Enemies meet..become friends

[deziloooooo]

Vietnam War Enemies Now Reconciled

They Will Tell Their Story To 500 Pratt Workers Thursday

By MARA LEE [e-mail]

The Hartford Courant

8:53 p.m. EDT, June 29, 2011

"In the moments after Maj. Dan Cherry shot down a Soviet MiG in April 1972 over North Vietnam, he was reacting more than reflecting. "It all happened so fast. You're sort of functioning like an athlete does."

His first thought was: "I've got to be sure people see this." He wanted credit for the "kill."

A few seconds later, he saw Hong My Nguyen, trailing a parachute, careening past his windscreen.

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"I had to aggressively maneuver to avoid hitting him," said Cherry, now 72. "I had no interest in injuring and killing him," and if he had struck the pilot, the parachute or parts of his body could have been sucked into the F-4 Phantom fighter jet's engine. "It might destroy my engine."

On Thursday, Nguyen, Cherry, and John Stiles, a navigator who was in a fighter jet shot down by Nguyen a few months earlier, will speak to 500 employees from Pratt & Whitney's military engines division about how the three have reconciled with each other in the last three years.

Cherry wrote an illustrated book, "My Enemy, My Friend," telling the story of how he found and restored his old fighter jet, how he came to search for Nguyen, and the relationship they've forged — albeit through interpreters.

"I've never felt that our language barrier is that much of a problem," Cherry said in an interview Wednesday at Pratt's training center in East Hartford. "We like to banter back and forth, kidding each other like fighter pilots do. We have a lot of fun with it."

What they haven't talked about is their views of the righteousness of what Americans call the Vietnam War, and what Vietnamese call the American War. Cherry said visiting Vietnam and meeting Nguyen hasn't changed his view of American involvement in the war.

"Our relationship has nothing to do with political decisions," he said. "We have a basic human being relationship that supersedes all that. We've avoided that kind of discussion."

Their first encounter, 39 years ago, was seven years after the United States started bombing North Vietnam in an effort to preserve the government in South Vietnam. From the beginning of the war to the fall of Saigon in 1975, about 7 million Vietnamese men, women and children were killed. There were 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed.

"The loss from both sides are equal," Nguyen said through an interpreter. "I do not really want to compare regarding statistics."

Nguyen, 66, was just 8 when the Vietnamese defeated their French colonial rulers and 18 when the U.S. started bombing his country. He describes how he reacted at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. "I am a very strong man, I almost never cry," he said. "I arrive to the Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., tears fill my eyes."

Nguyen said he appreciates Cherry's sense of humor. "As a fighter pilot, we must have a lot of similarities, he said.

But he looks saddest as he alludes to the lasting effects of the American planes' dropping Agent Orange, an herbicide that destroyed human health for generations. "I hope that wars never happen again," Nguyen said.

For Cherry's part, he flew missions in Vietnam in 1967, and again in 1972, that time over his wife's objections. "My hope was that we could assist in bringing the war to an end," Cherry said. "That's what all warriors want."

And downing the enemy plane did, in fact, prove very useful to his career, he notes now, as he eventually was offered the chance to lead the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team and was promoted to brigadier general before he retired in the late '80s.

"My Enemy, My Friend" was published in 2009 by Aviation Heritage Park Inc., a nonprofit group Cherry founded to protect and maintain historic aviation artifacts. That year, he and Nguyen received some national media attention.

He continues to do speaking tours with Nguyen, with hosts paying to bring his friend over from Vietnam, and flying him from Kentucky and John Stiles from North Carolina, because he feels it helps bring closure to Vietnam veterans. At every talk, he said, "a Vietnam veteran will come forward with tears in his eyes, thanking us for what we're doing."

[ugonow]

When researching B17 pilots,I saw a wonderful story about a pilot named Charlie Brown,whose plane was destroyed,butsomehow still flying with his crew injured.A german fighter pulled up along side and they thought they were dead, but instead helped guide them back to England. Charlie Brown started a mission after the war to track down this German pilot After years, they did end up meeting up.Cool story.

[deziloooooo]

Jul 19, 2011 9:58:34 GMT -5 ugonow said:

When researching B17 pilots,I saw a wonderful story about a pilot named Charlie Brown,whose plane was destroyed,butsomehow still flying with his crew injured.A german fighter pulled up along side and they thought they were dead, but instead helped guide them back to England. Charlie Brown started a mission after the war to track down this German pilot After years, they did end up meeting up.Cool story.

Wow, that is a story...I think I read something similer where the pilot pulled up on a crippled plane that was alone but just waved, salututed and wagged wings..then peeled off to go back home..

I am sure a lot of such tyopes isolated happened..that they were able to connect after the war and the German Pilot survived was something,,I just saw a military channel show, on the Mustang..Charles yeager who took six weeks to get back after being shot down, French Partisons through Spain..but in the inteview with German Pilots , by the end of the war..had nothing leftt, the iones who were sent up were just rookies in flying so mostly a death trip when went up..

Something I ddin't know they mentioned, had 100's of jets on fields but no engines , they had no metal materials needed to build the engines..plus pilots to fly them.