LEGENDS AND HEROES

I received this today, from a sort-of-legend of mine. (See last week’s essay.) Our wives were roommates in Germany when we all first met. John volunteered for two tours of combat duty as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. These soldiers aren’t legends in a traditional sense, but they sure are heroes. John and I both learned that resurrecting impactful people from our long-ago, is fraught with tragedy, sadness, and disappointment, but sometimes glory, as the next CRISIS essay over the weekend will show.

Fred, I enjoyed your column -“Legends”. I looked up one of mine (my door gunner from ‘72-‘73 ) and took him to Alaska for fishing last summer. What fun.

We’d re-established contact through Facebook. I’ve gone to visit 8-10 of guys I served with in Vietnam, but my gunner ended up being the most “solid” - well adjusted, happy and just a really good guy.

John