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Veteran Jim Hackbarth spent about a year in Vietnam.
“(We) took troops and supplies and picked up people out in the field and brought them back to the base, or took them wherever they needed to go. We also flew around the colonels and the generals and took them to different bases,” he said.
Hackbarth explains the scariest moment of his time in Vietnam,when their helicopter lost a tail rotor.
“The helicopter started spinning and we were up about thirty feet above, and we hit the ground pretty hard.”
“They’re (the enemy was) always around you. There (were) no front lines in Vietnam,” Hackbarth stated when asked if he was afraid of sitting in a disabled helicopter waiting for help.
Hackbarth had the opportunity to take a Stars and Stripes Honor Flight. He had seen the Vietnam Memorial prior to his Honor Flight, but this time, his daughter accompanied him.
“I wanted my daughter to see that and experience that so she knows how we feel”.”