The Wings of Mercy and the Torch of Death

The madness of our schedule and the fatigue that came with it was the only thing that made it feel like it took forever before we made it to the flight line to start our flight training. In reality, it was a very short period of time.

I tried to stay focused on the big picture such as ground school details, but many parts of flight school were small and seemingly insignificant at the time. That changed one day. As time went on and Mr. Diable's insistence that we paid very close attention to every detail intensified, a certain reality surfaced regarding that little shoulder patch that was neatly sewn on our flight suits.

At first, it looked as simple as an Olympic torch with a pair of wings attached to it. When we asked Diable what the real meaning was and where it came from, he told us a story that was very well portrayed by the patch. It was "The Wings of Mercy and the Torch of Death".

Although the story was somewhat lengthy, it all boiled down to the capacities we would have as helicopter pilots in the U.S. Army. Diable told us a story about saving the lives of those who were in danger of dying. He made sure that we got the point regarding helicopters being a highly specialized part of the aviation community and explained how we would be able to do that better than any other mode of transportation.

He also let us know that we would be able to save the lives of the men on the ground who were under attack by bringing death and destruction from the skies and doing that in a manner that was unique to all other forms of aerial support.

When Diable explained all these things to us, there were many of the guys who began to talk about flying gunships, Chinooks, Troop carrying Hueys or medi-vacs that we called "Dustoff". Somehow or another, that little patch brought with it a realization of how serious our career path was. The Attention to Detail sermons that Diable gave us, were beginning to take on a different degree of importance.

When we started going to the flight line instead of living our daily lives in classroom after classroom, the excitement index hit an all time high and the adrenal rush helped us all deal with the fatigue from such a difficult schedule. Despite all the excitement from that, things were changing inside the barracks, too. Fred Thompson and the other guys who had already left for simulator training in California, was sorely missed. Seems like there was a kind of emptiness on our end of the hall.

The change from a 100% classroom environment to flying was a much larger change for us. It even smelled differently as the aviation fuel was always around us and with the fuel checks and fuel drains we dealt with at the beginning of every flight, it changed our smell as well.

The instructor pilots were 110% focused on teaching us to fly and never once asked to see if the bottoms of our boots were polished. We felt as if we were almost without supervision when we left for the flight line until one day, Mr. Diable showed up.

I saw him talking to Red Flannigan, a large, red headed Irishman who was the Director of Flight Ops in our section. I remember him distinctly as he had red hair with light streaks of grey running through it and freckles on his face and arms. For some reason, being half McInnis, I felt like I had something in common with him and wanted him to know that half of the blood flowing in my veins was McInnis.

Later on that day I was told that Mr. Diable had come to fly one of the helicopters. When my instructor pilot told me the specifics of the flight, he said that Flannigan told him that Diable had "THE TOUCH".

He explained that "The Touch" meant that Diable had so much flight experience that he could fly a helicopter that was not normally the one he'd being flying for years and he could fly it with a great degree of precision. I knew that this was a great compliment about his flying skills as even the instructors were impressed by it.

When we returned to the barracks after flying all day, Mr. Diable showed up and I asked permission to discuss flying. He told us to go ahead and we began with many different questions. In one of those rare opportunities, he told us to gather round and he began to talk about his flying experiences in Vietnam.

Needless to say, we were mesmerized by the tales of combat and especially one where he related a time where the NVA attempted to fly some of their helicopters down to the Au Shau Vallley. He made it clear that it was, to his knowledge, the last attempt at doing anything like that. I couldn't remember if he was there when that occurred but I never forgot the story and wondered if we would ever have to face any air to air combat with an NVA helicopter.

As he continued with his stories of flying helicopters in combat, I remember thinking that he was exactly like the McInnis Brothers that I wrote about early on in this story. He, just like my Uncles, was meeting his responsibility to pass on his experiences to the younger guys.

I was stoked and despite the fact that I had already begun to like his style, I then began to like the person I knew he was. I couldn't believe that I was getting all this information first hand and, as they say, getting it from the horses mouth. It was a very special moment for all of us who heard him tell the stories and there are many of us to this day that hold him very high among all of the instructors we had in the Army. I can still hear Miles say "He's not an Instructor or a Teacher, he's an educator and there's a difference".

I'll leave you with this small part of the first few days of going to the flight line and come back soon. I needed to take a break as I've had a wee bit of a set back and needed to go to the hospital yesterday for a reboot. I'm doing better so far today and hope to continue later this evening or no later than Saturday. While you are waiting, you may try to Google "The Wings of Mercy and the Torch of Death". I'm not sure if the patch will come up but give it a try, it may just be there.

Stand by for more later.