On 6 January 1968 Major Patrick H. Brady, U.S. Army, Medical Service Corps, 54th Medical Detachment, 67th Medical Group, 44th Medical Brigade demonstrated conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Flying a UH-1 medevac helicopter, on his second tour of duty in Chu Lai he volunteered to rescue two badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers in enemy territory. Several attempts had been made but all been aborted due to bad weather. When he arrived, thick fog covered the evacuation site. He descended slowly until he could make out the shape of trees beyond his rotor blades, then used them to orient the craft and moved sideways toward the extraction point. Despite the close-range enemy fire, he was able to locate the soldiers and evacuate them.
Not long after this rescue mission, he was called to another fogged-in area where American casualties lay close to enemy lines. Earlier in the day, two other U.S. helicopters had been shot down trying to reach the site. Brady lowered his chopper through a space in the fog, orienting himself by a stream bed to get to the wounded. In total, he made four flights over the next hour to rescue all 39 GIs. On his third mission of the day to rescue more American soldiers, Brady once again put down at a landing zone in enemy territory. During his descent, the controls of his helicopter were hit, but he was able to evacuate the injured. Back at base, he got a replacement helicopter and returned. On his fourth mission, he was watching another medevac trying to extract members of a trapped American platoon when a mine exploded nearby, causing the helicopter to leave without the casualties. Brady touched down as close to the marks left by the other craft’s skids as he could to avoid mines. The soldiers were reluctant to cross the mine field, so his crew men had to go get them. All were brought aboard, except for one who was being carried back on a stretcher by two of Brady’s crew members. They had almost reached the plane when one of the stretcher bearers stepped on a mine. The explosion blew a hole in the helicopter and caused every warning light on the control panel to go on, but Brady managed to get the damaged craft off the ground and deliver the six severely injured soldiers to medical aid. Then he picked up a new helicopter and kept flying. In all, he evacuated 51 men that day. Four hundred bullet holes were counted in the helicopters he flew.
During his two tours in Vietnam Brady flew over 2,000 combat missions and evacuated more than 5,000 wounded. After Vietnam, Brady continued serving in the US Army, retiring in 1993 after 34 years of service.
