Byron Bode, Vietnam Veteran and his Connection to the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Transcript

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Connecting the dots, connecting his guests to the world, creating more connections.

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Welcome to the Connection.

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Meet your host.

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Author, coach, air Force veteran Jay Morales.

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This episode introduces us to Byron Bodie, vietnam.

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Veteran helicopter pilot who served our nation from 1967 to 1970.

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He flew over 1,025 combat hours with courage and grit.

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Some of his distinguished awards include Army Commendation Medal awarded for valor, silver Star, bronze Star Medal, distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, one awarded for valor.

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Please honor our veterans by sharing this episode and their stories.

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Byron, this is the first day that we've truly met.

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I've heard so much about you, john Bodie, your nephew, is that correct, correct?

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And I always heard about this guy, byron, you know, probably four or five years ago, and John said oh, you know my uncle, he is a, he's a Vietnam veteran, and I little bits and pieces.

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And then all of a sudden this Vietnam, nebraska, vietnam veterans memorial started popping up.

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You know, people were working on it and that's when your name really emerged.

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So, byron, if you'll introduce yourself and kind of what your connection is here to this Huey behind me, and we'll just frame the story from there.

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My name is Byron Bodie and I'm just thrilled to be involved with the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial because this helicopter behind me is one that I actually flew when I was in Vietnam, and it's quite interesting the way that this whole memorial happened.

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I think it's all by circumstance or it was supposed to be a very unusual set of circumstances.

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The idea for this memorial came up oh what, in 2017, I believe it was Sure, yeah, and they decided they wanted a helicopter but couldn't find him, and apparently they found some connection to somebody in Bennington, vermont, who had the helicopter but couldn't raise the funds to do what they wanted to do, so it was donated to Omaha and the tail number of the helicopter was recognized by another pilot who lives in Florida.

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Yeah, and he got a hold of the crew chief in California who was the original crew chief to this aircraft.

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Wow, and a little back story At our unit in Vietnam, we were rocketed and four of our aircraft were destroyed all at once, and so we got four brand-new helicopters and this was one of the brand new helicopters that we received and the crew chief the original crew chief on this aircraft wound up having this aircraft assigned to him on his 21st birthday, so he thought that this was his birthday present.

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And what's really great for this memorial is that this gentleman his name was Craig Fouts was trained by his father in his father's business when he and his brother worked for his dad to keep a daily journal, and so while he was in Vietnam with this helicopter, he kept a daily journal of the events of happening of this helicopter while he was on it, and that's why it's so significant to this memorial.

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And originally, apparently, they had this designed or thought to be a Red Cross or Medevac helicopter.

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The dioramas that they had set up helicopter.

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The dioramas that they had set up yes, and when Craig contacted me about it, I saw the diorama and I just thought you know, we've got to do something.

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So I wrote a letter to the foundation here and I said if you're going to restore the helicopter, it should be restored to its original first flying condition.

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Yes, and that was with the nose art of the Snoopy.

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Yes, and the nose yes, because our platoon was known as the Snoopy Platoon due to our Snoopy scouts.

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Yes, and then when they found out that the journal existed and all of the history, it was an automatic for them.

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Yes, that's great.

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Because their goal to have an educational center here going forward, it was just automatic.

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You know.

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First of all, byron, I mean to even talk about this.

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Can you bring us back to?

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Let's talk about how old were you when you joined the military?

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old were you when you joined the military?

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I was 21 when I joined the military, in 67, and I had a low draft number and college wasn't going as well as it probably should have.

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Okay, and so I knew I was probably going to get drafted and they had this program that if you enlisted you could have a guaranteed school.

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And I've always loved aviation, so I enlisted with a guarantee to get to flight school and learn how to fly helicopters, and the training for it was we first started in Fort Walters, Texas, at the primary helicopter school and basically learned how to fly small helicopters and trainers and go through some basic training.

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And then we went to Fort Rucker, Alabama, where we were introduced to the Huey helicopter and learned how to fly this.

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Yes, and our continued training, but the training was a total of almost a year and then, of course, we knew at that time we were almost automatically going to Vietnam.

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In the flight school our motto was and the patch actually said on the arm, patch above the best, Above the best.

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We were trained to be above the best.

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The best are on the ground and our job was to do whatever it took to support the ground troops, and that's why I think the Huey is recognized so much and the sound of the Huey.

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The Huey is recognized so much, and the sound of the Huey, which is kind of neat that they put this in there as well.

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Can you hear that?

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Listen to that.

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As I said earlier, just hearing that sound makes my.

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You know?

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Where does that?

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What does this do for you, byron?

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It just, you know it.

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Just it brings back memories, both good and bad.

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Yeah, you know, people ask me about Vietnam.

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They say, well, what was Vietnam?

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Or what do you think I said it was a good bad memory?

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Yeah, would you do it again?

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Yes, I would a good bad memory.

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Yeah, would you do it again?

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Yes, I would, uh and yes, I.

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There were a lot of bad times, but there were a lot of good times.

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I learned a lot about myself.

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Yeah and uh, it was a gross situation, but there were some difficulties with it as well.

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So what?

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what are some of the things you think that you took lifelong lessons from?

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Maybe, maybe from, maybe the heat of some of your missions?

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That's a difficult question.

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I really don't know how to answer it, and that's okay.

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Maybe we'll come back to that or not.

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You know when people think and they see you and now they're recognized Vietnam veterans.

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Right, it took so many years.

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Do you feel like you?

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Do you feel recognized now more than you ever have, at least 20, 30, 40 years?

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Oh, absolutely.

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I think you know the country's evolved.

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I think you know the country's evolved At the time that Vietnam was going on, the whole country was in a state of cultural revolution.

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There were so many different things going on and you know it was protests.

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Ban the bra you know, burn the flag.

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Yes, sex, drugs, rock and roll.

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You know everything was going on.

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So you know, and sometimes, when I got back from Vietnam, of course you didn't even want to acknowledge that you were a Vietnam veteran because of what was going on and people were against the war.

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Yeah, most of the veterans were labeled I should say not most.

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We had a label put on us that we were all alcoholic drug addicts, yeah, yeah, and so it was tough to get a job and you just didn't even really mention it and keeping all of that bottled up inside of one, I think that had a big effect on a lot of people, that they didn't want to talk about it and really the healing is getting out and talking about it.

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And I found that out after I got involved with the VA and talking about different situations, both good and bad, and opening up and you know it helps that's so important, byron, that's so important and you know you never know which way these interviews are going to go.

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But I want to stay right here with mental health right and the things that every soldier goes through, but soldiers like yourself who went through a hard time and then came back and the world turned their back on you and then, like you said, you didn't want to talk about it because either you were labeled a certain way or you were shunned.

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It was hard to get a job.

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Let's talk about that.

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Byron, how old were you when you got out?

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and how old were you when you got out?

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Well, when I went to Vietnam, I was 22.

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And, of course, I served a year in Vietnam and then after that we had a commitment and I came back and was a flight instructor in Fort Walters, texas.

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So I taught a lot of Vietnamese students how to fly and I got out of the service in December of 70.

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Okay, so I was like 24 years old when I got out of the service.

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Wow.

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Okay, so now you're out, you take the uniform off.

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Thank you, byron, for your service.

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What are those days like?

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Or what are those months like after that?

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Where did you know what you wanted to do?

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Or did you try to go back to work right away?

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What, what was that like?

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you know, total confusion, I guess, right, uh, what do I do now exactly?

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You know, you know you've got to try to get a job.

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Well, you go out and try to get a job and a lot of people they just, oh, you're a v vet, you know, and just kind of no.

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And it was kind of neat that the company I started working for, probably, oh, six months after I got out, I found this company that had a government-subsidized training program, oh, yeah, management training program.

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Yeah, didn't pay a lot, but at least it got a job and got me started in the finance industry, yes, and you know, in consumer lending.

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And then my career just kind of grew with that, yeah, and so it was beneficial at that point.

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Byron, I can't imagine like you said.

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I mean here you are in charge of lives and the safety and the protection of thousands flying a piece of equipment like this, right entrusted by the government to operate at a high level.

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And it was hard to get a job.

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Yeah, that's crazy to me.

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It is no-transcript my life.

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Who wouldn't want to hire someone like that?

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Yeah.

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It's it's it's hard.

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I know, I know it is difficult, but you know, I think unless you've been there people don't understand it.

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Just, it changes you and I think everyone knows that yeah.

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So, yeah, talk about mental health.

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So you were, were you just completely, almost silent about it, byron?

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Because even even john bode tells me hey, um, you know I don't talk to uncle byron too much about it, but you know, I mean we're proud of him, you know.

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And but how are you, when it comes to talking about your time in vietnam now, versus I don't have a problem about?

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it now.

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Yeah, before it was just kind of like a non-subject.

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Yeah, you know, god Reed, and people really weren't interested Really, you know they really weren't interested in you as a person, about what you did, what things went on or anything like that.

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Anyway, that was my experience.

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Maybe others had a different experience and I'm sure that you know the people who served in Vietnam that maybe stayed in the military, they had a chance to decompress because they had, you know, camaraderie with like-minded, and I think that's the difference of the lesson that was learned about Vietnam by the government, by the military.

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You know, in World War I, world War II, the Korean, War everyone was sent over as a unit.

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Yes, so they had camaraderie, they built the team spirit, they went over together, they did their mission, they came back together so they had a chance to decompress.

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Talk about it Vietnam when you were done with whatever training you did, you were processed through central processing on the West Coast.

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You were sent to Vietnam and you entered, entered country.

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You went through processing and individually, one guy went north, one guy went south, one guy went east you were all split up and then you entered your unit and you didn't have a chance.

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Your unit, because it was a constant rotation.

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You know one guy may be there a week before he, because it was a constant rotation.

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Yeah, you know, one guy may be there a week before he goes home, another one just got there, another one might be there two or three weeks.

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So you form friendships, but not solid.

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Well, you had solid bonds, but not a permanent bond like some of the other ones had.

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You know previously, train together, get stationed together, deploy together as a pack or a group or a troop or a squad, right, and you're right, it was probably chaos at just the churning of people coming in and out of Vietnam, like you said.

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I mean that's such a good perspective.

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No one, as long as I've been in the military, as long as I've studied, I've never heard that perspective before Byron.

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Well, and you see, now they don't do that.

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I mean Desert Storm, afghanistan.

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They're all going over his unit, coming back his unit and celebrating together.

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So somebody higher up recognized what I just said and so it's changed.

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I don't think they'll ever do that again and I think that's another reason that I you know, probably a lack of recognition or a lack of concern.

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Nobody really talked about it.

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You know talking about it.

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If people engage people like you, byron, or yourself specifically, and they ask you questions, I mean, what do you want most people to know now?

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What do you want them to know now?

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If you could just say hey, I want this to resonate with you.

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This is what I want you to think about when you think about Vietnam veterans specifically.

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What do you want them to know?

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That's a hard question, yeah.

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Well, just think we're no different than any other person who went to war, who had a conflict and came home and recovered.

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And I think that's what's neat about this particular memorial that the state of Nebraska put, or the veterans here, the Vietnam Veterans of America chapter here in Omaha put together.

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It's honoring all veterans.

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It's not just Vietnam veterans, we're just an era.

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That's what's so neat about this.

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People that haven't visited this memorial just don't get a chance to visit it.

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It's spectacular, it's vast, would you say.

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This is part of your healing process too.

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Yes, absolutely, and you know it was one part of it is.

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You know, the crew members of this helicopter another pilot, our company commander, a door gunner, the crew chief.

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You know we had a chance to reunite, yeah, and that wouldn't have been possible without this memorial and that was healing in itself, just to sit down and talk about some things.

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You know, in our off time at the hotel, just general BS Right hanging out with the troops, yeah, and lying and telling war stories amongst ourselves.

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So you know, when you travel in the airports, do you ever connect with other veterans?

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You know, sometimes you may have the hat on, they may have a shirt on.

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I mean, do you ever like?

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Is there a silent connection?

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Yeah, every once in a while I think you see, well, like a hat?

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Yeah, I don't normally wear hats.

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Yeah, I'm glad you did today though.

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Every once in a while you do, you see it.

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You just say welcome home, brother, and you get that back.

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If you're recognized, if you got something on.

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That is there.

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The Vietnam veterans recognize each other, I think, quite readily, and a lot of people now, I think, due to well, just general publicity, if they hear that you are a Vietnam veteran, a lot of people just say thank you for your service.

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Absolutely.

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And that's what's so cool.

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I mean, without even knowing it, they just hear that you are a veteran, yes, and not necessarily just a Vietnam veteran.

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I think it's just kind of the American public, I think, is more attuned to dishonoring.

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Yes, if they're patriotic.

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Yes, of course there's some in our country that don't care Right, and you know I mean that's a whole other podcast in itself.

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And here's how I feel.

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I'm patriotic and I know the people that surround us are.

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Patriotism to me is the honor and respect of all those, the shoulders who I've stood on right.

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Patriotic is a love for your country.

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I mean this country opened its arms for my parents when they came here.

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But when I first joined the military Byron, I didn't join because I was patriotic.

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I joined to get away from California.

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After 10 years I learned pressure, sacrifice, things of that nature.

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It wasn't until probably 10, 15 years after.

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I'm 29 years out of the service now.

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I probably feel more strongly about it now than I did when I was in.

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I think that's a good perspective.

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I think that I probably do too.

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Yeah, because I think now we're seeing a lot of people who want to.

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Well, I look back.

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You know what made this country great.

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You know it's the immigration, it's the blending of cultures, it's everyone becoming an american.

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Yes, and you know, you had the irish blending with the.

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You know with, yeah, with everybody, you know and you know, we had times and now it seems like everything wants to be separate.

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You know, everyone wants to maintain their own culture.

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They want to fly their own flag and you know, or I'm this American, I'm that American.

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You know the label.

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Yeah, yeah, we should be just Americans.

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We're Americans.

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We're just Americans.

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I mean, we are, that's you know.

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When I see, and I wish that, you know the divisiveness that I see today.

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I wish that could go away and we could just be all Americans.

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I mean you fought to keep us all united, right and strong and together the protests, or the this rally or that protest, you know.

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One is yes, we did fight for that freedom of speech.

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But number two is just because you have freedom of speech doesn't mean that you can be an idiot.

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Yeah, right, you know what I mean.

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And well, you can be an idiot.

00:22:49.416 --> 00:22:54.160
Just be ready for the repercussions.

00:22:54.160 --> 00:23:00.699
Very well, put Byron when you stepped foot here at this memorial.

00:23:00.699 --> 00:23:03.684
Okay, we're switching subjects here.

00:23:03.684 --> 00:23:08.279
What day was it when you first stepped on this memorial?

00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:09.835
Was it just a few days ago, the 5th of June?

00:23:09.855 --> 00:23:10.256
5th of June okay.

00:23:10.276 --> 00:23:11.721
So you stepped on the memorial.

00:23:11.721 --> 00:23:13.809
Was it just a few days ago, the 5th of June?

00:23:13.809 --> 00:23:15.099
5th of June, okay.

00:23:15.099 --> 00:23:18.450
So you stepped on the 5th of June, the day before the formal dedication.

00:23:18.450 --> 00:23:23.980
Yes, so you entered.

00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:25.083
Bring us back to that moment.

00:23:27.271 --> 00:23:32.618
It's overwhelming, I guess it just—to see it in its glory.

00:23:32.618 --> 00:23:38.046
You, just, you can't imagine the dedication that everyone put into it.

00:23:38.046 --> 00:23:48.804
It brought tears to my eyes and just the thought, the dedication, and to feel that I'm part of being honored in this memorial.

00:23:48.804 --> 00:23:51.978
Yeah, as all veterans can feel that way.

00:23:51.978 --> 00:24:02.480
Yes, you know, and you go around and, like I mentioned earlier, this memorial has a special dedication to the crew of the Frank Evans.

00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:08.580
Yes, yeah, which, you know, that's a unique story in history all by itself.

00:24:08.580 --> 00:24:11.660
That's, you know, sad that they aren't recognized.

00:24:11.660 --> 00:24:18.236
Well, here they are recognized the three Nebraska veterans that were killed in the Frank Evans.

00:24:18.236 --> 00:24:25.633
Their name was on the black wall in this memorial, but it's not on any.

00:24:25.633 --> 00:24:40.448
Their names are not on any other black wall in the country as well as their 71 crewmates who were killed in a tragic accident in 1969.

00:24:41.612 --> 00:24:43.499
And they don't classify it as killed in action.

00:24:44.053 --> 00:24:51.859
No, the government didn't classify them as killed in action for some stupid reason, and who knows?

00:24:51.859 --> 00:24:54.998
But, they're recognized here.

00:24:54.998 --> 00:24:58.517
Yeah, and that's another unique thing about this memorial.

00:24:58.517 --> 00:25:01.230
And you see the flags flying here.

00:25:01.230 --> 00:25:07.491
Yeah, one flag for every branch of the service, yes, and then the American flag centered, and then.

00:25:09.721 --> 00:25:10.346
Yeah, it's.

00:25:10.346 --> 00:25:11.771
I mean, this is breathtaking.

00:25:11.771 --> 00:25:16.462
This is again my first time here, you know, and sitting with you Byron.

00:25:16.462 --> 00:25:22.019
You know, when I talked to John, I said John, I know Byron's getting pulled out from different directions.

00:25:22.019 --> 00:25:25.920
Do you think I could podcast with?

00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:26.119
him.

00:25:26.490 --> 00:25:26.892
And he goes.

00:25:26.892 --> 00:25:27.714
Oh, he goes.

00:25:27.714 --> 00:25:28.878
Let me ask he goes.

00:25:28.878 --> 00:25:29.240
I don't know.

00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:35.281
You've been pretty busy since we've been here, right, I mean doing, but it's been fun, it's been fun.

00:25:35.281 --> 00:25:35.742
Yeah.

00:25:35.742 --> 00:25:41.136
Military men and women today.

00:25:41.136 --> 00:25:43.354
What's some advice you want to give them?

00:25:43.354 --> 00:25:47.296
I know these are good questions, Byron.

00:25:49.211 --> 00:25:51.355
These are all tough questions.

00:25:51.355 --> 00:25:56.365
Yes, be proud.

00:25:56.365 --> 00:26:02.695
Be proud of what you're doing and do it because you love it.

00:26:03.417 --> 00:26:03.698
Yeah.

00:26:04.760 --> 00:26:07.417
Yeah, and that's probably why they're in the military.

00:26:07.417 --> 00:26:15.693
To begin with, They've got a passion or a reason that they well, most of the time now everyone is enlisting in the military.

00:26:15.693 --> 00:26:19.842
So they did it for a reason.

00:26:19.842 --> 00:26:21.003
What's the reason?

00:26:21.003 --> 00:26:36.825
Well, maybe their ancestors were in it, Maybe their brother, maybe you know, who knows what the reasons are, but I think they have a reason to be proud Just to be in the military wearing a uniform representing the country.

00:26:38.893 --> 00:26:47.882
I think that's important and it transitions us to the next question, which is there's a brother or sister out there right now who's recluse.

00:26:47.882 --> 00:26:48.702
They're pulled back.

00:26:48.702 --> 00:26:49.219
Recluse.

00:26:49.219 --> 00:26:49.769
They're pulled back.

00:26:49.769 --> 00:27:00.778
They're not having the average experience that, or they're not having a good experience with life, and they know they should get help.

00:27:00.778 --> 00:27:02.576
Everyone knows they should get help.

00:27:02.576 --> 00:27:04.195
What do you want to tell that person?

00:27:05.451 --> 00:27:06.362
That's our veteran.

00:27:06.362 --> 00:27:08.877
Get involved with the VA.

00:27:08.877 --> 00:27:12.315
Yeah, there's help there if you seek it out.

00:27:12.315 --> 00:27:23.378
And you know there's still too many that don't talk about it, you know, and there's too many that are.

00:27:23.378 --> 00:27:26.776
Well, they take their own lives.

00:27:26.776 --> 00:27:30.355
Yes, because they don't talk about it, they didn't get the help.

00:27:30.355 --> 00:27:33.236
That's the sad part.

00:27:38.478 --> 00:27:42.325
It's important that people know that talking is everything.

00:27:42.325 --> 00:27:46.140
It doesn't mean you have to talk about every explicit detail.

00:27:46.140 --> 00:27:47.017
It just means open up.

00:27:47.017 --> 00:27:54.384
It just means that it's important that we know that we've been through some pressure cooker.

00:27:54.384 --> 00:27:57.920
Right, you've been through a pressure cooker, and that's not normal.

00:27:59.002 --> 00:28:08.615
But, um, and then what do you say to the people who are civilians, who said who've never served, but they want to and they want to talk to someone like byron, they want to.

00:28:08.615 --> 00:28:13.941
Hey, I want to talk to my dad, I want to talk to my uncle, I want to talk to my grandfather, but they just don't have the guts to do it becauseron, they want to.

00:28:13.941 --> 00:28:16.535
Hey, I want to talk to my dad, I want to talk to my uncle, I want to talk to my grandfather, but they just don't have the guts to do it because they don't want to make them mad.

00:28:16.535 --> 00:28:19.641
What would you say to those people?

00:28:19.641 --> 00:28:22.111
You never know unless you ask Right.

00:28:22.111 --> 00:28:32.237
So, byron, back in the day, when you know, maybe when you were you know, when you were going through challenges, would you have gotten mad at someone reaching out to tell you that they love you so?

00:28:32.317 --> 00:28:33.479
I don't know?

00:28:33.479 --> 00:28:35.201
No, I don't think so.

00:28:35.201 --> 00:28:40.695
Do you remember any conversations that were hard, like when people reached out to you?

00:28:40.695 --> 00:28:42.902
When did you have a hard challenge or not?

00:28:43.711 --> 00:28:50.333
maybe your experience was different I don't, I don't think, I don't think I was ever really asked a whole lot.

00:28:50.333 --> 00:28:52.058
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that too.

00:28:52.058 --> 00:28:58.163
I think people just kind of said oh you know, again, maybe the label came into effect.

00:28:58.890 --> 00:29:04.342
See, and that's important, byron, because people get labeled oh, that's your Uncle, byron.

00:29:04.342 --> 00:29:05.064
He was in Vietnam.

00:29:05.064 --> 00:29:11.002
Think of how many times that that was said, not even disrespectfully, just even like as a word of caution.

00:29:11.002 --> 00:29:16.936
But Byron's human Right, he's a human being, just like you said.

00:29:17.890 --> 00:29:31.238
Well, and so often I mean you look around all the labels that are out there, the different races, the different cultures, all of that you know, and that oh well, byron's just a human being at the end of the day.

00:29:31.258 --> 00:29:31.759
We all are.

00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:32.903
Yeah, we all are.

00:29:32.903 --> 00:29:52.540
Yeah, we all are, yeah, byron, maybe a couple more questions and we'll end this, but I always think about just our country in general and the patriotism and some of the things that we stand for.

00:29:52.540 --> 00:30:04.537
And then I think, 20 years from now, I think 40 years from now, with all these things that are happening, what are you most worried about when it comes to, or are you worried about, our future?

00:30:04.537 --> 00:30:08.795
And then, on the other side of that is, how can we make it better?

00:30:08.795 --> 00:30:12.996
So what are you most worried about now, 20, 40 years, when it comes to our sector?

00:30:13.884 --> 00:30:18.433
The divisiveness that we see in the political parties right now.

00:30:18.433 --> 00:30:25.957
Yes, it's upsetting, and we used to have a middle ground.

00:30:25.957 --> 00:30:38.509
Yeah, yes, we're all going to have different opinions on the right hand, on the left, but there was always a middle ground where commonality and sensibility can be reached.

00:30:38.509 --> 00:30:40.813
I'm not seeing that now.

00:30:40.813 --> 00:30:42.214
Everyone's worried about that.

00:30:42.214 --> 00:31:09.396
Yeah, now and you know they're saying different things and I guess I look at it that this country has been through some real difficult times and everyone says I feel sorry for the younger generation, I feel sorry for my grandkids, or whatever, and they say you know, I think about it, you know there's a lot of very smart young people out there and, in spite of all the difficulties, I'm optimistic.

00:31:09.396 --> 00:31:14.180
I believe they're going to figure it out.

00:31:14.180 --> 00:31:16.008
Yeah, they're going to figure it out.

00:31:16.008 --> 00:31:19.336
And get it back to the comic book.

00:31:19.396 --> 00:31:29.258
Yeah, I mean at least I hope so If we could keep putting stakes in the ground on unfounded foundation.

00:31:29.258 --> 00:31:29.988
It's just going to.

00:31:29.988 --> 00:31:32.451
It's just we're going to keep going on the slippery slope.

00:31:32.451 --> 00:31:38.714
But I appreciate that the next final probably part of this is I want to concentrate on this.

00:31:38.714 --> 00:31:46.493
Give me some memories, give me some of your first day with it, like hey, this is what you're going to be assigned to.

00:31:46.493 --> 00:31:47.276
What was that like?

00:31:47.276 --> 00:31:54.555
I guess exciting because you know, I mean you were 22.

00:31:54.915 --> 00:31:57.070
Yeah, yeah Well, I was actually an old man.

00:31:58.147 --> 00:32:00.865
Compared to the youngins who were 18, who were joining the service.

00:32:01.165 --> 00:32:05.336
And there were a lot of pilots who were 19, 20 years old.

00:32:05.336 --> 00:32:06.788
Yeah, 21 years old.

00:32:06.788 --> 00:32:09.531
Maybe you know I was at 22.

00:32:09.531 --> 00:32:13.421
I was a little older than most, A little more mature.

00:32:13.701 --> 00:32:14.305
Yes, for sure.

00:32:14.345 --> 00:32:18.585
But we had, you know, one guy in our unit was 35 or 36.

00:32:18.585 --> 00:32:22.215
But the majority were young guys.

00:32:22.215 --> 00:32:27.136
You know, we were just doing our job, just like everybody else.

00:32:27.136 --> 00:32:36.017
But the thing was we developed a oh I don't know a love of flying or want to fly, oh my gosh.

00:32:36.017 --> 00:32:37.199
It's an adventure.

00:32:37.199 --> 00:32:40.352
It's a new adventure, like boy, what's going to become of this?

00:32:40.352 --> 00:32:42.588
You know, and you know, yes, you're worried.

00:32:42.588 --> 00:32:45.656
You know what am I getting involved in.

00:32:45.717 --> 00:32:45.958
Yes.

00:32:46.365 --> 00:32:50.230
Or what's going to happen Of course, so you never know.

00:32:50.230 --> 00:32:57.851
But we had some good evening conversations, sometimes Got a little strange a little fun.

00:32:58.152 --> 00:33:00.653
Oh sure, some songs were sung.

00:33:00.653 --> 00:33:05.455
Oh yeah, matter of fact, the other pilot here.

00:33:05.455 --> 00:33:14.773
He gave us all a CD of different songs that were sung by the pilots in the evening and in between it says it breaks.

00:33:14.773 --> 00:33:17.730
And it says I think it's time for more beer before we sing.

00:33:17.730 --> 00:33:18.753
Wow.

00:33:18.753 --> 00:33:28.471
But yeah, to begin with it's the unknown, but it's an exciting unknown, I guess that's the best way of putting it.

00:33:28.672 --> 00:33:28.913
Yeah.

00:33:29.905 --> 00:33:33.576
Of how I felt you know, okay, I'm in this unit now.

00:33:33.576 --> 00:33:35.750
What's going to happen next?

00:33:35.750 --> 00:33:40.890
Okay, I know I'm going to be flying a helicopter, but yeah it's the but.

00:33:41.191 --> 00:33:41.673
It's the but.

00:33:41.673 --> 00:33:44.252
That's what makes the story.

00:33:44.252 --> 00:33:49.172
When you had to leave this thing, did you ever think you'd see it again?

00:33:50.095 --> 00:33:51.577
No, never no.

00:33:52.305 --> 00:33:53.670
You just thought is it okay?

00:33:53.670 --> 00:33:57.672
It was a blip in time, it was such a blip in your time and you don't think about it Right.

00:33:57.924 --> 00:33:59.653
You know, it was just a machine.

00:33:59.653 --> 00:34:03.811
It really the tail number had no significance.

00:34:03.932 --> 00:34:04.894
It was a helicopter.

00:34:04.914 --> 00:34:06.438
Yes, now it does.

00:34:06.438 --> 00:34:12.353
Yeah, it was a vehicle, it was a tool to do your job.

00:34:12.534 --> 00:34:16.893
Yeah, yeah, I mean, who would think that it'd be restored to its condition then?

00:34:16.934 --> 00:34:26.978
Yeah, and have the significance of it with the crew members, with some of the special things that did happen on air.

00:34:26.978 --> 00:34:30.465
Yeah, and I'll say it, you know, yeah say it.

00:34:31.005 --> 00:34:35.898
One crew member, the door gunner who was assigned to this aircraft.

00:34:35.898 --> 00:34:41.077
He was supposed to be here for the dedication after the helicopter was restored.

00:34:41.077 --> 00:34:54.585
Well, he died just shortly before and, of course, at the dedication or the unveiling after the restoration, we all signed the helicopter and it's been preserved that way.

00:34:54.585 --> 00:35:10.934
Well, somebody thought the door gunner who died should be preserved, so some of his ashes were put in an urn and put in the ammo can that you can see on the helicopter yeah, right there, and the ammo can was welded shut.

00:35:12.724 --> 00:35:14.148
I mean Byron, first of all.

00:35:14.148 --> 00:35:17.978
I can't believe that piece of technology got up into the air like it did, right?

00:35:17.978 --> 00:35:21.215
I mean hot Creams.

00:35:21.215 --> 00:35:26.876
Well, I'm talking in its glory, you know what I mean, right In its glory.

00:35:26.876 --> 00:35:33.871
When you flew this thing, I mean it was a new machine, it was a new helicopter.

00:35:33.871 --> 00:35:36.693
How did you feel about the technology then?

00:35:37.105 --> 00:35:47.001
Like you said, hey until, but After a while you probably didn't think about it and actually this helicopter doesn't have much technology in it.

00:35:47.001 --> 00:35:54.396
You're right, it's very basic, it's a very basic machine compared to what the military has today, Right right.

00:35:54.396 --> 00:35:56.693
It's real basic.

00:35:56.693 --> 00:36:02.896
I've even said to some I don't think I'd want to fly today because they know everything you were doing all the time.

00:36:03.277 --> 00:36:07.251
Oh yeah, how many missions did you fly in this thing?

00:36:08.876 --> 00:36:11.385
I don't know, we never really counted missions.

00:36:11.385 --> 00:36:17.157
I had 1,025 hours of combat time of flying.

00:36:17.157 --> 00:36:22.916
So you figure a work year is 2,080 hours a 40-hour week.

00:36:22.916 --> 00:36:27.293
So in one year I flew for a half a year.

00:36:28.315 --> 00:36:29.036
In combat.

00:36:29.036 --> 00:36:31.952
Yeah, that's incredible.

00:36:31.952 --> 00:36:33.150
I can't even imagine.

00:36:34.572 --> 00:36:42.498
I mean some of us, and not only this helicopter, but we had a smaller helicopter that we did a different mission with.

00:36:42.498 --> 00:36:46.295
Yeah, my whole time was not flying a Huey, yeah.

00:36:46.545 --> 00:36:47.451
Another helicopter.

00:36:47.605 --> 00:36:55.137
It was called a 086A they called it a Loge, yeah, which did scout reconnaissance Okay.

00:36:55.177 --> 00:36:55.297
Yeah.

00:36:56.027 --> 00:36:57.815
Which was treetop low level yeah.

00:36:58.016 --> 00:37:00.586
You know, wow, stuff like that, yeah, there was.

00:37:00.586 --> 00:37:03.326
That technology wasn't there in the day, that was all skill.

00:37:03.326 --> 00:37:05.847
So that technology wasn't there in the day, that was all scale.

00:37:05.867 --> 00:37:07.849
Well, it was mostly scale and you're just the machine just doing.

00:37:07.849 --> 00:37:13.893

Byron Bode, Vietnam Veteran and his Connection to the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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