Retired Marine Corps Colonel Ron Gatewood grew up in a blue collar family outside Indianapolis, Indiana. At Purdue University, he participated in the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class (PLC)-Aviation Program, and received his Marine Corps commission upon graduation in 1964. After flight training and a Caribbean cruise, he transitioned to the CH-46, and then left to join HMM-262 at Marble Mountain in Vietnam, where they flew mostly by dead reckoning. He discusses lifelong friendships with his fellow Marines, their shared desire to be good Marines and fly, their shared experience of fighting and keeping each other alive. He recalls the Tet Offensive, the battle for Khe Sanh, several shoot-downs, and the destruction of a platoon during Operation BADGER TOOTH. He describes saving six Marines, but having to leave a seventh—who was dead—behind. And he recalls the men who later died trying to recover the body, and the final recovery and identification of the remains in 2004. On a second tour, Gatewood returned to Vietnam as a jet fighter pilot with Marine Attack Squadron 211 based at Bien Hoa.