As the nation honors our veterans, I want to extend my gratitude and respect to all of our men and women who served this great country. Native Americans have a rich legacy of being warriors going back hundreds of years to protect our homelands.

When I joined the military in August 1969, the Vietnam War was not popular. At 18, I didn’t plan to go to college, so I enlisted in the Army. After taking a battery of aptitude tests that opened the door to aviation training, I literally went from high school to flight school.

The August sweltering heat of Ft. Polk, Louisiana added to the demands of eight weeks of grueling physical and psychological training designed to transform us into soldiers. After basic training we, (Warrant Officer Candidates) traveled to Fort Wolters, Texas to begin primary flight school.

Out of 60 potential pilots, I was the only Native American and after five months of intensive helicopter pilot training including one hundred hours flight time, twenty one of us survived and went onto advanced flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama. At Rucker we received instrument training, and another 100 hours of training in the iconic Huey helicopter. I think of all us remember the familiar and welcome Huey blade sounds coming into a hot landing zone for an extraction!