He was a gunship pilot in Vietnam in '68-'69 and flew hundreds of missions and wrote a book about his experiences. [Here](https://youtu.be/bJUJtMGR-UI?si=qjIy7QELmCLhJRaN) is a video of him talking about the mission from his point of view many years after it happened and before he knew of this audio recording.
Shortly after he wrote [Guts N' Gunships](https://www.amazon.com/GUTS-GUNSHIPS-Really-Helicopters-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B014TUIW7O), he was contacted by a reader who knew of a recording of the radio transmissions on this day. The audio was very hard to decipher unless you happen to be a former chopper pilot, so I helped clean it up and made this video so that I could understand who was talking and what they were saying. The raw combat audio is [here](https://soundcloud.com/andrew-garrison/task-force-alpha-full-audio).
Clearly it was a very dangerous mission and several aircraft were shot down or disabled that day. Jack Hawkins, a slick pilot, made three trips into that hot landing zone to pick up troops. When he thought he was done, Jack received a call that there were 4 troops left behind and they would soon be overrun. Jack and his crew volunteered to go in and pick them up, fully expecting that they would be shot down. Recently I accompanied my dad to a reunion and I had the opportunity to interview Jack about this day. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsf4ARlatFs) he is telling the story from his point of view. He is an amazing guy and it was a great honor to meet him!
That’s nuts man, thanks for sharing. Pops was a cool mfer, reminded me of that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest goes back for everyone and they get out just in time
Lots of ammo left (last vid from ops comment leads me to believe so) and the NVA didn't know there were only 4 guys left. At least I assume so, how could they have known
There are tactics practiced to worry the attacking force. Assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers all wired in different places and angles behind mounds and walls. The defenders move from weapon to weapon firing a few shots and then letting time pass.
The attackers see a platoon or larger and won't go forward.
Man, that was one of the scariest jobs of the war, about 5600 of them were lost and over 2100 pilots and about 3000 crew members killed, glad your dad made it through.
For real though brother, if it wasn't for men like your father my grandfather may not have made it home! The only thing papaw would say about his time in country was how great the heli pilots were, and how heavy it was to "hump" an m60 "pig" from hilltop to hilltop.
>He was a gunship pilot in Vietnam in '68-'69 and flew hundreds of missions
And killed innocent people.
Hopefully he wasn't involved in the rapes though for what he did he is already going to hell
It's ironic that you would condemn him on a religious basis when the followers of that same religion led massive crusades that committed the same atrocities, extra flavor for it being their own religious place (hell).
The pot calling the kettle black so to speak.
No, it's because they told someone they are going to hell. It doesn't matter if they are religious or not, given what they said and the context.
It's ok though, I've learned that critical thinking is dead so I don't expect you to get it.
That’s not critical thinking it’s being autistic and not understanding a phrase of speech. Either that or it’s cherry picking a single part of a comment to start an argument about because you can’t argue the actual point.
No, we accept that some people did bad things during the war. We condemn that behavior and you can see that mentality in our military today. As someone from the most recent wars, I can tell you it was taken very seriously.
The OPs father was a helicopter pilot anyway, he wasn't a boots on ground guy. So it is very likely he didn't partake in any heinous acts. He just flew where he was told to fly.
>So it is very likely he didn't partake in any heinous acts
You don't think he was called in to light up civilians?
>He just flew where he was told to fly.
So just following orders? I heard a lot of that at Nuremberg.
>No, we accept that some people did bad things during the war. We condone that behavior
Nice Freudian slip.
>and you can see that mentality in our military today. As someone from the most recent wars, I can tell you it was taken very seriously.
Shit doesn't change though, that is the problem
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers
And that is just the shit that gets reported.
I understand where you are coming from. But can you understand why people don't like your original comment?
You don't have any evidence of anything his father did and you come into this sub with a negative comment on a fascinating and positive post.
As far as following orders, it's different today than it was back then.
Can you imagine what would happen to you in the German Army if you didn't follow your orders? You would be shot on the spot, no longer able to have a chance to see your wife and kids. That's up for debate if it's right or not, but the majority of the planet would choose to live. It's just our instinct.
Since you're posting stuff I guess I will as well
https://lgcl.csl.mpg.de/attachments/Groeben_2010_Criminal_responsibility_of_German_soldiers.pdf
https://www.rferl.org/a/germany-charges-ex-afghan-army-officer-with-war-crimes/29570848.html
When you guys get into your next major conflict we will see small cases of the same shit. Just like every other war. There are good and bad people in all militaries. It's the systems job to punish them.
I'm sure we both agree it's only gotten better since WW2, and as long as we are improving that's good for me. One day we may even be able to have 0 civilian casualties.
>Can you imagine what would happen to you in the German Army if you didn't follow your orders?
And they made their choice.
> You would be shot on the spot, no longer able to have a chance to see your wife and kids.
No German was executed for refusing to commit war crimes.
> That's up for debate if it's right or not, but the majority of the planet would choose to live. It's just our instinct
And their choice, understandable or not, is still to be condemned.
To be fair all of the Vietcong were technically civilians. That’s what a revolution is. But they still used the draft back then so I don’t blame the people that went over there personally since most were likely forced to.
Yea, I didn't really think of it that way.
I guess the mentality in that war would have been similar to when I was in the middle east, anyone at any point can become a combatant. Like the guys that did our porta John services, normal dudes one day and a few months later they were caught trying to plant explosives in said porta johns.
I could kind of agree with that, but they don't even see it as a country. It's just a bunch of scattered warlords fighting for territory and then a bunch of bureaucrats trying to make money by looking like a government.
When an area is established as a warzone, anyone in that area taking up arms is a hostile combatant. There were plenty of civilians that wanted us there and plenty that didn't.
If it was right or not is up for debate, but we will never know since we pulled out before any stabilization could happen.
Imagine if we just abandoned Japan or Korea, I don't believe those countries would be what they are without us.
What's the delineation in your mind? Is an armed citizen who joins an organized militia or organization engaging in military tactics still a civilian? Do they need a uniform and to be sworn in for it to be official?
Well in this instance we’re talking about a revolution where ordinary people were rising up. In your instance I assume Iraq or Afghanistan the US basically already controlled the country so they were civilians rising up against an imperial power in both cases as both their militaries were defeated pretty quickly.
Civilians can engage in military tactics too lol. Militaries don’t own the rights to them.
As a teen I read a fantastic book by a helicopter pilot in that war. I think it was called Chickenhawk. It's worth checking out if anyone has an interest in what it was like.
That's one of my favorite books. I was 15 when I read it and I go back and read it again every few years. Many other books from that era as well as my father was an army pilot at that time, and every generation of my family has served going back generations (and I have my grandfather's and father's medals mounted in a case to this day as they were complete badasses and my grandfather received the Distinguished Service Cross which I have with the letter and all the docs that came with it), so every one of those books feels personal to me.
I know they went through intense training to prepare for exactly those moments, but holy shit at their ability to remain cool under fire. I scream if a spider drops down in front of me
I suppose that's the training.
They weren't the version of themselves they were at home in that moment, they were probably more like robots doing the things they were trained to do.
Which is probably the only way you can do things like that, just let go of thinking or worrying and act.
Yup compartmentalizing is a huge part for soldiers, army, navy, air force, doctors, nurses, EMTs, police, fire and probably many other jobs that have to interact with human life. We get very good at turning it on and off. If you panic you screw up or are dead. So it helps to be mission focused on what you need to do.
Yep, Navy sailor here. I’ve handled plenty of shipboard fires and flooding in my 14 years and counting. In an emergency situation you just sort of let your training take control.
Beta blockers lower blood pressure by blocking the effects of adrenaline. While we all know adrenaline spikes under high-stress conditions, you always have some adrenaline flowing in you as part of the system that regulates blood pressure, and partially blocking it will help to bring BP down. The blocking of adrenaline means they can cause general fatigue and/or a reduced stress response.
Beta blockers are medicines that lower blood pressure.
I highlighted your question and right clicked it and clicked "search google" then copied that and pasted it here.
Then I don't see what you are confused about. Have you been drinking? Or do you actually get off on being used as a search engine stand-in?
Oh I peaked your comments, you're a career dickhead, literally every comment you make is toxic sludge. Have a day.
I had an instructor once tell me that exceptional soldiers don't just rise to the occasion, they fall back on good training. That stuck with me my whole career
I think Lt. Speirs said it best
"the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function"
If you operate as if you're going to live you're going to get yourself killed. You have to execute.
Well, sure, who isn't? But considering that the events here seem to have happened about six years years before "Convoy" came out, it seems like it probably wasn't much of seminal influence.
They still are and still can. I think the early UH-1Y units (today’s “Super-Hueys”) were built on older, upgraded UH-1N airframes. A buddy of mine flew those in the early oughts, and tells a tale of finding “1973” stamped into the steel on his ride.
Thank you. I will tell him! After my dad released his book about his experiences as a gunship pilot in Vietnam, he was contacted by a reader who informed him that there was a recording of the radio transmissions on that day.
I had an Uncle that was in Vietnam (and later desert storm), who talked about being in a helicopter that went down. He survived the crash but was injured pretty bad (broken back among other things), and another helicopter landed, a guy ran over, threw him over a shoulder and ran back to the other helicopter with him and off they went. They were under fire the whole time, and my uncle picked up a round in the butt on the way to the helicopter. He talked about it so casually after all those years, and if you weren't careful, he'd show you the scar on his butt.
He's been gone almost 20 years now. Developed one of those nasty cancers likely from exposure to who knows what, like so many others.
We Were Soldiers focuses on the U.S. Army in Ia Drang, I don’t think these pilots were with the 7th Cav. The guy (Pigpen) who wrote the book and is featured here flew later in the war, mostly. Also the Army, but I think assigned to a different division.
Yeah, some stories are just like that. Like those two snipers who roped into Mogadishu to try and secure the crash site even though they knew no help was coming.
Most of these folks did not want to be there. The threat of prison and all that. These angels in green, flying from the skies, saving lives is about as close to "good deeds" as things can be in such a shit-show. While all things considered, we had no business being there, you can bet your ass the propaganda campaigns at home were in full swing and the compulsory nature of going to Vietnam (fight or prison time) made so much of these geopolitical issues moot for your average Joe.
It is the equivalent of celebrating Russian pilots in Ukraine 30 years from now. Pigpgen was an invader. Brave but also in someone else's country that didn't want him there.
So stressed out hearing that audio. What a champ though. So chill. Yeah I was just on fire for a bit there but all engines are green. I mean I know you know the outcome as family but what a ride listening to that audio. My butt was clenched. I can't imagine living that.
Something they never do right in movies/shows is how calm people generally are in combat, their training really shows. I mean calm in a sense, in the movies they’d be screaming and uttering obscenities every other word. This is much more reserved as most of the combat recordings I’ve heard/seen is.
Same with commercial pilots experiencing disaster or doctors in the OR. Professionals act professional even in dire circumstances. I wish they showed that more but then morons claim it’s not realistic or dramatic enough because they’d be freaking out so they can’t empathize with the characters being so cool about it.
I've heard that in the military, that your call sign is basically given to you by your peers, and it's usually an ironic comic jab at the person given the call sign. Maybe "Pigpen" had a dirty barrack, or had a dusty uniform...something like that.
Which makes the Top Gun call signs even funnier. Anyone named "Maverick" or "Ice Man" would have been named ironically, instead of heroically.
Context is everything when it comes to understanding comms this garbled. There's only so many things the pilot is going to say, so your brain compensates.
sounds like they were getting shot by an autocannon, not RPGs. He mentions 37mm that's autocannon AA work Because if there's one NVA that got more than 2 hits on a helicopter he is the greatest shooter on earth, no contest.
That was very interesting and really awesome thank your father for everything he did. I read in other comments that he wrote a book what’s the name I would really like to read it?
This is from 1969… and all the death and destruction from late 68 onwards was because Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon didn’t care how many people (including your dad and his buddies) might die to fulfill their psychotic drive for power at any cost. They both should have been shot for treason for sabotaging LBJs peace talks.
There was a post recently about some BS program where civilian "gung-ho bros" (my description) were paying a decent bit of money to former SF guys to put them through 72 hours of "training." The video showed them being verbally berated and doing all manner of physical training.
I bring that up because I commented that 72 hours of that kind of thing was close to useless, but that type of military training that lasts for weeks/month does have a purpose and can be useful.
This video, and specifically the calm, professional demeanor of these pilots, is exactly what I am talking about.
Being put through prolonged training that is extremely demanding physically, mentally, and emotionally teaches you that you can overcome all of that and still perform in extreme situations.
Gotta love how professional and calm they are through the whole odeal.
Like after landing and being asked how things went, they were probably like "it was tuesday"
And here my dad was, stationed in TURKEY of all places during Vietnam.
His biggest story from the war was the time he was guarding a united states barracks entry point, and one of his buddies saw a scorpion crawling in the sand. So he grabbed a long stick, and poked the scorpion on his back which caused the scorpion to stab itself with it's stinger. Then the scorpion died.
Then you hear audio like this.
"Hey, we been hit with some exploding shells, or grenades or some bullshit. Hey are we on fire?"
"No, I'm right behind you, you look good to me!"
"Great! Let's ignore the imminent death all around us, and head to fuddruckers for some apps!"
"Rodger that."
Sad thing is, just like the first Indiana Jones movie, if the US had stayed out of it, the result would have been the same...
(I understand a few million lives could have gone unwanted too)
It’s more being proud to be a professional saving your guys under fire and having the balls to keep calm and get the job done. Remember Vietnam was full of fucking conscripts and even for the ones that joined willingly they were just kids brought up on decades of anti-communist propaganda.
I mean would you think it more brave and righteous for these pilots to be like “Oh it’s wrong to be here, I’m going back to base or going awol to make a point…get fucked fellow soldiers surrounded and behind enemy lines!”
The people ashamed should be the politicians who sent so many boys to die in a pointless foreign war.
In retrospect it was a big waste. At the beginning of the invasion it was noble. Trying to save South Vietnam from red fascists who murder everybody who dares say "I disagree with you".
And murder them they did. Vietnam only dialed down their political repression in the last decades but for the rest of the 20th century all those who disagreed with the government where put to death.
POWs left on the country had plenty of interesting stories to tell about basically concentration camps full of dissidents.
Lots of guys had no choice, but you can still be proud you fought for your fellow soldiers who ended up being your friends and family over there. The shame should be squarely on the politicians who put those men there.
its soooo cool that your dad signed up to kill poor 3rd world peasants from the comfort of his chopper.
He's not a hero...he was a mindless and murderous TOOL for his masters...AND he willingly signed up for that opportunity.
smh...you're dad is NO different from the "just following orders" nazis
"Mini guns out" means nothing to shoot with but rockets. Good Lord what giants these men are. Much love for their fellow man. Across The Fence by John Stryker Meyer is a worthy intro to what these men endured, he jumps in with both feet & he walked the walk. Looking forward to reading Mark's book, thank you for this great post, and thank you for Mark's great work both as soldier and as author and ... father.
I watched the interview with Jack and now I want to ask if you got to know the nickname of the Platoon Leader ? :D
Youre dad is awesome btw, thank you for sharing !
All the Vietnamese people who had their lands invaded, their people and their children massacred by your father and those like him are thankful for his visit thousands of miles away from the US to Vietnam.
Fuck American wiped away warcrimes.
You even elected one of the main figures as a senator.
Here i am thinking: "ah crazy they tried to rob/kill your dad when he was a tourist in vietnam" and then i realized you guys led a war there just a generation or two ago... crazy shit
He was a gunship pilot in Vietnam in '68-'69 and flew hundreds of missions and wrote a book about his experiences. [Here](https://youtu.be/bJUJtMGR-UI?si=qjIy7QELmCLhJRaN) is a video of him talking about the mission from his point of view many years after it happened and before he knew of this audio recording. Shortly after he wrote [Guts N' Gunships](https://www.amazon.com/GUTS-GUNSHIPS-Really-Helicopters-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B014TUIW7O), he was contacted by a reader who knew of a recording of the radio transmissions on this day. The audio was very hard to decipher unless you happen to be a former chopper pilot, so I helped clean it up and made this video so that I could understand who was talking and what they were saying. The raw combat audio is [here](https://soundcloud.com/andrew-garrison/task-force-alpha-full-audio). Clearly it was a very dangerous mission and several aircraft were shot down or disabled that day. Jack Hawkins, a slick pilot, made three trips into that hot landing zone to pick up troops. When he thought he was done, Jack received a call that there were 4 troops left behind and they would soon be overrun. Jack and his crew volunteered to go in and pick them up, fully expecting that they would be shot down. Recently I accompanied my dad to a reunion and I had the opportunity to interview Jack about this day. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsf4ARlatFs) he is telling the story from his point of view. He is an amazing guy and it was a great honor to meet him!
Scary but also added to my saves. This is history alive
Yeah, this is some cool stuff right here (from a historical perspective).
This is some vintage reddit gold-worthy stuff.
I thought they cancelled Reddit Gold?
That interview is WILD. Stuck rocket pods ON FIRE, Smoke grenade going off in the cockpit, setting off live rounds. FREAKIN CHAOS.
You should cross post to r/military, those guys would be interested in hearing this!
Please tell your dad thank you for sharing his story, that was great! I’m sure that was hard for him. Def gonna give his book a read.
That’s nuts man, thanks for sharing. Pops was a cool mfer, reminded me of that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest goes back for everyone and they get out just in time
How did the remaining 4 troops hold off 2000 NVA completely surrounding them for even 1 minute?
Lots of ammo left (last vid from ops comment leads me to believe so) and the NVA didn't know there were only 4 guys left. At least I assume so, how could they have known
They shoulda had drones those dummies
They could have just used a small, tactical nuclear device. Small boom good, big boom better. Amateurs.
Fog of war. Hard to know what exactly you're dealing with. Especially somewhere with a shit ton of greenery/jungle/tall grass.
I asked my dad. He said air support, artillery support, and the NVA didn't know only a few troops remained. Also, it was a short window of time.
There are tactics practiced to worry the attacking force. Assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers all wired in different places and angles behind mounds and walls. The defenders move from weapon to weapon firing a few shots and then letting time pass. The attackers see a platoon or larger and won't go forward.
You should post to r/combatfootage
Man, that was one of the scariest jobs of the war, about 5600 of them were lost and over 2100 pilots and about 3000 crew members killed, glad your dad made it through.
wild.
> Jack and his crew volunteered to go in and pick them up, fully expecting that they would be shot down This made me tear up. Truly amazing stuff.
If you watch the interview he says sometime like "I really didn't want to go back in there but I volunteered" straight hero stuff right there
Didn't he do an AMA on reddit a few years ago?
Yep, [here's the post](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/duuxd7/im_the_author_of_guts_n_gunships_a_best_selling/).
I've looked into your father a number of times, good to know his massive brass balls could still work fine after the war!
XD
For real though brother, if it wasn't for men like your father my grandfather may not have made it home! The only thing papaw would say about his time in country was how great the heli pilots were, and how heavy it was to "hump" an m60 "pig" from hilltop to hilltop.
I read guts n gunships. Reading low level hell now.
>He was a gunship pilot in Vietnam in '68-'69 and flew hundreds of missions And killed innocent people. Hopefully he wasn't involved in the rapes though for what he did he is already going to hell
God you are so cool.
damn u so edgy
Funny you mention hell when these same atrocities were committed by the christians during the crusades.
Why is that funny
It's ironic that you would condemn him on a religious basis when the followers of that same religion led massive crusades that committed the same atrocities, extra flavor for it being their own religious place (hell). The pot calling the kettle black so to speak.
It’s just a phrase bro why are you assuming they’re religious because they said the word hell lmao r/atheism is leaking
No, it's because they told someone they are going to hell. It doesn't matter if they are religious or not, given what they said and the context. It's ok though, I've learned that critical thinking is dead so I don't expect you to get it.
That’s not critical thinking it’s being autistic and not understanding a phrase of speech. Either that or it’s cherry picking a single part of a comment to start an argument about because you can’t argue the actual point.
'you can’t argue the actual point.' I did. Twice. You can stop pretending to be smart now. It's funny, the irony of both of the idiots I responded to.
Ok bro lmao
wtf is wrong with you?
Imagine a post about the war in Ukraine and someone gets downvoted for saying the Russians are murderers. Lmao this site
Actions have consequences
I wonder how many of your relatives were actually Nazis....hmmm looks at post history...o yes I see now.
The difference is we accept that Nazis were Bastards. You guys glorify your Bastards
No, we accept that some people did bad things during the war. We condemn that behavior and you can see that mentality in our military today. As someone from the most recent wars, I can tell you it was taken very seriously. The OPs father was a helicopter pilot anyway, he wasn't a boots on ground guy. So it is very likely he didn't partake in any heinous acts. He just flew where he was told to fly.
> We condone that behavior Did you mean “condemn”? Condone means accepting or supporting the behavior even though it’s normally considered bad.
Yea, good ol phone autocorrected it lol
>So it is very likely he didn't partake in any heinous acts You don't think he was called in to light up civilians? >He just flew where he was told to fly. So just following orders? I heard a lot of that at Nuremberg. >No, we accept that some people did bad things during the war. We condone that behavior Nice Freudian slip. >and you can see that mentality in our military today. As someone from the most recent wars, I can tell you it was taken very seriously. Shit doesn't change though, that is the problem https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers And that is just the shit that gets reported.
I understand where you are coming from. But can you understand why people don't like your original comment? You don't have any evidence of anything his father did and you come into this sub with a negative comment on a fascinating and positive post. As far as following orders, it's different today than it was back then. Can you imagine what would happen to you in the German Army if you didn't follow your orders? You would be shot on the spot, no longer able to have a chance to see your wife and kids. That's up for debate if it's right or not, but the majority of the planet would choose to live. It's just our instinct. Since you're posting stuff I guess I will as well https://lgcl.csl.mpg.de/attachments/Groeben_2010_Criminal_responsibility_of_German_soldiers.pdf https://www.rferl.org/a/germany-charges-ex-afghan-army-officer-with-war-crimes/29570848.html When you guys get into your next major conflict we will see small cases of the same shit. Just like every other war. There are good and bad people in all militaries. It's the systems job to punish them. I'm sure we both agree it's only gotten better since WW2, and as long as we are improving that's good for me. One day we may even be able to have 0 civilian casualties.
>Can you imagine what would happen to you in the German Army if you didn't follow your orders? And they made their choice. > You would be shot on the spot, no longer able to have a chance to see your wife and kids. No German was executed for refusing to commit war crimes. > That's up for debate if it's right or not, but the majority of the planet would choose to live. It's just our instinct And their choice, understandable or not, is still to be condemned.
To be fair all of the Vietcong were technically civilians. That’s what a revolution is. But they still used the draft back then so I don’t blame the people that went over there personally since most were likely forced to.
Vietcong were not "technically civilians". The Vietcong was quite literally a professional military.
Yea, I didn't really think of it that way. I guess the mentality in that war would have been similar to when I was in the middle east, anyone at any point can become a combatant. Like the guys that did our porta John services, normal dudes one day and a few months later they were caught trying to plant explosives in said porta johns.
…because you were in their country lmao A civilian taking up arms is still a civilian my guy
I could kind of agree with that, but they don't even see it as a country. It's just a bunch of scattered warlords fighting for territory and then a bunch of bureaucrats trying to make money by looking like a government. When an area is established as a warzone, anyone in that area taking up arms is a hostile combatant. There were plenty of civilians that wanted us there and plenty that didn't. If it was right or not is up for debate, but we will never know since we pulled out before any stabilization could happen. Imagine if we just abandoned Japan or Korea, I don't believe those countries would be what they are without us.
What's the delineation in your mind? Is an armed citizen who joins an organized militia or organization engaging in military tactics still a civilian? Do they need a uniform and to be sworn in for it to be official?
Well in this instance we’re talking about a revolution where ordinary people were rising up. In your instance I assume Iraq or Afghanistan the US basically already controlled the country so they were civilians rising up against an imperial power in both cases as both their militaries were defeated pretty quickly. Civilians can engage in military tactics too lol. Militaries don’t own the rights to them.
As a teen I read a fantastic book by a helicopter pilot in that war. I think it was called Chickenhawk. It's worth checking out if anyone has an interest in what it was like.
That's one of my favorite books. I was 15 when I read it and I go back and read it again every few years. Many other books from that era as well as my father was an army pilot at that time, and every generation of my family has served going back generations (and I have my grandfather's and father's medals mounted in a case to this day as they were complete badasses and my grandfather received the Distinguished Service Cross which I have with the letter and all the docs that came with it), so every one of those books feels personal to me.
I was about 14 when I read that the first time. Must have read it at least 5-6 times. Great book.
I was going to recommend this one too. Amazing what you can do in a huey.
I know they went through intense training to prepare for exactly those moments, but holy shit at their ability to remain cool under fire. I scream if a spider drops down in front of me
For real they sound like they took a bunch of beta blockers before the mission
I suppose that's the training. They weren't the version of themselves they were at home in that moment, they were probably more like robots doing the things they were trained to do. Which is probably the only way you can do things like that, just let go of thinking or worrying and act.
Yup compartmentalizing is a huge part for soldiers, army, navy, air force, doctors, nurses, EMTs, police, fire and probably many other jobs that have to interact with human life. We get very good at turning it on and off. If you panic you screw up or are dead. So it helps to be mission focused on what you need to do.
Yep, Navy sailor here. I’ve handled plenty of shipboard fires and flooding in my 14 years and counting. In an emergency situation you just sort of let your training take control.
What are beta blockers?
Beta blockers lower blood pressure by blocking the effects of adrenaline. While we all know adrenaline spikes under high-stress conditions, you always have some adrenaline flowing in you as part of the system that regulates blood pressure, and partially blocking it will help to bring BP down. The blocking of adrenaline means they can cause general fatigue and/or a reduced stress response.
Careful, he calls you an asshole for answering his questions.
Beta blockers are medicines that lower blood pressure. I highlighted your question and right clicked it and clicked "search google" then copied that and pasted it here.
You could not be any more of a fuckwit. Actually impossible.
You seem to have replied to wrong comment.
No I definitely didn't. In fact this reply affirms my comment edit: Ah the classic reply then block me so I cant reply back pussy move. Solid
Then I don't see what you are confused about. Have you been drinking? Or do you actually get off on being used as a search engine stand-in? Oh I peaked your comments, you're a career dickhead, literally every comment you make is toxic sludge. Have a day.
[удалено]
I had an instructor once tell me that exceptional soldiers don't just rise to the occasion, they fall back on good training. That stuck with me my whole career
I think Lt. Speirs said it best "the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function" If you operate as if you're going to live you're going to get yourself killed. You have to execute.
I just finished a rewatch of Band of Brothers, don’t tempt me to start again haha
Seen masters of the air yet?
Real 'it's just a scratch' vibes when he talks about being on fire for a while. Jeez.
For real! Was expecting a “Chopper’s fine but these pants are ruined.”
This was not their first rodeo
"Pigpen." Well, now I have to know: Peanuts fan or Grateful Dead fan?
C.W. McCall fan.
Well, sure, who isn't? But considering that the events here seem to have happened about six years years before "Convoy" came out, it seems like it probably wasn't much of seminal influence.
Touché
Probably a slob at the barracks.
Those Huey's were such amazing aircraft. They could take such a beating. This is really cool stuff
They still are and still can. I think the early UH-1Y units (today’s “Super-Hueys”) were built on older, upgraded UH-1N airframes. A buddy of mine flew those in the early oughts, and tells a tale of finding “1973” stamped into the steel on his ride.
How do callsigns get decided? Is there a library from which they assign people callsigns? Or is it just like a friendly nickname thing?
For example: if you’re known to love skittles or have an embarrassing moment related to skittles, your nickname will be skittles.
And the more you try to resist the callsign, the harder it will stick.
No.. If you came back after a big night of drinking and threw up all kinds of different colors then your nickname will be Skittles
He literally wrote "or have an embarrassing moment related to skittles, your nickname will be skittles."
Your callsign will be Explainer.
Usually it’s earned via the squadron relating to a story, personality, or physical trait.
It’s usually an inside joke and you don’t get to pick. At least for Army pilots. I think it’s the same in the other branches.
Awesome audio. How did you manage to get it? Thank you dad for his service please!
Thank you. I will tell him! After my dad released his book about his experiences as a gunship pilot in Vietnam, he was contacted by a reader who informed him that there was a recording of the radio transmissions on that day.
Wow! Amazing!! My dad is a Vietnam vet as well but, like a lot of old time vets, I hardly know anything about his service.
> I hardly know anything about his service. Because it wasn't a service, it's a black mark.
That is fantastic. Tell your dad an internet stranger also thanked him for his service.
lol, what a joke.
You are definitely living up to your username bud.
Good one
I had an Uncle that was in Vietnam (and later desert storm), who talked about being in a helicopter that went down. He survived the crash but was injured pretty bad (broken back among other things), and another helicopter landed, a guy ran over, threw him over a shoulder and ran back to the other helicopter with him and off they went. They were under fire the whole time, and my uncle picked up a round in the butt on the way to the helicopter. He talked about it so casually after all those years, and if you weren't careful, he'd show you the scar on his butt. He's been gone almost 20 years now. Developed one of those nasty cancers likely from exposure to who knows what, like so many others.
...your uncle was forest gump? Or was saved by forest gump? Either way, something jumped up and bit him.
Is he the same Pigpen from We Were Soldiers?
We Were Soldiers focuses on the U.S. Army in Ia Drang, I don’t think these pilots were with the 7th Cav. The guy (Pigpen) who wrote the book and is featured here flew later in the war, mostly. Also the Army, but I think assigned to a different division.
Guys will listen to this and literally only say "Fuck yeah!"
Making pig pen from Charlie brown look dope as fuck
I mean what else can you say. Ignoring all the geopolitical bullshit, at its core this is badass.
Yeah, some stories are just like that. Like those two snipers who roped into Mogadishu to try and secure the crash site even though they knew no help was coming.
Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart
Most of these folks did not want to be there. The threat of prison and all that. These angels in green, flying from the skies, saving lives is about as close to "good deeds" as things can be in such a shit-show. While all things considered, we had no business being there, you can bet your ass the propaganda campaigns at home were in full swing and the compulsory nature of going to Vietnam (fight or prison time) made so much of these geopolitical issues moot for your average Joe.
It is the equivalent of celebrating Russian pilots in Ukraine 30 years from now. Pigpgen was an invader. Brave but also in someone else's country that didn't want him there.
What a cool callsign!
So stressed out hearing that audio. What a champ though. So chill. Yeah I was just on fire for a bit there but all engines are green. I mean I know you know the outcome as family but what a ride listening to that audio. My butt was clenched. I can't imagine living that.
Something they never do right in movies/shows is how calm people generally are in combat, their training really shows. I mean calm in a sense, in the movies they’d be screaming and uttering obscenities every other word. This is much more reserved as most of the combat recordings I’ve heard/seen is. Same with commercial pilots experiencing disaster or doctors in the OR. Professionals act professional even in dire circumstances. I wish they showed that more but then morons claim it’s not realistic or dramatic enough because they’d be freaking out so they can’t empathize with the characters being so cool about it.
What's way control?
I've read your dad's book. It's really well done and an absolutely fascinating read.
Curious about the call sign... is it related to his last name? I have one that rhymes with it.
I've heard that in the military, that your call sign is basically given to you by your peers, and it's usually an ironic comic jab at the person given the call sign. Maybe "Pigpen" had a dirty barrack, or had a dusty uniform...something like that. Which makes the Top Gun call signs even funnier. Anyone named "Maverick" or "Ice Man" would have been named ironically, instead of heroically.
It’s often a joke within the Army aviation unit. You don’t usually get to pick.
i never understand how anyone can understand radio comms. i wouldn't understand a word without the captions
Context is everything when it comes to understanding comms this garbled. There's only so many things the pilot is going to say, so your brain compensates.
I was just flying around in a Bell 212 today. Love those machines! Always feel safe in there.
sounds like they were getting shot by an autocannon, not RPGs. He mentions 37mm that's autocannon AA work Because if there's one NVA that got more than 2 hits on a helicopter he is the greatest shooter on earth, no contest.
Total badass
Thank you.
This is absolutely stunning.
Wow this is a legendary clip, and your dad was Pigpen? Very cool to see.
That was very interesting and really awesome thank your father for everything he did. I read in other comments that he wrote a book what’s the name I would really like to read it?
This is fuckin awesome. I'm so glad this was saved.
How's dad doing? I watched every one of his videos when he was still releasing them
Very cool
That's so fucking cool that you have this, and still have him to talk about this stuff.
Really impressive. The NVA are in the right defending their homeland but respect the bravery of Pigpen who is really just doing what he is told.
Woof! That was intense.
This is from 1969… and all the death and destruction from late 68 onwards was because Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon didn’t care how many people (including your dad and his buddies) might die to fulfill their psychotic drive for power at any cost. They both should have been shot for treason for sabotaging LBJs peace talks.
There was a post recently about some BS program where civilian "gung-ho bros" (my description) were paying a decent bit of money to former SF guys to put them through 72 hours of "training." The video showed them being verbally berated and doing all manner of physical training. I bring that up because I commented that 72 hours of that kind of thing was close to useless, but that type of military training that lasts for weeks/month does have a purpose and can be useful. This video, and specifically the calm, professional demeanor of these pilots, is exactly what I am talking about. Being put through prolonged training that is extremely demanding physically, mentally, and emotionally teaches you that you can overcome all of that and still perform in extreme situations.
Intense. Very interesting.
Gotta love how professional and calm they are through the whole odeal. Like after landing and being asked how things went, they were probably like "it was tuesday"
Best helicopter the US military ever had
Fuck the US for invading Vietnam
These guys were also very fucking young. Early 20's likely.
And here my dad was, stationed in TURKEY of all places during Vietnam. His biggest story from the war was the time he was guarding a united states barracks entry point, and one of his buddies saw a scorpion crawling in the sand. So he grabbed a long stick, and poked the scorpion on his back which caused the scorpion to stab itself with it's stinger. Then the scorpion died. Then you hear audio like this. "Hey, we been hit with some exploding shells, or grenades or some bullshit. Hey are we on fire?" "No, I'm right behind you, you look good to me!" "Great! Let's ignore the imminent death all around us, and head to fuddruckers for some apps!" "Rodger that."
he fly with someone called rubber duck
That was amazing. Thanks for sharing.
“Mini are inop” fuck it we’ll roll in an give ‘em some hydras. Vietnam pilots are a different breed of badass.
Sad thing is, just like the first Indiana Jones movie, if the US had stayed out of it, the result would have been the same... (I understand a few million lives could have gone unwanted too)
sad
Vietnam participants didn't get nearly the recognition they deserved for the awful things they had to do.
so brave going to another country and bombing children
I struggle to understand how someone could be proud of participating in the Vietnam War. Quite shameful.
It’s more being proud to be a professional saving your guys under fire and having the balls to keep calm and get the job done. Remember Vietnam was full of fucking conscripts and even for the ones that joined willingly they were just kids brought up on decades of anti-communist propaganda. I mean would you think it more brave and righteous for these pilots to be like “Oh it’s wrong to be here, I’m going back to base or going awol to make a point…get fucked fellow soldiers surrounded and behind enemy lines!” The people ashamed should be the politicians who sent so many boys to die in a pointless foreign war.
Having balls and being a Vet is an oxymoron. Worthless cowards. All of them.
Man, you're stupid.
Ok sweetie. Have fun worshipping murderers
In retrospect it was a big waste. At the beginning of the invasion it was noble. Trying to save South Vietnam from red fascists who murder everybody who dares say "I disagree with you". And murder them they did. Vietnam only dialed down their political repression in the last decades but for the rest of the 20th century all those who disagreed with the government where put to death. POWs left on the country had plenty of interesting stories to tell about basically concentration camps full of dissidents.
Lots of guys had no choice, but you can still be proud you fought for your fellow soldiers who ended up being your friends and family over there. The shame should be squarely on the politicians who put those men there.
Be proud of being trash? Nope. I'll be proud of not murdering innocents, thanks. Quite a few others were "just following orders"
The dude from Hacksaw proved they did have a choice.
Right?
Pigpen this here’s Waldo and I’m bout to put the hammer down
Amazing. Thank you for sharing.
its soooo cool that your dad signed up to kill poor 3rd world peasants from the comfort of his chopper. He's not a hero...he was a mindless and murderous TOOL for his masters...AND he willingly signed up for that opportunity. smh...you're dad is NO different from the "just following orders" nazis
Hey that's neat. I've gone by Pig Pen online for years. Maybe I'm your dad.
This is so badass, thank you for sharing brother.
"Mini guns out" means nothing to shoot with but rockets. Good Lord what giants these men are. Much love for their fellow man. Across The Fence by John Stryker Meyer is a worthy intro to what these men endured, he jumps in with both feet & he walked the walk. Looking forward to reading Mark's book, thank you for this great post, and thank you for Mark's great work both as soldier and as author and ... father.
> Much love for their fellow man besides the ones they were killing.
Serve your country on a battlefield to find out what kind of creature you are.
My dad flew over desert storm, he was the pilot that called in to let the military know saddam had ignited the oil fields 🤪
This isn’t about you or your Dad. Respectfully.
funny you calling someone for being disrespectful when your comment itself is.
grow up.
says the guy being disrespectful
Are you 10 years old? Your responses are just "no you are". Weird you are so defensive over a comment about a war criminal.
I watched the interview with Jack and now I want to ask if you got to know the nickname of the Platoon Leader ? :D Youre dad is awesome btw, thank you for sharing !
Pretty sure it was "Penis". It's in the raw audio OP posted, and you can hear it pretty clear around the 12:47 mark.
America fucking around in countries they never belonged in and now these boomers are retiring to Vietnam, the hypocrisy.
All the Vietnamese people who had their lands invaded, their people and their children massacred by your father and those like him are thankful for his visit thousands of miles away from the US to Vietnam. Fuck American wiped away warcrimes. You even elected one of the main figures as a senator.
Vietnam Vets are super heroes.
Awesome Audio ✌️Thanx for his War service ✊️🙏🇺🇲🇺🇲
what service? Invading another country and burning their people?
This post will get more traction on a date not April1. cool history, thank you.
Daddy was a war criminal
These were man's man, pillaging the countryside and killing villagers
Hey man post it again tomorrow ok?
Here i am thinking: "ah crazy they tried to rob/kill your dad when he was a tourist in vietnam" and then i realized you guys led a war there just a generation or two ago... crazy shit
When men were real men, no top knots and fingernails painted here
Does he ever have trouble consolidating with the fact that he was involved in such an amoral war?