My Story
by Mike Novosel
Mine is an unusual war story. It is about the people who fought in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam; how they related to one another as they shared fears and tears mixed with humor and courage to form an invincible bond of camaraderie.
My story begins its journey in 1941 when I enlisted in the army air corps and winds it way through cadet training, advanced transition training in B-24s, and the ultimate weapon of World War II, the B-29.
As I traveled the journey I got to know many people. We shared our triumphs and celebrated together. We also shared our setbacks and comforted and helped one another. At times, when I thought I was on top of the world, I would find myself cut down and discarded. I would face my self pity. But there were the others, traveling the road with me, and together we would find a new niche.
After three wars in our century, our nation faced another, this time in Vietnam. In the midst of a gloomy atmosphere spawned by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy I felt that I must get involved. I wanted to help; and in an irrational act I volunteered my services again. But this time it was with a different group of people. I joined the army and found myself flying with soldiers. It was an entirely new life; soldiers had a different way of doing things. But I found that they had the same bounds of camaraderie that existed in the army air force and, as I later learned, in the other branches of the services.
I volunteered for the army's aviation program to teach young folks to fly. But the army didn't see it that way and I ended up in Vietnam flying medical evacuation--dustoff--missions. It turned out to be the most dangerous flying in Vietnam.
Circumstances dictated that I fly two tours in Vietnam, the second also for dustoff. This time my son joined me as a dustoff pilot. We sometimes flew together and in one unusual twist of fate came to each others' rescue when our helicopters went down.
The dustoff story tells of sacrifice and reflects the strong bonds of camaraderie that exists among warriors. It is my great honor to be one of them.
Michael J. Novosel
Medal of Honor, Vietnam
