1,000 flight hours 1,300 missions 2,000 evacuated casualties Jim Becker was a medical evacuation helicopter pilot in Vietnam for three years. (Submitted photo) BY SUE WEBBER • CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jim Becker was a college student in California in 1967, “goofing around like kids in college do,” he said, when he thought he found a better deal. “The draft was very active then,” said Becker, 66, who now lives in Lakeville. “The Army had a helicopter pilot program that you could get into before you enlisted. That sounded like a good deal to me.” After a year of basic and flight training, Becker was in the southern part of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, supporting the 9th Infantry Division from California. “I was a pilot in a Medical Evacuation Helicopter Unit,” he said. “My ‘Dustoff’ helicopter crew included a co-pilot, crew chief and medic. I flew 1,000 flight hours, on 1,300 missions evacuating 2,000 U.S. and ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) combat casualties from the field to medical facilities.”
Becker’s decision to enlist in the Army followed in a long line of family members who had been in the service, he said. “Both my parents and all seven of my uncles were in the military in World War II,” Becker said. “My dad was in the Army Air Corps, his brothers were in the Navy (and) Marines, and my namesake was an Army infantryman killed in the Philippines. My uncles on my mother's side were in the Air Corps, Army and Navy. My dad, wounded in the Philippines, met my Army nurse mother while he recovered in a stateside hospital.” Becker’s brother was drafted and served in Vietnam the year after Becker did. After Vietnam, Becker was only in the U.S. briefly before going to Germany for two years, where he was in another Dustoff Unit supporting training exercises. Despite the unpopularity of the Vietnam war, Becker doesn’t recall any mistreatment or negative
comments directed at him when he returned home to California. However, he said, “After a long flight on my way home from Vietnam, I was in the San Francisco Airport. I had a layover and ordered a beer from the bar. Even though I was in uniform, the bartender would not honor my military ID card and refused me. Lucky for me, my flight's flight attendant was getting coffee at the same time. She presented me with a cold one immediately after takeoff. That beer tasted mighty fine. Other than that, I don't remember anyone paying me any mind. I will say that no one, outside of the military, asked or mentioned anything about Vietnam.” When he got out of the Army, Becker said, the police and fire departments in California had money available for hiring. Becoming a Los Angeles police officer seemed like a natural next step. PILOT - TO PAGE 4