![]() “They had to cut my scalp open and drill a hole in the skull to go inside and get the metal out. Jimerson remembers a nurse shaving his hair and prepping him for surgery. The introduction of the helicopter in the Vietnam War is one reason many seriously wounded Americans survived. While the firefight persisted, fellow paratroopers bundled Jimerson and other wounded on litters and moved them downstream on a small riverboat to a landing zone where a UH-1 Huey “dustoff” (medical evacuation) helicopter crew picked up Jimerson and hauled him to a tent hospital in Da Nang. Jimerson remembers only that his senses were overwhelmed and the pain was “something I can’t even begin to describe.” Rick Arbogast told Jimerson he began screaming and rolling back and forth on his back. “It was like my brain and body were short-circuited,” said Jimerson. The horror of a battlefield wound was instant and overwhelming. Bradley Jimerson’s life was saved thanks to a timely UH-1 Huey “dustoff.” National Archives photo It was like someone was taking a picture with a flash.”Ī UH-1D Huey medevac helicopter takes off to pick up an injured member of the 101st Airborne Division, near the demilitarized zone, South Vietnam, Oct. “I turned and saw a light,” Jimerson said. That’s when a Viet Cong mortar round exploded nearby. Next they established a perimeter, getting the wounded together for extraction. Jimerson fought with an M16 rifle from atop a small hill while his company evacuated a wounded point man and regrouped under heavy fire. It was like someone was taking a picture with a flash.” ![]() With the Tet Offensive unfolding around them, Jimerson and his fellow paratroopers were airlifted to Hue, where they remained till he was wounded on March 13, 1968. Eagle Thrust was the transport of around 10,000 Screaming Eagles to Vietnam to reinforce U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter as part of Operation Eagle Thrust. Once the chute opens up, you just have to go through your training and do the landing like they taught.”Īfter infantry and airborne training, Jimerson went to Fort Campbell, Ky., to join the 101st Airborne Division Screaming Eagles, where he trained to become a machine gunner in Vietnam.īradley Jimerson arrived in Vietnam aboard a U.S. Four were just jumping with a parachute, but the last one was with our full gear and weapons: you felt like you were a robot, trying to walk. We had to jump five times to receive our Airborne wings. We trained with the M14 rifle so I didn’t see the M16. ‘Stand up!’ ‘Hook up!’ ‘Green light!’ It was kind of scary, but once your parachute opens up then you feel safe. The instructor had to scream for you to hear. It provided a lot of vibration and noise that we didn’t train for. Jimerson recalled earning his jump wings: “I’m proud and lucky to have made my first jump from a C-119 Flying Boxcar. ![]() We loaded on C-141 Starlifters, which flew us to Vietnam.” Within weeks of arrival in Vietnam, Jimerson was in combat. They trucked us to the airfield at Fort Campbell. “In mid-December 1967, they issued us new jungle fatigues and told us to mail our personal stuff home. “I looked at the airborne boots, airborne wings, and the Screaming Eagle patch on the visiting drill instructor from Fort Benning, Ga., and that drew me in,” said Jimerson. That’s where he learned about the Airborne. He enlisted in the Army in February 1967, two days before turning 19, and went to Fort Ord, Calif., for basic training.īradley Jimerson (left) and Alan Johnson at Fort Campbell, Ky., in 1967. He moved to South Los Angeles, Calif., when he was 12 years old. Jimerson grew up on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation near New York. “We try to do what we can to help veterans, especially the wounded,” Jimerson said in a July 3 telephone interview. Jimerson spends much of his time encouraging fellow paratroopers to attend reunions of his outfit, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Jimerson, 65, calls Steamburg, N.Y., home, but he and his wife, Catherine, or “Cat,” spend most of the year traveling the country in their recreational vehicle. Shrapnel from an exploding Viet Cong mortar shell destroyed Jimerson’s left eye and penetrated his brain. The Pentagon figure for Americans in Vietnam who suffered “wounds not mortal” is 303,604, including 153,303 of those wounded to the extent that they required a hospital stay.īradley Jimerson became one of those Americans. headquarters in Saigon, South Vietnam, gave numbers, but rarely told the story. America’s press, public, and even Congress paid relatively little attention to the experience of the wounded soldier during the Vietnam War.
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