George Smith (Smitty) was born in 1943 and grew up in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. He joined the Army at 17 and shortly after was sent to Pleiku, Vietnam, where he served as an avionics technician and received a couple of air medals flying door gunner in H21's and Huey-type helicopters. After a few stateside assignments, Smitty went to flight school and returned to Vietnam in 1968 for a second tour as a helicopter pilot. Assigned to the 71st Assault Helicopter Company he flew slicks, won a couple more medals and logged 1267 hours of combat flight time for the Americal Division at Chu Lai. --BACK COVER.