Flight,

I need to reflect a little.

The smell of burning flesh is horrible but it is intensified when it is some one you know and when you are only 21 years old in a strange situation. The thought that it could be me any day any time haunted me till the end of my tour. The days after May 6, 1967 are a blur now but I know I continued doing my job, most likely, better than before. The urge to kill was intense after that. Jim Tripplet stopped writing his diary on May 8, 1967. His last entry was “I can’t write any more”. Jim was CE and our backup ship that day.
Vietnam affected us all and we will never be the same person. In some ways the affects are positive and in some ways they are debilitating. Too this day I can still see and smell that day, I wake up some nights soaked with sweat from dreams. As air crews we saw horrible things and at the same time we did great things that should have been impossible or the last thing we did on this earth. Yet somehow we went back out day after day. I try to look at the good things but some days you just can’t see past the horror.

Thanks for listening.

Tom Gator 851.