Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Dan McMahon

Vietnam | 180th Assault Support Helicopter Company

Dan McMahon had heard stories from relatives about the service and he had no qualms about joining. He left for a tour in Vietnam with a helicopter maintenance unit and it was there that he caught someone's eye. (4:35)
Dan McMahon's first Vietnam tour was a walk in the park. He maintained helicopters and, except for the occasional rocket attack, he saw no combat. (1:53)
It was miserable at Fort Wolters with the heat and the mosquitos, but Dan McMahon was learning to fly and that made it bearable. When he moved to the next phase at Hunter Field, the training got more serious and he realized he had to be a soldier, not just an aviator. (5:46)
For Dan McMahon, it was very difficult to leave a wife and young child and go off to Vietnam. On the other hand, he was young and stupid enough to believe it would be a big adventure. (1:39)
When he got to Bien Hoa, Dan McMahon found some of the nastiest living conditions that he'd yet seen in the Army. The Chinook pilot flew down in the Delta for a while but then he was reassigned to a unit supporting Korean troops. That was an eye opener. (4:56)
Chinook pilot Dan McMahon hated to hear it when there was a Tac-E, a tactical emergency. That meant he would probably be flying howitzers to a fire base in the middle of the night with ground fire coming up to meet him. When some aircraft had mysterious explosions, they looked for some maintenance issue, but what they discovered was a new enemy weapon. (5:07)
For Chinook pilot Dan McMahon, Vietnamization meant that he had to fly with co-pilots that he could not understand, which meant that all crew coordination was gone. This contributed to the chaos during a crash landing in which he managed to get the aircraft safely down. (4:49)
Like so many returning veterans, Dan McMahon put Vietnam behind him and returned to college. Once he figured out that he didn't really want to be a teacher, he returned to flying for a satisfying career. Just don't put Gimme Shelter on the juke box. (5:21)
Dan Myers

Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) | 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division

Dan Myers was anxious to get out of the house. College was not to his liking so he asked a couple of buddies about enlisting. They were interested and they all went to see the recruiter but he was the only one who followed through. (Caution: strong language) (5:41)
It was basic training and then Airborne school and then Ranger Indoctrination. Was it too much, too quick? Dan Myers didn't make it through the Ranger program after a little trouble with the PT test so no Ranger Battalion for him. It was off to the 82nd Airborne. (Caution: strong language) (4:40)