prosperous. you come of the american people, have made our passage into the global information age an era of great american renewal. at all the work i've done as president, every decision i made, every executive action i have taken, every bill i have proposed and signed, i tried to give all americans the tools and conditions to build the future of our dreams and a good society with a strong economy, clean environment and a freer, safer, more prosperous world. i have stood my course by our enduring values, opportunity for all, responsibility from all, the community of all americans. i have sought to give america a new kind of government, smaller, more modern, more effective, full of ideas and policies appropriate to this new time, always putting people first, always focusing on the future, working together, america has

done well. >> watch all the program sunday starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern, five :00 p.m. pacific here on american history tv. >> army veteran rick berry talks about his experience flying helicopters during the vietnam war. he describes different missions and flying formations as well as the role of the first cavalry division. the wisconsin veterans museum hosted his discussion and provided the video. >> today, we are pleased to have mr. rick berry with us today. he is going to be speaking about his time in vietnam as an army aviator, helicopter aviator. rick grew up in command ticket -- in connecticut, but now calls madison home. he attended the university of connecticut for a few years and entered u.s. army helicopter flight school.

he returned to the university of connecticut where he degreed in biology and are to graduate degree in zoology. he retired after a career with the fish and wildlife service as a national wildlife refuge manager. rick has been extremely active at the museum for 15 years. he is one of our favorite docents, and he supports us a lot throughout the programs and aspects of the museum. we are fortunate to have mr. rick berry here today. i'm going to turn it over to you. rick: thank you. hello, everyone. let's get started. the vietnam war is often referred to as the chopper war, the helicopter war, with good reason. 40,000 u.s. helicopter pilots got flight time in southeast asia during the war.

a large portion of that number were young army warrant officers serving at their first duty station after completing flight school. warrant officer pilots were relatively young because most of them, including me, took advantage of an army program which allowed a guy to enlist for flight school. you could do that right out of high school. you would enlist for the army warrant officer rotary wing aviator course. it took a year to complete a sick training and flight school. most new pilots received orders for an aviation unit in vietnam as their first duty station after flight school. the blue triangle on the door of this cartoon helicopter is the emblem used to identify a company helicopter. you are going to see the blue triangle numerous times as i go

forward. i joined a company at the base camp called landing zone english. the term landing zone, or l z, refers to a helicopter landing area that could range in size from a hole in the jungle barely large enough to accommodate one aircraft, to a large base camp like lz english. lz base camp was located in the coastal plain of the central highlands, right along the coast, mostly flat, farmed, most of the vietnamese population in the central highlands lived on the coastal plain rather than the much wider, upland area to the west. the first cavalry division in vietnam was the army's first airmobile division, meaning that the yield operation used helicopters, and air mobile

assault tactics to rapidly move light infantry around the battlefield, then used helicopters again for all the logistics necessary to maintain the field. the first cav was a self-reliant, combined-arms outfit. so the infantry were first cav, salt helicopters were assault helicopters were first cav, close air support in the form of helicopter gunships was also first cav, and we will soon see it took all those components to carry out an air mobile assault, which we simply refer to as a combat assault. is that a sharp troop, or what? the gun belt i am wearing, which we can just about see here, was not army issue, but was quite functional.

helicopter crew members wore a chest protector we called a chicken plank. it would stop a rifle lit but was not comfortable to wear with the shoulder holsters we were issued for revolvers. so a number of us where the gun belts. i was standing next to the left cockpit door. notice the blue triangle on the door. this is an a company aircraft over the coastal plain, eight uh 18 iroquois -- a a uhih era coy -- a uh1a iroquois. our company and the aircraft commander flew the left seat.

he was responsible for operation of the aircraft and no matter who was flying. aircraft commanders also functioned as combat instructor pilots for the new guys joining our company from flight school. [indiscernible] because we flew off using my flight records as an example, i logged my first flight time in vietnam may 11, 1967. during the rest of may end the month of june, a 50-day period, i logged 229 hours of flight time. the hueys i flew in logged 1000 22 -- 1020 two landings, 4.5 hours flight time a day average, four plus landings per hour. this is essentially all seat-of-the-pants, visual flight rules type flying where the

pilots maintain their spatial orientation by looking outside the aircraft primarily. the left side door gunner was also a huey crew chief. he was responsible for the maintenance operations on the aircraft. crew chiefs also had other duties, one of which was monitoring the amount of weight being placed on board when we were hauling cargo. we could all about a ton, in addition to the crew into door guns and ammo and fuel. the typical aircraft load on a combat assault would be seven infantry, four troopers sat on the bench seat to the back of the cargo area facing forward, one on the jump seat.

there were more than 400 helicopters assigned to the division, so the outfit could a large number of infantry and one lift, if need be. that happened on occasion. the much more typical air combat assault involved moving a company of infantry, perhaps 125 troopers, escorted by two gunships. this is a huey cobra. two crew members, both pilots. the aircraft commander sat in the rear seat. he would fly the cobra, aim the entire aircraft in order to fly fixed -- in order to fire fixed ordinance on the wings. the cobra is armed with four rocket pods, each with seven rockets. each rocket had 10-pound,

high-explosive warheads that functioned like a mortar round when they struck the ground. the front-eight pilot -- the front-seat pilot was the copilot gunner, he operated the gun in the nose torah to, a six-barrel 30 caliber machine gun often set to fire 2000 rounds per minute. frontal view of a cobra. the fuselage, three feet wide. quick look at other helicopters used by the division. this is an oh 68 referred to as a loach, used for observation. it was also flown low-end slow by first cav scout cruise. ch47 chinook, seldom used on assault, often used to transport

personnel and cargo from one secure area to another, used to recover downed hueys, used to transport by sling load, 105 millimeter howitzers for fire bases in the field when the division was getting ready to operate in an area beyond present first cav artillery. this is a ch 54 sky crane. this helicopter could lift 20,000 pounds in a sling load. that was a big deal 50 years ago. 20,000 pounds represents about four times the typical bomb low 80's world war ii b-17 -- bomb load of a world war ii b-17. it might be used to sling load a back hill to a hilltop in the

boonies to build a fire base. i am a small person, but that is a large helicopter no matter how you cut it. getting to first cavalry division airmobile operations, this is the a company operations bunker at the landing zone english in fall 1967. inside operations, the chart at the top of this photo indicates the maintenance status for about the half -- for about half of the incoming hueys. the company call was serpent. company flag cruise were in the daily mission assignment sheet at the bottom of the photo. what we are going to do here is talk about tactics used on a

full prep combat assault. that would be an assault where the landing zone was struck with first cav artillery for the slicks brought the first lift of infantry into the landing zone. we used a trail formation going in to pick up stones on assaults, and into landing zones onto extractions. this photo actually is my favorite photo. i took the photo, and i will explain an extraction shortly. i maintained a trail formation by lighting up the tail rotor box with the exhaust of the q. week we were flying formation on. we would carry the trail formation right to touch down in the landing area, set down one

behind the other. that caused the infantry to approach our helicopters from the side at about a 90-degree angle, thus greatly reducing likelihood that one of the troopers would walk into a tail rotor. i mentioned this photo involved in extraction. i took the photo from the cockpit of the number two slick. the formation is on final approach to a landing zone obscured by the huey. based on the height of the vegetation, we might be 500 or 600 feet above the ground here. we proceeded to move the first cav infantry, already in the field, either somewhere else in the field if it was an ongoing operation, much more likely, we are returning a unit to their base camp. on a typical extraction, the landing zone itself would be considered secured because there were first cav troopers there

waiting for us to move them someplace. the area around the landing zone is not secure, which is why the door guns were up. notice that the door guns on our slicks were mounted on a post rather than being handheld. the door gunner could swivel the weapon right or left or up or down, and the amount would absorb the recoil. so door gunners could find a long, low, controlled string of shots with no problem. the general rule of engagement for our door gunners was they would not fire their weapon unless we were fired upon. the major exception to that was a full prep assault where the door gunners and the gunships, one on each side of the formation, would shoot into the landing zone when the formation was on final approach with the first lift of infantry. in this case, the door gunners

will be very closely watching the tree lines on either side of the approach. they are looking for people shooting at the formation. the background in this photo shows rice patties in the coastal plain. in the distance is the coast of vietnam and the south china sea. getting back to our full prep assault, trail formation approach to the pickup zone. in the foreground in this photo, it shows the a company area at our base camp. pretty spartan living. a typical pickup zone might be located just outside the wire of the info to unit's base camp. we would land in trail. seven troopers aboard each huey.

departing the pickup zone, notice the infantry at 3:00. so the first lift is going to bring 35 infantry, one platoon, into the landing zone. their job one is to secure the lz while we return to the same pickup zone, bring the rest of the company, and the company might eventually have 130 troops. but we will bring the rest of the company into the same landing zone using two or three additional lifts, depending on how the full strength of the company was. five slicks escorted by two corporate gunships, heading out. en route to the landing zone, five slicks, the troop carrier aircraft, would get into a v

formation we would carry right into the landing zone. final approach also provided overlapping fields of fire for the door gunners. from the standpoint of the infantry, they wanted us to land as a group, and as close together as possible, so they had the combat power of all 35 troopers as soon as they left the aircraft in the landing zone. i took this photo from the right door gone position of the number three huey. it is at the point of the v. number two is to the right, number 3 two lead's left, number four to the lead's far-right. the out of focus item at the left corner is a door gone. -- a door gun.

i can tell you for certain there was no way i would do that at the present time. perhaps many of us can remember some of the screwy things we did in our early 20's. this was one of them for me. the background in this photo is the hills to the west of the coastal plain. this area has been pounded with heavy ordinance. large craters on the right result from bombs dropped from fixed wing aircraft. smaller craters in the center and left are probably from artillery rounds. the string of bomb craters on the right probably resulted from a b-52 strike. a view of lead from the left seat of number two.

pilots maintain day v -- maintained a v formation by lighting the light over the door connor had. -- the door gunner head. this is more flyby type separation where we are showing off our lift to fly formation. more about that later. the canvas bag on the door gone caught -- the door gun caught empty cases. if you have number four from the right door got her position -- door i took this photo through the sides of the door. door gunners at the best view of

the countryside. this is the same photo back to the rear side on the door gun. notice the orange tips on the bullets. the door guns are loaded with solid tracer ammunition. rather than a typical machine gun. tracer bullets have pyrotechnic material. it is ignited when the round is fired. it allows a machine gunner to visibly follow the path of the bullet. the tactical reason was the sites on the weapon were not usable when we were moving

forward. the door gunner was engaging a target off to the side, down, and forward. in that case, the record was -- weapon was operated like a garden hose. he would shoot at that spot. and then direct a stream of tracer bullets. here we have a view from the cockpit on final approach. while the formation is in route to the landing zone, the artillery of the shooting into the landing zone area for two reasons. one would be the eventual --

potential for the enemy to be present. we were also worried about booby-traps. hopefully this would sent -- set up any booby-traps present. the last round fired would be white phosphorus. it was timed so it arrived in the landing zone when the formation was one minute out. this informed the flight leader that it was clear. here we are going to a different landing zone. a little bit more separation

between the aircraft. the smoke in the background marks the location. it is what remains from the artillery craft. this is the same lz seconds before the formation lands. notice that the door gunner is firing his weapon. they have their fingers in their ears because of the noise. understand the trust placed in the ability and judgment of that door gunner. there are 22 guys downrange from that weapon. he is shooting behind the lead aircraft.

at this point in the assault, the two gunships would be behind. one on each side. if we look at the top of this photo, about one quarter of the way in from the right side, you will see a red streak. that is a tracer bullet fired by the left side gunship supporting the result. -- assault. we spent very little time on the ground in the lz. 15 seconds or less. usually quite a bit less. the infantry would bailout. we would depart and turn to the pickup zone to bring the rest of the company into the same landing zone.

that is a full prep assault as practiced by the first cavalry division. a regular assault happened in the same manner. unless we were fired upon. after completing the assault, we would return to our base camp in formation. give the new pilots an opportunity to practice formation flying and a less stressful situation. everybody would be on the side. as the formation with five. that is what is happening here. it is just about for -- perfect.

evidence in this photo of high morale. we were proud of our flight formation. the right echelon formation downwind to the company area. they would make a 180 degree turn. another formation approaching operations. they were meant to protect the aircraft from enemy rocket and mortar attacks. they were not always 100% effective in that regard. we can tell that the pilot is to

the right. i always thought that was pretty funny. this mission i will describe is the logistics mission. this is where we logged most of our flight time. it was no big deal to fly five to seven hours. you would begin by flying to the logistics pad. usually a battalion. you would receive coordinates

for the landing zones in the fields. sometimes they would change. you would spend the day flying back and forth from the logistics pad to the field unit. hauling out whatever they needed to continue. maybe hot chow for their last meal of the day. one of the cool things about flying logistics is you had an opportunity to sightsee. vietnam is a beautiful place. this was the major north-south highway in vietnam. there is a vietnamese hamlet by the road. probably farming rice patties.

we would sometimes visit the artillery fire base. there was often an infantry unit. responsible for securing the firebase. artillery battery would have helicopter support. this photo shows a landing zone that has been chopped out of the jungle. the white items are the stumps of trees that were cut down. looks like there are three troopers interested in a ride back to their base camp. we might have three replacements on board.

one of them is probably talking to the pilot on his backpack fm radio. that is the communication means in the field. most of our flight time our extractions or flying which is the. i will spend time talking about this emergency supply mission. it is an excellent example of cooperation and trust. this was likely the most dangerous flying. the advanced gallows humor this poster.

it was partially related to the potential for being shot at. and the difficulty associated with flying at night. there were no lights on the ground once you left the base camp. this was before night vision goggles. it became difficult to see the ground. to see the horizon. and easy to get into a condition called pilot vertigo. spatial disorientation where the pilot flying loses the perception of up-and-down. if you happen to a pilot no matter what their skill level. without even -- the pilot even realizing it would happen.

you would lose control of the aircraft. the infantry knew it would be hard to fly at night. they knew they would come if we asked for their help. we knew the infantry would not ask us to fly at night unless there really was an emergency involved. a tactical emergency. if you are activated for emergency resupply, there would be an aircraft on-call. it typically meant there was a field unit in contact with the enemy. the ground commander decided he wanted to be resupplied with ammunition. you would begin by flying to the infantry unit's logistics pad.

you would take on ammo. you would receive coordinates for the landing zone. and you would head out. finding the landing zone usually was not a big deal. we had a homing device in the aircraft. it gave us the location whenever the ground unit communicated on the radio. they would tell you how long -- large the rain -- landing zone would be. they would often recommend an approach direction. you could absolutely trust what you were being told. you would shoot the approach to a trooper.

you would hope for a lights out approach. we knew the enemy was in the area. low and slow was not a good thing to do. there was concern about friendly fire. you might as well turn on the landing light so you could see what you are doing. once you were on the ground, the ammo would be unloaded. most of the medevac's were

flown. there was a combat medic and a crew chief. they had the drugs and the equipment. we were already there. we can sometimes fall -- haul ammunition out. and killed in action troopers. that makes for a very sad right back. we did take hits on occasion.

a couple of hits here in a synchronized elevator on the tail boom. it's in the engine area. -- hits in the engine area. that is a very close miss. these are weapons captured. you will find that this took place over a two week. in december. quite close.

this is an excellent example of this. it began when they noticed a radio antenna and a treat. think about how low and slow that would be to see it. the antenna was investigated by a small platoon. they encountered heavy contact. it was into the area.

there were some other troops involved. the enemy unit was the 22nd regiment. likely in place are getting in place for whatever their assignment was. a major enemy offensive that took place about six weeks later. extensive use of assault helicopters during this. using my flight records as an example. i logged 54.6 hours during this time. we would have flown similar hours. contact was broken. u.s. casualties amounted to 50

killed in action. 250 wounded. the enemy loss was put over 600 killed in action. this was captured. there is battle damage on the lower left. this is the map i mentioned that the beginning of the presentation. it is what is meant for a much larger screen. but we will make do with what is here. the mouth of the river can be viewed in the photograph. just below center.

it was located due west of there. along a major north-south road. this battle took place the east. we took back enemy pows from the field. these were young people. here we have one of our more sophisticated pilots. he is hamming it up. we learned that our company, along with about two thirds of the cavalry division, would be moving north 200 miles to a new base camp just south of the dmz. this move took place shortly before '68 tet.

this is our shower. this is spartan living. one of the cool things about serving as a war officer pilot was flying was your major duty responsibility. some of us had secondary duties that took up a small amount of our time. on the last third of my tour, i served as an operations officer. my assignments during this move north amounted to a company some of our vehicles. these were trucks that were assigned to our company that were moving north. the air force for lewis to a base camp. it was about seven miles south. we deplaned, got on route one

north to our new base camp. i took this photo along the way. it is another example of the beauty of south vietnam. hard to believe there was a war going on here. this bunker is on the south abutment over the river. u.s. marines attacked this bridge. a buddhist temple. a government building. this is actually a university.

this was our new base camp. this is south of the dmz. that is a side view of a gunship. the aircraft on the left is a gunship. it is similar to the helicopter hanging from the ceiling and the veterans museum. one of the things you want to do soon after you arrive in a new area is try to fix yourself up a relatively safe place to sleep. this was a real good friend. he likes to tell me this is one of my more flattering photographs.

what we are doing is filling sandbags. they were used to build walls around our tents. this is why. enemy mortar round impact in front of one of us. this happened shortly after '68 tet. this is one of our tents. spartan living. this tent had a do-it-yourself home improvement project in the form of a wood floor. the wood comes from the boxes that artillery rounds are shipped in. they are shipped to to a box -- two to a box.

we would scrounge the boxes from our local utility battery. this is my tent at the new area. i slept in the bunker. i could take a direct hit on that bunker with a mortar round and it might wake me. this is sunset in vietnam toward the end of my tour. if you walk up to the aircraft, i would strongly suggest you consider doing something else. >> we definitely appreciate your time today. we have a lot of comments on the

chat board about how fantastic that was. i certainly thought so. i have been able to work with you for the past few weeks. and ask a lot of questions about it. seeing what your daily life was like out there. it is amazing. >> one comment i would like to make is that i want everyone to understand i was one of 40,000 pilots. i don't know how many gunners were involved. but a similar sort of number, at least. we had an all volunteer armed forces. many of our citizens do not understand what we ask young people to do. we send them off to war. it is one of the reasons i do

these presentations. >> we are glad you do. we are really glad we can keep this presentation going. i would like to thank you for your time today. for sharing your photographs with us. they are very personal. to be able to share those with the community and with the crowd. it gives more meaning. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] >> you're watching american history tv. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. >> american history tv on

c-span3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story, every weekend. coming up this weekend, the history makers with college presidents on the history of african-americans in education and the importance of hbcus. in light of the recent attack on the u.s. capitol building, watched several films on the united states government and american democracy which offer civics lessons. an author talks about his book in the heart of the sea, about 1820 thinking of a ship following a spare whale attack. -- sperm whale attack. we look back at farewells and inaugurations of previous presidents. exploring the american story.

much american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> you are watching american history tv. explore our nation's past. created by america's cable television companies. today we are brought to you by these television companies, which provide american history tv to viewers. >> next, former white house social secretaries talk about their book treating people well. they share stories from the white house and their thoughts on professional and public civility. one of them worked for the george w. bush administration, the other for the obama administration. the ronald reagan presidential library and museum hosted this event in june, 2018.

in one hour, scholars discussed the story of a u.s. navy messenger who became the first african-american awarded in navy cross. in two hours, scholars discussed the role of the western press during the civil war. >> it is a real treat for us to not have one but two former white house secretaries. i'm sure they are very grateful that they have a plan to execute this white house luncheon. one one of our guest today is a democrat, one republican. they are friends and even show up in public together.