Danne Smith, 50th Civil Engineer Squadron programmer, talks about his service as a pilot in Vietnam.
SCRIPT:
My name is Danne Smith. I was in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971 give or take a couple of months and served in Vietnam from 70-71, yeah, a year, July to July.
I wanted to fly. The Air Force wouldn’t take me. The Navy wouldn’t take me unless I had a college degree. The Army took me and let me fly helicopters.
I flew both cargo aircraft and then gunships. When I flew the cargo type stuff that meant taking troops from point A to point B. I flew quite extensively with special forces. Charlie 75th is the outfit I worked with. We would fly all over Vietnam as well as Cambodia and Laos.
I got shot down six times. I held the record for our company. But you’re trained. You react and you land. The guys come down and pick you up real quick. Unless you’re unlucky, then you’re on the ground for a couple of days.
I loved the flying. I wanted to fly when I got back from Vietnam but that didn’t happen.
I’ve been married probably over 40 years. I got 4 kids, 7 grandkids.
I work for CE. Anything that gets built on base, recently, I’ve probably had my hand in it.
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.29.2017 17:08 |
| Category: | Package |
| Video ID: | 516390 |
| VIRIN: | 170310-F-MA881-001 |
| Filename: | DOD_104222292 |
| Length: | 00:01:17 |
| Location: | SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, COLORADO, US |
| Downloads: | 0 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 0 |
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