Reply #168: In Vietnam I was a pathfinder and was often the guy on the ground working between the

[bertman]

infantry units and the chopper pilots who transported the troops to and from the LZ's (landing zones) and who provided air support whenever the infantry needed firepower in a firefight.

Because I was an officer and was assigned to the aviation unit but went on operations with the infantry units, I lived and hung out with the pilots who flew the helicopters. They were my friends and my 'co-workers'--to use a civilian term to describe our relationship. These officers and warrant officers, were some of the most amazingly skillful and courageous people I have ever known in my life. They flew 'slicks', Huey gunships, Cobra gunships, and Chinooks. They flew day and night and under some of the most intimidating and deadly conditions imaginable.

I cannot muster the words to adequately explain how much confidence we had in those men and how much their skill and courage and acts under deadly circumstances meant to me and to the others whose lives they saved every day.

Many of those pilots were potheads. They smoked pot while flying their aircraft and while hanging out waiting to go on a mission and while just relaxing at base camp. I've seen them making gun runs in Cobras with rockets and miniguns AT NIGHT within 100 feet of our positions and they were absolutely deadly accurate with their fire. Several days later, when we talked about that night, they were laughing and telling me how they had just been flying and toking on a bowl right before they got the call to help the grunts. They were stoned out of their gourds and were flying high performance aircraft at night. This happened over and over and over again.

That situation existed among many of the pilots who flew in Vietnam.

Those guys would not even THINK of drinking before they flew, but they smoked dope all the frickin' time.

Just sayin'