From Stewart, recalling memories from his tours in Vietnam (the video was sent to him by a fellow USMA classmate): "Images stir memories, now 40 years old, of U-ies (UH-1s) and Loches (LOHs). Never had the stick, just flew in em. Logged 200 passenger hours, during 18 months in RVN. First as an "LT" flying first light VRs (Visual Recons) to check for nighttime VC sabotage of QL-1 (main supply route), then as an "Old Man" (at 22) commanding a company of combat engineers. Roads, bunkers, fire bases. Isolated FBs (now called FOBs) required the Flying Crane, to bring in our Case 450 "toy dozers" or the bigger ones, D4s, that came in two sorties. Required assembly on-site.
Only one airmobile insertion, to support a road-opening operation. Cold LZ; happy campers we were. Fired at on two other occasions, but not disappointed with no PH. Easy to tell the experienced pilots, who got up/down/in/out quickly from the "Wobbly-Ones" (WO1) who'd just come over from Rucker. Eager but still a bit cautious. (Have fond memories of the "pogie-bait" they slipped us during air ops in Ranger School. Still think of those student pilot Wobblies every time I eat a Peter-Paul Mounds.)
The other memory stirred is of an Infantryman who died too soon. My last roommate at WP. Jim Smith. Prior enlisted. Sport parachutist. A cadet, but a father of two. G-4 company commander. Fair, firm, charismatic. Name is now on that Wall. Some mishap in a routine chopper landing in Da Nang, four decades and four weeks ago: 15Feb71. Like others we remember, and memorialize at Lusk Reservoir, they all died too soon. But we're grateful for the ones saved or sustained by the choppers, the men who flew them and the ones "in the doorway."
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