the stuff you aren't taught in school, about the brave people that do extraordinary things that aren't typical heroic actions... have you ever heard of the chopper crew that stopped the the Mỹ Lai massacre? Courage of conscience is rare

During the 1968 massacre, Thompson and his chopper crew, Andreotta and Colburn, stopped many killings by landing his helicopter between soldiers and civilians, threatening and blocking Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division.

Thompson and his crew saved a number of Vietnamese civilians by personally escorting them away from advancing United States Army ground units and assuring their evacuation by air. 

Thompson reported the atrocities by radio several times, although these reports reached HQ, nothing was done to stop the massacre.

In 1970, Thompson testified against those responsible for the Mỹ Lai massacre. Twenty-six officers and enlisted soldiers, including William Calley and Ernest Medina, were charged with criminal offenses; many were either acquitted or pardoned, notably excepting Calley, who was convicted and served a commuted sentence of three-and-a-half years under house arrest.

Thompson was condemned and ostracized by many individuals in the United States military and government, as well as the public, for his role in the investigations and trials concerning the Mỹ Lai massacre.

In 1998, 30 years after the massacre, Thompson, Andreotta, and Colburn, were awarded the Soldier's Medal, the Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.

https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1998001361640636707

Huey gunship door gunner George sent me this video, and says it " is very close to what happened on a daily basis."

I can't recall if I ever posted this before, a Jeep used for fueling prop planes, probably in Nam

 

https://in.pinterest.com/pin/840343611744709272/

https://www.ewillys.com/2016/12/13/standard-oil-modified-cj-2a-for-aviation-refills/

the CIA has the distinguished history of being the only ones to use a helicopter with a side door gunner shooting an AK 47, to shoot down a biplane, and it's the only air to air victory for the CIA. Thank you George!

May 1969, with the 134th AHC’s “Devils” gunship platoon from 67-70, "Birth Control" had its sinister message extended with the word “Pills” written on top of the 40mm grenade turret – the letter “P” is just visible on the cropped turret to the right. Thank you George!

The Bloodseeeker, nose art by crewman John Inferrere. Thank you George!

Phil Toledano's new work collecting and photographing US navy fighter pilot helmets.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/95679693/US-Navy-Fighter-Pilot-Series?tracking_source=project_owner_other_projects

https://www.mrjakeparker.com/blog/2022/2/14/vietnam-era-fighter-pilot-helmets

in July 2026, as part of a nationwide effort to curb air pollution, Vietnam is banning fossil-fuel motorcycles and mopeds in the capital, Hanoi. Why? 7 million motorcycles that poor people use, and 1 million cars rich people use... so, rich people win this round too

The phase one directive issued by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh applies to the area inside and along the main ring road that encircles the center of Hanoi. The local government has been tasked with phasing out the two-wheelers by the deadline.

Like the rest of Vietnam, motorcycles are the main mode of transport for most of Hanoi’s 8 million residents. The city has nearly 7 million motorcycles and just over a million cars. But as incomes rise and more people switch to private vehicles, air pollution from traffic has become a growing concern. Hanoi is often enveloped in thick smog, ranking among the most polluted cities worldwide.

The ban will hit the working class hardest - motorcycle taxis in Hanoi, delivery drivers, commuters and ride-hailing services, all the people who rely on motorbikes to earn a living

A second phase, set to begin in January 2028, will expand the ban to a wider area and include all fossil-fuel two-wheelers, while also restricting some gasoline-powered cars

https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-hanoi-motorcycles-pollution-29bf81ec6b7bad9e8a63bd636ea34d18

helicopter nose art in Nam

 

https://cherrieswriter.com/2015/06/23/helicopter-nose-art-during-the-vietnam-war/

40th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC) “Greyhounds*214th AVN BN, 12th AVN Group, 1st Aviation Brigade

The motto of the 240th AHC was “Go Greyhound and leave the flying to us,” a play on the bus company’s famous motto. 

The Greyhound Bus Company became aware of the 240th AHC’s use of their logo via the Commander of the Company, Major Glen Hoffman, who wrote to the company to gain their permission for the logo use in 1967. The Bus Company was honored and became an official sponsor of the 240th AHC, sending care packages to the troops fighting in Vietnam.

When Greyhound received the letter it marked the beginning of a decades-long friendship between the transportation provider and members of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company.

In response to the letter, Greyhound delivered running dog logo decals to the 240th AHC which they displayed prominently on their helicopters, vehicles, and company signs.

In September of 2021, Greyhound was able to create a special charter bus for surviving members as they took to the skies once again in a refurbished Greyhound Huey Helicopter at the Yankee Air Museum in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The 240th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC) operated with three specialized divisions:

 “Mad Dogs” (gunships), 

“Greyhounds” (transport) 

and “Kennel Keepers” (maintenance). 

The unit, which received official support from the Greyhound Bus Company, became known for its camaraderie, courage and creative spirit.

In 1968, the 240th were located at Bearcat, Binh Hoa Province, Vietnam. 

Bearcat was located near Saigon on Highway One. 

 Known as the “Greyhounds, Mad Dogs, and Kennel Keepers,” the 240th operated UH1C gunships, armed with mini-guns and rockets in the gun platoon, call sign “Mad Dog” and a transport or slick platoon flying UH1H slicks, call sign “Greyhound.” 

The maintenance platoon was known as the “Kennel Keepers.”

https://sogsite.com/240th-assault-helicopter

https://museum.vhpa.org/companies/240ahc/240ahc.shtml

https://miflightmuseum.org/aircraft-collection/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzZt0jkABOU/

https://www.khits.com/story/618f06b6583df176635d45ac/greyhound-honors-group-of-oklahoma-vietnam-veterans

https://www.ljmilitaria.com/armypatches/army_avn_two_hundred_forty_and_up.htm

total respect! Hoa Mechanical, Vietnam

https://www.youtube.com/@Hoa-Mechanical

Vietnam

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1jezsv7/netflix_continues_to_expand_turning_point/

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/596529c5f29d8a046319da46/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/good-evening-vietnam-0817.jpg

https://www.goerie.com/gcdn/authoring/2015/03/08/NETN/ghows-PA-aa979a52-82f1-4406-b528-242b7e643818-7ffb591b.jpeg

ideas for stories can pop up unexpectedly in the strangest ways... here's one: Vietnam was a large supplier of rubber to tire companies, and there were battles in the Vietnam War at them, and the Michelin plantation had a 62 Corvette! (Thanks George!)

A trooper of the U.S. 1st Cavalry charges between rubber trees during an assault on a Viet Cong bunker complex inside the Michelin rubber plantation, five miles east of Dau Thieng, 1969

Ford created his own rubber producing city in the Brazilian rainforest. Fordlandia was a massive development, but the unexpected result of planting trees in neat rows was that rubber trees in are susceptible to a devastating plague, and the plantation arrangement resulted in entire crops being ravaged by known as South American Leaf Blight.

Fordlandia's setup also left workers even more susceptible to malaria. The financial cost left corporations unable to compete with Southeast Asian plantations where the blight was not found, and the example of systematic planting was implemented in Asian countries. By the turn of the 21st century, Asia was supplying more than 90% of the world’s rubber, with Vietnam serving as an important player.

France realized their Indochina colony was a moneymaking location, and Michelin - obviously French, was all in for the source of cheap rubber. 

 the Michelin company established their plantation in 1925 the 50 square mile (31,000 acres) plantation was the largest in Vietnam. 

For their part, the French corporations were accused of excessive tapping and unsustainable practices so as to exact as much short-term profit as possible in light of the uncertain political future. These French operators were often caught between adversaries and played one off another as it suited their interests. They paid bribes and ransoms to insurgent forces while requesting help and providing support to the southern government. With some exceptions, their preference for profits demanded they take a bet-hedging and pragmatic approach to politics, hoping to remain in good enough standing with whomever ultimately prevailed in the wars.

Due to it's location between the Cambodia border and Saigon it was an important base and staging area for revolutionary Vietnamese forces. It was also an important source of revenue for the South Vietnamese Government and it's rumored that the Michelin Company paid off the Vietcong in order to keep the plantation operating during the war. Plus US forces were obliged to compensate Michelin $600 for each rubber tree damaged during military operations... and it was decimated due to the opposing forces having battles, and then the USA used agent orange on the trees.... 

A 1964 CIA memorandum notes that Vietnam produced the fifth-most rubber in the world at the time, accounting for 57% of the nation’s foreign earnings.

In 1967, Thuan Loi, isolated, was abandoned. Dautieng, in 1969, a working plantation of 40 years of efforts was reduced to nothing because of widening of roads to allow tanks to pass, then the Agent Orange ... nothing was spared from the bombings: village, churches, bungalows, schools. 1969 saw complete defoliation of Thuan Loi.

The U.S. Army, in the personage of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, was given the mission of securing the rubber plantation. It was a particularly fraught job since, among other strictures, no artillery could be fired into the rubber plantations. The preferred way of using American troops to fight the Cong and the NVA was to have our platoons conduct search patrols, and then when they found some enemy, pull back and call in artillery.

American artillery wasn’t all that accurate, but there was a lot of it. During a barrage, hundreds of shells could fall from the sky, bracketing an enemy position, wrecking everything. But not in the rubber plantations; they were off limits to American batteries.

It was a govt rule to avoid firing into the plantations. Once the enemy had figured this out, the local North Vietnamese commander decided to set up shop in the rubber plantation, digging in headquarters, hospitals and barracks. 

That the policy also cost lives, American lives, seemed to be a secondary concern. That fighting nearly hand-to-hand when there was a job the artillery could do much faster and safer, was plainly stupid. And providing enemy a safe place to hide, to make sure the Michelin Tire Company didn’t suffer any losses, typifies govt intelligence and exemplifies cowardly politicians exempt from the draft, and with none of their sons in the war, running the war from Washington DC... 

https://saigoneer.com/saigon-culture/17206-the-harrowing-history-of-vietnam-s-rubber-plantations

https://www.facebook.com/vinaheritage/posts/the-former-michelin-rubber-plantation-astride-camp-rainer-established-by-the-mic/1706296972845154/

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/michelin-rubber-plantation

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/vietnam-war/operation-wandering-soul.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Rubber_Plantation

http://belleindochine.free.fr/PlantationMichelin.htm

https://militaryhistorynow.com/2021/07/05/dont-shoot-the-rubber-trees-vet-recalls-absurd-rules-of-engagement-gis-faced-in-vietnam-war/#google_vignette

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469637150/rubber-and-the-making-of-vietnam/

https://www.pbase.com/image/115508041

California Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1988 print has a shoebox Ford in the LZ ... that made me curious why... D. Co 1/502 INF Div101st ABN DIV

https://www.savacoolandsons.com/item-62386.html?title=Michael+%22Machine+Gun%22+Kelley+(1946-2011%2c+American)+Hand+Signed+California+Vietnam+Veterans+Memorial+1988+Print+Titled+%22Extraction+From+A+Hot+LZ%2c+Leaving+Behind+A+Classic+Ford+And+Our+Innocence%22+Signed+Lower+Right+19+X+12+Framed+25+X+17

https://portal.museumca.org/catalog/17dd0a4f-ab80-4aa3-b573-164a5a57c73b

During the Vietnam War, the United States military lost almost 10,000 aircraft and helicopters. (thank you George!)

In total, the United States military lost in Vietnam almost 10,350 aircraft, helicopters and UAVs (3,744 planes, 5,607 helicopters and about 1,000 UAVs.).

U.S. Air Force
The U.S. Air Force lost 2,251 aircraft, with 1,737 lost to hostile action and 514 lost in accidents. The U.S. Air Force's loss rate was about 0.4 losses per 1,000 sorties.

F-4 Phantoms
More F-4 Phantoms were lost than any other type of aircraft during the war.

A-6 Intruders
Of the 84 A-6 Intruders lost during the war, 56 were lost to conventional ground fire and AAA, 16 were lost to operational causes, 10 were shot down by surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and two were shot down by MiGs.

F-111A
Between October 1972 and March 1973, F-111A crews flew over 4,000 combat sorties and lost only six aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of_the_Vietnam_War#:~:text=War%20Remnants%20Museum-,United%20States%20Air%20Force,figure%20during%20World%20War%20II.

the famous classic car chassis designer Art Morrison, was Army infantry in Vietnam! His tour ended in January 1968, less than a week before the Tet Offensive

After his time in the Army, he was approached by a friend, who was recruiting him for his welding skills, and asked him to help restore a Corvette. When the car had a record performance, Morrison started working on other fabrication projects starting in a one car garage in 1971.

https://www.portoftacoma.com/news/port-tenant-became-car-restoration-icon-he-was-vietnam-war-soldier-who-inspired-port-leader

https://artmorrison.com/about-art-morrison/

Veterans of the United States Army’s Dustoff medical evacuation aircrews will receive a Congressional Gold Medal for their extraordinary heroism and life-saving actions during the Vietnam War.

3,000 aircrew members of this elite group flew medevac helicopters into the jungles of Vietnam to rescue and transport wounded United States military personnel from the battlefield to medical facilities.

These brave men had a one-in-three chance of being killed or wounded when flying rescue missions in Vietnam, and over the course of the war Dustoff saved 900,000 lives.

18 and 19 year old men flying unarmed helicopters into battle, at night, in the rain, and multiple times a day, to rescue our wounded and fly them back to medical facilities.

George (Huey gunship side door gunner) wrote this (following) in the comments, but I think it belongs here too... so, thank you again George! 

    "there were two groups I put above our own gunships. 

US Infantrymen and Dustoff crews. 

At the 25th Infantry base camp at Cu Chi and probably other big base camps we had a small building on the airfield that we and other units would rotate night standbys in the event the base came under attacks. 

We kept a pair of gunship there and would sleep there in our clothes. Had a hard line telephone to our operations building that was open 24-7. 

Ships had all necessary switches in the on position. If we got the call to help some unit or Dust Off we were cranking power within a minute. 

One pilot on the controls and one on the maps and making contact with the unit in need. Weather never kept us down. If it was a Dust Off mission we would be talking to them as we flew. Once there they and us would have most all aircraft lights off. The ground troops would talk that ship in then turn on a small pin light pointed straight up. As they started down they would not be able to see what the landing area looked like so they might turn on their big landing light to see if there were any tree trumps, craters etc. 

Usually the bad guys would open up on them and we would open up on them. 

Quite a fireworks show. 

Our biggest customer day or night was the 2/27th Wolfhounds of the 25th

Our ID and our money was no good in their NCO or Officers' club at Cu Chi.

I always like the night missions as it was really peaceful to and from the AO.

  https://www.huntonak.com/news/vietnam-war-veterans-to-receive-congressional-gold-medal

https://www.stripes.com/migration/dustoff-it-s-no-time-for-second-guessing-1.24902

https://www.moaa.org/micro/vietnam-unchronicled/vietnamdustoff/

 thank you George!