Kyle, you earn four-oh marks for this article. Especially because it renders honors to Specialist Six Conway. Crimeny, the man was on his second tour. (I looked him up on the Virtual Wall.) In Hueys with the 1st Air Cavalry no less - one of the Army's most decorated divisions.

I ran into chopper pilots during my hitch as an air traffic controller in the Navy (1974-78). We had a detachment of the Air Force's 67th Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Squadron at Naval Air Station Keflavik. I took a "familiarization flight" aboard one of their HH-3 Jolly Green Giants one night when they practiced rescue maneuvers. And I took a hop aboard a Navy Huey after I transferred to Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine. Both crews had done time in Nam. They weren't inclined to discuss what they'd seen and done over there. But I picked up tidbits about the missions they'd flown from the crosstalk I head through the headphones. Such as when the Jolly Green pilot mentioned the difficulty of holding a hover in a crosswind with his copilot - but at least he wasn't distracted by AK-47 rounds plinking off the fuselage.

Anyway Kyle, some time this weekend, you need to settle into a comfortable chair with three fingers of the good stuff, and give yourself a solemn "Well Done" for writing this article.