Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:24 | It was his first combat mission. Rookie Huey pilot Larry Washington watched the captain land the ship on a tricky hilltop and then, on the next sortie, he had to do it. That was the day he really learned to fly in Vietnam.
Keywords : Larry Washington helicopter (chopper) pilot Vietnam LZ Hard Times Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey)
Larry Washington was in high school and kept hearing about a helicopter pilot training course. Then, when he sat in the Army recruiter's office, he saw a brochure about the same thing. I want to do this, he told the recruiter and he proceeded to pass all the tests and secure a slot in pilot training.
Huey pilot Larry Washington arrived in Vietnam in his winter greens because he had departed from a very cold New Jersey. It was amusing when the veteran pilots in the O-club speculated on how long the greenhorns would last. He was assigned to a cavalry outfit in the Central Highlands, where the terrain was challenging for a pilot.
The warrant officers had their own officers club. They had to, after a brouhaha at the main base. Huey pilot Larry Washington recalls the rowdy volleyball games and the hooch ladies who could never get his laundry right.
The dangers were many. Sappers could sneak in and blow up your helicopters. Your own illumination rounds could kill you. The most dangerous missions for the Huey pilots were the LRRP missions, inserting and extracting long range reconnaissance patrols. Pilot Larry Washington remembers them well.
His last day in combat was memorable. On his first flight of the day, Huey pilot Larry Washington snagged a tree on a gun mount. On the second, he struggled to control the aircraft when several issues arose at the landing zone. He performed a beautiful maneuver to recover but the rest of the day did not improve. All he could do was keep in mind that it was his last day.
Larry Washington was only 19 years old but he flew into combat in Vietnam. He had a good rapport with his crew chief, who was older. They were convinced they had a lucky aircraft and took loving care of it.
He had read about the Kent State protests but the news from back home didn't distract Huey pilot Larry Washington from the job at hand. It wasn't about politics, you fought for the others on the crew. He reflects on the fate of a friend on a different crew, whose passing had an effect on him years later.
"We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" was something of an anthem to those veterans who were in Vietnam. Huey pilot Larry Washington remember that tune and a few others.
He had a decent experience returning from Vietnam. First, Huey pilot Larry Washington managed to meet a fellow pilot he wanted to see before he left, then he had an uneventful journey without protestors. He stayed on as an Army pilot for a while, which helped him decompress from his combat experience.
For Larry Washington, Vietnam is very hard to sort out in his mind. He knows we did not "lose" the war, like so many in the media try to tell you, but he also knows that the stated reasons for a war may not be the true ones. For him, it was the price he paid to succeed in life.
