![]() This and other advances in Army medicine originated in the training centers at Fort Sam Houston, home of Army Medicine. ![]() The role of the Huey in evacuating the wounded quickly from the point of injury to a nearby surgical hospital revolutionized Army battlefield medicine, saving some 900,000 lives. This Texas-made helicopter became the infantry’s lifeline, earning its place as the icon of the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, Bell manufactured and sent more than 7,000 Hueys to the war for use by all military branches. Originally designed in response to an Army request for an ambulance aircraft, Bell’s UH-1 “Huey” proved to be a highly versatile and effective machine for a variety of tasks, including troop insertions, resupply missions and medical evacuation. It was a logical location for a helicopter training ground, located in close proximity to Bell Helicopter, where the iconic Huey helicopter was manufactured. With an average 2,000 take-offs and landings daily, the airport at Fort Wolters, Texas, was one of the busiest in the world during the Vietnam War years. At the height of the war, the air around Fort Wolters often carried more than 500 helicopters at any given time as young pilots learned the tactics and maneuvers that would save lives-including their own-in the deltas and jungles of Vietnam. Many of them passed through the Lone Star State on their way to the war through the state’s major military bases.Īt Fort Wolters in North Texas, nearly every helicopter pilot of “The Helicopter War” gained stick time flying a combined 5.6 million training hours. Though there is no accurate statistic of the exact number of native Texans who served, today an estimated 500,000 Texas residents claim the proud title of Vietnam veteran. Texans and Texas families paid a heavy cost: 3,417 Texans died or went missing in Vietnam. Though only one in ten Americans deployed in Vietnam was a direct combat veteran, the lack of a clear front and the nature of guerilla warfare combined to put all who served in harm’s way. ![]() Many were drafted and many volunteered to wear the uniforms of the United States Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard in the Vietnam War, where they served in all capacities as infantry soldiers and marines, helicopter and airplane pilots and crew members, sailors, medical professionals and in other combat and support personnel positions. Since the first farmers and ranchers took up arms to fight for independence in the Texas Revolution, the Lone Star State has had a strong tradition of military service, sending its young to fight in places like Gettysburg and the Somme, at Normandy and Iwo Jima, and, during the 1960s, to places like Ia Drang and Khe Sanh. Most importantly, thousands of young men and women left the farms and ranches and cities and small towns of Texas to serve in that war half a world away. A Texas company designed and built the war’s iconic life-saving helicopter. Texas military bases trained the war’s nurses, medics, pilots and soldiers. Everything is Bigger in Texas and that that includes the Lone Star State’s contributions to the Vietnam War.Ī Texan served as its Commander in Chief.
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