174th Assault Helicopter Company and the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Assn.

Day before yesterday, I made contact with one of my friends at the 174th Assault Helicopter Company web site. I'm not a member there but am connected with them as several of my friends from flight school served with them in Vietnam.

Fred Thompson, Bruce Marshall and Bob Gentry were 3 of my classmates in 5th WOC who graduated and flew with the Sharks and Dolphins. Bob unfortunately was killed in action in Vietnam.
Fred and Bruce were both wounded in action but survived their wounds and made it home to have a productive life after the war. 

As a great loss to all of us, Fred passed away in 2008 from cancer. Bruce is still kicking and doing well in retirement but I haven't had much contact with him in recently.

As a coincidence, I met one of the crew chiefs from the 174th through their web site. Mel Lutgring (SP?) wasn't living far from me at the time and I somewhat luckily managed to meet him and his brothers at a camp site in the Kisatchie National Forest. It was a very neat visit/meeting and nice to have, among my friends, other guys from other units.

Howard Modjeski, another classmate from flight school, was honored by the 174th many years ago in recognition for the actions he took as a Medivac Aircraft Commander that evacuated Fred and Bruce when they were shot down. The 5th WOC class of 70-05 at Wolters was all over the 174th and is held in very high regard by their group.

As another coincidence, I am a member of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association.  Through them, other men that flew out of Xuan Loc and Tay Ninh at the same time that we did, remain connected. Time, distance, career and circumstance has a way of separating us but nothing can disconnect us completely. It can't be done. We are forever connected and that connection is one that lasts a life time.

Post chemo therapy and radiation effects will change your life and as a result of that, I haven't been as good with the contacts as I used to be. I hate being off the grid because of those things but when your health returns enough to pop your head up and reconnect with everybody, it's somewhat like a welcome home.

In any event, one of the points I'm trying to make here has to do with the many men who I consider to be great Americans. Knowing them and being connected to them through the various web sites of the many military organizations, is really an honor and a privilege that only comes with membership in "The Band of Brothers".

I say that because I've been having thoughts of trying to connect all the Veterans from all the Branches of The Armed Forces. That includes those from the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Marine Corp and the Air Force.  To me, it doesn't make any difference if they were Vietnam Vets or just finishing their first hitch. My goal is to get in touch with all 22.7 million of them. The purpose of my wishes to contact all of them focuses on maintaining and improving the life of our Veterans.

In the same sense that the NRA has always been considered to have a very strong voice in Washington, I think that it's way past time for us to do the same thing.

As a past president of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 192 in Alexandria, Louisiana, I realize that there are many military organizations that work hard to improve Veteran's Affairs. The VFW and American Legion have to be added to that list as they are also among the front runners to improve and at least, maintain the level of care that we now receive.

It's going to take someone alot stronger and smarter than me but somebody has to start the ball rolling. That's what I intend to do and that's why I'm trying to reconnect with so many of the Veterans that are available through the net..

I have received a boat load of encouragement from all the guys at the VA hospital including some of the staff. Even though my audiences have been small, I've been asked to continue speaking to other Veterans about this and have been invited to one Veteran's home to share my experiences from my fight with malignant brain cancer.

I was somewhat surprised to receive that invitation as it came from the father of the Veteran who is now going through the battles of fighting Glioblastoma in her brain. Yeah, that's right, HER brain. I've been so wrapped up in being a "gunship/scout pilot" I had inadvertently forgotten about the incredible role that is filled by the women in uniform. Shame on me for that.

Shortly after I received that invitation I began to wonder about the many other Veterans across the Nation that needed counsel and comforting while facing the inevitable death sentence that comes with a biopsy that is classified as "malignant".

I recalled the appointment I had where the Chief of Staff told me that my biopsy was malignant and that the typical life span of Veterans who contracted Glioblastoma Multiform Grade 4 brain cancer, was 3 to 12 months.

I can only say thanks to Guy Kinnebrew for supplying the statistics that showed me and Tim Jr the information where 95% die during that time frame. That's when I started my trek to hit the 5% list. It wasn't until much later that I realized the importance of that information as it came from an old high school friend who just happened to be in the administration side of the VA.

I wondered where the counselors were but soon moved away from that curiosity when I was introduced to some really great counselors at the hospital.

The more I thought about that, the more I realized that everybody knows how bad it is when budget cuts prevent the purchase of badly needed medical equipment or the replacement of critically important doctors or staff members that retire.

I experienced that first hand when I was sent to Debakey Medical Center in Houston for my brain surgery. The VA here didn't have the machinery or the ability to let LSU Medical Center do the surgery. The VA would have been required to pay for LSU to do the surgery and since they budgetarily couldn't do that, I was transferred to Houston.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm more than happy with the results but I have always had the lingering thoughts that surrounded the budgetary reality that the VA couldn't "afford" to pay the LSU Med Center to do the surgery. To me, I've always felt that something was bad wrong with the budget situation coming out of DC.

I wondered to myself: "How in God's name can we be sending money over seas or to non U.S. Citizens, while so many things that are needed for our Veterans here, are left unfunded". Over time, I found the answer.

I concluded that the only reason it wasn't corrected and put into it's proper position to fund the current needs of today's Veterans, was due to the fact I hadn't done anything to change that.

It's easy to complain about it but sometimes very difficult to have solution based conversations that result in a plan formulation to correct the problems. I finally got tired of all that and decided to get off my ass and do something about it. That's how the concept of  contacting all Veterans was hatched.

In any event, I wanted to re-write the previous post I made about these thoughts and send them along to Jim McDaniels at the 174th, Curt Lambert with the 11th ACRaviation site and "Coke" with the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association.

Please consider this as Food for Thought. As this continues I will post more later. Thanks.

Tim Butler, Former Chief Warrant Officer Aviator, Fireball 28, Blue 28, White 8.