A follow up to Sunday’s post…

My friend Neil Hansen, better known as Weird Neil, was an Air America pilot in SEA during Vietnam.

This is the speech he gave at EAA Oshkosh two years ago. It’s a little long at 51 minutes, but if you’re interested in the history of Air America and it’s actions, this is from a man who was there…

Neil is quite the character, and these are some of the ‘tamer’ stories…

He talks about one of his shoot downs at the 34 minute point, if you’re not interested in the history. I’ll also warn you, this is NOT a politically correct speech, he tells it like it is, and some may not like his sense of ‘humor’…

It’s ‘black’ humor, laughing at death and being a survivor. We’ve talked about it and Neil’s take is that was ‘his’ way of dealing with, in addition to survivor’s guilt, being surrounded by death and destruction on a daily basis, and what he saw feeding the little villages and outposts throughout Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.

If you’re interested in a book, Christopher Robbins wrote Air America, an inside story of the airline. Click the cover to go to Amazon. Sadly, there isn’t a Kindle version.

 

Comments

A follow up to Sunday’s post… — 8 Comments

  1. Thanks for the video. I’ll second Robbins’s book. If you’re interested in the Raven program (USAF FACs in Laos), he tells their story in “The Ravens.”

  2. Awesome. Pop was there at about the same time but flying Jolly Greens out of Thailand.