ARNOLD (ARNIE) NAKKERUD, YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN 2023 - 1967 VIETNAM VIDEO
"My good friend,
It has been 57 years and I want you to know that you are not forgotten in this little corner of the world. Never have been, never will be. You played a most important part in my life, good friendship with a zest for living every moment to its fullest.
We started the Army's Helicopter flight school together in class 66-15 Ft. Wolters Texas and then volunteered to hold over a month upon completion of that stage of our training because the Ft. Rucker slots were full. We fully enjoyed that month doing odd jobs at Ft. Wolters and then reported to class 66-17 where we finished flight school and both received our Warrant Officer Bars, Wings and orders to go to Vietnam. By the order of the President of The United States, we were officially declared Officers and Gentleman.
thank you for that, good things should be held close... mil advisor Bac Lieu
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Irish. - Nemo
ReplyDeleteDitto. Paid respects over there as well
ReplyDeleteTY, Feral.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to read about fellow brothers-in-arms, even though we served in different capacities (flight vs signal) and never met (Vietnam vs post-Vietnam).
Now need to find some allergy relief and a shot of top shelf salute.
President Elect B Woodman
Will never fail to remember three guys who did not make it home:
ReplyDeleteJerry Kirkendall, next door neighbor, firery red hair, went down in his chopper.
Jim Humphrey, Junior High buddy, everybody's friend, also went down in his chopper.
Dan Coombs, High School and College buddy, born April 1, 1947 and always seemed to have some kind of fun motive covered by his impish grin. Went down in his spotter plane.
As they say, "The best die young".
Rest in peace, guys.
They do not grow old as we grow old. Salute.
DeleteIrish, this post hits a particularly bitter sweet part of my life. You know me as the Tennessee Beekeeper, we spoke over the phone many months ago. In another life, I was a member of Class 83-13 Light Blue Flight that graduated from Ft. Rucker, AL. I am retired now. I was blessed to experience learning on the TH-55 Hughes trainers, later UH-1H Huey, and lastly the UH-60A & L models before I retired. I made a lot of friends, lost some friends to aviation accidents, even got an all expense paid opportunity to live in a war zone of a year in Desert Storm. I am even more blessed to have lived through it all. Looking back on it...........I realize just how lucky and blessed I am to be here to post this. God bless the souls of the men and women who lost their lives in service to this nation. Thank you Irish for posting the link. Strange thing about the Vietnam Wall Memorial..........there just seems to be a LOT of dust or something that causes me to get watery eyes when I visited it. Seems to be a problem at Veterans Cemeteries too.
ReplyDeleteDavid Alan Higgs, I will never forget you. I look forward to meeting you again - soon.
ReplyDelete