[Time] 'We’re dealing with pencil-pushing bureaucrats who have no fricking clue'Between 1961 and 1975, tens of thousands of U.S. military helicopter pilots, crew chiefs, gunners and medics spearheaded U.S. efforts to secure the 67,000 square miles of South Vietnam. They ultimately lost to the North Vietnamese. Now, a half-century later, they are fighting once again. This time, their ranks thinned by age, they are fighting for a more modest piece of territory: five square feet in Arlington National Cemetery. Once again, they are losing. This time, the enemy is the U.S. Army.
Vietnam has long been known as the "Helicopter War." The distinctive "thump-thump" of UH-1 Huey choppers is seared deeply into the memories of Vietnam veterans, and even many Americans who only heard it on the evening news or recall it from Apocalypse Now. It was where the Army rolled out its notion of "air mobility"--skies full of helicopters rushing troops to the front, plucking them from trouble, rescuing the wounded, and bringing home the dead.