"Dustoff inbound" was the message crackling over the radio that troops wounded in Vietnam most wanted to hear.
The message using the "Dustoff" call sign meant that an unarmed UH-1 "Huey" helicopter air ambulance with a red cross painted on the nose was coming for them no matter the weather, no matter whether the landing zone was "hot," no matter whether there even was a landing zone -- some 8,000 hoists while the aircraft hovered were conducted during the war.
-Alemaster
Did I read Army only? How about us Marine Helicopter Medevacs?
ReplyDeleteSam, Did the Marines have dedicated Dust Off crews? The reason I ask is I flew as a door gunner on a Huey gunship and our slicks picked up wounded and KIAs when needed. The Gunships did on occasion do the same if no one else was in the AO. Army Dust Off crews were unarmed and that was their sole mission. I have always held Infantrymen and Medevac crews at the highest honor.
Delete@Flagg. Might help answer your question
Deletehttps://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD0869148.pdf
...
9. HDC calls the Marine Air Group (MAG)
10. MAG calls two squadrons, one is assigned a medical evacuation role,
the other, a gunship escort task
11. Two aircraft launch after receiving briefing from Squadron Duty Officers
12. Aircraft fly to pickup zone
13. Aircraft contacts ground unit for information relevant to landing and
pickup
14. Gunship escort descends to check out pickup zone
15. Medevac helicopter lands
16. Casualties loaded on helicopter
...
As far as I know, the USMC was so short-handed that the vast majority of the chopper crews served both as resupply and dust offs.
DeleteI live in a remote area. The air-ambulance in our area was piloted by a Vietnam vet. He could drop that chopper into a hole in the trees at night with nary a bother. I once asked how he landed with only 2" clearance - he told me he only needed an inch. He retired - the new guys wouldn't even fly at night, let alone handle a primitive LZ.
ReplyDeleteWith our helos you can always tell which pilots had military experience and which were commercial trained
DeleteI don't wish to come off as a jaded old woman, but, ahem, more than 50 years later? How many of them do we still have left alive? I'm thinking Congress' approval rating must've dipped down into single digits again.
ReplyDeleteI don't love those heroes any more for getting this medal so damn late than I have for all these decades, and I don't love Congress AT ALL anymore. They STILL get 0% approval from me.
You should've seen me in here pumping my fist in the air listening to Roseanne Barr bellowing into eternity on stage with Tucker in Fort Worth today. She's three months older than I am and, damn, she's my real sister.
The Major Charles Kelly noted in the article set the standards and culture of Dust-Off pilots before he was killed flying a medivac mission in 1964. His work was a large portion of the book Dead Men Flying written by Patrick Henry Brady who served under Kelly and would earn the Medal of Honor for his own Dust-Off flying. Highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteAbout bloody time but sadly many will already passed
ReplyDeleteThe medal is cool but these men and many others have been my hero's for years.
ReplyDeleteAs a US Marine Vietnam veteran, I can say, "This certainly is a day late and a dollar short."
ReplyDeletealso as a U.S. Marine Vietnam combat veteran; this is one more insult in a long line of insults... leave it to the fucktards in your .gov to make some "grand gesture" that is so late, so overdue; as to be nearly meaningless to the actual heroes that should have been honored decades ago.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, useless assholes (like A-Walz) act surprised when they realize veterans hate them.