Oh, good girl. You want to hear the story about the deadliest IHOP employee to have ever existed? Yeah. >> Fire. Oh, boy. >> Alan Ace. Kazalio is quite possibly the most insane helicopter pilot of all time. I mean, the man went from cowboy to IHOP to helicopter pilot. And all of that was before things got really interesting.

 After the first of six crashes that he’d survived, he then went awall from the hospital, hitchhiked his way back into Vietnam, and then taught himself how to fly the ‘086 Loach. Ace was famous for his low-level aggressive flying style, and he’d often go out on mission complete with a Stson in 1860s cavalry uniform and a saber.

 And Ace wasn’t just cowboy cavaring with his sword. Some of his more insane exploits include capturing a Vietkong prisoner with his saber, engaging the Vietkong from his Cobra gunship using his Colt 357 revolver, and in arguably his most gangster move yet, landing his helicopter on top of a machine gun bunker, tossing in grenades, and then flying away without looking back at the explosion.

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 Now, let’s get back to the video. Alan Acealio was born in 1946 in the California mountains. As a kid, he loved exploring his family’s ranch with his two younger brothers, and more than anything, he loved riding his horse, Cody. Young Ace fancied himself a bit of a cowboy, and he and Cody would spend hours in the saddle together.

 Ace had a loving family, but the two people who played the biggest role in his early years was his mom and his grandfather. Ace’s mom grew up in the depression era, and she passed on her fierce sense of independence, ingenuity, and confidence directly down to Ace. One of her favorite sayings to Ace was from Winston Churchill when he would say, quote, “Make no small plans.

 They have no magic to move men’s souls.” Already, Ace is off to a great start with a wonderful mom, but it was actually his grandfather who inadvertently sent him down the path to Cal. Ace’s granddad was an aircraft mechanic in World War I, and he would tell Ace stories about the time that he got to meet General Blackjack Persian and how he got to work on Eddie Rickenbacher’s personal biplane.

 One day, granddad gave Ace a brand new to him US cavalry saddle that he’d won at an auction. He didn’t even buy it for its cavalry connection. He bought it because it was cheap, but nonetheless, Ace was hooked and imagined himself riding with the Cavalry. Before graduating high school, Ace worked part-time as a cook at the International House of Pancakes, aka IHOP.

 He brought his mother’s lessons of hard work into the kitchen and he was well onto his way of becoming an IHOP manager. [sighs] Now guys, full disclosure, him working at IHOP has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story. I just found it hilarious. Ace is a man who went from flipping flapjacks to flinging copper jackets, which I think is hella fascinating.

 Imagine if he had been working at Waffle House instead and really learned how to throw down. Anyway, after graduating high school, Ace would receive his draft notice and not wanting to let anyone decide his fate for him. He instead went down to a recruiter’s office and joined the Army in 1966. But he was also selected to attend officer candidate school soon after.

 And guys, I’m going to start to sound like a broken record at this point because he crushes OCS no problems at all. He graduates as a second lieutenant armor officer, but more importantly, while he’s at OCS, he applied to attend Army aviation school and was accepted. So, he goes off to aviation school and of course, he’s one of the best students that they’ve ever had.

 And eight months later on October 24th, 1967, Ace earned his wings and he’s off to his first duty assignment ever. >> Good [screaming] morning, VIETNAM. >> Ace arrived in Vietnam on December 1st, 1967, and he’s assigned to Delta Troop 35 air calav. Delta Troop, aka Ligh Horse, aka the Bastard Cav, was attached to the 9th Infantry Division, and their job was to do one thing and one thing only, >> killing Nazis.

>> Actually, it was the Viet Kong and NBA. Different conflict, same energy. Anyway, Ace’s first assignment was flying Hueies for the Long Knife Platoon. And after he got past all the FNG jokes, he gets his first mission. He’s tasked to insert a long range reconnaissance patrol near a suspected enemy base camp.

 And upon reaching the perimeter of the landing zone, his Huey starts spinning to the right. They had unknowingly hit their tail rotor on something, and despite his attempts to save it, his Huey goes crashing into the ground. One of the rotor blades came crashing into the cockpit, causing his head to slam down into his own body armor.

 And immediately he’s knocked unconscious. >> Just a flesh wound, >> bro. Literally just survived a Final Destination style death, guys. It’s only been 16 days in country and he’s already flown his first mission, survived his first helicopter crash, and now he’s in a hospital in Japan with a jaw that’s been wired [music] shut.

 Not off to a great start, but at least he now gets to go back state side. Well, that would be the case, but the only problem with that is that is not what Ace wants to do. So instead of taking his new duty assignment in Washington state, Ace decides better to ask forgiveness than permission, and finds a way back into Vietnam.

 So he packs a bag, grabs a taxi to the nearest air base, where he then convinces a C130 crew to let him on board with no orders or paperwork of any kind, and they fly him back into Vietnam. He then catches a Huey ride back to his camp. And in a weird moment of coincidence, it turns out that the Huey pilot was also a Lighor FNG and just a few weeks prior had been ordered to box up and ship all of Ace’s [ __ ] back to Fort Lewis, Washington because that’s where he was supposed to be.

 Not catching a ride with him back to a Vietnamese camp. >> Who’s your travel agent? Same as yours. I’ll tell the boss to say hi. >> But you know what? Whatever. They land and Ace walks into the pilot’s tent and he’s looking around at everyone like, >> “Surprise, motherfucker.” And then after this, things actually start to get crazy.

 After his jaw heals up and he convinces Doc to remove his jaw wires with no medical records because remember, he’s still technically AWOL. Ace is now officially back in the saddle. He first returns to Long Knife to fly Slick Hueies. Then he goes to Crusader to fly Huey gunships and then he’d find his true calling with the War Wagons.

 By April 1968, Delta Troops scout platoon had received some new Hughes 086 Alphas, or as they were more commonly known, the Loach. And Ace is all the excited about his new Gatling gun, Death Mosquito. And he could not wait to learn how to fly it. And guys, when I say he couldn’t wait, I literally mean he did not wait because he then decides after flipping through the manual with no formal training at all, he decides to teach himself how to fly it.

 Pretty soon, he’s so proficient with it that he was actually made the new scout section leader. Weeks go by and the new equipment transition team finally shows up to give them formal training and Ace has pretty much given them the Ron Swanson treatment. Like, >> hey there. Is there a project you’re working on? >> I know more than you. >> All right.

>> And I guess now is as good a time as any to initiate a scout ramp because these guys were effing insane. Starting with the airframe, the 086 Loach. This thing was less helicopter and more hovering diplomacy dispensary. If the Huey was your old reliable family sedan, then the Loach was a red sports car with the driver on nose candy.

 The entire bird was barely 2,000 lb, which made it stupid agile in the air. And not only did it have the agility of a flea, but it also had the durability of Jean Wick. Warwagon loaches could also hold their own in a fight using their XM134762 [music] minigun. Capable of firing up to 4,000 rounds a minute.

 Scout pilots absolutely love their miniguns with many equating the high that they got from shooting it as the next best thing to sex. [music and singing] >> Oh my god. Oh, that’s better than sex. >> But the pilots weren’t the only ones calling the shots in the air because equally as important as the pilots were their crew chiefs.

 The crew chief/60 gunner/erial assault acrobat was also responsible for tossing out the grenades. Anything that crew chief didn’t like, whether it be an enemy bunker, hooches, or whatever, he kept a tasty assortment of grenades right at the ready. But tack, you malevolent mocha maestro of mayhem, I hear you say, where did they keep all those grenades in that tiny airframe? How about they strung them up on a wire on the windshield and kept them between the gunner’s feet in an old helmet bag? Look guys, I know those squatted truck

douchebags think they’re cool and everything, but you want to know what badass actually looks like? How about scout pilots flying an unarmored killer egg into combat using literal grenades as black ice air fresheners? [music] And finally, what made the war wagon so insane and effective were their tactics. Flying in pairs, it was the job of the lead scout to find and destroy the enemy, while the trail scout would cover and protect the lead aircraft.

 Guys, I could go on and on and on about the outright ridiculous [music] techniques, tactics, and procedures that Ace pioneered, but I think he summed it up best when he said, quote, “I guess you could call us the bait. We fly low in hopes the enemy will open fire on us, thereby giving his position away. Of course, it would be nice if we saw them first.

 When the war wagons open up, I’d hate to be underneath them.” Now, fast forward a bit, and it is now June 1968. It’s a clear, calm, and absolutely beautiful day, which means >> we have some killing to do. >> Ace and his wingman are on a search and destroy mission along with two Cobra gunships and a command and control or C2 Huey.

 As they approach the area, Ace drops his loach down, and out of the corner of his eye, he detects movement. He swings his bird around to a nearby stream, and he could see ripples that span out from the riverbank and spread out into the water. Now, Ace doesn’t know exactly what made those ripples, but he does know for sure that something jumped into that stream.

 The Vicon are known to hide in water using reads to breathe, but after a couple of passes and a few machine gun bursts into the water, they come up empty-handed AND LEAVE. >> PSYCH. >> YEAH, NO, Ace isn’t fooled by this in the slightest. So, instead, he takes the team to another area, waits about 30 minutes or so, and then he goes back to the exact same spot.

 And wouldn’t you know it, he finds footprints leaving the water and running across the rice patty. So from his bird, he starts tracking the prince along the dyke, across a rice patty into the woodline, over the wood line. And then he sees what appears to be a Vietkong flag off into the distance.

 And no sooner did he think to himself, I think I kind of want that flag. A group of 15 Vietkong spot them and scatter [music] towards some hooches. So they open fire on him, but last Ace checked, rock paper minigun beats AK-47 every time. >> Every time. Now, after they finish the area, Ace, for whatever reason, decides that this entire mission has been one giant game of capture the flag.

 And in order to win, he’s going to need that flag. So, Ace calls back to the C2 Huey, and he’s like, “Cover me while I get that flag.” And then his hire tells him, “Ace, don’t do it. Cover me.” And then he flies in anyway. Now, a normal human person would simply land, use the rope attached to the flag to bring it down, and then head home victorious.

 But because Ace can’t do anything by the book, he decides the best way to get that flag down is to shoot his minigun at the base of the pole, then drops grenades on it. Then he uses his helicopter skids to push it over. Ace then lands. His crew chief jumps out and grabs it. And then they head back to base where the flag is now proudly displayed next to a set of drums that Ace had also previously tactically acquired.

 After taking out his first Vicon base camp and having survived his second helicopter crash soon after, Ace wanted to hearken back to the 1800s towards cavalry. And in order to do that, they were going to need some STSON’s scarves and savers. Ace had his mom send over a box of yellow scarves, and he also had the actual Stson company do a custom run of silver belly cavalry hats.

 But by far the most standout adorement Ace and crew added were their sabers. They found a supplier of model 1902 Army officer sabers. But again, Ace just has to be different. In addition to his 1902, Ace also acquired an 1860 Civil War saber that he not only had sharpened, but he carried it in his loach while flying on combat missions.

But Ace didn’t stop there, because in order to complete his Old West ensemble, he would often trade out his Colt 1911 for a Colt 357. And he’d wear a full-on 1860s era horse cavalry uniform just for fun. >> It’s kind of my my thing. >> In fact, as one of the new pilots to the troop put it, quote, “What have I gotten myself into? Is this guy for real or crazy? Is this whole troop crazy? Turns out we were all just crazy just to varying degrees.

August 2nd, 1968, northwest of Kyla, a light infantry strike force known as the Doughboys are officially out on mission. After ACE is done reconing the LZ, the Hueies land and the Doughboys head off into the treeine. Not long into the mission, they find evidence of potential Vietkong activity, and almost immediately their suspicions are confirmed via machine gun fire.

Realizing how outnumbered they are, they call in for air support. A Cobra gunship drops in for a gun run, but he soon realizes that the area is way too hot. So naturally, Ace interprets this as the best defense is more offense. So on the next run, he flies parallel to the Cobra with his minigun and M60 just ablazing.

During the dive, he takes direct hits to the cockpit and it explodes into thousands of shards of plexiglass directly back at him. And Ace pretty much just shrugs this off. He’s looking at them like, >> “Motherfucker, are you out of your damn mind?” >> Completely unfazed, he continues his run until he’s close enough to drop frag grenades directly down on top of them.

Ace’s insane antics gave the doughboys enough time to break contact and to be recovered with zero casualties. For Ace’s part, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which would later turn out to be one of four that he’d received during his tour in Vietnam. When Ace wasn’t kicking ass and earning distinguished flying crosses or saving asses and earning a soldiers medal, he was actively recruiting and training the next generation of War Wagon pilots.

 And aside from the obvious and that you had to be good on the stick, Ace only had one rule when it came to looking for new pilots. >> Everyone fights, no one quits. >> Ace’s War Wagon 101 classes weren’t just theoretical because he could easily back it up by the results that he produced. On another mission, Ace and his scouts were cruising just 10 feet above the water when out of nowhere, Ace spots a military-aged man running in the distance.

 Ace gets damn near right on top of him before he tosses his weapon, and then he jumps into the water. So, Ace does the only logical thing that he can think of. He lands, takes off his flight helmet, dons his Stson, his saber, and then he makes his way down into the canal. Ace knows this guy is in here somewhere, so he then draws his saber, and then starts stabbing it into the mud.

 And he keeps this up for like 10 minutes until he finally hits something solid. So he pushes his saber in a little harder and a little harder until that solid something starts to move. [ __ ] Got your ass. >> Well, he’s been caught now, so he comes up out of the water and Ace has him return to his loach with his saber still firmly planted in his back.

 Ace then has him stand on the skid of his loach and they take him back to the military intelligence group. And guys, this wasn’t an isolated incident because on another mission, Ace can see what appears to be yet another military-age male carrying a rifle. But unlike the last guy, this time, instead of jumping into the river, he’s just standing there motionless, just alone in the middle of this rice patty.

 And he’s just standing there. And Ace is just getting closer. And he’s still just standing there. And Ace is getting closer. And he’s making no attempt at all to hide or move. And who knows what’s going on inside this guy’s head. Maybe he thought their vision was based on movement or something. I don’t know. >> Keep absolutely still.

His vision’s based on movement. >> Did you know that I can see you? >> So Ace drops his loach down right next to him and he’s still not moving. Well, then Ace pulls away a little bit so he can find a place to land. And that’s when this guy sees an opportunity to run away. Well, last I checked, physics means that you can’t outrun a bullet.

 So Ace pulls out his revolver, wings him in the torso, and again, Ace has this guy stand on the skids. And of course, Ace knowing that the boys are going to be like picss or it didn’t happen. Well, there you go. Photographic proof. Now, when Ace isn’t out terrorizing the enemy with 19th century weaponry, he could be found doing what he did best, which was kicking ass.

 All right, so it is now January 9th. Ace has just returned from RNR with his best friend. He’s been promoted to captain, and he’s been officially moved from loaches to cobras. Now, right about now, you might be wondering, if Ace was so effective at being a loach pilot, then why did they move him into cobras? And honestly, I’m still wondering the same thing myself.

 I can only assume it had something to do with that time that we haven’t talked about yet, where Ace was shot down, rolled his bird like an egg, went to the hospital again, broke out again, grabbed another loach, and immediately went back for some payback. And you know what? Now that I think about it, it could have also been that other time where Delta Troop received a brand new loach with only 4 hours on it.

 He took it out on a mission the very next day, only to return 30 minutes later with it so full of bullet holes that it may never be airworthy again. But who can really say? Either way, what we do know is that by October 1968, Ace had been shot down a total of six times, and everyone knows that he’s super hard on aircraft. Honestly, he probably should have been grounded by now, but maybe the brass figured a pilot of his skill could do less damage with a more robust Hilo.

>> You have demonstrated that this mission can be flown. On the other hand, you did it by stealing a multi-million dollar military aircraft and flying it in such a manner that it may never be airworthy again. Anyway, by February 6th, 1969, Ligh Horse has received hot intel about an enemy concentration along the Mikong River.

 And per their SOP, the scouts take their position up front and begin working the area only to find zero evidence of enemy activity. Now, it should be noted that while all of this was going on, one of the Cobras had a mechanical malfunction and had to return to the airfield, which left Ace as the sole Cobra on station. Eventually, the scouts locate a couple of bunkers, hooches, and a singular enemy.

 Well, the loaches open fire, taking him out. And this was the trigger that caused the entire tree line to erupt with small arms fire. Ace’s gunship dives and unloads everything that he’s got. And I mean everything. Rockets, minigun, 40 might mike. He unleashes it all. But still, the VC keep popping up everywhere.

 This fight was so intense that both scouts and Ace have taken multiple hits. But worse yet, they’ve expended all of their ammo. Unfortunately, their situation didn’t get any better because one of the scouts took AK-47 fire directly into the cockpit in the engine. And this caused that loach to crash and roll right down into the rice patty below.

 From the air, Ace sees the entire situation about to transition from bad to worse. But problem though, he’s all out of ammo. >> Barely an inconvenience. Oh, really? >> Again, I keep forgetting this is Ace we’re talking about. So he leans on America’s old friend to fake it till you make it and then proceeds to dive down on the Vietkong, rotating his gun turret left to right like he’s firing, except there are no shots being fired.

 As soon as the Cobra comes overhead, all firing stops as the Vietkong desperately rush to find some cover. I should say everyone except for one. There is just this one guy who must have been a few crayons short of a full pack and he is just jumping out from behind this tree and he is taking pot shots at Ace’s cobra.

 So Ace swings his minigun right back at him and the VC ducks behind the tree and then he sticks his head out again and Ace swings the minigun at him again and he ducks back. And this just keeps going on for a while. It’s just like a Looney Tunes episode playing out in real life until eventually he realizes that Ace is actually out of ammo.

 And not long after that, all of them realize that he’s out of ammo. The Vietkong start firing again and begin moving towards the down loach. But clearly they forgot that Ace is the main protagonist. So he swings his canopy open, draws his revolver, and starts shooting over the nose of his cobra. Okay, this video is getting kind of long, but just pause for a moment.

 Let’s just take this all in together, shall we? Because bringing a Stson, a saber, and a revolver into battle is next level gangster, no matter how you want to look at it. Using said items in the middle of an active war zone moves you firmly into legendary status. Running out of ammo and using your western revolver against the enemy while hovering overhead in your [ __ ] Cobra attack helicopter is another level of absurd [ __ ] that is so unbelievable that it sounds completely made up. And you know what? Sometimes

crazy is what you need because this actually worked. Ace’s attack antics brought them enough time to extract the down loach crew. But for Ace, this fight was far from over. So Ace, Mr. cowboy gangster himself, heads back to base, lands, jumps out of his cobra, grabs another cobra. I guess they just had a spare lying around.

 I don’t know, but whatever. He just he heads back out to destroy that loach that they left behind. And as he’s on approach, well, Ace is greeted with anti-aircraft fire. But this is Ace we’re talking about here, and he is completely unfazed, and he keeps firing at it until he manages to take the gun out. Half an hour later, a couple of doughboys arrive just in time to secure the helicopter.

 And thanks to Ace’s actions yet again, he managed to save more lives. All right, I’m starting to lose track at this point. I mean, what are we at? Ace has been shot at, shot down, stared death in the face, and won. But now, well, he’s got to face his greatest challenge yet. Sherry Giles is a new donut dolly, and she has just arrived in country.

 A donut dollies, in case you didn’t know, were a part of a program to boost the morale of troops in Vietnam. Boy, >> no, not like that. But I like where your head’s at. So anyway, Sherry’s out at the officer’s club one evening and Ace walks up to her and he throws out his best line. Huh? Name’s Ace. How you doing? You’re the little red-haired girl. And that was it.

 That was Ace at max level game. He just says that turns and then he just walks off. Well, several weeks go by and over time, Ace and Sherry start to become close friends. One evening, Sherry starts talking about how much fun she had on a recent trip in a loach. And without so much as a I’ll be right back. Ace just gets up and he returns minutes later and hands her a flight suit.

 [music] So Ace and Sherry head to the flight line, climb in his Cobra, and then they take off into the pitch black Vietnam sky. While coming in to land, Ace gives Sherry instructions on how to request clearance to land. And after a pause, a very excited voice operator responds with, “Rogger that.” Probably because they were very surprised to hear a female voice come in over their comms.

After completing his Cobra flight straight Maverick style, it was game over for them. They stayed in constant contact, fell in love, and Ace married Sherry, his little red-haired girl, in December 1970. But as happy as these two were, unfortunately, life isn’t always fair.

 And for Ace, well, he was about to find out how cruel it could really be. Ace was well-liked by pretty much everyone, but no one had his back quite like his best friend, Frank Bryan. Ace and Frank were roommates while they were student pilot stateside and the two were inseparable. The two decided to extend their tour in Vietnam, which meant they had 30 days of RNR to burn.

 And burn it down these boys did because they spent their entire leave partying in every major city from the Pacific to the Mississippi. Now, let’s fast forward a bit and it is now February 25th, 1969. It’s only one month into their extension and they’ve got a mission with Ace flying as the Crusader gunship platoon leader and Frank as the War Wagon platoon leader.

 After arriving to the AO, they scout the area for nearly an hour when suddenly they start taking fire. Now, Ace is no ricket to this, so he goes into full sin mode and unleashes everything that he’s got into that tree line. Well, after sufficiently pounding the enemy into red pulp, the scouts are tasked to then return to the area and to conduct a battle assessment.

 As the loaches flying low towards the tree line, Frank slows down and makes several passes when, without warning, Frank’s loach veers violently to the left, causing his rotor blades to collide with the tree. Now from the air, Ace can see all of this happening and he is just stunned seeing his best friend Frank Waragon 16 crash and explode into the vegetation below.

 Now Ace thinking that Frank has been shot down instinctively starts firing rockets into the tree line until ground troops can finally arrive. Captain Frank Bryan and Specialist Ford Thomas Gross both perish in the crash. The cause of the crash was unknown with the prevailing theory being that Frank was shot from below which caused him to swing into that tree.

 Several days later, Ace accompanied Frank’s remains back to his hometown in Lynn, Alabama, where he presented his parents with all of the medals that Frank had earned while in Vietnam. After the funeral ended, Ace returned to the site, and with Frank’s saber in hand, he plunged it into the ground, tied a yellow scarf around the handle, and rendered one final solemn salute to a fellow fallen warrior and his best friend.

 Later in April 1969, Lighor would complete its newly constructed officers club, and they would name it Frank’s Fort in honor of Captain Frank Bryan. Not wanting to end this video on a solemn note, we’ve got to go back in time, exactly 1 month, to what is probably the most insane mission Ace would ever fly.

 The date is January 25th, 1969, and Ace has been in command of the Crusader Gunship Platoon for about 3 weeks at this point. Intel reports are flooding in that there is enemy activity in an area called the plane of reed. So a recon team is spun up to go in. The sevenman team tasked for this mission are expecting the mission to last 3 to four hours tops.

 So the team packs extremely light. So light in fact that they don’t even bring a machine gun. >> Not going to need that dude. We’re not out there long enough. >> The team quickly deploys towards the treeine and as per usual it erupts into a full-blown firefight. Pretty soon, they find themselves outnumbered with a platoon- sized group of NBA basically right on top of them.

 They begin taking casualties one after another before gunship support is finally called in. Within seconds, two cover gunships with Ace in the lead start laying down hate into [music] everything in the woods. Ace then levels off into a hover not 30 ft above the recon team’s position. The men on ground describe the scene unfolding above them like a mother him protecting her young as Ace continues to pedal his bird left and right as he unloads everything that he has.

 But despite Ace’s efforts, the NBA weren’t giving up without a fight. So he continues to keep the pressure on long enough for a Huey to come in and rescue the team. After touching down on the medical pad, the casualty assessment is that four of the sevenman team are wounded to include RTO Richard Bellwood, who unfortunately had succumbed to his wounds.

 The discovery of a large-scale MVA unit becomes a hot topic within the 9inth Infantry Division, and the brass want to do something about it. One of the commanders proposes launching a large-scale air mobile operation by inserting five infantry companies around the MVA position, effectively surrounding them so that they can end them.

 Charlie Company, aka Charlie Ranger, is up first, and they are to be inserted on the opposite side of the woods where the recon team had engaged the MVA earlier that exact same morning. An aviation company of five Hueies is assigned to Charlie Rangers with each platoon requiring all five per movement which meant the entire company would require three sorties.

 As the first five Hueies touch down, third platoon Charlie Company lands in a dry rice patty and they cautiously make their way through the waist high grass. Across the way, three MVA soldiers come running along the edge of the treeine and the company commander sends out a squad to go capture them. After chasing them down, it’s quite clear that they aren’t going to go down easy.

 So, one of the squad members drops one of the NBA soldiers. This one shot triggered an immediate chain reaction with the entire woodline exploding with AK-47 and machine gun fire. Third platoon attempts to take cover wherever they can, but most of them are out in the open with the only cover that they can find being the tall grass.

 They had unknowingly stumbled upon a force of heavily concealed MVA soldiers complete with two men fighting positions. Additionally, directly in front of them was a heavily camouflaged and fortified machine gun bunker complete with six MVA, two PKM machine guns, and numerous AK-47s. And to make matters worse, Third Platoon’s entire command group is pinned down so close to this bunker that they might as well be right on top of it.

 Third platoon gives it everything that they’ve got, but that machine gun bunker is absolutely shredding their platoon. Within 30 minutes, they’re completely out of 40 Mike mike ammo. And some of the men are only down to one grenade each. And as if their situation couldn’t get any worse, their company commander has now been cut down by that bunker’s machine gun fire.

And his RTO, who is right next to him, has also been taken out. And their artillery forward observer has taken a round to the chest, and now he’s out of the fight as well. Within a matter of seconds, three of Charlie Company’s fiveman command group have either been killed or rendered completely combat ineffective.

 15 minutes go by and first platoon shows up in the second sorty. They land, they dismount, and they are consumed by a strange, eerie silence before they make their advance to the treeine. They only make it forward a few feet before explosions and machine gun fire rain down from their front. And it is complete madness and nobody knows what to do.

 They know they’ve got third platoon out there in front of them somewhere out there. They don’t know exactly where, which means they can’t just start shooting in that general direction or they’d risk friendly fire. Well, another 30 minutes passes and the third sorty lands, this time with second platoon commanded by first lieutenant Dwayne Anders.

 And as soon as he lands, Anders gets a call from battalion that his company commander has been killed and that he is now in command. And guys, I cannot stress enough what a [ __ ] show this man has now been placed in charge of. I mean, at this point, he’s got over 90 soldiers spread across this battlefield. He’s got third platoon pinned down directly in front of the machine gun bunker.

 He’s got first platoon pinned down directly behind them. The CO is dead. The FO is dead. The squad RTO is dead. Small arms, grenades, machine guns, and artillery haven’t checked up even a little bit. And to top it all off, no one knows who’s in charge. And communication between everyone is practically non-existent.

 If there was any glimmer of hope to be had, it was that air support was only a radio call away. And that is where senior RTO specialist Norman Prance decides to unleash the final boss on these MVA ass hats. Norman, who is laying right next to his dead co as slowly as he can gets on the radio and updates his hire on the situation.

 Ace, who is out conducting a search and destroy mission nearby, receives a call in a grid and his response is simply, “Rogger that. On the way.” And what a sight that must have been for those boys on the ground. The artillery has officially stopped. The NBA have quit shooting and everyone is now looking south as they see two Cobra gunships and two loaches headed directly for them.

 Norman gets back on the radio and informs Ace of the situation, telling him that what they really need for him to do is to take out that damn bunker. Carla company has been pinned down for nearly 2 hours at this point and Ace is ready to give them boys some much needed relief. His scouts make gun after gun run after gun run at that bunker, but it is clear that they aren’t going to get through it.

 And Ace is right above them. He’s looking down and he can see all this going on. And he is pissed. They’re running out of time. Men are already dead. More are going to die if they don’t take that bunker out. So Ace does the only logical thing that he can. War wagons. Put it down over there. I got this.

 So Ace has both of his scouts land away from the battle. He lands his Cobra right next to them. And what Ace does next has got to be one of the most dad move things I’ve ever read in MY ENTIRE LIFE. NOW YOU [ __ ] [screaming] UP. YOU HAVE [ __ ] UP. NOW, >> now listen closely now cuz this might get a little complicated.

 So, after they all touch down, Ace climbs out of his Cobra and he has a quick huddle with the crews. He then jumps into the Trail Loach for a very specific reason that we’re going to get to in a minute. He then trades places with the Trail Loach pilot. That pilot moves up into the lead loach as its new gunner, which in turn bumps the lead loach’s original gunner down to the ground, and he is now going to stay behind and babysit Ace’s part Cobra.

 Did I lose you in all that, or are you still with me? >> No. Guys, if you’re not picking up what Ace is putting down, this crazy calf crusader cowboy has decided to ditch the world’s first dedicated attack helicopter for a flying egg with machine gun so he can do the job his damn self. This is absolute pure dad energy. Just move aside, Junior.

 Don’t touch my tools. Put my [ __ ] back where you found it. Hell, you know what? Don’t even touch my damn flashlight. I’ve got this. Go help your mom in the kitchen or something. The men are trying to work. Guys, whether you realize it or not, AS conducted the world’s most dangerous Chinese fire drill in the middle of Vietnam.

 Now, I’m not sure if that’s culturally insensitive of me to say or me just being borderline racist, but at this point, I don’t give a [ __ ] because Ace has got work to do. And what’s more, some of the men of Charlie Company can see all of this going down in the distance, and one of them turns around and says to the other, quote, “It was surreal to watch the pilots change places in the middle of a vicious firefight.

 I had a strange sense that something big was about to happen.” So, Ace checks his ammo, his gunner loosens his lap belt as much as he possibly can, [music] and they take off. All right. So, here’s the plan, and it’s pretty complicated. So, I reached out to my nerd friends in military intelligence to create a true life recreation of what he’s about to do.

Thank you. This is a bunker. This is Ace. Ace don’t like bunker. Ace fly directly at bunker. Okay, maybe this plan was a little simpler than it had any right to be, but hey, they say necessity is the mother of innovation, and Charlie company really needs that bunker gone. Air go. Ace decides to go on full creative mode.

 Ace dives directly at this bunker at an angle so extreme that the machine gunner literally can’t elevate his gun high enough to engage him. And Ace, not wanting to accidentally hit his boys on the ground, waits until the last possible second before finally opening up with his minigun. He keeps his minigun trigger pinned the entire time.

And then in one smooth motion, he swings her around in a 5-ft hover and lets his door gunner get in on this action as well. In the same continuous motion, Ace backs his bird upward at a 45 degree angle and then he dives in again with his minigun. And Ace just keeps repeating this for a total of three times, taking hits the entire time.

 And at the end of his third dive, he swings the tail of the aircraft around and lands sideways on top of the bunker. And because Ace is pretty much a real life superhero, I’m assuming he said something that he thought sounded cool, like >> some [ __ ] are always trying to ice skate uphill. >> And you know what? I don’t know.

 Well, maybe he didn’t say anything at all. But for first platoon sergeant Mike McClean, aka cowboy, well, this man had a front row seat to the entire thing. So, I’m just going to let him describe what happened next. I see the small helicopter land on top of the bunker, and a guy, the gunner, gets out on the left side and goes to the back of the bunker.

 He pulls the pin on the frag grenade and tosses it into the bunker’s rear entrance. He then runs back to the helicopter and jumps in as it lifts off. The grenade explodes with a loud boom when the helicopter is about 8 ft in the air and climbing. Ace has done it. The bunker is destroyed. The battle is over. And as it’s happened so many times in this battle already, a haunting silence consumes the entire battlefield.

 But this time, instead of that silence being followed up with NBA acts of aggression, it’s broken by the sound of the Charlie Rangers screaming in cheer. The troops on ground celebrate and yell as H’s loach flies overhead, circling the battlefield that he is just silenced. After everything was said and done, P’s capture during the Battle of Fu would spill the beans about a major attack that they had been planning.

 And thanks to the efforts of Charlie Company and ACE, that attack never happened. On January 27th, both RTO, now Sergeant Norman Prance, and Ace both received Silver Stars for their actions. And later that year, on May 7th, his award was upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross. And he was also presented with his fourth Distinguished Flying Cross.

The gentle art of learning to let go of things is what allows us to meet with [music] the new, to meet with the future. Ace. As Ace’s torn Vietnam was coming to a close, many expected him to extend for another 6 months. Ace [music] mentioned extending a number of times, but somehow he just kept forgetting to submit the paperwork.

 When his friends would hit him up about it, he’d reply with, “Oh, I was busy flying.” Or even, “H, just time just got away from me.” But for those who knew him best, they all felt that when Frank died, well, a little piece of Ace died with him. The war was over for Ace, and all of Delta troops showed up for his sendoff, complete with a four loach and four Cobra flyover as a tribute to his departure.

 They even had a final farewell party for him at well, no place else that it could have been but Frank’s Fort. [music] Ace went on to have an exceptional 20-year career, and throughout it all, he upheld his cavalry image. Ace was being groomed for higher command positions and was described in his officer efficiency report as quote a future senior leader of our army.

 But life had other plans for Ace and his persistent lack of energy was finally diagnosed as the Epstein bar virus causing conjective cardiomyopathy. Ace was medically retired on May 6th, 1987 and he went back home to his family’s ranch in California. Despite his lack of heart function, Ace never let it slow him down or impact his attitude in the slightest.

 He went back to his first love of riding horses, took up competitive roping, and truly lived the cowboy lifestyle. But unfortunately, time makes fools of us all. And in 1992, it was determined that he’d need a heart transplant. On April 27th, 1993, a donor heart had finally been found. So, he checked into the hospital and went under the knife.

 The doctors were highly optimistic, saying he took the heart better than anyone they’d ever seen. But unfortunately, soon after, his body began rejecting it. His younger brother, Rex, stayed with him the entire time, and throughout it all, Ace is [music] fighting this thing with everything that he had.

 Rex stayed by his big bro’s side for over 18 hours. And then he comes to the grim realization that his older brother isn’t going to make it. So Rex, probably being one of the few people on the planet who could get through his thick, stubborn cal skull, looks at Ace and tells him, “Ace, [music] you did what you could.

” and shortly after that he passes away. The legacy that Ace left behind is too big for words. Ace was the definition of a warrior. He was genuine. He was hard charging. And in my opinion, if I had to describe him in one word, then that word that I would choose would be he was pure. The 9inth Infantry Division would later say Ace was the undisputed king of the air over the Meong Delta. to his family.

 If they were to describe Ace, well, they would say that he was a loving father, a loving husband. Probably above all else, he was a true cowboy. Guys, I appreciate y’all sticking this one out with me. And if somehow you managed to fight off them onion cutting ninjas, well, how about you show your boy some love by grabbing yourself some of this tactically acquired merch over at tangoa.

store, uh, I guess I’ll go work on the next video. Tac out. Hey Nick, I did the thing where I put my gun in the sponsorship ad. Does that mean my Wilson Combat is now a tax write off?