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Vietnam was bloody as all hell. A real meat grinder if ever there was one. That's where today's hero comes in. Patrick Henry Brady, a helicopter pilot with balls of steel and an unwavering sense of duty. Men owe their lives to the willingness and brazen badassery that Brady displayed. Why? Well, we're about to tell you if you sit down and listen. You're so needy all the time.So the year was 1968 and the Vietnam War was in full swing. Firefights between North Vietnamese regulars and the Viet Cong were commonplace. Don't worry we smoke checked a lot of the bad guys during those firefights. Every once in a while though we'd take some hits. That's when Major (at the time) Patrick Henry Brady came in. He flew the Bell UH-1 Iroquois (ambulance helicopter) into harm's way with nerves of steel! On one particular day, January 6th, 1968, Major Brady was called to a sight densely covered by fog. He had to get really low to locate the wounded South Vietnamese soldiers, then he was again called to another area with dense fog, again he repeated these actions.Did we mention the fact that his helicopter and everything around him was getting lit up like the 4th of July? Because it was. His first helicopter of the day was getting hit and hit and hit, damaging controls and the aircraft badly.
Major Brady kept going though. Mines damaged his aircraft when he landed in a minefield to rescue American soldiers. Honestly, we're doing the best we can to relate how badass this guy was, but you need to go read the citation yourself because we honestly can't figure out how this man didn't die at least twenty times over.When the day was done, after utilizing three different helicopters and flying numerous missions...in one day Major Patrick Henry Brady rescued FIFTY-ONE wounded. FIFTY-ONE!All in all over the course of 2,000 missions during two tours of duty in Vietnam, Patrick rescued over 5,000 wounded.
