The Man in the doorway, A Marine's tribute to Helicopter crews | Eastern NC Now

Alex Ortolano recently posted an article here on BCN which explained how a Medivac crew located and picked up wounded soldiers during his tour in 1965. Here is another tribute to those Lunatics of the Sky.

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( March 26th, 2017 @ 12:35 pm )
 
I agree 100%. There was only one choice to be made. Then you followed orders.
SSgtsouth said:
( March 26th, 2017 @ 12:19 pm )
 
Except for REMFs' very few who served had the choice of being in the field or in a support role. You did your duty as ordered. It did not take a firefight or a booby trap in triple canopy or rice paddy or up some muddy river to cancel your ticket. It could come in the form of a mortar or rocket attack. Or it could come in the form of a grenade tossed into a bar or pedicab. It only took one incident and you normally never had the option to say "stop, not now, not me."
( March 20th, 2017 @ 1:16 pm )
 
(Here is a condensed extract from my Vietnam Diary 'The T3R ratio of Combat to Support in Vietnam')

The support troops were invaluable in supporting those in the field, but often went unappreciated. To the grunt on the ground, it was REMFs who were the focus of their hatred. That is not an unusual opinion, because everyone thinks that their job is the most important and everybody else's job is non-essential. It was most likely more envy than hate but there was a divide with the exception of God's Lunatics which had universal respect.

It was classically said that in the Civil War the ratio of combat to support troops was 10:1. It has steadily decreased over the year primarily due to technology and Helicopter air support. Bit, if you ask any combat veteran of Vietnam, he will tell you that the ratio was 100:1 or more. Anyone not in the field was excess baggage and worthy of disdain.

A definitive study of Vietnam statistics based on actual TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment) strength and total deployed troops on the ground in Vietnam determined that the approximate ratio was 3.5:1 This is called the Tooth-to-Tail ratio (T3R).

Here is a chart from a definitive study showing support to combat soldiers in 1968. It shows that for every 35 combat soldiers there were about 65 support. These figures are for Army only and do not include the Marines, Navy or Air Force, so the bar room claim of 100:1 is still alive and well in the Bar Stool War stories.

Click on picture for larger view.
( March 20th, 2017 @ 10:18 am )
 
Thanks for the post B.T. It is a most reflective post riddled with essential history of these great heroes. Like our friend Alex J. Ortolano: beaufortcountynow.com , these were the great heroes of America's most costly war in over 70 years.



Finding and Evacuating Wounded in Vietnam War (Archive), Small History (Archive), In the Past (Archive), Body & Soul Like a Blue Moon


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