Recalling Vietnam

by Bob Sparrow

Warrant Officer Dale Barnes

I recently read the novel, The Women, by Kristin Hannah, which is a #1 bestseller and an excellent read about a woman who volunteers for the Army as a nurse and joins other women nurses in Vietnam during the war. These women were on the receiving end of those MedEvac helicopters that delivered the wounded soldiers to the closest mobile hospital.  It got me thinking about my brother-in-law, Dale Barnes, who was one of those helicopter pilots delivering those wounded soldiers.  When I was back in Minnesota for his mom’s 98th birthday, I had a chance to sit down with him and have him talk about his Vietnam experience.

Dale joined the Army in May 1969, enlisting for helicopter training, as he was always fascinated with helicopters from watching them as a boy on the family’s farm in Minnesota.  He started his basic training in Fort Polk, Louisiana, then went for basic flight training at Fort Walters, Texas, and then to Fort Rucker, Alabama for advanced flight training, where he earned his wings.  He was then sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas for medical training, as everyone in a rescue helicopter needed to know basic medical procedures.

In August of 1970, he was deployed to Chu Lai, Vietnam, where he was initially a co-pilot on a UH-1H (Huey) helicopter doing MedEvac operations, which meant flying into combat zones, with no gun on board, only a red cross on the chopper, that the Viet Cong ignored.  He soon moved up to the pilot position, with a crew on the Huey consisting of a pilot, a co-pilot, a medic, and a crew chief (sort of a handyman, maintenance guy, who could hopefully fix things that got damaged on the aircraft).

The term given to these pilots was ‘Dust Off Pilot’; DUST OFF was the ‘call sign’ that came from the very first Evac helicopter unit, the 57th Medical Detachment, Medical

Services Corps, U.S. Army.

Dale’s UH-1H “Huey”

If you Google ‘Dust Off Pilot’ here’s what you get:

“During the Vietnam War, 90 Dust Off pilots were killed and nearly 380 were wounded; 121 crew members were killed and 545 were wounded. To be a Dustoff crew member was to accept a 1 in 3 chance of being killed or wounded. Yet everyone who volunteered to fly these missions of mercy accepted the grim odds”

Wow!!!  After I read that, I thanked Dale again for his service!

Most of the time when they were called in to pick up the wounded, they were escorted by gunship helicopters that went in before them to help quell any enemy fire.  But, gunships weren’t always available, so the pilot would have to ask his crew if they still wanted to go in, as they could say ‘No’ and they would not go in.  Dale says there were a number of occasions when they didn’t have gunships go in before them, and everytime he asked his crew if they still wanted to go in to pick up wounded soldiers, they always said ‘Yes’.

I asked ‘Chopper’ (Dale’s call sign) about a typical day in the life of a Dust Off pilot in Vietnam during the war.  He said there really wasn’t a ‘typical day’, as one day you may have a

‘Jungle Penetration’ pick up

clear landing zone, without enemy fire, so it’s a routine pick-up, but that rarely happened.  A typical ‘day’, might be at night, when they always flew ‘dark’ (no lights at landing), no GPS, all visual flying.  Or they might be asked to do a ’Jungle Penetration’ pick up, where there is no landing zone, so the helicopter hovers over the trees and lowers a long cable with three seats on it for pickup of men who did not need to be on a stretcher and could hold on to the cable while being lifted into the helicopter.  Dale estimates that during the year he was in Vietnam, he flew about 750 missions!  During that time, he was shot at all the time, but his helicopter was never shot down and he was never injured.  He says he’s most proud of never recieving a Purple Heart!  His closest call was when he had a bullet fly about a foot over his head and rattle around in the cockpit.

Dale, as civilian Medivac pilot

After his tour of duty, he came back to the states and remained in the Army the next 20 years doing various jobs – being a flight instructor, flying VIPs around, as well as tours of duty in Japan and Germany.  After retiring from the service, Dale became an AirEvac pilot in civilian life – doing that for the next 24 years! 

There’s an old pilot adage that says, “You always want your number of landings to equal your number of takeoffs.”  In just over 45 years of flying a helicopter, Dale flew over 12,000 hours WITHOUT AN ACCIDENT and without being injured!

Thank you for your service, Dale, for saving countless lives, both military and civilian!

 

26 comments on “Recalling Vietnam

  1. Never know but maybe he even picked up my husband in fall of 69. He talked about being taken by helicopter when he got shot.

  2. What a heroic man – such courage and true patriotism. It’s mind boggling that he flew 750 successful missions. Many thanks to Dale for serving our country in war and peace. It must have been pleasant flying in the post Vietnam Nam years with no one shooting at him. Cheers to Dale and all who risked their lives for our freedom.

  3. Thank you for sharing this story of a courageous American hero .
    Such a great example of his service to the country and to his fellow citizens on his return to civilian life.
    Last month, I gave a lecture on US Civil war surgery.
    760 ,000 solders died during the civil war. The north started using dedicated ambulances, field triage methods, stretcher carriers , and field hospitals . Even with this , if wounded, the survival rate was less then 30%.
    The majority of surgeries performed were for amputations ( Est ) 75,000. Head and torso wounds were 90% fatal and generally not considered for surgical intervention.

    The use of triage, field medics, helicopters, and field surgical hospitals advanced medical care for the wounded warriors in Vietnam war resulting in a 75% survival rate . Thus we went from 30% survival during the civil war to 75% survival in Vietnam.
    Thank you Dale and all the dust off pilots , medics, and medical staff .

  4. I appreciated the MedVacs during my time in Vietnam. I was only a foot soldier. We landed in Chu Lai but patrolled in many areas south and west of that location.

    After a firefight, it was good to see the MedVacs respond quickly to take out our wounded.

  5. THANK YOU Bob for telling Dale’s story!! We’re so proud of him and want to thank him again for his service!! We have so much respect for him and his dedication to the military. And for his service flying civilians to hospitals.

  6. Such an amazing story of incredible courage of Dale, dust off pilots and crews. Glad you were able to hear Dale’s story and thank him for his service, Bob!

  7. Dale – thank you for your service and dedication to saving lives.

    Bob thank you for sharing Dale’s story. What an amazing career – so many hours of flight without any
    Incidents.

  8. I have the greatest amount of respect for the Dust Off pilots and crew members. They were remarkable and saved so many lives. Thanks for the story, Moe!

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