Sometime around August of 1970, Vice President Agnew and a delegation of congressmen visited the Saigon area on a fact finding tour to see how the
"Vietnamization of the war" was going. All but one of the 45th Air Ambulance aircraft were ordered back from their field sites and AO's (Area of
Operations) to reposition and shut down in Saigon as standby in case of mass casualty emergency during Agnew's visit. My aircraft was the only one
remaining in the field to cover an AO that had quadrupled in size and had previously been covered by 4-5 Dustoff aircraft. Urgent missions meant "loss
of life or limb" within two hours. We prided ourselves on being airborne and en route to the casualty within 5 minutes of receiving the radio call for
an "Urgent Dustoff" mission. If more than one mission came in another bird would assume 1st Up status and take the mission. Now with every bird in
Saigon, my crew and I were all alone. Since I had to refuel every two hours or less, and the territory had grown so large, I had to perform triage with my
medic based upon the wounded information that had been radioed to us.Very quickly my missions started to back up and I began to fall behind 1 hour, then two
hours, then three, then more. I saw the sun set then come up and almost set again before relief aicraft returned to the field. Far to often during those long
18 hours, I would arrive on site only to hear "You're too late Dustoff, he's a Kilo now."...meaning KIA....killed in action. We did our best,
but as the AC and a 24 year old I suddenly had the task of deciding who would live and who would die...and far too many times I made the wrong decision. What
was called in as an urgent by a buddy to get his friend some medical attention for a non-life threatening wound, would more than once, prevent a truly urgent
casualty from being picked up on time. To this day, I still wonder if Agnew and those congressmen ever realized how costly their little junket was in terms of
needlessly lost lives. I know that I will never forget hearing "You're too late Dustoff...".

