Chopper (127-196)

Summary:

"DUSTOFF Mission in a Hot Zone (II):

Basically, a dustoff is a mission where a Helicopter lands on the ground and evacuates a wounded solider and heads back to base so that the doctors can get to him and save him in time. The main hero in this mission was Mike Novosel. He logged thousands of flight hours, and did many other great feats. Such feats included rescuing Hundreds of wounded soldiers in the frontlines of battle.

One time, he had to go get a friendly soldier. He got separated from the main force, probably because he was not paying attention to where he was going. Novosel had to go get him, all while being shot at from all directions. He was trying to maneuver his helicopter so that some of the bullets would miss. He went and rescued that soldier. He could hear rounds hitting the Huey Chopper. Dustoff's, generally meant a medical evacuation, but it could also mean a troop evacuation just to get them out of hostile territory. Basically, the Huey chopper would come in as quick as possible, and try to get out as fast as they can. It was very dangerous to preform dustoff's, but it was well worth it, saving a soldier's life.

Quote:

"Was I the only pilot in Vietnam who knew that sometimes you could use maturity and knowledge to break rules?" (Dorr 205).

Reaction:

I never really understood why people could not do this in the armed forces. I mean, sure, you see a lot of this happening in military movies. Main characters would be breaking rules to be badass. Such as in the movie Top Gun. Tom Cruise, or the main character, "Maverick" broke so many flight regulations that you could not count how many he broke... One time he flew right over the carrier on purpose. he could have gotten kicked out of that. but then again, it's a movie.

but yes, if you have knowledge and know what you are doing, in regulation you could break rules if they are necessary.