Patrick H Brady
Patrick was born on the 1st of October 1936, in Philip, South Dakota, and he grew up in Seattle Washington. He graduated from O’Dea High School in 1954 and attended Seattle University, where he was required to be in their Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. Not a fan of it, he was kicked out of it and once he realized that he would end up being drafted after college, he rejoined the program and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Medical Service Corps after graduating in 1959. His first duty station was in West Berlin with the 6th Infantry Brigade, and afterward he went to and graduated from the US Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
In January 1964, the month after graduation, Patrick deployed to the Republic of Vietnam as a Captain with the 57th Medical Detachment. His commanding officer was Charles Kelly, known as “the father of the dustoff”, and when he died on the 1st of July 1964, Patrick took command of Detachment A. The following day, someone took the bullet that had killed Charles Kelly and put it on Patrick’s desk and asked if they were going to stop flying so aggressively. Patrick picked it up and said, “we are going to keep flying exactly the way Kelly taught us to fly, without hesitation, anytime, anywhere.”
There was about two years in between his first deployment and his second, but it was Patrick’s actions during this deployment as a Major with the 54th Medical Detachment that would earn him the Medal of Honor. These actions came three months after displaying similar actions that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross. The Medal of Honor citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, Maj. Brady distinguished himself while serving in the Republic of Vietnam commanding a UH-1H ambulance helicopter, volunteered to rescue wounded men from a site in enemy-held territory which was reported to be heavily defended and to be blanketed by fog. To reach the site, he descended through heavy fog and smoke and hovered slowly along a valley trail, turning his ship sideward to blow away the fog with the backwash from his rotor blades. Despite the unchallenged, close-range enemy fire, he found the dangerously small site, where he successfully landed and evacuated two badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers. He was then called to another area completely covered by dense fog where American casualties lay only 50 meters from the enemy. Two aircraft had previously been shot down and others had made unsuccessful attempts to reach this site earlier in the day. With unmatched skill and extraordinary courage, Maj. Brady made four flights to this embattled landing zone and successfully rescued all of the wounded. On his third mission of the day, Maj. Brady once again landed at a site surrounded by the enemy. The friendly ground force, pinned down by enemy fire, had been unable to reach and secure the landing zone. Although his aircraft had been badly damaged and his controls partially shot away during his initial entry into this area, he returned minutes later and rescued the remaining injured. Shortly thereafter obtaining a replacement aircraft, Maj. Brady was requested to land in an enemy mine field where a platoon of American soldiers was trapped. A mine detonated near his helicopter, wounding two crewmembers and damaging his ship. In spite of this, he managed to fly six severely injured patients to medical aid. Throughout that day Maj. Brady utilized three helicopters to evacuate a total of 51 seriously wounded men, many of whom would have perished without prompt medical treatment. Maj. Brady's bravery was in the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.
During Patrick’s two tours, he flew over 2,000 combat missions and helped evacuate over 5,000 wounded from the battlefield. These missions additionally earned him six Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars with valor, one Purple Heart, and fifty-two Air Medals with valor. Patrick received the Medal of Honor from President Nixon on the 9th of October 1969, in a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. He remained in the Army until his retirement in 1993 after thirty-four years of service and at the rank of Major General.
Patrick officially retired in 1983, moving to Sumner, Washington, with his wife Nancy, with whom he had six children. Two of his children went on to graduate from West Point, one of which, Meghan, served in Kosovo and during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Meghan and her father wrote a book, Dead Men Flying: Victory in Vietnam, in 2012 and Patrick Henry Brady is 86 years old as of this recording.
