The Post and Courier
Schuyler Kropf
Aug 30 2014
Tinley had a lot to overcome. There was survivor's guilt and most nagging on his conscience was that the body of a very close friend was taken out with him on that 1967 flight.
"The more you actually confront something, the more it helps you," said Roger Tinley, whose treatment for PTSD involves visits to the same type helicopter - a twin-rotor Sea Knight undergoing refurbishment at Patriots Point - that airlifted him to safety after being wounded in Vietnam in 1967.
WADE SPEES/STAFF
The nightmare that haunts Vietnam War veteran Roger Tinley is anchored around the helicopter ride that saved his life.
On April 21, 1967, Tinley was part of a group of young Marines sent to reinforce the Que Son District of Vietnam. It was not a good day for the Americans. They faced heavy numbers of North Vietnamese and casualties ran high.
Tinley, a radio operator, was wounded by a grenade in the close-quarter fighting and spent that night helping to fend off the attacking forces as best that he and the rest of his group of Marine riflemen could.
When the shooting finally stopped, Tinley was medically evacuated on a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, the familiar tube-shaped workhorse chopper that's carried aloft by two giant whirling rotors.
But Tinley wasn't alone on the flight out. The bodies of eight other Marines killed in the fighting were packed inside with him. "Why me?" Tinley thought to himself as the ride's only survivor.
Decades would pass until he faced the chopper again.
read more here
No comments:
Post a Comment
If it is not helpful, do not be hurtful. Spam removed so do not try putting up free ad.