I finally found the right place to say what I wanted to say to you guys but never got the chance to while serving in nam.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN NAM!
and if you had a problem seeing those word because most of you are as old as me know.. here ya go, I’ll say it again.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN NAM!

Some of you pilots were either out of your mind nuts or under strict orders not to return until you have completed your mission, I have no clue which, but while I was in nam 69 thru 70 Co A 1st Bn 7th Marines 1st Marine Division I watched you guys come in to areas I was in and pick up our wounded and dead marines while we were still getting hit big time.

pouring rain.. visability almost ‘0’ or less than 50 feet / viet cong shootn at you from all over the place.. mortars going out toward the gooks from us and mortars coming in on top of us.. it just didn’t seem to matter to you.

You were there with one mission in mind and you were not leaving until you had completed your task… It didn’t seem to matter if enemy rounds were hittn your choppers from all directions. I have no idea why your choppers did not just blow up or fly out of control with the amount of hits you guys took but you some how managed to houver over head of us.. kick butt on the gooks / pick up our people and get the he#$ outa there without crashing?

man I’ll tell ya..
people talk about medal of honors.
Anybody who was part of the huey crews that flew rescue and support missions for ground forces in nam should have got medal of honors for sure.

Those of you where were there and are now reading this story can chuckle in your seat but also know you are one lucky son of a btchs to be home alive cuz it wasn’t funny nor pretty when you were over there, that’s for sure.

Heck, just approaching our areas you were sitting ducks up there in the air yet you still came in to help us?

Not sure if you guys ever saw it in our eyes as you were there saving our butts because we never got to talk to you ‘directly’ and ANY of those moments but you guys were ‘our’ ‘Gods’ over there.

Nothing in the entire world made us more relaxed during a fire fight then when we saw a couple 3 hueys popping up over a hill to help us out in a fire fight.

Especially if we were taking hit bad.

I mean we use to say to each other that I swear these guys are flying underground or something because you’d pop up out of ‘no’ where sometimes blastn away right over our heads, just kickn butt like a mother for us.

I’m not going to bore you to death here with my appreciation post but myself and a ton of other guys from 1/7 owe our lives to you guys time and time again.

I never stayed close to our radio guy on the ground because ‘that’ was not a good place to hang out during a fire fight so I never knew if you guys were called in to assist us or not so when you popped up over a hill firing away at the gooks it was like a frikn movie to all us on the ground.

You never heard the cheers or crys out of ‘thank God!’ man the hueys are here, but I assure everyone of you who frequent this board and were there supporting the ground troops in nam that if we on the ground had the opportunity to talk to you in the choppers at the time you came out of ‘nowhere’ to bale us out of a crunch I’m telling ya you would have heard non stop thanks from everyone of us.

so please dont take this post as just another thank you from a line co. marine ok..

I say this with sincerity to all who supported us during combat.
You guys are the bravest people “I never got to know”
I am so happy to have found this forum here knowing that those of you here were ‘those’ guys over there.

Thank you so much from my house to yours..again and again!

and if any of you from my time in nam / 69 thru 70 who operated in or around the area of FSB Ross during Jan 6th 7th attack on Ross are ever up in my neck of the woods / Warwick, Rhode Island / please look me up so I can get ya a cup of coffee and have the honor of shaking your hand.

Do you know that while I am not a centimental type person, as I write these words to you I have to hold back my emotions thinking of how many of my friends you guys saved over there during and after the firefights were over.

One of you guys actually flew me to Da Nang hospital after the Jan 6th 7th FSB Ross attack and when I was gettn out of the chopper I tried so hard to get the attention of the guys on board to say thank you but there was never any time for that sort a shi$. As we all knew, it was all business over there no matter what mission you were on at the moment and I understood that so nothing more than a quick wave of ‘thanks’ was all we could do then ‘off you went’ on yet another honorable mission kickn butt or pickn up more downed marines.

So I say this from my heart.
God bless you guys!
Every one of you for what you do
Without your presence in nam
myself and many others would not be here today!

Pat Bonanno
Warwick, Rhode Island