Opinion

MossColumn: Vagabonds do Vietnam

Larry Pigg straps down a rotor on the Cayuse Observer Helicopter on display at the Flat Rock Playhouse.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 25, 2014

Trying to coax a grin out of Jerry Seago and Larry Pigg, I said, "Act like you made it home from Vietnam."

The combat veterans peered back at the camera lens, stony as before.
Vietnam is only funny if you haven't been.
It was a small but meaningful reminder of the balancing act Flat Rock Playhouse marketers are performing this week. They're trying to gently warn about "adult" content while also making a concerted effort to honor Vietnam War veterans who took part in the actual events. The theater is offering Vietnam veterans half price tickets to the first four performances of "Miss Saigon," a love story between an American GI and a Vietnamese woman set during the fall of Saigon 41 years ago. By all accounts, it's a searing and at times disturbing portrayal of war.
Vietnam veterans don't need to be reminded that war is hell. For everyone else the Playhouse is signaling that "Miss Saigon" ain't "Mary Poppins" or even "Good Morning, Vietnam."
"It's an honest portrayal of war, both the emotions and rigors of war, with adult content," said Mark Marvell, the theater's marketing director. "Come on, it's set in a brothel in Vietnam."

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Seago and Pigg are members of the North Carolina Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. They trailered a Vietnam vintage helicopter to town on Saturday and backed it on to the Great Flat Rock outside the Playhouse. It's a visual cue outside the Mainstage hall of the era the musical features.
Seago traveled from his home in Hillsborough to help set up the display. He and Pigg endured a steady rain to set up the display, folding out and strapping down the choppers' four rotors.
"All our people are pilots and we certify that we flew helicopters in Vietnam," said Seago, who served in the Army's First Aviation Brigade at Pluke. "Between me and Larry, we probably have 2,000 combat hours."
Pigg, who grew up in California, joined the Army in 1966 and served two tours of duty in Vietnam —1969-70 and '71-72. He served in the First Infantry and in the 343rd Attack Helicopter unit. He earned his Purple Heart when a North Vietnamese Army high-speed machine gun shot a bullet through his foot while he flew a Charlie-model helicopter.

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Thanks to Google, I spent an afternoon reading about the observer choppers. Fast, agile and quiet, the OH-6 debuted in 1966 and was used widely in Vietnam. Piloting one in that war was deadly dangerous. The lightweight observers were often paired with a larger gunship, the Huey Cobra, on hunter-killer teams. Flying just over treetops, the egg-shaped chopper was an easy target to bring down, vulnerable to small arms fire or anti-aircraft guns.
When I Googled Larry Pigg, I found a remembrance of James G. Hodgskin Jr., who died at Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, on Aug. 8, 1969, one week before a rock'n'roll constellation would kick off "Three Days of Peace & Music" at Woodstock, N.Y.
"Jim and I roomed in the same Hooch in the 1st Inf. Div. at Phu Loi," Larry wrote in 2001 after he saw that Hodgskin's family members had asked online whether any veteran knew details of how he died. "We were in the Rebels Gunship Platoon. We were the Southeast unit of the Confederate Air Force. I remember when he and I were initiated as honorary Confederate colonels. One of the requirements was to drink a jalapeno mint julep. We were sick as a dog the next day but flew anyway.
"One of Jim's flight school buddies in the 'Gunslingers' platoon, the next company over, had been killed when his gunship was shot down over the Saigon River. Jim escorted the body home. When he came back he talked of driving his Corvette and listening to the song 'Good Morning Star Shine' from 'Hair.'
"One night Rebel 21's light fire team was scrambled to a 1st Inf. Div. fire support base under attack. Norm Auten (Rebel 21) was in the back seat of the lead Cobra gunship and Jim was in the front seat. Sometime during the firefight Norm's gunship was hit by an illumination round and Norm was killed instantly. Jim called over the radio that he was going to try and land the gunship. Jim fought to land the cobra but it burned up when it hit the ground.
"Norm and Jim's ship crashed just above an area called the Mushroom. Aviators in Nam named landmarks from the sky so they could be used as references — Mushroom, Onion, Angeles Wing, Parrot's Beak, Pigeon Head, Fish Hook. The Mushroom is a feature on the Saigon River, a little below Dau Treang, that looks just like a big mushroom. Maybe a quarter mile above the mushroom the Cobra hit. There seems to be a phenomenon that when a Cobra crashes and burns the residual of the fire leaves the outline of a perfect cross that can be seen from the air. Such was the case with Norm and Jim's Cobra."

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When I finished reading the account, I felt even stupider for making a light reference to the war in front of a guy who volunteered to go and who knew Jim Hodgskin, a 22-year-old Orlando native who was engaged to a stewardess.
Vietnam.
It still wrenches the emotions of my generation. It took an act of Congress to keep me out. The government abolished the draft six months after the Selective Service System mailed me my draft number: 20, guaranteed to go.
"Miss Saigon" is this season's "Les Miserables," but of an era that will be more personal for a lot of people in the audience. Veterans like Larry Pigg and Jerry Seago have long since absorbed their experience and tucked away the memories. But with the helicopter pilots club, they're also keeping history alive and sharing it with the public. For that they deserve our thanks. I'm looking forward to seeing the show, especially the part where we applaud for the Vietnam veterans in the audience.

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"Miss Saigon" opens Thursday and runs through Aug. 24. Performances are 2 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Tickets ($40) can be purchased by calling the Playhouse box office at 828-693-0731 or at www.flatrockplayhouse.org.