By the age of 18, James Cox knew he wanted to fly helicopters. In 1969 he arrived in Vietnam as a Huey gunship pilot, an assignment full of risk considering over one-third of all Hueys in combat were shot down during the war.

Army SP5 Tom Messenger served as a flight engineer on a Chinook in the early 1970s, flying "dozens and dozens" of missions ferrying men and supplies into Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. While some of those missions were uneventful "milk runs" as Tom says, many were not.

Air Force SSgt Donald Beach's job in Vietnam was, in part, loading body bags onto planes heading back to the States. When he was greeted by protestors upon his return home, Don was so upset that he wrote a letter to his Congressman -- a letter so powerful it was entered into the Congressional Record.

Johnnie Williams received a bit of advice as he arrived in Vietnam: Don't get too close to the soldiers you are fighting with. As Johnnie came to understand, though, heeding that advice was much easier said than done.

Don Hendrick grew up in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project and joined the Army after repeated run-ins with the law. On the battlefields of Vietnam he distinguished himself, earning the Bronze Star with V device. Upon his return home, though, he was told "nobody cares."

Sergeant Don Taylor had a background in music when he entered the service. Armed with an FCC license, Taylor was the perfect recruit to join the Armed Forces Vietnam Network as a disc jockey spinning the soundtrack of the Vietnam War.

Richard O'Connor earned a Bronze Star for his heroics on the battlefield one early April day in 1969, a fact that only came to light back home when his mom found the medal in his duffle bag. Dick did not want the attention as he dealt with the lasting emotional scars of service.

Dr. John Wander was drafted in 1967, certain he was headed to Vietnam where surgeons like himself were in great demand. Instead, he was assigned to an Army base eight miles from the DMZ in South Korea.

Army E4 Ken Burmeister saw friends wounded and killed during his time in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia. His post-war healing received a boost after a surprise reunion decades later with a wounded friend, and from his efforts to track down the student author of an anonymous letter he received on his Honor Flight Chicago trip.

Robert Gurley and James Blue can't agree on when they first met, but what they can agree on is they have been the best of friends since childhood. When Robert was "snatched off the street and sent to Vietnam," it didn't take James long to enlist to follow his friend.

When a young Catholic priest saw many of his parishioners being sent to war in Vietnam, he felt it was his duty to serve as well. It took Father Richard Shannon years of lobbying, but eventually, he was granted permission to enlist.

Stuart Poticha's antics -- and those of his fellow doctors -- during Basic Training were tolerated only because "court-martialing a surgeon caused too much paperwork." But Stu could save lives. And the 12th Evac Hospital in Vietnam, where he was Chief of Surgery, did that better than anyone else.