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Valor and Courage Vietnam veteran proud of his...
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Valor and Courage
By:Jason Kristufek July 25, 2002
Nevada Vietnam veteran proud of his war experience
By Jason Kristufek
Staff Writer
NEVADA - David Lilland makes no excuses about the Vietnam War or the 160 combat missions he flew as a machine gunner on board an Army helicopter.
"I think a bullet going through my body hurt just as much as it did going through a World War I or World War II veteran," this career military man and law enforcement officer said. "It is still a war."
Lilland doesn't feel unappreciated. He accepts the Vietnam War as a political action that could have been won quickly if the military had been able to flex the full might of its resources. The people chosen to represent him and the thousands of others like him, however, never made that decision.
In his opinion, if you are not ready or willing to fight for this country and for the preservation of its beliefs and way of life, you are free to leave. Canada is just to the north.
Lilland spent 21 years in the military, so his views may be somewhat biased. He also served 21 years as a law enforcement officer, mainly for the Nevada Police Department. His experience is one of valor, courage and determination.
Line of fire
Imagine, for example, that you have flown 160 combat missions on board the most vulnerable target in a war that some on the home front never agreed with.
Most of those missions were to fly Vietnamese soldiers into landing zones. Others were to take supplies to remote locations within a country with a widely diverse geography.
Your priority is to protect the helicopter from being hit and taken down by enemy fire. Often you have shot an M-60 machine gun at an enemy you couldn't see. Each time you took off or landed, your nerves started to quiver, because that is when you are most vulnerable.
Now imagine you are back on ground on your third tour in a war-ravaged country. You know the situation on the home front. You are standing or sitting in holes for days with snakes, mosquitoes and leeches. Malaria is common.
One day, you are a rifle squad leader for the 101st Airborne Infantry Division taking part in a two-company mission to rid a Vietnamese village of the enemy.
You jump out of a transport helicopter and land in an open area of a dry rice paddy. You approach the village by foot.
But the village is empty. Your company starts taking fire from a wooded area near the village. Men around you are wounded and killed.
The decision is made to attack the enemy sheltered in the woods. No questions asked. You attack. You move from point to point to avoid taking fire.
Somewhere along the line as you are running to the next point a couple of rounds from a North Vietnamese machine gun hit you and immediately drop you to the ground.
"When I got hit, it wasn't like it is in the John Wayne movies," Lilland said. "It put me down real quick."
You are lying on your back now in 100-degree heat, not able to breathe very well, but you aren't sure why.
"A lot of guys die that don't need to because of shock. They can't control their fears," Lilland said.
You reach behind and feel blood on your back where the bullet has exited your body. A fire team leader makes his way to you. He secures an airtight bandage on the wound, and leaves you lying there.
A couple hours have passed. Reinforcements are called in. A helicopter gun ship takes position directly above you and fires its deadly rounds toward the enemy.
The shells from the rounds it fires fall on you, still hot, still burning. You don't care. The gun ship is there to do a job. One of them is to make sure you get out of that wooded area alive.
The day Lilland was shot a bullet fired by a North Vietnamese soldier pierced his left lung. Another bullet grazed his right arm just below the shoulder. His time with the 101st Airborne Division rifle squad was over.
"It was serious enough that they sent me back to the States," he said.
War was necessary
Lilland, 65, has since retired from law enforcement and the military. He and his wife Barb have two daughters and five grandchildren. He grew up in Slater, where he graduated from high school.
"I think it was necessary that we were there," Lilland says of Vietnam. "I think people that have never left the U.S. don't have the full understanding of what we have seen as soldiers when we were called to go places.
"Yeah, you want to get out of there real quick, if you have seen some of the things we did. But if you don't want to fight for this country, move out."
cAmes Tribune 2002
Reader Opinions
Post your opinion and share your thoughts with other readers!
Name: Steven Paul Ray
Date: Jul, 25 2002
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Dave Lilland for the service he did for his country that has benefited all Americans. Dave Lilland can certainly be proud of his career in the military and as a peace officer here at home. But most of all, we citizens, should be proud of Dave and the tens of thousands like him, who served during Vietnam. I agree it was a necessary war, it was too unfortunate that the political leaders of the time did not let the military do its job from Vietnam, rather than Washington, DC. Maybe a majority of the 58,000 soldiers that died in the conflict could have been spared their life to enjoy the freedoms we live everyday because of their sacrifices.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4852175&BRD=2035&PAG=461&dept_id=238101&rfi=6
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By:Jason Kristufek July 25, 2002
Nevada Vietnam veteran proud of his war experience
By Jason Kristufek
Staff Writer
NEVADA - David Lilland makes no excuses about the Vietnam War or the 160 combat missions he flew as a machine gunner on board an Army helicopter.
"I think a bullet going through my body hurt just as much as it did going through a World War I or World War II veteran," this career military man and law enforcement officer said. "It is still a war."
Lilland doesn't feel unappreciated. He accepts the Vietnam War as a political action that could have been won quickly if the military had been able to flex the full might of its resources. The people chosen to represent him and the thousands of others like him, however, never made that decision.
In his opinion, if you are not ready or willing to fight for this country and for the preservation of its beliefs and way of life, you are free to leave. Canada is just to the north.
Lilland spent 21 years in the military, so his views may be somewhat biased. He also served 21 years as a law enforcement officer, mainly for the Nevada Police Department. His experience is one of valor, courage and determination.
Line of fire
Imagine, for example, that you have flown 160 combat missions on board the most vulnerable target in a war that some on the home front never agreed with.
Most of those missions were to fly Vietnamese soldiers into landing zones. Others were to take supplies to remote locations within a country with a widely diverse geography.
Your priority is to protect the helicopter from being hit and taken down by enemy fire. Often you have shot an M-60 machine gun at an enemy you couldn't see. Each time you took off or landed, your nerves started to quiver, because that is when you are most vulnerable.
Now imagine you are back on ground on your third tour in a war-ravaged country. You know the situation on the home front. You are standing or sitting in holes for days with snakes, mosquitoes and leeches. Malaria is common.
One day, you are a rifle squad leader for the 101st Airborne Infantry Division taking part in a two-company mission to rid a Vietnamese village of the enemy.
You jump out of a transport helicopter and land in an open area of a dry rice paddy. You approach the village by foot.
But the village is empty. Your company starts taking fire from a wooded area near the village. Men around you are wounded and killed.
The decision is made to attack the enemy sheltered in the woods. No questions asked. You attack. You move from point to point to avoid taking fire.
Somewhere along the line as you are running to the next point a couple of rounds from a North Vietnamese machine gun hit you and immediately drop you to the ground.
"When I got hit, it wasn't like it is in the John Wayne movies," Lilland said. "It put me down real quick."
You are lying on your back now in 100-degree heat, not able to breathe very well, but you aren't sure why.
"A lot of guys die that don't need to because of shock. They can't control their fears," Lilland said.
You reach behind and feel blood on your back where the bullet has exited your body. A fire team leader makes his way to you. He secures an airtight bandage on the wound, and leaves you lying there.
A couple hours have passed. Reinforcements are called in. A helicopter gun ship takes position directly above you and fires its deadly rounds toward the enemy.
The shells from the rounds it fires fall on you, still hot, still burning. You don't care. The gun ship is there to do a job. One of them is to make sure you get out of that wooded area alive.
The day Lilland was shot a bullet fired by a North Vietnamese soldier pierced his left lung. Another bullet grazed his right arm just below the shoulder. His time with the 101st Airborne Division rifle squad was over.
"It was serious enough that they sent me back to the States," he said.
War was necessary
Lilland, 65, has since retired from law enforcement and the military. He and his wife Barb have two daughters and five grandchildren. He grew up in Slater, where he graduated from high school.
"I think it was necessary that we were there," Lilland says of Vietnam. "I think people that have never left the U.S. don't have the full understanding of what we have seen as soldiers when we were called to go places.
"Yeah, you want to get out of there real quick, if you have seen some of the things we did. But if you don't want to fight for this country, move out."
cAmes Tribune 2002
Reader Opinions
Post your opinion and share your thoughts with other readers!
Name: Steven Paul Ray
Date: Jul, 25 2002
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Dave Lilland for the service he did for his country that has benefited all Americans. Dave Lilland can certainly be proud of his career in the military and as a peace officer here at home. But most of all, we citizens, should be proud of Dave and the tens of thousands like him, who served during Vietnam. I agree it was a necessary war, it was too unfortunate that the political leaders of the time did not let the military do its job from Vietnam, rather than Washington, DC. Maybe a majority of the 58,000 soldiers that died in the conflict could have been spared their life to enjoy the freedoms we live everyday because of their sacrifices.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4852175&BRD=2035&PAG=461&dept_id=238101&rfi=6
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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