Don't Miss Ken Burns tv Vietnam Special

[Bill Greenwood]

This is a must see, Ken Burns if you saw his programs on the Civil War, you know how good they are. It's free, 8 pm e t, 6pm here channel 6. It started 2 nights ago and will run 3 more nights this week and then finish with 5 next week. One warning, this is serious stuff, it's not Lone Ranger on his white horse or John Wayne in his jaunty beret with catchy music. This is bombs and bodies, so might not be best for young kids.
There are people here too young to really know Vietnam, but I studied it in college, was in the Air Force then, and still learned some new things. The 1st night goes all the way back to 1858, and up through the French in the 50s. Flying wise that's C-47s, which I love and dont want to see anyone shoot no matter whose it is, and Bearcats, so rare now, and C-119 which I have a hard time getting into. The 2nd night gets into the helicopter war in 61-62. If you think you know all this, try this question and think before you see my answer: was Ho Chi Min enemy or ally? Well, believe it or not he was an Ally in 40s to join us in fighting against Japan. Burns has even a video of a U S airdrop of OSS medics out of a C-47 to treat Ho Chi Min when he was ill and may have saved his life. OSS is predecessor of CIA. Burns finds news clips and personal interviews and puts a human face on history. The reviews say this will break your heart and fill your mind.

[CHICAGORANDY]

Me? - Army draftee - Spent most all of 1972 over there - lots of riding about in Slicks, Caribou's and C-130s. They opened the first installment with the sounds of a UH-1 and it purt near started a flashback. That machine does make its own music.

I still 'fondly' recall the sensory overload of riding in a Caribou during short field take-offs and landings at Can Tho Army Airfield in the Delta. I did get a chance to wander though one at AirVenture last year. Almost impossible to believe it was 45 years ago. Sometimes it feels like yesterday.

[Bill Greenwood]

Randy, would you tell us more about your experience there? Glad you got home safely. In "72, we were almost finished there, we withdrew a year later, had any withdrawals started in 72? Was there still any belief or pretense about winning then? And what's a "Slick"?
One part reminded me that you, talk of being big, a small South Vietnamese soldier told the American officer not to stand next to him, that the officer was very tall and was going to draw a lot of fire once they got out of the city. Kind of funny, but grim at the same time.

[saber25]

A detailed and concise report on aircraft important to that war. Usually helicopters are given backdoor attention but in this conflict they played a major role.

I flew the Cobra gunship in 71-72 to include the Spring Offensive. The Cobra was then what is the A-10 today to the grunt.



Cheers, Hans

[CHICAGORANDY]

A Slick is slang for the UH-1 chopper - with no rocket pods - a true workhorse of that conflict. I watched a Cobra light up a hillside with their mini-gun near Cam Rahn one evening. Suffice it to say I would NOT have wanted to be in its line of fire. Impressive to say the least.

Walking around the market area along the Mekong River my buddy and I were separated by about a block of locals filling the street. I'm 5'8" and he was near 6". Neither of us had any problem maintaining head-to-head visibility - lol - yes they were/are a rather short group of folks.

Yes I was part of the turnover of our area of Cam Rahn Bay to the ARVN. Then the Army Airfield near there, and spent the last of the tour at Can Tho Army Airfield in the Delta. No, I was never given to believe we had any chance of winning nor for that matter had any reason to have been there in the first place.

Luv them rotary craft - Slicks. Loaches, Sh@!hooks, Snakes all pretty much ruled the day..

[Bill Greenwood]

This is a tremendous tv special, very well made, hard to turn off but some very sad scenes. Last nigth they finsihed up through 1967, just before Tet and they showed John McCain shot down. He is in the hospital in Hanoi badly injured and shaking with pain and shock. The had a Frnech tv reporter and camera right there so we see it as it was. I have never met him,but of course we seem to know him. It just seemed extra sad to see him injured and know he would be a POW for 6 years or so. The sadness and suffering on both sides just seem to go on and on. Its like watching the Titanic steam toward the iceberg over and over for year after year and nothing slows the tragedy. Burns really shows stories of so many people on both sides, soldiers, pilots and sadest of all parents, and makes it so personal. I had a good friend bombing the Ho Chi Minh trail at that same time just not at Hanoi. I was about to finish college and go into the Air Force myself in a couple of years. It would have been a stretch but I could have been doing that same thing if I had been a few years older.

[Bill Berson]

I chose not to watch.
Don't need a reminder of my formative high school years knowing I would be drafted after graduation and sent to die for no reason.

[Bill Greenwood]

Bill, I can understand. I do think other people need to see this, It ought to be viewed bu all high school seniors and/or freshmen in college. For me it is like watching the recent special on 9-11 going all the way back to the planning and recruitment etc. A friend who Ive know for 30 years, an award winning warbird restorer and his wife sat with me at dinner at Osh and told me about being a door gunner in Nam helicopters. We sat a foot apart at the table, but it was as if he had been in another dimension than me. So glad he was home. He.'s a kind person, but he went because his Dad was a fighter pilot in WWII.

[Bob Dingley]

I recorded the series. Watched some. Seems to be a quick review. I was in the Nat Guard in Oct 68 when I got a letter calling me up. Reported to San Antonio late Nov. 3 wks Medical training in Jan. Landed at my DustOFF unit 3 Feb. Got 1.7 hrs transition into the Hotel model Huey. (So this is what they look like up close) First mission at sunset. ROK combat assault. It was customary after missions to stop by the treatment facility to lend a hand. End of Feb assisted "super surg" with my first above the knee amputation. (VC). I had prev svc in another conflict with the USMC.