Orange County Review inSIDEr, June 24, 2010 inSID

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"It's interesting to hear fire going by, and what you liketo do is hear it, 'cause that means you're not dead."

Dick Thompson, of Gordonsville, is standing next to ahelicopter that saw extensive action in Vietnam. It'sMemorial Day, and he's remembering. "It's a snap, likebreaking a stick, that noise," he says of the unforgettablesound of being shot at. Whether it's a whine, a buzz ora snap, no vet ever forgets that sound.

He runs his hands over the fuselage of the Vietnam-era workhorse, the BellUH-1 "Huey" his fingers tracing the bullet hole patches. "This one is just like aband-aid," he points to a 1-1/2" by 3" rectangle. "We'd even fly these things withtape over them." He points to the rotor blade. "As long as you didn't destroy thefront leading edge, which is the spar, you could fly 'em with tape over 'em, and wedid. And they'd whistle at you and the tape would whap at you, but you could get'em home." He pauses a moment, eyes creasing in mirth. "You know being a pilot,I was very lazy. I wanted to always go home. I didn't sign up for living in the mud."

Then Dick Thompson's expression changes to something faraway and more

field kitchen is eclipsed by a C-rationsdisplay. Dick Thompson says, "To heatthem, you'd put them on the engineblock and heat them there. Or, if youhad access to C-4, you'd just slice off abit, roll it up into a ball and light itand it burns like Sterno." A vet com-ments, "You always knew the youngkids that had never cooked on a firebefore because you'd see themexplode the spaghetti and meat balls."

Thompson points out a half pack of

Winstons, standard issue. "Cigarettes:you wouldn't see that anymore." Thenhe notices a tiny roll of white tissuepaper, "the most important thing inthere; toilet paper, and that ain't verymuch," he grimaces. No wonder theGIs stuck extra smokes and TP in theirhelmet bands.

There's more, besides the "Huey"with the real bullet holes: a Jeepmounted with a 106 recoilless rifle, anarmored personnel carrier convertedinto a mobile mortar platform, numer-ous trucks and other vehicles. Thereare even separate Viet Cong andNorth Vietnamese Army displays, thatCraig LaMountain has brought backfrom a half dozen trips to SoutheastAsia.

Thompson points to the Ho ChiMinh sandals madefrom old truck tires."They used everythingand anything that theycould." It's surprisinghow much damage theseguys could do with aChinese-made boltaction rifle and somePunji sticks. And yes,the museum has thosetoo.

There's even a flower-painted VW "Love Bug"outside. "It's part of theVietnam era, and wewant to show the stu-dents, when they comehere, both sides of thestory; between the hip-pies and the protestersand the people whowere drafted," shrugsLaMountain,

With his MemorialDay winding down, heand other vets and vol-unteers relax with a beerand trade war stories."I've had veterans inhere today not afraid totalk to their families,"says LaMountain weari-ly. "The kid was 30 yearsold, the son. He said hisfather had never openedup about Vietnam until

today. That experience just made myday."

Dick Thompson chimes in, "Onewoman said, 'I learned more about myhusband today than I have in 40 yearsof marriage.'"

"Nobody ever does a story on thewives," comments another. "The wives

now, with these guys going to Iraqfour, five, six tours; I don't know howthey have a family. They're gone morethan they're home. I went twice and itwas hard enough on my family," con-tinues Thompson.

Asked what advice they, as Vietnamvets, would give today's soldiers com-ing back from Iraq and Afghanistan."Get with your family and settledown," they say. "Family is the only

thing you've got.""Get screening for post traumatic

stress disorder," says the bomber pilot."Come to an organization like thiswhere you have like people that havebeen there, done that, and talk aboutit."

The Vietnam War FoundationMuseum is free and open by appoint-ment. For more information, contactthem at www.vietnamwarfoundation.org.

Dick Thompsonof Gordonsville

logged 400 combat hours in

Vietnam in ahelicopter just

like the one pictured

at left. Below,

Thompson flew fixed and

rotary wing aircraft during

his two tours in Vietnam,

earning 23 airmedals and

logging a total of 700

combat hours.

The VWF museum in Ruckersville also shows typicalequipment used by the Vietcong and the NorthVietnamese Army. Particularly enterprising were theVietcong. Note the flare that has been converted into alamp and the "Ho Chi Minh" sandals in front of it.

Above, researched and painted by Piedmont Virginia Community College students,a VW Love Bug represents the other side of the Vietnam War. Below, this pastMemorial Day, Dick Thompson and Craig LaMountain (white shirt) swapped storiesand reminisced with other Vietnam vets.

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Orange County Review inSIDEr, June 24, 2010 Orange County Review inSIDEr, June 24, 2010

serious. For a moment there, he's halfa world and 45 years away, hoveringover a rice paddy in Southeast Asia,kicking seven armed men out thedoor. "You could put a squad inthere," he points to thecramped open space in themiddle of the chopperbetween the pilot and thedoor gunner. "The doors areopen. You don't touch down.You come into a hover andthey're out and you're gone.It's fast. When you're comingin for an evac, medical, they'rethrowing bodies in just as fastthey can, just as many as theycan, and they're bleedingeverywhere." He points to theservice record for this particu-lar aircraft. "They had toreplace some of the panelingunderneath because of corro-sion from the blood. It wouldget under the floor boards."

This terrifying trip downmemory lane is happening at theVietnam War Foundation (VWF)museum near Ruckersville. This pastMemorial Day as many as 500 vetsand their families came through thisjaw-dropping exhibit on the war thatAmerica chose to forget. As far asanyone knows, this non-profit founda-tion and museum is the only one of itskind in the nation.

That is remarkable when you con-sider that 58,159 American lives werelost in this conflict that never reallyhad an official beginning or end. Itstarted with the insertion of "advi-sors," sometime in the late 1950s. Itended almost 20 years later with theimage of a helicopter lifting away fromthe outstretched arms of the aban-doned South Vietnamese huddled onthe roof of the U.S. Embassy. Andwhile we memorialize dates andevents such as Pearl Harbor and theNormandy invasion, we remember lit-tle of Vietnam. But thanks to peoplelike Dick Thompson and, in particular,Craig LaMountain who put this out-standing collection together, that'sgoing to change.

The "Huey," of course, is thebiggest thing here in this oversized

garage in LaMountain's back yard.And well it should be, becauseVietnam is where the helicopter real-ly came into its own. "These thingsare hard to fly," says Thompson who

logged 400 combat hours in a chop-per just like this. "It's 10,000 rotatingparts looking for a place to have anaccident in close company."

A high-altitude bomber pilot vethas been listening to our conversa-tion. He just smiles. If he lost anengine, he knew he had seven more.Thompson points to the "Huey's" lonemotor and takes a good-humored digat the Air Force vet. "Fixed-wingpilots are opti-mists," saysT h o m p s o n ." H e l i c o p t e rpilots are bornpessimists; thereason beingwhen they (heli-copters) comeapart, you don'tput them downvery well."

He credits hiscrew chiefs forkeeping himalive. "Every'Huey' wouldhave a crewchief, and thiswould be his

baby. He'd live with it; sleep with it; itwas his responsibility, all the mainte-nance…There are so many placesthat things could go wrong, you hadto trust that crew chief."

Thompson flew what wasknown as a "slick," meaning "noarmament except for your pro-tection from your door gunner.No mini gun, no rockets, thingslike that."

On a mission, the crew chiefmanned one of the door guns,"and then you'd get a recycledinfantry guy for your door gun-ner on your other side. He'sgetting out of the mud. 'I'll vol-unteer to stay another year if Ican be a door gunner on aHuey,'" they would say.

That business about volun-teering all the time will get youin trouble. Dick Thompsonsigned up for two years afterearning a civil engineeringdegree from Bucknell, and

"ended up 20 years in the military."He shakes his head in mock amaze-ment. "I went in for two and spent 20.I can't count very well." It's just thathe couldn't resist the lure that theywere going to teach him how to fly."And that was the downfall," which,for a pilot, is an interesting choice ofwords.

His first tour in Vietnam was as afixed-wing pilot, flying "anything that

the Army had….So I went to Vietnamthe first year, flew fixed-wing aircraft,intelligence-type stuff and flew about1,200 hours…We worked our buttsoff." And then they put what's calleda "stop loss" on all pilots. In otherwords, pilots were so valuable theywouldn't let them out of the service.

He came home, and they sent himto helicopterschool instead. Her e m e m b e r slamenting, "'Ohman, if I go to heli-copter school I'mgoing right back.'And they said,'Yup.' So I was 14months door-to-door coming hometo going back." Henonchalantly adds,"I did over 450combat missions inthe two years, bothfixed-wing androtary wing…Ifyou're in country,it's all combat,because they'regoing to shoot atyou as soon as youlift off the ground. A lot of them wouldlay at the end of the runway."

Vietnam-era helicopter pilotsquickly and deservedly earned repu-tations as the best in the world. "I've

got 700 hours combattime. So, you grow upfast in combat," con-firms Dick, adding thatof all U.S. fatalities inthe Vietnam War, "10percent are helicoptercrewmen." Thinkabout that for amoment. "Ten percentof them; helicoptercrew members: eitherdoor gunners, crewchiefs or pilots. That's apretty high percent-age."

Needless to say,Dick was not part of the10 percent. "I feel pret-ty lucky that way." Nor

was he wounded. "No, no. I'm fast,"he flashes a game-winning grin."Slick. I was flying slicks," he saysbreezily.

All told, Dick Thompson earned 23air medals. "Yeah, I spent a lot of timein a cockpit," he understates. AfterVietnam, he earned his mastersdegree in aerospace engineering and

landed a dream job in the Pentagon."I spent the next five years as thelogistics/maintenance engineer forthe development of the Blackhawk,the Apache, and a lot of the smallbirds that you see in special ops…Itwas a great job. I was working withindustry; I was working on new air-planes; I was using my engineeringand my background and all my expe-rience."

But all good things must come toan end. After 20 years in the militarythey kicked him upstairs, "and I said,'Bye,' and I got out." Dick Thompsonthen became what he calls "a beltwaybandit," working as a consultant.Then, he was offered a job in specialops, but he turned it down. "You getinvolved in it and you can disappear,literally, out of the service, off themap, promotions, family, every-thing…So, it's a good thing I didn't getinto it. I still have a family, and Iwouldn't if I had gotten into it."

At the time he was living inManassas, which was being gobbledup by the DC sprawl. So, in 1999, heand his wife Barbara found 10 acresjust outside of Gordonsville and theyhave called here home ever since."We love it," he says adding he stilltravels once a month to thePentagon. The rest of the time, he

volunteers forRebuilding Together"and I volunteerhere (VWF)because I can and Inever could before.And this I totallyenjoy."

Asked about thepublic's perceptionof Vietnam, DickThompson hasnoticed a change forthe better. In thepast, "everybodyhated GIs in theVietnam War; Imean literally spit atyou, yelled at you,all that kind ofstuff…Now, folks ourage are at a point tochange the image

and to talk about it. And because of avolunteer army and people just talk-ing about it, attitude has changed inthe last five or 10 years."

Concerning today's Iraq andAfghanistan troops, Thompson con-tinues, "They're so much smarterthan we were. These guys are sowell-trained and superbly equipped,much better equipped… I probablycouldn't make it as a pilot anymore.It's a lot more complicated and a lotfaster. And I look at it and I say, 'Wow,these guys are really well-trained…They're flying drones inAfghanistan and the pilot is in EastTimbuktu out here in Illinois."

Lately, as a Vietnam vet, he's beenpleasantly surprised. "People aresaying 'thank you.' Now that reallystartles a Vietnam vet. Somebodycomes up on the street and says'thank you.' You're going, 'Whoa,what's that for?'

They say, 'for your service.'"

"We served," a couple says softly this pastMemorial Day as they brush past DickThompson at the Vietnam War Foundation(VWF) museum near Ruckersville.

Thompson acknowledges this quiet couplewith a smile. "We've had a good day today; alot of kids and a lot of vets." For the kids it hasbeen an education, a look at warfare from anera before they were born. For the adult chil-dren of vets, it has been a unique insight intowhat their parent went through. For the vetsthemselves, it has been an intense journeydown memory lane, some of it painful, some ofit remedial.

They pause to leaf through the photo albums,saying "I was there," or "I remember that." Theydonate photos and memorabilia. "He was clean-ing out a box some-where and he says'this is going to bethrown out proba-bly,'" Thompsonquotes one vet say-ing.

Another, a heli-copter pilot, climbsup into the cockpitof the "Huey," donshis helmet, and sitsthere for a full 45minutes, silentlyreminiscing."When he left, hefelt a lot better,"says Thompson,who, as a helicopter pilot himself, uniquelyunderstands what that man was going through.

Earlier in the day, a former Vietnam-eranurse walked in, visibly nervous and upset. "Ispent about an hour and a half with her, andfinally we got her talking," smiles Thompson."You know, nurses saw hellacious stuff. I was apilot, and yeah I got shot at and all that kind ofstuff, but I made it through. The people she sawdidn't make it through." By the time she left,"she's got a mission to set up a display for us,and she went out a different person."

Small miracles like this happened all daylong this past Memorial Day. For many it wasthe first time they felt appreciated for their serv-ice to their country in America's forgotten war.

Flash back to the mid-1960s. CraigLaMountain was 19 years old and fresh out ofhigh school when he was drafted. Within in sixmonths he was in Vietnam. "After experiencingall that and coming back here and finding outthey don't teach about it in school and losingmy brother and never finding him, my cousincomes back 10 years later; he's eaten up withAgent Orange…" LaMountain lets the sentencedangle; then starts again. "After that I decided Ijust didn't want the Vietnam veteran to go andbe unrecognized, to be afraid to talk about hisexperiences to his family."

LaMountain started collecting Vietnam-eramemorabilia and military vehicles, fixing themup, and taking them to schools. Five years ago,he retired to this area and brought his collection

with him. Twoyears ago, DickThompson readthat LaMountainhad a "Huey." Hegot to thinking."I've got stuff Icould donate," hesaid as he figura-tively rummagedthrough his oldtrunk in the attic.

They went towork, plowedthrough the paper-work, and createdThe Vietnam WarFoundation, a

501(c)3 museum that very well may be the onlyone of its kind in the country. The problem is,as word of mouth spreads and more vets visitand donate, it will soon outgrow its currentspace. They need a bigger building.

As it is, the display is outstanding. It takesyou through the entire Vietnam experience,from boot camp to discharge. Photos showwooden World War II-era barracks. "Actuallythose pictures were taken at Fort Pickett amonth ago, and they haven't improved any. Amonth ago! Open latrines," exclaims Thompson.

A basic training camp bunk and trunk havebeen set up. There's a clunky mobile radio, andan Army base switchboard sprouting enoughwires to keep even Lily Tomlin busy. A complete

Part of the exhibit at the Vietnam War Foundation's muse-um focuses on the daily life of a serviceman, such as acomplete field kitchen from that era.

All of Dick Thompson's Vietnam-era memorabilia is now in a display caseat the VWF museum. Because so many vets have donated things, themuseum is looking for a larger space.

Dick Thompson signed up for two years in the mili-tary and wound up spending 20. He retired toGordonsville in 1999.

A jeep-mounted 106 recoilless rifle and a "Huey" helicopter in the back-ground are just a few of the vehicles on display at the VWF.

WWe sere servedved