four or five days. We flew night and day, 00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:06.239 about four missions a night. In the workload, 00:37:06.699 --> 00:37:09.340 you're looking at a 40 -man detachment. That's 00:37:09.340 --> 00:37:13.599 40 men. You're looking at six aircraft that we 00:37:13.599 --> 00:37:16.320 covered a monstrous area, and only three of them 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:18.679 would be flyable in any one time because they 00:37:18.679 --> 00:37:20.460 were getting shot up in maintenance problems. 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:26.380 And among those 40 men, 26 Purple Hearts. That's 00:37:26.380 --> 00:37:28.980 how many were shot. Some of them were more than 00:37:28.980 --> 00:37:32.980 once, but none of them were killed, thank God. 00:37:33.610 --> 00:37:38.429 That changes the nature of the unit. In a nine 00:37:38.429 --> 00:37:41.590 -and -a -half -month period, we carried 21 ,000 00:37:41.590 --> 00:37:44.170 patients. That's more than we carried during 00:37:44.170 --> 00:37:47.570 the entire Korean War. And by the way, three 00:37:47.570 --> 00:37:50.110 of those 40 men are in the Aviation Hall of Fame, 00:37:51.230 --> 00:37:54.110 and five of them are in the Dustoff Hall of Fame, 00:37:54.230 --> 00:37:57.489 something probably no other unit can come close 00:37:57.489 --> 00:38:01.730 to. I ask you one question. Were Dustoff ships 00:38:01.730 --> 00:38:09.119 armed? Some weren't. In other words, the first 00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:11.619 cab, which was not dust -off, they went by medevac. 00:38:11.699 --> 00:38:13.940 They were direct support. We were an area support 00:38:13.940 --> 00:38:17.599 resource. I didn't like the guns. Frankly, I 00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:21.119 never liked them. You can't hit what you're shooting 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:23.219 at. There's families down there. You never see 00:38:23.219 --> 00:38:26.139 the enemy. It's stupid. But some people, they 00:38:26.139 --> 00:38:30.579 liked it. And the first cab actually had the 00:38:30.579 --> 00:38:32.920 crew chief and the gunner on the aircraft which 00:38:32.920 --> 00:38:35.280 took up space and didn't do any good. It just 00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.719 didn't do any good. So I was against it. You 00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:41.119 were authorized, of course, to have weapons to 00:38:41.119 --> 00:38:44.139 protect yourself and your patients. There's nothing 00:38:44.139 --> 00:38:46.739 contrary to the conventions as far as that goes. 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:49.880 But I was one who liked the quiet approach. If 00:38:49.880 --> 00:38:52.880 you got fire, you knew that it was from the enemy. 00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:55.840 And it's hard to teach a guy to shoot out of 00:38:55.840 --> 00:38:58.739 a helicopter because you actually shoot behind 00:38:58.739 --> 00:39:02.489 the target. And we tried to teach our door gunners, 00:39:02.710 --> 00:39:04.829 our guys, because the crew chief and the medic 00:39:04.829 --> 00:39:08.150 are the gunners when you come into an area. But 00:39:08.150 --> 00:39:10.210 I didn't want them shooting. I understand that. 00:39:10.250 --> 00:39:11.829 We've got to take a quick break here, General. 00:39:12.250 --> 00:39:14.130 And we'll be right back. You're listening to 00:39:14.130 --> 00:39:18.309 Veterans Radio. Give us a call, 877 -573 -7825. 00:39:18.469 --> 00:39:20.329 We'll be right back. And we're back on Veterans 00:39:20.329 --> 00:39:22.670 Radio. We're talking with Major General Patrick 00:39:22.670 --> 00:39:24.889 Brady, Medal of Honor recipient during the Vietnam 00:39:24.889 --> 00:39:28.980 conflict, as a dust -off pilot. hundreds and 00:39:28.980 --> 00:39:31.519 thousands of missions and saved many, many lives. 00:39:31.980 --> 00:39:34.960 And I mentioned earlier, General, that many of 00:39:34.960 --> 00:39:37.059 the techniques that I read about in your book 00:39:37.059 --> 00:39:39.880 were things that we were taught once I got in 00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:41.719 country, not necessarily in flight school, but 00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:44.280 once we got in country of the high overhead approaches 00:39:44.280 --> 00:39:47.780 and low level approaches and kick turns into 00:39:47.780 --> 00:39:51.199 LZs and resting skids on the side of mountains. 00:39:52.019 --> 00:39:55.300 And when I came back, They made me an instructor 00:39:55.300 --> 00:39:57.360 down at Fort Rucker, and we tried to show our 00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:00.000 students in that and got in all kinds of trouble. 00:40:00.619 --> 00:40:04.280 Much of it is against the rules, actually. I 00:40:04.280 --> 00:40:12.360 know. So the two awards, the Medal of Honor and 00:40:12.360 --> 00:40:15.940 the Distinguished Service Cross, which I have 00:40:15.940 --> 00:40:19.219 the result of two epiphanies that I had over 00:40:19.219 --> 00:40:21.900 there. And as I say, I'm a guy who wears my faith 00:40:21.900 --> 00:40:27.639 on my sleeve. And I'm really worried the second 00:40:27.639 --> 00:40:30.420 tour because we have great challenges in terms 00:40:30.420 --> 00:40:34.920 of weather. The first tour I managed a low fast 00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:37.980 approach, low level fast approach and they overhead 00:40:37.980 --> 00:40:41.239 what they call the death spiral. Those were kind 00:40:41.239 --> 00:40:44.059 of routine and the terrain dictated how you get 00:40:44.059 --> 00:40:46.159 into it but you can't use those approaches in 00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:49.739 weather especially in the low valley fog and 00:40:49.739 --> 00:40:56.639 the night. the tropical storms. The first technique 00:40:56.639 --> 00:41:01.079 was a night weather mission. We got a call in 00:41:01.079 --> 00:41:03.539 a place called Death Valley. You're flat terrain 00:41:03.539 --> 00:41:05.599 on the coast and you got to go over a mountain 00:41:05.599 --> 00:41:07.460 range to get into the valley and get the patients 00:41:07.460 --> 00:41:09.539 out. It was in the middle of a tropical storm 00:41:09.539 --> 00:41:13.079 and the aircraft were grounded. I headed out 00:41:13.079 --> 00:41:16.539 and I thought I could use techniques from my 00:41:16.539 --> 00:41:18.679 first tour which is You know, you've got a guy 00:41:18.679 --> 00:41:21.119 who always on the floor watches for a light behind 00:41:21.119 --> 00:41:23.000 you, and you watch for a light in front of you. 00:41:23.780 --> 00:41:27.300 And then you go only as far as you've got a light. 00:41:27.860 --> 00:41:30.639 Well, you know, we just ran into ink. But then 00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:34.000 I had my first epiphany, which I remembered an 00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:36.800 earlier mission when I was in the valley, sitting 00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:40.199 on a mountaintop. And you know how beautiful 00:41:40.199 --> 00:41:42.760 that can be at night when the tracers are going 00:41:42.760 --> 00:41:45.280 off and the flares are falling. And it really 00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:48.570 is pretty. It's like 4th of July. Yeah, but I 00:41:48.570 --> 00:41:51.309 looked up and I saw a mountaintop and I noticed 00:41:51.309 --> 00:41:54.449 that it was in the clouds, but the flares silhouetted 00:41:54.449 --> 00:41:57.469 it. So then I knew how I was going to get those 00:41:57.469 --> 00:42:00.389 patients out. I went into the weather, threw 00:42:00.389 --> 00:42:03.429 IFR to the pickup site, and then I followed the 00:42:03.429 --> 00:42:06.909 flares down through the mountains and made four 00:42:06.909 --> 00:42:08.869 flights that night and got all the patients out. 00:42:09.409 --> 00:42:11.670 So that solved the night weather problem. You 00:42:11.670 --> 00:42:14.449 have to go IFR to the site, and then you let 00:42:14.449 --> 00:42:18.869 down VFR, which is visual flight rules, for those 00:42:18.869 --> 00:42:23.429 who don't fly. And then that solved it. So we 00:42:23.429 --> 00:42:25.289 never left a patient in the field at night and 00:42:25.289 --> 00:42:31.309 weather. The day weather problems were probably 00:42:31.309 --> 00:42:33.809 the reason I got the Medal of Honor, because 00:42:33.809 --> 00:42:36.269 that day was a couple of emissions, got a lot 00:42:36.269 --> 00:42:39.150 of visibility because people were on a mountaintop 00:42:39.150 --> 00:42:42.570 watching me come up out of the fog. But I got 00:42:42.570 --> 00:42:45.829 a call one afternoon for a kid who was on a mountain. 00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:51.619 who had been bit by a snake, and the clouds went 00:42:51.619 --> 00:42:56.079 about 500 ,000 feet down the mountain top. It 00:42:56.079 --> 00:42:58.880 was clear underneath. So I got to the mountain, 00:42:58.940 --> 00:43:02.619 I saw the clouds, started into it, and I knew 00:43:02.619 --> 00:43:05.139 that if I got in trouble I could fall off into 00:43:05.139 --> 00:43:09.079 the valley. And I did. I did that several times. 00:43:09.099 --> 00:43:11.219 Well, I'm praying like crazy, you know, good 00:43:11.219 --> 00:43:13.199 Lord, why are you doing this? Show me the way. 00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:17.960 The crew is very nervous, and so I said, okay 00:43:17.960 --> 00:43:19.940 guys, and they're screaming at me, he's going 00:43:19.940 --> 00:43:24.000 into convulsions, the patient. So I said, you 00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:25.699 know, we gotta give him another shot, guys. And 00:43:25.699 --> 00:43:29.199 I always flew with my window open. I headed into 00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:32.099 that stuff one more time, straight into it up, 00:43:32.139 --> 00:43:36.340 and you know how that goes. And I was blown sidewards, 00:43:36.960 --> 00:43:39.239 and that wind was the breath of God, because 00:43:39.239 --> 00:43:41.320 I looked out my window, I thought we were going 00:43:41.320 --> 00:43:44.050 in, I was looking for a hole in the trees. And 00:43:44.050 --> 00:43:46.250 I could see the tip of my rotor blade, and I 00:43:46.250 --> 00:43:48.769 could see the top of the trees. So I had two 00:43:48.769 --> 00:43:51.130 reference points. I knew I was right side up. 00:43:51.550 --> 00:43:53.969 And I turned that H model sideways and hovered 00:43:53.969 --> 00:43:56.389 up the mountain and in and got those guys. And 00:43:56.389 --> 00:43:58.929 that's a technique I used the day I got the medal. 00:43:59.730 --> 00:44:02.789 The fog was at the base of a fire support base, 00:44:02.929 --> 00:44:04.429 and the guys were on the top of the mountain 00:44:04.429 --> 00:44:07.289 looking down. And we used the same technique. 00:44:07.389 --> 00:44:09.860 We would come to a hover. at the edge of the 00:44:09.860 --> 00:44:12.679 clouds, turn it sidewards, and head in. You had 00:44:12.679 --> 00:44:17.440 to do a very careful map recon. But you can see 00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:21.219 about 20 feet in that stuff. And that's all you 00:44:21.219 --> 00:44:23.340 need to see. Because as long as you can get to 00:44:23.340 --> 00:44:25.280 the tip of the rotor blades, and the ground, 00:44:25.420 --> 00:44:28.460 or a tree, or some other reference point, you 00:44:28.460 --> 00:44:30.960 can keep it right side up and fly sidewards. 00:44:30.980 --> 00:44:34.139 You can't go very fast. But you can use that 00:44:34.139 --> 00:44:37.670 technique. And I used it many times. And the 00:44:37.670 --> 00:44:40.030 day that I used it on the Medal of Honor day, 00:44:40.050 --> 00:44:42.030 they just happened to be sitting on that mountaintop 00:44:42.030 --> 00:44:44.610 seeing me come up out of the clouds. Well, as 00:44:44.610 --> 00:44:46.929 you said, there were probably many, many missions 00:44:46.929 --> 00:44:51.150 that you went on and that your other fellow pilots 00:44:51.150 --> 00:44:53.289 and crewmen went on, but just nobody observed 00:44:53.289 --> 00:44:55.949 it. So nobody was able to write it up and get 00:44:55.949 --> 00:44:58.789 the awards. Because even though many of your 00:44:58.789 --> 00:45:01.929 pilots were awarded distinguished flying crosses 00:45:01.929 --> 00:45:03.969 and even one Medal of Honor and some other things, 00:45:04.449 --> 00:45:08.239 probably they deserved more. Oh, God, yes. They 00:45:08.239 --> 00:45:11.340 were very highly decorated. And the book, I list 00:45:11.340 --> 00:45:14.119 the awards for that 40 -man detachment. It may 00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:17.699 have been the most highly awarded 40 -men ever 00:45:17.699 --> 00:45:21.380 in terms of distinct silver stars, distinguished 00:45:21.380 --> 00:45:23.519 flying crosses, metal bar, distinguished service 00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:27.719 cross, air medals galore, soldiers medals, bronze 00:45:27.719 --> 00:45:33.869 stars. But they never you can never take care 00:45:33.869 --> 00:45:37.050 of the guys to make sure they get what they deserve 00:45:37.050 --> 00:45:39.690 because somebody has to see it, somebody has 00:45:39.690 --> 00:45:41.469 to care enough and that's the great thing about 00:45:41.469 --> 00:45:44.230 the medal is that somebody saw it and cared enough 00:45:44.230 --> 00:45:47.429 about what you did and you to go through the 00:45:47.429 --> 00:45:50.829 effort to document it and very often nobody would 00:45:50.829 --> 00:45:54.010 do that, they were too busy and so people who 00:45:54.010 --> 00:45:57.150 did a lot more than I did in my own unit and 00:45:57.150 --> 00:46:00.369 other places were never recognized as they should 00:46:00.369 --> 00:46:04.530 have been. Very, very true. And sometimes, well, 00:46:04.530 --> 00:46:06.670 we won't go into that. Some other people got 00:46:06.670 --> 00:46:09.030 medals that they didn't necessarily deserve. 00:46:09.829 --> 00:46:12.889 Yes. Yeah, that's true, too. I want you to, too, 00:46:12.889 --> 00:46:14.889 we've got about five minutes left, and unfortunately 00:46:14.889 --> 00:46:18.590 the hour has flown by again as usual. Tell me 00:46:18.590 --> 00:46:23.289 about what you feel happened as a result of the 00:46:23.289 --> 00:46:25.369 Vietnam War. You know, the perception is that 00:46:25.369 --> 00:46:27.329 we lost it. We know from a military standpoint, 00:46:27.889 --> 00:46:31.909 that's furthest from the truth, but from a public 00:46:31.909 --> 00:46:36.150 relations standpoint, we did? Yes, we did. The 00:46:36.150 --> 00:46:38.829 war was lost by the people back here, especially 00:46:38.829 --> 00:46:43.230 the media. The media was the one who demonized 00:46:43.230 --> 00:46:47.210 the GI when he came home. And so we kind of all 00:46:47.210 --> 00:46:49.929 became reclusive. And it wasn't until many years 00:46:49.929 --> 00:46:52.989 later that I recognized what a great humanitarian 00:46:52.989 --> 00:46:55.750 effort is in that unit I was in that I decided 00:46:55.750 --> 00:46:58.730 to write the book. But the guy, the poor Vietnam 00:46:58.730 --> 00:47:02.059 veteran came back He has become a great citizen 00:47:02.059 --> 00:47:05.960 of this country. He is also the architect of 00:47:05.960 --> 00:47:09.380 the great victory in Desert Storm, Desert Shield. 00:47:09.800 --> 00:47:13.400 He was the guy that did that. He's been leaders 00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:16.500 in this community. He is a great veteran. And 00:47:16.500 --> 00:47:19.699 I think right now, your listeners should know 00:47:19.699 --> 00:47:21.940 that we're beginning a celebration of the 50th 00:47:21.940 --> 00:47:25.739 anniversary of the Vietnam War. gathering here 00:47:25.739 --> 00:47:27.619 in San Antonio, Texas and they're going to be 00:47:27.619 --> 00:47:29.860 doing this in cities across America for the next 00:47:29.860 --> 00:47:32.719 I don't know how many years as we celebrate the 00:47:32.719 --> 00:47:36.000 50th anniversary of the war in Vietnam. So I 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:39.559 think America is ashamed of the way that they 00:47:39.559 --> 00:47:42.079 treated the Vietnam veteran and I think that 00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:46.199 accounts for the way we treat the guy today who 00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:49.739 is treated with great reverence and our soldiers 00:47:49.739 --> 00:47:53.659 today deserve that. But a lot of it had to do 00:47:53.659 --> 00:47:56.659 with the way. I don't think it was so much the 00:47:56.659 --> 00:47:58.760 American people as it was the American media 00:47:58.760 --> 00:48:02.099 and certain politicians. So I've had politicians 00:48:02.099 --> 00:48:04.579 turn their back to keep from having a picture 00:48:04.579 --> 00:48:06.980 taken with me when I thought I was a Vietnam 00:48:06.980 --> 00:48:10.980 veteran. So it was all honest. Are you serious? 00:48:11.840 --> 00:48:19.869 Absolutely true. horrible the way the stories 00:48:19.869 --> 00:48:23.130 you're hearing. The suicide rate of the guy coming 00:48:23.130 --> 00:48:26.230 back from Vietnam in the first couple years was 00:48:26.230 --> 00:48:29.130 high, but then it was lower than his cohort in 00:48:29.130 --> 00:48:32.369 civilian life. Today it's out of sight. I mean 00:48:32.369 --> 00:48:34.929 they really are abusing these kids today in terms 00:48:34.929 --> 00:48:37.289 of its deployments. The combat is not nearly 00:48:37.289 --> 00:48:39.789 as intense as it was in Vietnam, but the stresses 00:48:39.789 --> 00:48:43.349 are much higher. Separations from family, six 00:48:43.349 --> 00:48:46.090 out of ten years deployed. They don't have a 00:48:46.090 --> 00:48:47.789 force structure. They can handle the mission. 00:48:48.289 --> 00:48:50.309 And so they abuse these kids. It's horrible the 00:48:50.309 --> 00:48:52.030 way they're treating them. And the suicide rates 00:48:52.030 --> 00:48:54.250 are out of sight, and so are the PTSD rates. 00:48:54.710 --> 00:48:57.869 Absolutely. And I certainly can understand, just 00:48:57.869 --> 00:49:01.670 with the apprehension and so forth, that we went 00:49:01.670 --> 00:49:03.130 through while we were there, and then you come 00:49:03.130 --> 00:49:06.710 home and people really didn't care. And I don't 00:49:06.710 --> 00:49:09.889 want it to sound like whining to people. It's 00:49:09.889 --> 00:49:12.489 just that you just... Want to be acknowledged 00:49:12.489 --> 00:49:14.630 for for serving your country because you know, 00:49:14.849 --> 00:49:19.130 we we did that we even if you were drafted you 00:49:19.130 --> 00:49:21.409 stepped up you didn't run away and you did your 00:49:21.409 --> 00:49:24.489 job and We can all get off on a big tangent on 00:49:24.489 --> 00:49:26.369 that. I want to talk a little bit about aircraft 00:49:26.369 --> 00:49:30.610 in our last two minutes They've gone to the the 00:49:30.610 --> 00:49:33.550 Apache and and you know the other I forget what 00:49:33.550 --> 00:49:35.909 it's called The Blackhawk now and the Huey has 00:49:35.909 --> 00:49:40.170 been retired which is And in your book you talk 00:49:40.170 --> 00:49:42.570 about that the Black Hawk cannot do the same 00:49:42.570 --> 00:49:47.030 thing that a Huey did. No, the Black Hawk was 00:49:47.030 --> 00:49:50.690 designed for the aviation mentality, airfield 00:49:50.690 --> 00:49:54.170 to airfield, cargo, troops. It was not designed 00:49:54.170 --> 00:49:57.670 to work the jungles and combat areas. Now the 00:49:57.670 --> 00:49:59.510 desert's a different kind of an area, but the 00:49:59.510 --> 00:50:01.690 Black Hawk, I've got very little time in it, 00:50:01.690 --> 00:50:04.510 very little time in the Apache, but the Black 00:50:04.510 --> 00:50:08.010 Hawk has a tail low attitude. It's not quick. 00:50:08.250 --> 00:50:10.809 It's powerful, and it'll handle a crash a little 00:50:10.809 --> 00:50:12.610 better than the Huey, but nothing was ever, and 00:50:12.610 --> 00:50:15.349 those of us, when they were designing the Black 00:50:15.349 --> 00:50:17.690 Hawk for dust off, tried to tell them, just put 00:50:17.690 --> 00:50:21.210 another engine on the Huey, put in a radar altimeter, 00:50:21.750 --> 00:50:24.590 and keep it. And we used to always say that the 00:50:24.590 --> 00:50:27.269 Huey would fly the funeral procession for the 00:50:27.269 --> 00:50:29.690 Black Hawk, but they finally retired it. And 00:50:29.690 --> 00:50:32.909 by the way, the Huey is the most combat -experienced 00:50:32.909 --> 00:50:37.079 aircraft in history. 16 million sorties, I don't 00:50:37.079 --> 00:50:38.920 know how they measured those things, but over 00:50:38.920 --> 00:50:42.019 7 million combat hours in the Healy. No other 00:50:42.019 --> 00:50:45.719 aircraft in history, World War I, II, ever has 00:50:45.719 --> 00:50:48.039 had, and it's amazing to me that some museums 00:50:48.039 --> 00:50:51.000 don't display the Healy, although we did manage 00:50:51.000 --> 00:50:53.440 to get one up in the Museum of Flight up in Seattle, 00:50:53.980 --> 00:50:56.320 and it's getting a lot of attention up there. 00:50:56.360 --> 00:50:59.019 But it is the most combat -experienced aircraft 00:50:59.019 --> 00:51:01.820 in history, and what it did, and what the pilots 00:51:01.820 --> 00:51:06.539 did, The helicopter pilots in Vietnam developed 00:51:06.539 --> 00:51:09.780 skills that were unique on the battlefields of 00:51:09.780 --> 00:51:13.579 history. And unfortunately, because they demonized 00:51:13.579 --> 00:51:17.260 that war and those warriors, that helicopter 00:51:17.260 --> 00:51:19.980 pilot never got the recognition I think he deserved. 00:51:20.119 --> 00:51:22.019 Well, we got to stop it on that. Thank you for 00:51:22.019 --> 00:51:25.119 your comments. We've been talking with Major 00:51:25.119 --> 00:51:27.639 General Patrick Brady, author of Dead Men Flying. 00:51:27.840 --> 00:51:30.019 Don't miss it. Go out and get this book. Thank 00:51:30.019 --> 00:51:31.900 you very much, General, for being on Veterans 00:51:31.900 --> 00:51:34.550 Radio today. It's a pleasure being with another 00:51:34.550 --> 00:51:37.269 helicopter pilot, always. Thank you, sir. Until 00:51:37.269 --> 00:51:39.269 next week, you are dismissed.