Walter's Story of His Closest Brush with Death - to date

Last June I was at Walter's when he told me the story of what he believes to be the closest he had ever come to death. He was assigned the duty of escorting a South Vietnamese general as he was viewing the troops. According to Walter the General only looked at the troops and nothing more. I asked Walter how he communicated with the General. He said the General spoke some English and French fluently. Walter spoke, or more understood, some French.

They were in a helicopter leaving one location where American troops were located. In the helicopter were two aviators (Walter's words, I call them pilots), two "kids" with guns at the doors, the General, and Walter. As the helicopter rises, once they get above 1,500 feet, the doors can be closed because the gunfire from the ground can't hit the helicopter. That is unless they have bigger guns, which they almost never had. This time just as they were above 1,500 feet and closed the door, they were hit by gunfire. He said it sounds like gravel being thrown at and hitting the metal sides of the helicopter. The rotors were damaged and the helicopter started an immediate fall. The pilot told Walter to feel the control stick, which was shaking violently. Walter said he thought they were going to die because he had witnessed many helicopters that were in this very situation explode upon impact. Thankfully the pilot was able to set the helicopter down in a rice paddy. He came down hard and took a hop forward. As the helicopter hit, Walter grabbed the General by the shirt and yanked him out of the door of the helicopter, rolled, and jumped up and ran to the hill over the rice paddy. He said the General didn't know what was going on because he could not understand all of the excited talk inside of the helicopter. As soon as the helicopter came to rest, the two gunners grabbed the guns and followed Walter and the General to the hill to fire upon whoever was firing on them.

I asked him how they got out of there. He said that the Marines came to the rescue. Almost immediately Marine helicopters appeared. The Army helicopters soon arrived and picked up the General. Walter and the two gunners stayed with the helicopter until the Army crane helicopter came to pick up the one that had been damaged.

Walter said we were lucky as hell that day. I sure am glad that he was the one to be able to tell me that story.

I have a few other stories that I wrote drafts of some months ago that I will be publishing now. I want anyone who wants to know about Walter to be able to read them.

Goodbye

We all know that we have to leave this earthly body one day. Most of us hope to go in our sleep when we are old and have lived a long, full life. If that was my Uncle Walter's hope, then I would have to say that he got his wish. His full life included his escape from the farm by getting an appointment to the Military Academy. He was a cadet there when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He served in three wars. He worked for the CIA during the Kennedy era. He visited every continent. He Enjoyed life, then at the age of 49, married the love of his life, a beautiful woman 18 years his junior. After his last tour of duty in Vietnam, they picked up his new Corvette on their way to Leavenworth, where he was promoted to Colonel. After his military career was over, he designed his farmhouse, built it, and moved back to the family farm, where he and Jackie established a happy life with new friends and friends from years long before. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Alabama. He taught there for a while until he decided he didn't enjoy teaching students to whom he couldn't give orders. (I have to admit I totally understand this decision.) He wrote two historical fiction novels. He won many awards and honors in and after the military. And, finally, he was the coolest uncle, ever. He always drove the coolest cars and sent the best gifts. He was always sending home interesting items from exotic places for us to hold for him till he got back home. He flew himself home in a plane. He wore a uniform. He was somehow mysterious because we saw him so seldom and he was very different from my dad.

Even though he lived a long and full life, there was sadness and many trials. We were all shocked when Jackie died. That was never in his plan. In fact he had planned extensively to take care of her after he was gone. He missed her terribly. He certainly had to endure many indignities of old age, which was difficult for someone who was private and dignified as he.

Even though I know he was ready to go, it is always hard to say goodbye even after a long and full life. He was the keeper of the family history. Even though I tried to glean as much as I could from him over the past few years, there is no way to know what he knew. He always taught me something everytime we talked. I will miss our daily phone calls on my way to work. I will miss asking him about this and that about local and family history. I will miss his crooked, smirky smile. I will miss him.