Word: airman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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During his year in Viet Nam, he compiled a solid record as a loadmaster aboard C-123 transports, and even won a Distinguished Flying Cross for his competence under fire. Now, with only about 10 days left of his active-duty tour as an Airman First Class, Patrick Nugent landed in Austin, Texas, to an enthusiastic greeting from Wife Luci and about 100 friends and relatives, including Lyndon Baines Johnson. "Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous," the proud father-in-law repeated, and occasionally prompted Grandson Lyn, almost 2, into a snappy salute. Said Lynda Bird: "I'm just so glad...
...fires astern. Below him on the deck, crewmen tried frantically to fight flames as exploding bombs sent shrapnel in all directions. There were many heroes. Chief Warrant Officer James Helton of San Diego was knocked down repeatedly, yet managed to get up and continue to fight the blaze. Airman Jack Benson of Portland, Ore., is credited with having helped 30 men escape the fire area...
Trapped by advancing flames, some crewmen were forced to jump six stories down to the water, despite the devouring suction created by Enterprise's 30-knot speed. Others held fast against flying shrapnel and searing heat. Airman George Conditt, 21, of Chicago tried to pull a Phantom away from the fire. "While I was hooking up," he says, "a big piece of shrapnel flew through the plane. Fuel started running out and caught fire. I jumped out of the tractor, and in a minute, both plane and tractor were blown to bits...
...bomber on a routine nuclear patrol collided with the Strategic Air Command KC-135 tanker that was refueling it. Wreckage rained on Palomares, including three unarmed hydrogen bombs. A fourth bomb fell into the sea. There were no deaths or serious injuries among the villagers, but a U S. airman mumbled in schoolboy Spanish after parachuting to safety: "Ustedes todos muertos [You're all dead]." Because two bombs' casings had cracked, several thousand airmen and sailors spent 44 days carrying away almost six acres of topsoil and plowing under 600 acres more to dispel any traces of lingering...
...what they can," he says of the missionaries' efforts to keep the Biafrans' hair from turning blonde (the last stage before death by starvation) by flying in food, principally baby food for the festering mouths of the people. The problem is, McGuire says, that he as an airman can fly the food in, but there is no guarantee that it will reach those who need it. "It goes here, it goes there, it goes everywhere," he says sadly. So he wants to return, go back to Biafra, this time on the ground to supervise distribution of food supplies...