‘Dustoff’ Crews Deserve Recognition
Lawmakers should pass a bipartisan bill to honor these heroes with the Congressional Gold Medal.
In my pro bono work as a lawyer, I’ve stumbled on a truly uplifting and too-little-known story—of the U.S. Army helicopter crews that evacuated some 900,000 people to safety and lifesaving care during the Vietnam War.
Each crew consisted of two pilots, a medic and a crew chief. The aeromedical evacuation crews operated under the radio call sign “Medevac” and, more colorfully, “Dustoff,” named for the dust kicked up during landing. Between May 1962 and March 1973, Dustoff crews evacuated sick and wounded members of U.S., Vietnamese and other allied forces, along with civilians and wounded enemy forces, in Southeast Asia.
The crews flew with valor and compassion, inspired by the example set by Maj. Charles L. Kelly, who developed tactics for the earliest missions and was among the first Dustoff pilots killed in action in Vietnam. His story is worth remembering.
As Kelly approached a hot landing zone on July 1, 1964, ground soldiers repeatedly warned him to withdraw. His calm reply—“When I have your wounded”—came just before a bullet killed him. It became the credo of the brave Dustoff pilots who followed him.
They contended with more than enemy fire. Dustoff crews flew over treacherous terrain and couldn’t wait for weather to clear or dawn to break. Their nighttime landing zones were marked by flares, lighters and, at times, nothing at all. They landed anyway. Hoist evacuation missions, employed when a ground landing was impossible, were particularly dangerous for everyone involved.
During the Vietnam War, 90 Dustoff pilots were killed and nearly 380 were wounded; 121 crew members were killed and 545 were wounded.
To be a Dustoff crew member was to accept a 1 in 3 chance of being killed or wounded. Yet everyone who volunteered to fly these missions of mercy accepted the grim odds. They courted death so that others might live.
Why is distant gallantry from the Vietnam War relevant today? I believe these American patriots deserve a Congressional Gold Medal, a prestigious award bestowed by Congress that expresses America’s highest appreciation for distinguished achievement and contribution.
This tribute requires cosponsorship from two-thirds of both the House and Senate. Congress should honor the Dustoff crews by passing the Vietnam War Congressional Gold Medal Act, which sponsors Rep. Derek Kilmer (D., Wash.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) introduced this year. Bipartisanship in Washington is rare today, yet I wonder: Where can agreement be found if not in honoring heroes such as these?
Courage, as John Wayne put it, is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. Dustoff crews showed courage, but intrepidity alone doesn’t warrant a Congressional Gold Medal; love does.
John 15:13 teaches that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Dustoff crew members, who risked their lives for friends and foes alike, showed what that kind of love looks like. They who waited for our wounded should wait no more.
Mr. Kerrigan is a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, which is providing pro bono assistance to the Vietnam Dustoff Association in support of lobbying efforts to pass the Dustoff Crews of the Vietnam War Congressional Gold Medal Act.
By: Mike Kerrigan
Source: The Wall Street Journal