The Final Round With the Military

The last ten years of my military service were in the Army National Guard

After leaving the regular Army in January 1980 I thought of it as always behind me. Over the next few years I worked for a few different civilian companies. Two companies I worked for stopped doing business and the others I left.

I guess one of the positive things about the Army for me was the always moving on. When I grew up I was really hooked on the cowboy hero movie and television shows like The Lone Ranger, Hop-A-Long Cassidy, and the other good guys. They rode into town on a new adventure to help someone and at the end of the show they tipped their hat and moved on. In the Army I was always ready to move to a new station and a new challenge. So probably many of the job changes were just that I wanted to move on.

On several occasions I received invitations to join the Army Reserve or the National Guard. While on active duty I had been sent to evaluate one of the best National Guard units in the country. The unit had good pilots that could have done a good tactical job but every time they got to the serious part of the mission they had to stop because the National Guard would not allow them to do that flight mode. They were never allowed to really train for the mission that they might have to perform in combat.

On a couple of occasions I visited reserve and guard units but I just wasn’t impressed. And besides, they didn’t have Cobras. I just couldn’t bring myself to be a bus driver or a truck driver. Gun pilots look at pilots that fly troops or supplies around as bus drivers or truck drivers. That’s like being in the Army band and telling people you are in the Army. I’m sorry but there are people that are in some jobs in the Army that may wear the uniform but they have no more idea what being in the Army and doing the job the Army is there for than a dog has an idea what he is going to do with a car if he ever caught one.

Then my wife Pat started working at the local high school as a secretary to the guidance counselor. She was the one that greeted the military recruiters when they came to see students. Often they waited in her office to see one of the students. Because of the years of being an Army wife she knew the language of the military and ranks and all of the other things that only someone who had been around the military would know. It became obvious to the recruiters that she knew something about the military.

One of the recruiters that struck up a conversation with my wife was from the National Guard. When he found out that I was a Cobra pilot he was all excited because the National Guard in that state was just starting to receive Cobra helicopters and they were looking for pilots and especially instructor pilots that had Cobra experience. Eventually I met the recruiter and to get him off my back I agreed to go meet some of the folks where they were getting Cobras.

When I stopped in to visit the unit that was getting Cobras I was shown around by an officer that was on active duty but assigned to the unit to help them get up to speed. He had active duty Cobra experience and was a sharp officer. I was impressed with him and decided to join the unit. I also told him about the accident in Germany and my ten years of active duty.

In July 1986 I joined the National Guard. This was part-time with a monthly drill weekend and a commitment of about two weeks a year for annual training. I had been away from the military since January 1980 and had not flown since December 1979. About three or four months later I got to fly for the first time in almost seven years. Refresher training went quickly and I was back to flying Cobras.

Even before I had started flying again, a full time instructor pilot position was offered at the unit I had just joined. The active duty officer wanted me to apply for the job. There were others that were applying for the job but he said he wanted me to have the job. I had just taken a promotion at work and felt that it would be unfair to the company to jump ship after just accepting a promotion. There was part of me that wanted to throw my hat in the ring and try for the job but I didn’t.

Months passed and life was busy for me. Many weeks my job took me out of town three or four nights a week. Motel life was getting old. Some mornings I would wake up in the motel and have to stop and think about where the light switch was and what town I was in. Road life is a hard life.

After almost nine months in the National Guard unit another full time instructor pilot position became available. Again I was encouraged to apply for the job. This time I decided that even though it would mean a move for my family, the National Guard would be a better life for my family than the road life of sales. I applied for the job.

To my surprise I got the job. With the job came the same ID card as active duty and the same retirement. I was back to flying Cobras full time. Over the next ten years I worked trying to help the unit be the best it could be. Again there were many very good pilots but there were also some things that held the unit back from being as good as it could be.

On one occasion I sent a note over to the officer, the one that had encouraged me to be in the guard and take the full time position. The note contained some changes I thought should be made in the unit. It was after a training weekend and I had observed some things that I thought could be done better. After the accident in Germany I had become more active in sharing what I thought should and should not happen.

After a day or two I stopped in the officer’s office to talk with him about my message. I had listed thirteen things I thought should be changed. We sat down to discuss things and he said he agreed with twelve of the thirteen things I had listed. That impressed me, it was more than I had expected.

Then he went on to say, “but you don’t get it yet do you.” Of course I said, “Get what?” He then told me that the higher-ups in the state had just what they wanted. They really didn’t want a top-notch unit. They only wanted to be little boys in uniform but never really wanted to be ready to go anywhere and do anything. I had not realized that and certainly could not understand that mentality. I thought that the state leadership just didn’t know what a real attack helicopter unit was supposed to be like because they had not been there and done that.

The National Guard had a long history of having a good old boys club and a flying club. There certainly was some of that in the unit I was in. The unit had some of the best officers and pilots that I have known and they had some of the poorest officers and pilots I have known. But clearly the biggest problem the unit and the leadership above the unit had was the lack of the will to do the job. Many at the top of the state’s National Guard were what I called “air show rangers”. They were especially good at walking around the air shows in their flight suits or other uniforms and looking the part but they didn’t want to ever leave home to do the job. They were supposed to be standing by to be available to assist the active duty in defending the country.

In more recent years the National Guard has made a huge step forward in shouldering its responsibilities. Their units have served in many parts of the world and have performed very, very well. Those that were in the guard for the college benefits and thought there would never be any chance of having to wear the uniform for real are pretty well weeded out. The good old boy clubs and the flying clubs have had to go away. Today, some of the National Guard units are as good or better than the active duty units. They can now walk tall and proud.

I completed my last ten years of active duty in the National Guard and retired. Near the end of my time the Cobras were moved to a different location in the state. I was given the choice of either retraining in a newer troop-carrying helicopter or move and stay with the Cobras. The newer helicopter is a great helicopter and would be nice to fly but I just couldn’t do the mission. There had been too many years of making fun of bus drivers and truck drivers. I was cut out to be an old “Snake Driver”. I was just meant to be a Cobra gun ship pilot and that’s all I wanted to fly. Shortly after I retired the Cobras were retired. Now the Apache helicopter and a new group of pilots lead the fight.

The road in the Army had been both a bitter and a sweet one for me. During the years I had seen both triumph and defeat. I had seen everything from friends being blown up before my eyes and wasted lives in a questionable cause to moments when I knew that I had done something important to defend freedom and our way of life. There were lives I had saved and lives I had taken. I had worked with and for some of the best people in our nation and some that were just manikins in a uniform. There were times that I was so cold that I thought I would freeze to death and moments I was so hot I thought I would surely melt. My heart had known the saddest and sweetest of moments. After it all, I can look at history with some small understanding of what soldiers have endured since the beginning of time and what our soldiers of today are enduring to defend us. I salute them all, everyone who has put the uniform on and taken a weapon in his hand to defend others! May God both bless and forgive them now and forever!