I enlisted in the USMC in October of 1965. At the time, I had little knowledge of the rapidly increasing US involvement in Vietnam.

After a stint in the enlisted ranks, I found my way to OCS and later flight school, finally arriving at Marble Mountain, RVN on 7 December, 1969. Assigned to the only Marine Cobra squadron, I quickly fell into the daily routine of supporting the Marines on the ground, a mission I relished.

for at least the Marine Cobra crews, it was pretty much another day at the office

In September of 1970, we got the call to work with the Army Special Forces in the central highlands region. Upon arrival, we were informed that we would be leading the air portion of a mission to land a force of 100 or so Montagnards and 16 Americans about 50 miles inside Laos to act as a diversionary tactic. Operation Tailwind was a success in that while almost all were wounded, only 1 man was killed. It also produced the largest intelligence cache in the war according to MACV.

While it was intense for the four days of the operation, all of us quickly forgot about the mission as for at least the Marine Cobra crews, it was pretty much another day at the office, albeit an intense one that left many holes in our Cobras! That all changed in 1998 when CNN ran a story that claimed the US forces had used sarin gas and the mission was launched in an attempt to kill American defectors. False story which got a handful of reporters and producers fired. The good news is that now that the mission was no longer secret, those on the ground could get the recognition they deserved.

The Army medic on the mission (now Captain Gary Rose) will receive the Medal of Honor on 23 October, 2017. Lessons learned?

  1. The press is out for ratings caring little for the real story. Never rely on only once source
  2. Opinions of those that served are like the five blind men touching an elephant and coming up with 5 different viewpoints. The mud Marine or soldier has a totally different view of the war than I do, and different again for the sailor at sea.
  3. The best and closest friends are those made in combat.