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Rick Hilton

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With hundreds of missions over two tours in Vietnam, fighter pilot Rick Hilton was awarded a nice collection of medals and commendations. It may have been even shinier except the new smart bomb technology he was deploying on his second tour caused some to think it was now too easy. (2:44)

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His missions were usually over North Vietnam but fighter pilot Rick Hilton was diverted to help a forward air controller on the ground in the South. He was not used to ground support tactics but the FAC was very good and he was on the money. (1:50)

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With two tours there under his belt, Rick Hilton watched the tragic fall of Saigon on television. His feeling is that this should never happen again, that the American military is sent into war with it's hands tied and not allowed to win it. (3:20)

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The second homecoming from Vietnam wasn't as bad as the first for Rick Hilton. The war was basically over and he settled into an Air Force career. Eventually retiring out of the Pentagon, he had another career waiting at Hughes Aircraft. (4:00)

Rick Marotte

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Rick Marotte wanted to serve but he didn't want to be a combatant, so he volunteered as a medical evacuation pilot, call sign Dust Off. He was assigned near the DMZ, the most dangerous province in Vietnam. (4:37)

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His first Dust Off mission was flying to a friendly fire base to evacuate wounded, but soon Rick Marotte was extracting desperate men from hostile territory. He recalls one difficult mission right on the DMZ where a squad was caught in a mine field. (4:18)

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As a medical evacuation pilot, Rick Marotte had relatively nice living conditions in Vietnam. He fondly recalls the hooch maids who cleaned his quarters and the barbecues on the beach during down time. He was as close as family with his fellow service men and women, and with the gregarious Australians. The Koreans, though, were too scary for socializing. (8:13)

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The Special Forces had their own helicopters in Vietnam but they had no hoists. When a unit was pinned down with wounded in an area that had no clear landing zone, medical evacuation pilot Rick Marotte, along with Cobra gunships, extracted the team. A less satisfying memory was the crash of another helicopter while refueling and its grisly aftermath. (4:19)

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A sense of humor could get you in a little trouble in Vietnam, says Rick Marotte who painted some questionable things on the helicopters. Back home, he managed to avoid the abuse suffered by some returning veterans and concentrated on graduate school and his family. After thirty years, the men from his unit began to find each other. (5:52)

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The GI Bill helped Rick Marotte get a home loan and finish his education. After his experience in Vietnam, he became more focused and his family and friends found him strangely calm, not easily riled. He treasures today's returning veterans and no longer runs into many people who still consider him a "baby killer." (3:44)