Just a word of thanks to everyone responsible for planning and executing such a successful reunion at Ft Campbell. Words of praise and appreciation came from everyone I spoke with during the weekend. Your attention to detail along with some very good planning kept things moving right along without a hitch...except for the wine toast at dinner. (just kidding guys).

Again, kudos to all of you for a job well done.

Folks, wish you guys had been there. The reunion was real event, surprise after surprise, with moments for laughing, crying, putting together thoughts, and closing the loop on many unresolved questions, all for the best. So much happened that it is difficult to pick a starting point, so I will create a web site, a very unofficial website, concerning how I saw the reunion.

To start with, the folks who arranged all this did a superb job. Not enough can be said to praise and thank them.

Next, the hospitality of the 2nd Squadron, 17th Air Cav was magnificent. From the CO down, they were all attentive and friendly. These folks maintain and carry the traditions that we started long ago in a faraway land. We are history in many ways since that sort of fighting may never be repeated. Did you know that since Vietnam no one has earned the Medal of Honor? new technology will make it difficult to earn anything.

Last but not the least, the La Pointe Contingent from Ohio showed up at 100% strength. Doc's widow Cindy was there with her son and his lovely wife (I kept calling him Doc Junior, looks just like his father) Joseph Jr.; her sister Kandy; and Doc's little sister Robin (she was 9 then). They are true Banshees and there was no need to bond with them, it was instantaneous and had already happened whether you knew it or not. Cindy inherited a legacy and a role to play and she does it willingly and with dignity. She is an asset to the organization and we are rightfully proud of her and Doc Jr.

The first guy I saw arriving at the hotel was Kent Hitchings, he came to B Troop with us from Charliehorse where he was a gun pilot. As I walk in I run into Ron Garner who has not changed a bit.... in fact, few guys changed at all, had no problem recognizing any. Gary Dolin was there, Mike Burke, Gonzalo Baltazar from the blues, Connie Graff, Carl Cvitcovich, our beloved maintenance guy CW4 Frank Thompson... etc. etc. It was difficult to decide whom to talk to first, there were so many and once you started talking you could not stop.

There was Bob Bohler in full Cavalry regalia!! what a sight, I never dreamed I would ever see good old Bob again but there he was, has not changed bit. I brought the wrong cav hat (corrected on the spot at Campbell, bought a new one) and Bob gave me the officer's braid to go with it. As usual, Bob was holding court everywhere he went.

Gonzalo Baltazar had wondered for years who brought them ammo that day of June 1969 when they were running out. I told him it had been me and Steve Keeler and that closed the loop for him. He was the one who fetched and was very appreciative. He came with wife, daughter, and granddaughter, a wonderful family, they live in Colorado.

It goes without saying that we swapped lots of stories and Gary Dolin was amazed at some of them, like when John Eiss overslept, jumped in the ship and tried to start it with the rotor still tied down. He wondered why we had not told him but we were not about to burden him with small things, we took care of these things in our own way and they were not repeated.

No sooner you sat at the table for breakfast when another would join you and before you knew it a table for 4 had 8 people and we had to expand, no one wanted to miss anything. At the table, strange things happened, most guys watch the salt, the sugar, and made comments about cholesterol , trading stories about by-passes and other assorted illness.... far cry from those days in Vietnam when we did not give a shit about sugar blood levels, cholesterol or whatever. All we worried about was the clap and there was no place to catch it and if there had been there was no time anyway.

Did you guys know that a cav troop now has only 10 loaches?? that is if you can call it a LOH. Yes sir, no more infantry, no more slicks, no more cobras. Just ten OH-58D "Warrior" armed to teeth with a 50 caliber on one side and 4 Hellfire Missiles on the other, who needs cobras? On a recent gunnery qualification, the number one scout pilot was the only female in the troop.... times have changed.

We identified all the names in the cobra picture: the last missing name was Bruce Osborne, remember him?

Also found out that Eugene Glancy, Captain, Operations, passed away in civilian life. Sorry to hear that.

We also located Bill Brooks. After he went to OCS in 76 as a CW3, got a regular Army commission, retired as a major a few years ago, and is now a bank President in Enterprise, Alabama. He should be easy to find. I will probably locate him this weekend.

Bill Russell, I have a picture for you, will send it as soon as I hear from you.

Bill Wroolie: I misplaced the address of the guy with the aviation jokes book, please send it to me again, thanks.

I won the price at "Family Poker". Some guy thought he was going to win the pot with 2 wives, 4 kids and 6 grandchildren but I beat him with a royal flush: 3 wives, 5 daughters, and 8 grandchildren! they ought to learn.

On the war story round table, I got an honorable mention with the "Bob Bohler on a sling" story, a study of a comedy of errors. In case you forgot it, here it goes again:

Gary Dolin had sent Bob for training to learn how to harness a person to be carried hanging from a helicopter. When he returned to Tam Ky after a one day training course, Terry Fields and I went to check out the system and we carried Bob hanging from 100 feet of rope. While practicing putting down, we put him in a swamp full of leeches and really messed him up. We had a new crew chief hanging from the straps trying to guide us because we could not see Bohler from the cockpit and he was not doing a very good job. Plus, a guy on the ground with a PRC-25 FM was not doing too well either.

All we could make out was that Bohler was full of mud and wanted clean water. So Terry and I carried to the nearby beach for some cleansing. We dipped him in the ocean several times hoping to getting him cleaned up but again, because we could not see him, did not do a very good job and finally Bob got pissed and after releasing himself from the harness, started to swim ashore.

Our new crew chief started to shout "he's escaping, he's swimming away, he's getting away!!" etc. etc. still with his mike on the FM frequency. This would have been OK except that at the same time, another slick being escorted by Ken Barwick in a cobra was arriving at Tam Ky carrying a POW for interrogation. Ken was well far behind the slick so upon hearing the screams of our crew chief, he looked out and saw our slick and this figure swimming away.

Thinking that the POW had escaped, Ken put the nose down, banked a hard left, and strafed Bohler with a circle of bullets making him look like an European deity inside a water fountain somewhere in Paris. Needless to say, by now Bob was scared shitless and swam faster than ever. This only caused Ken to pump a few rockets at a low angle 20 feet or so behind Bob. The rockets had the effect of creating a mini tidal wave that lifted Bob like a surfer and carried him across the highway and into a rice paddy. By now, Bob was in panic and all he could think of was to run for his life towards the tree line on front of him.

At that time, 1969, the International Wildlife Society and completed a census of Asiatic tigers indicating that there were only 300 of them in the wild, in all of Southeast Asia. Will you believe that one of them tigers was near the tree line Bob was heading for? the tiger took off after Bob and Bob's only hope was a tall tree on front of him. He reached the tree, jumped up and started swinging to catch his foot on a branch and lift himself up. At every swing he could feel the tiger's whiskers in his rear, as he would go up, and so would the tiger who would then slide down. Finally Bob caught the branch and reached altitude, the tiger, tired of sliding down every time he tried to climb the tree, left the area, no meal for him.

We picked Bob up and took him to the tent at Tam Ky. The Brigade Commander, having heard about the possible friendly fire incident, had come to investigate. He questioned me and Terry first, then Bob. When Bob finished telling his side of the story, the Colonel stood up and shook Bob's hand saying:

"Specialist Bohler, you have done nothing wrong and we owe you an apology. You are a brave, very brave man, if it had been me on that tree, trying to climb it, with the tiger right under my butt, I would have shit all over the tree 50 times"

To which Bob responded: "and why do you think the tiger kept sliding Sir?"

Guys, stay in touch, there is so much to tell. It was a great reunion.

While the Chaplain was presenting his lesson my eyes went to Sergeant Tovey’s name and memories of his kindness come back to me. The next name I look for was Sergeant Sanders as I remember how upbeat and enjoyable to talk to he was. The Sunday School lessen on Ruth some how faded into the background of my mind and I found Doc’s name. I did not know him well in 69, but I feel closer to him after having the privilege of friendly communication with his family. I viewed those first three names and they seemed to say to me “we gave no more than the rest of the people here on this wall”. As the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boas continued in the background of my mind, consciously I began to go over the names one by one. Some of the names brought back faces, others I can not remember, but as I reviewed each name one by one I ask myself what can I do to honor them along with the almost 60,000 men & women who died with them in Vietnam.

Many of us who lived through Vietnam ask the question “Why was it not Me?” We all went through heartache and suffering, but did not suffer unto death. We all need understanding and acceptance. I am sure that room was full of broken hearts and in our private moments when we have a time of self-contemplation, we all ask “Why”.

As I thought of those on the wall, and those around me, I concluded the best way we can honor those who have died is to live right. Live right is easy to say, but it means something different to each of us who were sitting there together. We all are diversely designed and programmed. Each of us tends to believe our opinion is right, so I can only present my perspective.

A good example of how we can feel right from our own perspective is a story about a farmer who had a flat tire along the fence of a sanitarium. One of the inmates was near by and asked ‘What is that horrid smelling stuff in your trailer?” The farmer said “Why that is hog manure.” The inmate asked “What in the world do you do with it?” The farmer said “Why I am taking it home to put on my strawberries.” The inmate replied… “I put sugar on mine and they think I’m crazy.” They had a different perspective.

Once the farmer knew he had a listening ear he began his favorite pastime. The farmer complained to the inmate about the high price of seed , how it rained to much one time, and not enough an other. He had never been able to sell his crops at a decent price, and on and on. Eventually the inmate got a word in and asked the farmer “Have you ever been crazy?” The farmer said “No, why do you ask?” The inmate said “Well it sure beats farming.” The farmer and the inmate again had a different perspective.

In 1938 Douglas Corrigan left Brooklyn on his way to the West Coast. He landed in Dublin Ireland and the term “Wrong-way Corrigan” was coined. It did not mater how much he believed he was going in the right way. It did not matter how strong his faith was. He endured the embarrassment for being wrong about what he believed.

As I look to that wall, I deduce we are hindered in honoring them because we dwell on the questions we have from the past rather than our pressing on to the future. Viewing those names forces my mind to recall conversations with those in that room, and I think the first question bothering us is why were we in Vietnam?

I believe war is a part of a never-ending cycle in which we were caught. We can not completely control our destiny and we submitted to the higher authority of our country. A verse in the Bible that helped me to serve my country was Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

It has been said “War is the incompetent leading the unwilling to do the unnecessary”. Going to war has not significantly changed throughout history. When we are caught in this cycle we justify and make our own reasons for being there. The best example I see which illustrates justifying our own perspective is the fact of how different members of the same families rationalized to fight against each other in our Revolutionary and Civil War. (The other side feels just as justified.) Perhaps the next question we need to find an answer to would be why did we react the way we did? We are accountable for our own reactions, but how we react is much influenced by how we were raised. It is well known that much of our basic makeup is formed before we reached the age of five years old. The influence of our pear groups seems to be stronger when we are young than as we grow older. Our temperament also is an influence to how we react. A choleric is more impulsive while a phlegmatic is more laid back. The sanguine personality is outgoing while the melancholy tends to be introverted. We experienced intense fear, anger, & fatigue and all other emotions under battlefield conditions.

On one occasion Kent Hitchings mentioned the big dents in the back of our ¾ ton truck. They were there because adrenaline kicked in and influenced the armors and crewchiefs reflex reaction to a crisis situation. We were rearming Cobras so fast on one occasion that we literally could not build rockets fast enough. Instead of placing them carefully in the back of the truck, we began to throw them in from several feet away.

Prior to becoming Air Cavalry on March 25th 1969, B Troop had the nickname “Bush Gangsters”. In one sense we were expected to be like an underworld hit man going after other hit men, and that is what we did. The ones who pulled the trigger were just an extension of we who loaded and maintained the ships or equipment. A war makes it legal to kill and be killed, however there is little satisfaction in that.

Perhaps the most important question we veterans ask as we view the wall is why can’t we find that inner peace after all this time?

I believe many of us are looking in the wrong place. Some look to alcohol or drugs, but I am sure that is the wrong place to look. My thoughts went to conversations with several setting with me in that room who no longer drink at all because of how much damaged it caused them.

Winning does not bring that peace.
Napoleon died dejected and lonely after almost conquering all of Europe. Alexander The Great sat down and cried because he had no one else to conquer.

Wealth does not bring that peace.
Howard Hughes died possibly the most paranoid of anyone who ever lived.

Fame does not bring that peace.
According to Elvis Presley’s cousin, Elvis died feeling sad and dejected.

I believe I have found how to find that inner peace where one does not need to dwell on the questions we have from the past so that we can press on to the future and honor those who have died. I have found in my life there is only one way to have peace and that is a personal relationship with the God who created me. It is “NO JESUS” … “NO PEACE” versus “KNOW JESUS” … “KNOW PEACE” I am glad that this peace I talk of is not to be obtained with large payment of money. If that were so only the wealthy would be able to purchase it. I could not have had it. I was raised so poor that I could not even pay attention. I tell you this in frankness. I prefer to be “frank” than “dead earnest”.

My grandmother raised me from a six months old baby until I was married. My wife tells our friends that I was so unlovable as a child that they used to hang meat around my neck to get my dog to play with me. It was during that time that I accepted Christ as my savior. The peace I received as a small boy went with me through Vietnam, and has continued till this very day.

I can say now just as I did in Vietnam some 29 years ago…
My God is to kind to be cruel and to wise to make a mistake. I can not see the end result, but God can. I have Peace in the midst of loneliness. I have Peace in the midst of pain. I have Peace in the midst of anything the devil throws at me. It is the devil that causes the heartache. The devil is the one who wants that Cycle of War to continue. I thank those heroes who died for me. I honor them as I rightly should. I also thank all who were in that room who are still living. They fought along with me to help me stay physically alive. But above all else I thank the True God who created this universe and loved me so much that He by His own volition died on the hill of Calvary that I might live eternally.

He is the only true Peace.
With Him we may not know why, but He will support us to live the best life possible through all our questions. I am now writing a letter to my God much like I would utter a prayer.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the men and women who gave their life to protect our country and our way of life. Thank you for the men and women who come to honor those fallen comrades. Thank you for loving each and every one of us. I am asking for your Holy Spirit to speak to each of our hearts right now.

I am asking that you help each one of us have the right perspective as we ask the question… When I die where will I spend eternity. I pray that none of us will hold onto a perspective that will make us a “Wrong-way Corrigan” as we fly into the unknown eternity.

Please help us to be in an attitude of deep reflection on our own life at this very minute. Dear Lord you know that I love each one and would not do anything to distress them. I believe it is only right to share with them how I found the peace that has sustained me through every battle I have ever been in. If You are dealing with anyone at this time, I ask that they will yield to your love. I believe You are still the same as You were on the cross when You said “Father forgive them”. I remember that I told you that I knew I was a sinner and I do not deserve Your love or salvation. I expressed my belief that You died as a lamb on Calvary. I believed with my heart You were the only sacrifice to pay a debt I could not pay myself. It was at that point my head knowledge became heart knowledge and I said something like “Jesus, please forgive me and please come into my heart and life.” And You did just that. As Your Holy Spirit came in all I could say was “Thank You Lord Thank You!”

Thank you again for dying for me. Thank you again for all who have died that we can continue to live in this free country. May I honor them by living right.

Amen