The Last Flight of JT Bullen
“Hey Captain, I thought you were going stateside next week?” Asked Gunny Sgt. Anderson as he jumped in the Helicopter.
“Yeah,
I am” Answered Captain J. T. Bullen, “I can almost taste my wife’s homemade
beans and cornbread now. Just think in
ten days I am gonna be waking up to Jalapeno Waffles and Biscuits with Corn Cob
Jelly.”
“Then
why are you flying this mission?” Asked Gunny.
“Well,
Gunny it’s like this. They got me going
to Fort Hood in Texas. I am gonna be
the Dag Gum desk bound Admin Officer for the next three years. So today is the last time I am gonna get to
fly my little Sweet Bee.”
“But,
Captain excuse me for saying so but only a fool fly’s in combat when he doesn’t
have to!”
“Come
on Gunny, You know nothing is gonna every happen to me.” Said the Smiling
Captain Joseph Traywick Bullen as he climbed into the helicopter.
45
minutes later over the jungles of Vietnam Captain Bullen received a radio call
to do a “Hot” extraction.
Capt.
Bullen yelled “Yee Hawwww, Hang on Gunny we got us a fire fight with some boys
in trouble. We gonna go play Lone
Ranger.” He banked the helicopter and
charged north.
As
they flew over the tree tops Capt. Bullen sang the old Hank Williams song “If
You Got The Money Honey, I Got The Time.”
The 26-year-old West Point Graduate charged towards the battle without a
thought to his own safety.
Twenty
miles to the North the last of the pinned down Soldiers threw down his M16 and yelled,
“ I surrender, Don’t Kill Me!” Pvt.
Mike Tolly would never know that in a matter of moments his actions would
tragically impact the town that had 24 years earlier ended the life of his
Grand Father.
The
Viet Cong Guerilla’s quickly overran the American position and set up an ambush
for the approaching helicopter.
Captain
Bullen yelled back to the gunny “Light it up, we are going in hot.”
The
Gunny yelled back “Capn. I don’t see no smoke!
How do you expect me tell the good guys from the bad guys? I don’t want to toast any of Uncle Sam’s
little nephews.”
“Gunny
blow the sheep dip out of anything that’s moving. The white hats are pinned down and the Injuns are attacking! We gonna go in like General Custer and the
friggin 7th Calvary.”
Gunnery
Sergeant Franklin muttered to himself “I hope that crazy Texan remembers that
Custer got his but kicked by those Indians.”
The
helicopter swooped in and opened fire on the Viet Cong positions. The Gunny Sgt. was laying down a devastating
field of fire when the Viet Cong in the American position opened fire on the chopper. The Gunny Sgt. Fell in the first
volley. Capt. Bullen whipped the copter
around and tried to escape the trap but the Viet Cong crossfire hammered the
copter.
Ten
thousand miles away in the small East Texas town of Nomocotton Texas Marie
LaGrange Bullen smiled as she picked up her two small kids from their
Grandparents, Big Bobby and Cindy Jean Bullen.
She said “Don’t you worry Momma Bullen, JT will be coming back any day
now. We are all gonna be back together
and happy.”
A
few weeks later the whole town turned out for the full military funeral of
Captain Joseph Traywick “JT” Bullen,
winner of the Army Bronze Star for conspicuous bravery. The women cried and the men saluted. The preacher ended the sermon by saying “Once
more our little town has paid the ultimate price for American freedom. JT Bullen’s name will be added to the long
list of our young men that have marched off to war, never to return.”
