Veteran honored after ‘Dustoff’ crews receive Congressional Gold Medal
ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – Robert W. Barrett lives a relatively quiet life in Aberdeen these days.
But that wasn’t the case about 60 years ago.
Barrett joined the Army in 1965 after graduating from Mississippi State University.
He became a helicopter pilot, and from 1967 to 1968, he was assigned to the 45th Medical Company known as “Dustoff,” stationed in Long Binh.
“I was Dustoff Three Zero. That was my call sign,” Barrett said.
“We were trained to one thing, and one thing only, and that was to pick up the sick and wounded,” Barrett said. “I do not by any means, I want everyone to understand, I do not consider myself a hero at all. I had a job to do, and I did it. It was one of the most rewarding, if not the most rewarding, things I’ve ever done in my life.”
Barrett said the lives they saved also had a ripple effect back home.
“Those guys that survived over there came home and had families,” Barrett said. “It created not just saving a life, but creating a life or making a family.”
Every mission was a team effort. He remembers one where they had picked up a soldier who was hit by a phosphorus grenade.
“Phosphorus burns when it’s exposed to air,” Barrett said. “This man had had phosphorus all over his hands and his face, and he was literally burning up.”
They packed his burns with mud to keep the phosphorus from burning.
“Of course, he’d watch and if he’d see a little smoke, he’d put more mud on it,” Barrett said. “It literally saved the guy’s life, otherwise, he probably would have burned to death. But our crew chiefs and medics, they’re the unsung heroes. We got them there, but they did the rest of it.”
Barrett took pride in knowing he was saving lives.
“If we got a patient to the hospital, 98% of them survived,” Barrett said.
There were some bad memories from Vietnam, but there were also good memories.
“I have so many wonderful memories of Vietnam, and a lot of people don’t have that. Of course, one of them being that I brought a wife home from Vietnam. If I had to look back over my life and say, ‘what’s the best time of your life?’ that would be it,” Barrett said.
His wife Claire, who is originally from New Jersey, is one of the reasons.
Barrett said that when they saw each other, that was the beginning of a love story.
“We got engaged in a two and a half ton truck,” Barrett said. “She and I will celebrate our 58th anniversary on the 3rd of August. We had such good times over there, but at the same time, we lost so many good friends, and we both shared that grief.”
When Vietnam veterans finally returned home, they weren’t always greeted with respect.
“We were such ridiculed veterans. When we came home, people would cuss you, spit on you, call you a baby-killer, and whatever else,” Barrett said.
A group of Vietnam veterans decided they needed to overcome this.
Five and a half years ago, they came together and wrote a letter to Congress.
After support from the House and Senate, a bill was passed and signed by President Biden last September.
The Dustoff Crews became the first Vietnam Unit to ever receive a Congressional Gold Medal.
“It is minted and there is only one copy of it made. It is truly a gold medal,” Barrett said. “It will be displayed at the Army Medical Department Museum in San Antonio, Texas. Each of us who flew Dustoff or Medevac in Vietnam is entitled to purchase our own personal copy, but it will be a bronze medal.”
It takes 12-18 months for the medal to be designed, approved, and get it minted.
“Hopefully I’m still gonna be around to see it,” Barrett said.
Around 70 of them were recognized in Washington, D.C, but Barrett knows there are more, and he wants to get the word out to everyone he can.
The memories churn up mixed emotions.
He said it was a terrible war, but they were there to help save lives.
“You think about the good things, and of course you see old friends that you know well, and then you remember the bad things; but I know I had a mission to fly over there and that was to save an American soldier, or whoever. So even though the war was not popular, I did something that was very good,” Barrett said.
When Barrett returned from his trip to Washington, he got the homecoming that was denied him more than 50 years ago.
People have texted, called, and congratulated him as well.
“When I saw that banner, I actually cried. It’s really hard to believe that a small town like Aberdeen would take the time and effort to do something like that,” Barrett said.
After a year of serving in Vietnam, Barrett was later deployed to Japan, where he and Claire welcomed their first son into the world.
He joined the Mississippi National Guard in 1972 and retired in 1994.
Barrett started the JROTC program at Louisville High School and moved to West Point’s JROTC program, retiring there in 2004.
Barrett says he wants everyone who was associated with Dustoff and Medevac in Vietnam to know about the Congressional Gold Medal.
