The Vietnam War was mostly fought by infantry lives and helicopters. To the infantry, the words “Dust Off” represented the security of brave men who would fly into almost any combat situation for medical rescue.
One of the legends of Dust Off pilots was Major Patrick Brady from Minnesota. He commanded the helicopter and crew known as “Double Nickel.” He remembers, “1 went to Vietnam in 1964, right out of flight school. This was my first of two tours. I began to learn the business of rescuing people from battlefields.” In those early days of the war, the Dust Off pilots were just beginning to learn how to fly routinely at night and to land on the battlefield while the troops were still under fire.
Brady and his men began developing some technical flying skills which later saved a lot of lives.
One day when Brady wasn’t on duty, he heard that seriously wounded soldiers were trapped in a thick valley fog.
Nobody could get in there to rescue them, so they called Brady who was the only one crazy enough to fly under those weather conditions.
Two rescue helicopters had already crashed trying to carry out the rescue operation. Dying men were pinned down in a valley only 50 meters from the enemy and the whole area was alive with gunfire and artillery. The brigade commander at the fire base overlooking the battle area was afraid to allow another helicopter into that kind of danger.
Brady flew from his home base to the fire support base to talk to the brigade commander. The commander told Brady he couldn’t go in. Brady objected.
Finally, the commander took Brady aside and said, “Can you really get in there?” Brady told him he could if he used the frequency of the guys on the ground to get “talked in.” The commander reluctantly gave the frequency to Brady.
The ground troops were in the valley right on the bottom of the mountain,” Brady remembers. “They weren’t very far from us. But, I couldn’t go straight down through the stuff.”
Brady headed out of the area to where the fog bank ended.
Then, he started back into the fog sideways trying to blow a path through the fog with the backwash from his rotor blades. He followed the treetops and slowly made his way, flying directly over the North Vietnamese Army.
Through a hail of machine gun and small arms fire directed at the helicopter they managed to make their way to the trapped soldiers.
As soon as Brady got the wounded men on board, he did an instrument take-off, straight up through the fog. The men at the fire command base overlooking the fog-covered valley saw this crazy helicopter shoot up through the fog below them and they started cheering and applauding.
It seemed like the whole country side was alive that day.
We continued to fly missions here and there,” Brady remembers. “Then we heard on the radio that a Dust Off bird was in a minefield. We were in the area, so we went there.” Brady tried to land on the other Dust Off’s skid marks to avoid mines. Then his crew jumped out and started carrying the wounded soldiers back to the aircraft.
Brady remembers, “I’m watching my crew chief and medic carry the last patient on a litter and suddenly they are blown into the air. “The soldier being carried took most of the blast and this probably saved my crew. But, the blast from the explosion ripped into the helicopter.”
The crew scrambled back into the helicopter. As the helicopter took off, it seemed like every warning light came on in the cockpit. But, the thing kept flying,” Brady remembers.
We stayed close to the ground. I always figured the lower you were, the shorter the fall if the helicopter gave out.
It didn’t give out and we made it to the hospital.” By the end of the day, Brady and his crew went through three helicopters bringing in many seriously wounded soldiers during a heated battle. “1 got a high from saving lives,” Brady says.
“You really don’t think about the danger as much as you think about helping the guys who need you. It was a thrill. It’s what I needed to do and it was my job.”
On Oct. 9, 1969, President Richard Nixon presented to Patrick Henry Brady this country’s highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Over 5,000 rescued soldiers and their families are still grateful.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the November 1991 issue of Irish America. ♦
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