Tom,

Thanks for the contact. Your the first person I was in Nam with that I've heard from in all these years who actually remembers me. I'm sorry to say, I don't remember you by name. If I saw a photo of you from that time I may. I was only in county for three and a half months. That whole time for me was a whirlwind, it's hard to get anything put in it's proper place. I think I spent most of my time there in shock. Looking back, I begin to question a lot of things. Like was the crash Jan 17, 70 my fault? The tail rotor hit a tree on my side. I believe I told the pilot we where in a tight spot, But when the grunts jumped off, all on the right side, the bird began swinging, We hit a tree with the tail rotor and that was it. We spun like a top knocking trees down as we spun. I'm amazed our boys on the ground didn't get it. I could see them diving down the hill with full packs. The last lunge of the ship put it right on my back side with the brush in my face. I was so young. I was trained on an m-14, handed an m-16 and an m-60. I knew nothing of either. I was trained as a mechanic on piston driven OH-13s. I knew nothing about turbines. They might as well have flown me to Nam straight off the streets. A nineteen year old child. I'm still pissed about it. Between anger and tears for thirty years.

As far as the other guys in the photo, The one standing next to me I do remember, however, not his name. I'm in the process of dragging out the old photos. At some point, I may consider posting them. I might try to enlarge some of them in photoshop to see if I can read their names. I may even have a photo of you, who knows. Looking at that photo of me on the web site gives me the impression it was taken after I was wounded. It looks like my face is twisted and swollen and I have a dark line under my left eye, I had black eyes for six months, that was quite a punch. I'll try to come up with some names.

Let's keep in touch. Ken E