Monday, April 21, 2014

March 1969, Chu Chi, Vietnam

While digging through some old photos, I stumbled across a rare gem of a photo of my uncle while he was serving in Vietnam during the war. He rarely talks about it, rarely shares photos of it, and is all-around a fairly private person. While I respect that, I thought it was fitting to share the photo and a well written account of the events that lead to the picture being so interesting.

First, the story behind the photo. While the story's author isn't in the photo and may not even be familiar with my uncle, I feel it still gives a great idea of what happened. I'd recommend looking at the picture, reading the article, then look at the picture again.

Second, the photo. I've included scans of both the front and back. I've researched "CV Mills" but I don't know who it is. The CH-47A was an early version of the Chinook helicopter that began seeing action in Vietnam. I have no idea if my uncle flew them or not but I do know he was a helicopter pilot during the war so it's likely he was a Chinook pilot.

Photos:




Transcription:
The back reads:

Myself & CV Mills at Chu Chi RVN
March 1969 - remains of CH-47A

References:
- Randle, Kevin D. "Tet 1969 at Cu Chi." History Net Where History Comes Alive. Vietnam Magazine, Feb. 2003. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <http://www.historynet.com/tet-1969-at-cu-chi.htm>.
- Numerous facts were gathered from the private Richard Family Estate collection. These facts span numerous sources of information and contain genealogical data, photos, and newspaper articles.