Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:04 | He had one eye on a future as an airline pilot and another on the present where the draft was coming for him. Tom Morrissey enlisted in the Army because it was the only branch that would let him go to flight school without a four year degree.
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After basic training, Tom Morrissey was off to flight school where the pressure was intense. It was designed to make you fail so they would only wind up with the best pilots. He and some buddies made a side trip to a rock festival where they were the only ones with shaved heads.
The heat poured into the plane when the door opened on the tarmac in Vietnam. Then, Tom Morrissey experienced the chaos on the streets as he made his way through the assignment process. He was a new helicopter pilot and he wound up at the 117th Assault Helicopter Company which was based near Long Binh.
His first flight in Vietnam was memorable. Huey pilot Tom Morrissey was taken up for a check ride with the unit's instructor pilot and while they were warming up the chopper, a mortar round destroyed another aircraft in it's revetment. They immediately went searching for the enemy without a crew chief or door gunners.
Huey pilot Tom Morrissey would try to have some reason to land at Nha Be because the Navy had good food. As long as we're fueling up we should get some lunch, right? He would ferry SEAL teams to the Mekong marshlands but that was only one of his jobs. His unit was given many different tasks including combat assaults and incursions into Cambodia.
When Tom Morrissey arrived at the 117th AHC the unit had a terrific commander who was well liked and respected. He eventually moved on and his replacement was the exact opposite. He was self-promoting and sowed division in the company.
Tom Morrissey was never shot down but on one mission his Huey lost hydraulics and had to make a forced landing. Fortunately, it was in the soft mud of a rice paddy and, fortunately as well, he was transporting a SEAL team so he had plenty of security. A repair crew came and fixed his ship right on the spot.
The helicopter outfit was a Special Missions Unit which meant they did anything that Army command needed. Huey pilot Tom Morrissey would often join large combat assaults which impressed him with their intricate staging. If only they had built the aircraft with a cigarette lighter.
Not to be outdone by their contemporaries back in the States, those serving in Vietnam had their share of sex, drugs and rock and roll while there. Tom Morrissey saw it happening but it was the rock and roll part that was his thing and it would always be playing in his Huey.
Tom Morrissey was flying the light ship, illuminating the area where there was a Medevac in progress. Once the wounded were safely away, he went searching for the VC that might have been in the firefight. There was one guy walking through a rice paddy.
When Tom Morrissey left for Vietnam, a chance meeting with a friend who was also flying that day really lightened the mood as his single mom was seeing him off. That was nice. His return to the States was not nice at all.
Huey pilot Tom Morrissey didn't usually mention that he was a Vietnam veteran in the years following the war. He became a college professor and that was increasingly somewhere you didn't want it known. He believes the entire culture was knocked out of whack by the anti-war movement.
