"I … told my mother and my aunt … ‘You don't have to worry about me. I'll be coming home. And [my mother] said, ‘How do you know that?’ I said, ‘They're going to let me shoot back.’"
Description of Interview:
Monroe Balton shares his insights on war, friendship, and leadership from the perspective of a Huey pilot tasked with providing battlefield artillery support from the air, and also from the perspective of an African-American Army officer in Vietnam in the mid-1960s. He elucidates phrases like pop smoke, hot box, Peter Pilot, and Donut Dolly, comments on his preference for a .45 over a .38 revolver, and describes what happens when 48 rockets are fired from a helicopter.
Key Words: ROTC, Fort Bliss, Fort Sill, Fort Wolters, Nike AJAX, Nike Hercules, missiles, aerial rocket artillery, SS.11, Kon Tum, Happy Valley, Donut Dolly, Air Medal
Key Names: Major Jim Ford, Herb Hurst, Roger McAllister, Jesse Hobby, Colonel Brady, Captain Flash Gordon, Emory Bush, Alan Clinker, Margo Looney
Unit:
2nd Battalion, 20th Artillery, Aerial Rocket Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division
Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.