We have been learning about Sharon McCully, a 1957 Russell High School graduate who trained as a nurse and volunteered for the Air Force in 1968. She completed flight nurse training before deploying to Vietnam in May 1970, serving with the 903rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron (903rd Evac) at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base.

Many of the medevac flights flown by the 903rd Evac out of Cam Ranh Bay were fairly routine, although the medevac crew always had to be prepared for challenges. Sharon described some of the challenges that made medevacs difficult.

“A lot of patients were amputees, especially leg amputees. They were very traumatic, but these small, forward hospitals, like Quang Tri, up near the DMZ, if they did an amputation, the doctor never finished the surgery. The surgeons didn’t have the supplies, nor the time, nor probably the ability to do the complete surgery for amputations. The surgeon would take off the part of the leg that had to be removed, but the amputation wasn’t closed. Then the stump was bound tight with pressure dressings hooked to weights that would hang over the litter and he would still be on an IV with antibiotics while we were carrying him. This would remain in place until they got to the hospital, either in Japan or back in the States, where they could have the rest of the surgery and whatever step two was. Whether the full extent of their injuries was impacting them or whether they were still too drugged to know, my heart ached for them.”

The 903rd Evac carried patients other than American troops. Medevac flights routinely carried injured Vietnamese civilians; allied troops from South Korea and the Philippines; and enemy soldiers, including Viet Cong insurgents. Sharon recalled medevac flights of enemy prisoners of war (POWs).

“Off the coast of Saigon was a small island where Vietcong POWs were taken. Sometimes at night we were called to the POW island (after something) like a jail riot. It was a small island that had no airstrip, but it had a place where you could land. But for a C-130 to land in a limited area meant that you went almost straight down and stopped, just like that. The only lights they had for the runway were smudge pots they lit. Before we landed we had intravenous feedings set-up and O positive blood and bandages ready because we knew these guys were going to be pretty banged up from their rioting. That was one place where the engines never shut down. They would bring (the prisoners) on and you could smell the smudge pots and the smells of the engines, but you didn’t have time to worry about that. You got these people on, got them in their stanchions, and started the IVs or blood or whatever you had to do. Taking off you go straight up again when you left, which was very difficult, especially with a planeload of patients. We’d take them to Saigon where they’d go to a particular hospital.”

Sharon saw a disturbing change in their Medevac patients toward the end of her tour of duty.

“Towards the last that I was in-country, in the spring of ’71, we were carrying more drug overdoses than we were battle casualties. These were guys out of the field, who overdosed on drugs and were now vegetables, so to speak, going home. Some of them were on a special litter so they could be turned. That was so traumatic because these men were laying on litters and perhaps they had a Purple Heart medal lying beside them, but they were completely unresponsive. It was just hard, especially when you had two or three on a flight. These were men who had fought, yet they had this other life where they dealt in drugs. My heart ached for them and for the family that was going to receive them.”

Sharon described another type of evacuation mission she experienced early in her tour of duty.

“I hadn’t been country very long when there was a small community up by Phu Bai that the Vietcong were trying to overtake. We went in with the C-123s that you could go almost straight down and almost stop on a dime. They would leave the engines going; the back would open up; and these people would come out of the woods and crowd in with their choice belongings, whether it was a live chicken or a little, red bag the Red Cross gave everybody. Finally, we had to say, ‘No more! No more!’ Then we’d go straight to Saigon and come back. We took a whole community, three loads, to Saigon.”

One of Sharon’s scary moments was on a Medevac mission to Danang.

“I was only on one flight where our airplane was hit by enemy fire. The aircrew told us and you could hear it. Fortunately, there were no injuries and we were able to take off and get out of there. So apparently we weren’t hit too badly. That was very scary. There was also one occasion where the fighting was close to where we were to land in the northern, Quang Tri province. So, to be able to land we had to go into North Vietnam and swing back. With that flight we had to wear flak vests and helmets and carry guns. But fortunately nothing ever happened.”

These were challenging Medevac flights, but Sharon also remembered flights she favored or which offered a different kind of adventure.

©2024 William D. Palmer. Contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com with any comments about or story suggestions for “Prairie Lives.”