A Cry For Mercy In The Night

This is a chronicle, in verse, of my personal journey to, during and after serving in a Dustoff unit in Vietnam. Dustoff units provided front line medical evacuation of the wounded from the battlefield to the field hospital in unarmed, fragile, flammable UH-1H helicopters. Our ships drew enemy fire at a rate seven times higher than any other aircraft flying in the combat zone and our crews suffered casualties of one in three completing these missions of mercy. The dedication, courage and personal cost of this endeavor on the men of these units has been both grievous and inspiring. I was privileged to have served in country with these men for twenty-two months and twenty days, and blessed with the opportunity to memorialize their actions. I have tried to write with honesty, compassion and unblinking truth about my military experience in a format designed to illustrate feelings over facts as I believe memories of war are stored in the hearts of veterans, not the textbooks of scholars. I have shared this volume with the men of the 571st Dustoff as well as a considerable sampling of the Vietnam Veteran community and have received heartwarming, positive feedback from this, my most important audience. I have tried to give the reader my insight into the motivations of young, very young, men going to war, surviving the strife and coming home. I have been privileged to share never before published photographs of my unit at war along with documents and testimonials earned by the 571st and all of the Dustoff units in Vietnam. I have included verses here of the wonderful hospital ships "Sanctuary" and "Repose", the chaos of "Big Tet 1968", night hoist missions, incoming and outgoing mail, R&R, hot LZ's and the unique, specialized language spoken in country. In the second half of this book I have written of my own experiences in returning to "The World" and have once again been enormously gratified to hear from the Vietnam Veteran's community, that I have captured the feeling of all too many Vietnam veterans who struggled through the difficult homecoming process. I have included my impressions of the tragic fall of Saigon, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the acceptance of the PTSD branding. By writing in verse I have striven to create for the reader the cadence, the heartbeat, and the emotions of my time at war. "A Cry For Mercy In The Night" is not your standard reminiscence of war, neither is it an apology or anthology of battle. I remain very proud of my service in Vietnam and humbled by my association with the men and women who served there. I hope my book has articulated the feelings and experiences mutually held by veterans who have served in combat and will offer insights to those experiences to the families and loved ones of these gallant individuals.