Dustoff’s crews in the Vietnam War flew through hell for their soldiers

He was a helicopter pilot called “Fight Kelly,And in the early years of the Vietnam War, Major Charles Kelly set the example for the daredevil fliers who would later be called Army “Dustoff” units, with ambulances that saved thousands of American troops.

As commander of the 57th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance), Provisional, Kelly flew a mission to evacuate wounded soldiers on July 1, 1964. The ground commander radioed Kelly to tell him that the landing zone was too hot and that he should turn around.

Kelly’s response: “If I hurt you.”

Minutes later, a bullet pierced his heart, killing Kelly.

Kelly’s example and the mission he pioneered—air evacuation in the middle of battle—became known as “Dustoff.”

This week, veterans of Dustoff units gathered at the Army Center for Combat Medicine to celebrate an honor bestowed on their community in September: the Congressional Gold Medal.

Brig. General Clinton Murray, commanding general of the US Army Medical Center of Excellence in San Antonio, Texas, spoke at the legacy ceremony of the Dustoff crews leaving to become modern military medics.

“When you hear them flying through the fog, so deep you can’t see them, it’s the people,” Murray said. “If you’re thinking about flying backward because the enemy fire is so intense, flying backward is the only way to get to the victim. To think that the helicopters could be so heavy, 6,700 pounds overweight, that they had to jump the helicopter off the ground to get enough lift to actually carry them away. Amazing.”

The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest honor the legislature can bestow. The medal was presented by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) in late 2023. President Joe Biden signed the Dustoff Crews of the Vietnam War Congressional Gold Medal Act bill into law on September 26.

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The law includes all Dustoff crews, but specifically highlights the actions of the 57th and 54th Medical Detachments.

At the height of the war in 1969, two air ambulance companies, eleven separate helicopter ambulance detachments, and non-divisional area support consisting of 140 aircraft, with a total of 16 numbered helicopter ambulances, were based from South Vietnam.

“The loss rate of helicopter ambulances was one and a half times higher than non-medevac platforms,” said Scott Woodard, a historian at the Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage, at the ceremony. “The human toll for killed or injured pilots, crew chiefs and medics amounted to 1,136. If you were part of a Dustoff crew during the Vietnam War, you had about a 33% chance of being killed or injured.

Dustoff crews were experts in medical evacuations, or MEDEVACs, often flying through dangerous fog and smoke and almost always reaching landing zones under heavy enemy attack. Their primary air ambulance was the UH-1 Huey helicopter.

The Dustoff crews would evacuate civilians, enemy combatants, and all types of American and South Vietnamese military personnel, often exceeding maximum weight limits to ensure the survival of the wounded. They developed medical treatment modalities that paved the way for today’s medical capabilities in both military and civilian medicine.

One participant in the event was retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Henry Brady, a Dustoff pilot. and Medal of Honor recipient.

During three rescue missions in one day (January 6, 1968), Brady landed on active battlefields, including a minefield, while under intense enemy fire, for a total of 51 American and South Vietnamese soldiers. During the day, Brady’s first helicopter came under so much fire that he switched to a second one and then had to abandon that helicopter after a mine exploded next to it during one of the rescue missions. He completed the day’s missions in a third helicopter. President Richard Nixon presented Brady with the Medal of Honor on October 9, 1969.

The Dustoff crews assigned to the 54th Medical Detachment built a reputation for their fast turnaround time and high survivability.

“So if you go to the Vietnam War, one of the big lessons, we go from a MASH in the Korean War to evacuation by helicopter in the Vietnam War, to get them taken care of in 33 minutes with a survival rate of all . but 100%,” Murray, the commanding general of the Army’s Medical Center of Excellence, said of the unit. “We continue to pursue that goal with something called the golden hour that we do every day in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

All Vietnam Dustoff crews embody that message and they will receive the Congressional Gold Medal once it is minted.

Murray pointed out how Dustoff crews advanced medical knowledge and expertise by administering blood products and vascular interventions that eliminated the need for battlefield amputations, mechanical ventilation, CT scans and the world’s most advanced battlefield intensive care units significantly reduced.

“All these lessons are based on everything you did in the Vietnam War, and all that progress is not nearly as impressive as the people’s progress,” Murray said. “None of this would happen without the people.”

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