Life Boats

"When I have your wounded."

---Major Charles L. Kelly, hero
--explaining when he intended his chopper to leave the battleground

Dustoffs, parked, and waiting.

MedEvac helicopters, downhill from (former, apparently) 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, sometime in 1971. The 71st was a large hospital earlier in the war, but by the time I arrived in Nam it was a small operation and we signal folks lived in what had once been hospital wards. Since the place was still busy enough to support an air ambulance operation, these Hueys lived on the complex.

The red crosses painted on these birds weren't magic shields. They'd land on the battle field, often while the battle raged, and face the dangers which had summoned them in the first place. Perhaps a mile from the hospital, a motor pool had become final home to the twisted and bullet-scarred hulk of a dustoff chopper whose crew had taken heavy fire during a rescue attempt.

Brave men. Dangerous work.

Camera: Minolta SR-T 101. Replaced with new scan on 12/17/2005.