Christian Pirotte

Simon Hoyt

Colton Goss

2/20/07

*********** Interview Write Up

Ahh, I was excited to fly helicopters after I took my first ride in it during my junior and senor year. And ah it was ah an ROTC junior, junior senior year you would go to a six week summer camp which is the same as the enlisted folks that due basic training. Much the same thing that was dedicated towards officers, and you had leadership rolls every day and different positions and so fourth. On a Saturday we were off at noon, and then someone came by and said anybody want to go for a helicopter ride. And ahh ok I didn’t have anything else going and I couldn’t leave the base. So they put us on a bus it was about six of us and we headed over to grey army air field at the time and standing out in front running was an h-13. You know the bubble kind with the skeleton on the back. And up to that point I was 20 year old and I had never been in any aircraft what so ever. I had never flown any where. No jet liner no anything. And it was summer and the pilot introduced himself and another guy helps me, and straps me in and all that stuff, because there were no doors on it. So he picked up to a hover and I was a little bit nervous and off we went. I got down right scared. He only went three or four hundred feet from that point. But by the time he was down wind and turned base and then hovered back in again. I was, I was hooked, and then I said this hover thing is ok. I kinda like this. And at that point is when I got back to the ahh university they had at that time an ROTC flight training program. And you could take all the tests to be a pilot. And then they would train you to fly at your civilian airfield. I went to Renton aviation at Renton field and the army paid for all the way up to a private pilot license. And what that did was automatically give you a three year commitment. And when you went on active duty a set of two. But that’s ok I went aviation. And knew that that Vietnam was really heating up at that point. And I thought this is a twofer I really enjoy the flying part and thought it looked like it would be allot of fun, and Id rather be flying in Vietnam than on the ground. so I tested for and got in. I got the private pilots license and that is all we did at that point and then, I went on active duty, waited a few months and then got my flight school class and went. But ahh, I will never forget that day and what is strange about it was in front of this large hanger, on the west side of graham air field, and all the way through my life and so fourth, and then become a military technician instructor pilot for the army reserve. You know where my office ended up being at the end 1996 right above that door where walked out that same ramp where I took my first helicopter ride. And I always smile at that every morning when I walk into work. That’s where it started and technically that’s where it ended. Thirty-eight years later.

Before I got there ahh it appeared to be ok a noble cause and what we were doing and stuff and stopping communism and all that sort of thing. And obviously in the military you look at it a little bit different than what you would on the outside so it appeared that alright that maybe we’re gonna do some good here and gonna help some people and so forth. So I was kinda lookin forward to it not that anyone wants to got o combat, but part of it was your age and I was twenty three years old at the time and ahh when you’re kinda young and crazy and wild and a brand new helicopter pilot I wanted to prove my skills and that was the only show in town if you understand. so I felt pretty good about it before I left. Ahh during flight school just before I finished we went through a series of classes on learning about Vietnam and about a little about the people and so forth. And get some history and some—they always give you a briefing on do’s and don’ts, what offends those people and they do the same thing today for Iraq. Things that you don’t do to offend a Muslim religion and so forth. We went through the same type of indoctrination if you will ahh which also all those third world countries so you get a batch of shots that you’ll never forget. Um that was essentially it I had nothing against any of them ahh you felt like the north Vietnamese were obviously the aggressors if they were coming down and trying to take over this country. so—but I hadn’t met any of them at that point in time. I had a pretty good feeling about the Vietnamese people in general before then. I viewed the Cambodian and Laotian people the same way. They told us a little bit about the bordering countries and the people and how they were essentially friendly to the US effort that sort of thing. So as far as I could understand and I never been in the southeast Asia area yet so I was fine with it. Um I felt sorry for some no body, to be honest with you, probably likes the draft and it a tough situation when you’re sitting there facing the draft and you know that once you get drafted you’re going to the military and there happens to be a war going on you’re pretty well assured where you’re gonna go. Ahh so I felt sorry for a lot of soldiers in that respect um so much of this is cyclical just depend what time you turn eighteen or twenty or whatever or whether there’s a war going on or there isn’t. ok well it just happened my age and there it was there was one going on so I was gonna get stuck on way or the other. I was happy with the route that I had taken at the time for myself. At least I was going to be an officer and at least I was going to be a pilot. But what I did not know at the time that one of the highest mortality rates in Vietnam was helicopter pilots. They dint tell you that part. And I t affected my own family, I had three younger brothers. Brother number two who received a high draft number, thank goodness, before I left to go over seas um so he was relatively safe and he was in school, not married, goin to college. Brother number three was two years younger there and just as I reached country he got a draft notice and it was real low number he was gonna go. And ahh I wrote him a letter saying stay away from the marine corps, stay away from the draft, and stay way from the army. so he and his friend enlisted on the air force buddy system. And to this day i'm very happy that he did. He ended up being an ahh a C-139 crew chief. Now he did hit the country after I’d been home but he was stationed in Thailand so he was quote a Vietnam vet but was never in the combat zone.

After about three months I thought I don’t see how we can win this based on how were doing it. Normally to win a war and to eliminate a threat you have to take a country where they are sitting, and we weren’t doing that. We had firebases all throughout south Vietnam and we owned that property. But every thing else especially at night it belonged to the Vietcong. And so you go out and you search and destroy you would kill them, and get weapons caches. And you try and help the people blah blah blah. But they are still there and of course we come to find out they were digging tunnels. Have you ever read the book tunnels of Cuchi. It is not to far from where I was and I found out that they had an elaborate tunnel mechanism all through South Vietnam. Especially around Cuchi which is just north east of Saigon. They were re-supplying and they would get the Mekong river like I told you and they had millions of pounds of arms and ammunition supplies coming down that thing. Most of that would be done at night. So after about three or four months I noticed that I was going back to the same landing zones again, and with another battalion. Two months ago I put this battalion in this landing zone, took them out a month later, and now here we go and we’re going back to the same one again. It got to the point after about sox months that my map in front of me in our normal area of operation north of Saigon I had certain LZ's circled, and I kept going back and back to them. As soon as they gave me coordinates I knew what LZ it was. Allot of times I never even had to look at the map, and after a while you say well what, what are we doing? Especially when we have half a million people in Vietnam which we could have just marched north and taken everybody. So I got a little discouraged with that. And after about six months you start to think more about your own survival than what you---than what’s going on with the war. And I know the infantry does they start thinking about that, like I said the day they got there. On the other the thing that kept me going the most was the fact what I could do with the helicopter to help those soldiers. And that made me feel good, but I lost a lot of ahh what would you call it, well ahh a lot of spirit as how to way this war was being won. And pretty soon you look forward to getting your body home. And then a couple of days I got shot up pretty bad then you really start thinking about it.

Right away the whole experience was great with the Vietnamese people---the Vietnamese people in general are great. Everybody is, the Iraqi people just normal citizens like you and I are generally very nice people. We had a lot of them working in our base. Our base included a ahh a village, and ahh one of our projects in our company was to go over and help that orphanage over there. And there is nothing like kids. And ahh when you give them free candy and you give them food and that sort of thing and they make little presents for you it the same around the world. They were wonderful. Ahh I didn’t physically see any enemy soldiers myself to quote shoot at. And it a lot different than the infantry. And they’re the ones who are doing that thing. Vie landed in a couple of places where several hundred bodies all over the place after a big battle. And one of those places was called Analog. And I had to hover around for about two minutes before I found space to sit down with the huey without sitting on a body. There was over a thousand bodies out on this huge field that had died the night before…all Vietcong. That side if the war is not pretty it never is and ahh so I tried to put that out of my mind, but the Vietnamese people were wonderful. And you here the stories we used to here it allot from the special forcices flokes. Now you hear the stories, we used to hear it allot from the special forces folks about the Vietcong death squads where they would go in an actually kill wemon and children in a village and so forth. I personally didn’t see, and didn’t want to, but you feel sorry for them. But overall they were vary happy we where there. We raised their standard of living considerably. They are used to a couple of bucks a month by our standards as far as income. And ahh we had girls come over, and they would do all of our laundry for us, and everything. We would pay them like three bucks a week, and five guys would do that. About fifteen dollars a week in the 60’s to a Vietnamese girl was incredible. So their economy was ahh—and then they did allot ahh of uniform stuff and patches and all that sortive thing they had tailors everywhere. Ahh I had a dress made for my wife at the time I bought all kinds of stuff and sent home to my daughter. So ahh, in general to answer your question the Vietnamese people were really nice.

Yes I had one day—one day they told me to fly up to this, this remote airfield, and you’re going to pick up Cambodian mercenaries and I said mmm… Ok, went up with five hueys, and two gun ships and we landed and we looked around and there was nothing there. I thought well maybe were in the wrong place and then all of a sudden they just headed out of the woods. And they were—and Asians are somewhat shorter but these guys were about the same size as we were. Black scruffy beards, and they looked like fighters. and im thinking, I sure hope were paying them right now. And one of the rules in our aircraft was that you could not get on with grenades hanging anywhere on your web stuff because sometimes they come loose or pop loose and fall on the floor. These guys were covered with grenades banulars of ammunition and so forth. And I thought ok whos gonna tell these guys to take their grenades off? But we didn’t and we flew em off about ten kilometers off in this remote area and they were off and I never saw them again. But I thought to myself, that’s a pretty good ally. These guys were all Cambodians and uhhh they were nice, I mean don’t get me wrong, they didn’t yell at us or anything, they treated us with respect. But they looked like they were one hell of a fighter. Uhh other than that, other than flying over the Cambodian border….

On occasion, uhh I did not have any contact with any of the Cambodian folks, it was all Vietnamese

What? Uhh more respect than ive had for anyone in my life. well someone could go through that for a year is phenomenal. The best way, I don’t know if you have seen the movie platoon? When the new guys first land in Vietnam and you see that, those guys walking towards them with that thousand hour stare and they all look like there thirty five years old but there really like twenty one or twenty. That tells Vietnam right there for the infantry men right there like ive never seen. It changed, it changed them forever. Uhh in general you’ll find out that um that its probably the same today. The people that have seen the most and have been in the worst of it have been affected the most with the post dramatic stress and all those other things. Umm I was fortunate not to have an issue with that. Ive done a couple of interviews with papers and with three Vietnam vets that were all infantry men. And there crying during the interview and they have been through divorces and alcohol and drugs and rehab and all that stuff. Uhh it is tough. And knowing what those people went through at the end of the tour I was happy that I could provide them some, some means of relief with the helicopter. Whether it was food, mail, beer, to and from. I mean, machine guns protecting their flanks whatever it was that I could do for them was so, it made it all worth it. I mean with most helicopter pilots you will hear the same story. Being in the helicopter war, now do we take that to our advantage sometime? Yeah. But always at the end of the mission they would always want…

Well we say we have a case of steaks and we can handle that. So here comes the supply guy who throws a case of steaks on the ship and we go and do another one. . And I had to hover around for about two minutes before I found space to sit down with the huey without sitting on a body. There was over a thousand bodies out on this huge field that had died the night before…all Vietcong oK. That side if the war is not pretty it never is and ahh so I tried to put that out of my mind, but the Vietnamese people were wonderful. And you here the stories we used to here it allot from the Special Forces folks. Now you hear the stories, we used to hear it allot from the Special Forces folks about the Vietcong death squads where they would go in an actually kill women and children in a village and so forth. I personally didn’t see, and didn’t want to, but you feel sorry for them. But overall they were vary happy we where there. We raised their standard of living