A pilot and second lieutenant in the 57th Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam in 1967, Steve Sullivan found himself in one of the unit’s eight armed helicopters. While 20 of the 28 aircraft in the unit were unarmed and carried troops and cargo, and occasionally filled in for medical evacuations, Sullivan’s gunships, as they were called, were part of eight remaining helicopters that carried rockets and 40 mm guns that provided aerial fire support.

Two weeks before the Tet Offensive in January 1968, Sullivan’s unit, also referred to as the Gladiators, which was stationed inland in the Central Highlands in Kon Tum, was attacked and sustained its first casualties of the war. Six people were killed and 30 wounded. They had been stationed there without infantry support.

“As strange and awful

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