And here on cspan, we return to the National Archives in washington, d. C. We have been here for most of the day for discussions about the vietnam war as the archives opens a new exhibit, about aring vietnam, 50th anniversary year of the u. S. Entry in the conflict. We heard earlier from the author of the book six years in the hanoi hilton, and we heard a discussion about women in the vietnam war earlier. Next, you discussion about the hardware and helicopters used in the war. This is helping to got the National Archives exhibit remembering vietnam, which will be open through the first week of january. The William G Mcgowan theater here at the National Archive. Least you can join us whether you are here in person, up in the theater, or watching us on youtube, and a special welcome to our cspan audience. Outside on constitution avenue, three historic helicopters are parked near our entrance. Today, we have a terrific opportunity to learn about the helicopters and the men who flew them from members of the North Carolina vietnam helicopter pilots association. Our program is presented in part by the National Archive foundation for the support for the technologies and many thanks to them. Before we hear from our special guests, i would like to tell you about three upcoming programs. This morning, we opened our new exhibit, remembering vietnam, and tomorrow, we continue our related program. Orourk willss orourk francis help a cv and on through the eyes of the child as she discusses her book shooting the. On 2 00, we will show the film we were soldiers. We will have a feeling discussion with the founder of the Vietnam Veterans memorial. To learn more trolleys and our Public Programs and exhibits, consult our monthly calendar of events online at archives. Gov. You can check out our website to sign up and get email update. We will also find information about other National Archives activities. And another way to get involved is to become a member of the National Archives foundation. The Foundation Supports all of our education and outreach programs. Their application for membership is in the lobby. As i mentioned earlier, todays program is one of a series of events in conjunction with our new exhibit remembering vietnam , which just opened in the Lawrence Obrien gallery of stairs. The exhibit is a media rich explanation of the vietnam war featuring interviews with american and vietnamese veterans and civilians and firsthand experience of the war as well as historic analysis. Collision ofnating newly discovered an iconic original documents, images, film footage, and artifacts that illuminates quickly episodes in the war that divided the people of the United States and vietnam. I encourage you all to take a walk through the exhibit. It will be there for more than a year so you have plenty of time to come and learn from it. Now i ask all of Vietnam Veterans or any u. S. Veterans who served during the vietnam 1965,hich is november 1, to may 15, 1975, to stand and be recognized. [applause] david veterans, as you exit the mcgowan theater after todays program, archive staff and volunteers will present each of you with the vietnam veteran lapel pin. On the back of the pin, a grateful nation thanks and honors you. The vietnam war commemoration is a National Initiative and is the nations lasting memento of thanks. The National Archives building is always an impressive sight unconstitutional avenue on constitution avenue. The pilotsmore with association who are the custodians of the aircraft. We can see and learn about the original vietnam war helicopters. Others. Chel they are founded by the generous support of Bell Helicopter. Now you will hear from general richard cody, retired u. S. Army. General cody graduated from the u. S. Military academy at west point in 1972. He is a master army aviator. Over 19 helicopters and has over 5000 hours of flight time. During his years of service, general cody served in six of the armys combat divisions. Storm,operation desert Lieutenant Colonel cody led task force normandy, a flight of eight apache helicopters, into iraq and destroyed two critical iraqi satellite sites prior to the start of the allied air campaign. General cody is currently the Senior Vice President and officer for l3 technologies incorporated. He is the chairman of the board for homes of our troops. Board of trustee of the intrepid Fallen Heroes fund. Board of trustees of the George C Marshall foundation. On the Advisory Board for the hopeful warriors, and the founder and lead pilot for operation flying heroes, an organization that provides flights to iraq and afghanistan s wounded warriors. General cody received a distinguished graduate award and a good pastor award and is an inductee of the Army Aviation hall of fame. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Cody. General richard a cod [applause] general cody thank you, everybody. Veterans andam their families, sometimes saying thank you for your service is not enough. What iant to tell you really want to do is say thank you for inspiring a young vermont back in 1966 as i got to watch your tv,nam helicopter pilots on and that inspired me to want to become like you, a helicopter pilot. I was lucky enough to be able to achieve my dream, but more importantly, as soon as i graduated from flight school, it was hundreds of vietnam era officers and colonels who taught like, whoight looked taught me how to be an aviation leader, and quite frankly, i tell everybody i would not be a general officer had it not been for my vietnam tutors. Thank you for everything you have done for this great country. I also want to thank you because in 1991 when i came back from the iraq war, it was 3 00 in the morning. I had my squadron from the 101st. We landed in bangor, maine. We were some of the last guys war, the first gulf war. Tvguys, we were watching on waiting back in saudi arabia. We saw all the parades and everybody being welcomed home. My troops are saying, nobody will greet us. 3 00 in the morning, we get off the airplane so they can refuel a group ofre was Vietnam Veterans at 3 00 in the morning shaking the hands and giving my soldiers and myself a welcome home from combat that you guys never got. I will never forget watching young soldiers exchanging their sandy caps with the bush caps on the Vietnam Veterans. Get touched me anyway that you will never know it touched me in a way you will never know. This series about helicopters and those daring and that flew helicopters and their crews as part of the vietnam series is something that all americans should know about. We should take time to honor. I am very pleased that the archives are doing that. What you all did in vietnam was really transform our army and our way of thinking about the warfare in terms of the 360 degree battlefield. Alive many soldiers are from battles of iraq and afghanistan and other places that we have thought in fought in because we learned from you the tactics and procedures of the vertical lift and aviation in the ground regime, whether it is medevac, crew transport, supplies so we dont have to drive through iedridden lines of communications to the attack helicopters role on the battlefield. That of people do not know we sent 7000 uh1s to vietnam, and over 3000 of them got shot down. We sent over 1100 cobras, just there. E h1g that is out we sent 1100 of those in combat. Over 300 of those shot down. Over 2200 pilots, helicopter pilot, our fallen comrades, got shot down and paid the last final salute to the United States in sacrifice to all of us. And we learned from all of that. I think it is fitting that we take time to understand the sacrifices of you guys and those at Arlington Cemetery and how important it was the way you pioneered todays aviation force. 1979, we had the hostage situation over in iran. As you know, that did not end well. Immediately thereafter, we formed up what is now the 160th special operations regiment, and it was vietnam veteran pilots that we called back to active duty to form of what is now the gunship company, the lift company, and it was again the vietnam veteran helicopter pilots who we depended upon to get the tactics, techniques, and procedures down so we can form of that special helicopter unit, which is today known as the Night Stalkers and probably is the worlds best unit on aviation. Today, you will get to hear from several of our vietnam helicopter pilots. They all have Great Stories to tell. They are all heroes in their own right just like you. They are all great americans, great patriots. But the other thing is they are great brothers in arms. These guys have been together ever since vietnam. People forget it has been over 50 years since we brought in the huey and cobra into vietnam, so i think it is fitting we hear from them today. I will end by the way i started. Thanks for your service. I get asked a lot, what do we say to our veterans who have served and worn the uniform and donned the clock of this nation . Cloth of this nation . I tell them saying thanks is important, but if you want to tell the men and women who have borne the brunt of battle, veterans, our vietnam what we really need to do as americans is live our life as americans worthy of their service and sacrifice. So god bless all of you. I hope you enjoy this event. Thank you. [applause] thank you, general cody. Now i will turn the program over to our moderator, Duane Williams. He is a decorated vietnam veteran and helicopter pilot. Graduated from high school in october 1966 and was assigned to company. Helicopter he served as gunship pilot. Reassignedam, he was to Court Walters texas four walters, texas, until his Honorable Discharge in 1969. In the 1970s, he was a pilot in the offshore oil industry and career as a key pilot, instruction pilot, extra mental test pilot with Bell Helicopter experimental test pilot with Bell Helicopter. Ll, heretiring from be currently resides in arlington, texas, with his wife of over 15 years. Please welcome Duane Williams and numbers of the the and him helicopter pilot association. [applause] good afternoon. Can you hear me . Thank you all for being here. It is certainly my pleasure being here this evening. Is even more so a great honor to be here with these guys. Whenever i was called and invited to come out here and participate, the first thing i did was go and check my size 40 flight suit i war in vietnam. [laughter] it. Ne i got to get one leg these guys maintain a strict regiment of workout, diet. [laughter] dwayne they fit in their size 40 per to get. My wife said you will look nice, so she just me up, and here i am. We do have a story today to tell, several stories. Before we get into that, i would like to introduce these guys. First of all, from the North Carolina vietnam helicopter pilot association, and they are the ones responsible for those beautiful aircraft that you see out front. They come all the way from North Carolina. They got here sunday night. They will be here through sunday the. They have been standing out there every day, long days, taking care, answering questions, and they do a great job. I think i like to give them applause for that. [applause] joe,e to my right here is colonel of the United States army retired. He was in vietnam in 1968. He was the Commanding Officer of the 604th transportation company. Callsign, caretakers. They provided maintenance for assault Helicopter Company, maintain 28 to 30 aircraft. You had a heck of a job doing that. S,xt to him is ed hughe Lieutenant Colonel retired. He was in vietnam in 1971. He flew with the 116th, callsign hornets. 719. E is a survivor of i do not know if you know what that is, but he is going to tell us about it. And then we have jerry, retired. 1969. In vietnam 1968, he flew in the 101st. I think he flew the hueys, and he also has an interesting story about flying the 806 gunships. Last but not least, we have jerry. Two i guesse only that thought we would cast our fortunes as civilians. I dont know about me, but jerry has done pretty well. One of the things i am sure he theroudest of is he is probab y founding father of this group. He has done a tremendous job putting it all together and maintaining his aircraft. So iw the work it takes, would like for jerry to talk just a minute about this unit. If you do not like the majority. Mind,s if you do not jerry. I would like to thank the staff here and theyll helicopter for bringing this year Bell Helicopter for bringing us here to honor the Vietnam Veterans. Back in 1989, 16 pilots in sawssburg, North Carolina, there was an interest to put together a local organization whereby helicopter pilots can get together to tell war stories , and i always say there are two things helicopter pilots do not do. They do not great beer, and they do not tell war stories. They do not lie. Jerry we started off with 16 people at about 9 00 in the morning, and with two cases of beer, three dozen krispy kreme carolina, and a gallon of coffee, by 2 00 in the afternoon, we had written bylaws, elected officers, and the constitution, and set up to be incorporated. We had a lawyer present. Three months later after some people decided we need a helicopter to talk about, we decided we would go ahead and try to get a helicopter. We spent three years to try to get our first aircraft. As we put this thing together and got it presentable, we went to wilmington, North Carolina, to do a parade. This is really selfish in our part, but we wanted to ride in a parade. We came through and were putting the aircraft back together. First thing he knew, we had 150 people standing on aircraft. We realized then, wait a minute, there is an interest in this. From there, we proceeded to secure other aircraft. Right now, we have six aircraft. Opened on the east coast and florida and kentucky and tennessee, we have done over 300,000 series at schools at no cost to schools. By virtue of what we do, we can take these aircraft to schools. Not only the historical part of their education, but we can relate to core studies. Some student decides what he is going to do. Today, this is the third trip to washington, d. C. , this year. This year, we did our third president ial inaugural parade with our aircraft. We have been told this is the most pervasive any organization like this has ever done in history. Hopefully we will be around for another one. We will see. One of the things i am a proud of these guys is they put up with me. They go sometimes some places that i would not go with me. They put in long hours like they are doing out here today. Supported. L we take no federal or state funding. No sponsorship from organizations. We have been doing this for 28 years. We continue to do this successfully. It can be done for organizations willing to put forth the effort and have support from these people. Thank you all for supporting us here. The photos we have are really not relevant to what we are talking about perhaps, but they are really sweet photos. Occasionally, i will flip through here so you see something new. It might trigger Something Like i have a story for that. You will see me flipping through this, but right now, i will let joe talk about what it was like maintaining 28 aircraft in a combat situation. Joe thank you. It is a real honor and privilege for me to be here. I was a young brash lieutenant down at fort campbell. And gung ho. Just could not wait to get to vietnam. I wanted to be the greatest infant creeper t infantry platoon leader there ever was. A young lady took me by the arm and said you are going to fight school. I said i can handle that. Long story short, often we went. Went to flight school, which was kind of unusual because in those days, we needed helicopter pilots. And then rotary wing and then Aircraft Maintenance and off to vietnam. I was confident that when i got to vietnam, i was going to end up flying a u21, beach king air twinengine, nice safe airplane, real high. No problems. Well, the dream went kaput. I went to camp holloway. I took over the 604th detachment, which was attached to the ghostwriters, the 189th assault Helicopter Company. Probably the worst time in their history. I was talking earlier today to one of our guys. We got there both about the same time. It seems like in a month or two before i got there, there was some pretty intense combat area. Ions through that the 52nd battalion from our parent organization, had literally float itself into the ground supporting the infantry and buying combat, combat assault, evacuation missions of all kind. Long story short, when i had arrived, our unit which was 20 had absolutely nothing flyable. No Mission Capable aircraft. They were shot full of holes. They were down, needing maintenance. A thank you to the maintenance personnel that worked behind the scenes over there. I had some of the best enlisted men and warrant officers that i think the army ever saw. They were professional. They were dedicated. They were competent beyond believe. Belief. Maintenance guys are behindthescenes guys. You dont hear a lot about them when you see the vietnam things and you see