Interview with Drew David Larson [12/7/2006]

Ellen K. Bassett:

This interview is taking place on December 7, 2006 at the Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville, Illinois. My name is Ellen Bassett, and I am speaking with Captain Drew Larson, who is currently an Army Blackhawk Pilot and has served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Medical Evacuation Pilot. Drew was born on January 17, 1977 and when on leave, resides in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Drew, when did you enlist?

Drew David Larson:

I enlisted in 1994. I believe it was May 10th of 1994, and that was actually in between my junior and senior years of high school. I did something called the Split-Option Program, where my junior year I was contacted by a National Guard recruiter and I was just kind of looking for something while I was in high school; I just didn't know what it was. I knew there was something I was looking for and he contacted me, and I said, "Okay, I'll talk to you." I think it just gave me this idea. I just felt like, "So you're telling me I'd be a Private in the Army, I'd go to basic training and while I was a senior in high school, I'd be in the Army... while I was a senior in high school, going to drills and things like that?" He's like, "That's pretty much the way it works." I think that just gave me some sort of excitement, like I was going to have a purpose, or I was going to be driving towards something, not just floating through high school. So I did what's called a Split-Option Program, and I signed the paperwork on May 10th of 1994 and went to basic training that year, or that summer before my senior year of high school. So I went to Army basic training that summer, I came back to high school and while I was in high school, one weekend a month, I went to my unit, which was...I believe it was the 171st Infantry out of Woodstock, Illinois. So I went to Woodstock, Illinois for that one weekend a month, and I did that all the way through my entire senior year of high school.

Ellen K. Bassett:

That is fascinating! Where did you go for...you were in basic then while you were what, 17?

Drew David Larson:

Yeah, I was in training basic training when I was 17 years old.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Where did you go for basic?

Drew David Larson:

Basic training was in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, which is interesting because later on when I went to my first Officer Basic Course, I was right back there at Fort Jackson, six years to the summer and instead of enlisted training, it was officer training and I even saw my barracks. I knew the barracks I had been in like a heartbeat. I was like, "Wow, that's my barracks!" It's a little bit newer looking now, but that was my barracks. So that was pretty interesting. But, yeah, South Carolina is where I went and my mom and sister, and my high school sweetheart at the time, they all came down to see my graduation. We had a little vacation there in South Carolina and we came back up to high school, which gave me a very different perspective in high school. I remember, this just sticks out in my head.....it was first day of class. It was an English class. It was Analytical Thinking English or something, and the teacher is going on about, "There is no way anybody in here has any excuses why they did not do the summer reading. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear your vacation stories, this that and the next thing. There's no reason you couldn't have read that book." I raised my hand and she goes, "Drew?" I said, "Well, it's not an excuse, but it's a reason. I was in Army Basic Training." Without a heartbeat, she said, "There's no reason why anybody in this classroom, except for Drew, has a reason that they could not have read this book." It just gave me a very different perspective in high school. It was kind of like, I just had this filter to see what made sense or what was important and what wasn't. I think ever since then, I've just had a very defined filter in the world as to what's important, what I should grab on to, what should cause me stress, what shouldn't. You know...and that filter has only become more defined over time with the more experiences I've seen through the military and the more things that I've seen and especially with the Iraq war...things that can upset me here as a civilian on the state side. You know, it takes quite a bit to get me really riled up here or feeling down about what I've got.

Ellen K. Bassett:

After you've seen what you've seen...

Drew David Larson:

So that was a great experience going to basic training. I'm really glad I went that young. It helped actually round out my high school experience. That's part of high school for me, was starting my Army career.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Was your basic any different than anybody who would have enlisted...

Drew David Larson:

No. I went to basic training with active duty soldiers. Army basic training is the same, regardless of whether you're National Guard, reserve or active duty.

Ellen K. Bassett:

You weren't with other kids who were in the same boat you were, that had enlisted while still in high school?

Drew David Larson:

There were quite a few people that were National Guard and a handful that were Split-Option that were going to go back to high school like I was. But we also had active duty guys that were with us who would be going on to the next training, wherever it was they were going. So I was right in there with active duty, right in there with National Guard, and then it was the same thing after high school. Then I went to Fort Sam Houston to follow on my training, because it's the Split-Option and the split is that you go to your Military Occupational Specialty training after high school. So when I graduated from high school, I went to Fort Sam Houston to be what was a 91 Bravo. It's since changed, but that's a combat medic. So I went to Fort Sam Houston to be trained as a combat medic and while I was there, because I performed well, I had a certain average on my tests and I didn't get a single no-go on hands-on practicals, I was allowed to take the National Registry for EMT, Emergency Medical Technician. So I also earned my Emergency Medical Technician license while I was at Fort Sam Houston. That was about 12 weeks of training that I was there and then I came back from that, and I was actually going to take a year off from going to college. I hadn't at that point decided, "Okay, am I going to go into the military or am I going to get out?" Because at that point, I was still enlisted. Then the question I had with myself, "Okay, am I going to go to the Army or stay with the Army after my six years?" I knew I was going to go to college, but I owed six years for my obligation. Okay, well when I'm done with college, do I stay in the National Guard, or do I just get out and say, "Hey I had a nice time with the National Guard. I'm free." You know? I remember going to...I was going to take a year off from college because I got back too late for the first semester. I went to visit a friend of mine in college and I'm sitting there... it's the funniest thing the things that we remember. I'm sitting on his bed and I was eating Cheez-its. I was eating Cheez-its and it dawned on me...this is where I need to be right now, not at home working at a bank, because I was working at a bank. I need to be at school so I got home that weekend and called up Western Illinois, where I went and I said, "Is it okay if I come next semester?" And they're like, "Sure, come on out." So I went and I got to college, and then again it was, "I'm not sure whether I want to continue with the military or not." Because, I knew if I was going to be staying in the military, I wanted to become an Officer. Even if I stayed National Guard and hadn't gone active duty, I just...something in me told me I wanted to be an Officer. Even when I first talked with my recruiter, I didn't understand then "What's an Officer? What's an Enlisted? I don't get it." But as he explained it, I just kind of had the idea that just being an Officer seems to be my path. So I knew even if I stayed National Guard, I'd want to become an Officer. So at that point though, in college, my first semester or two I still wasn't sure. But I was going to my drills. At this point, you know, I was still driving home one weekend a month from Western Illinois to Woodstock, Illinois to do my weekend and then I need to boost my GPA a little bit, so I took a Military Science 100 level class. It's not something I'm required to do because I was already in the military, but I just thought I'd get the flavor for it and I went in there, and I kind of enjoyed it and I thought to myself as I hit the junior level, okay, I'm going to contract and I'm going to become a Cadet and get a commission. So I started then in what's called the Simultaneous Membership Program, which means I was simultaneously in ROTC and the National Guard. So on the weekends I was still going back to, at this point it was actually Chicago, to an Armory in Chicago, because as a Cadet, the infantry battalion that I had been part of didn't have a Medical Platoon Leader and since I had been a medic, they just kind of sent me there to be the acting Medical Platoon Leader. So now I'm in college as a Cadet going to Chicago on the weekends to be the acting Medical Platoon Leader for the 171st Infantry Battalion, and then during the week I was doing my ROTC classes and things like that. At that point, though, still I was thinking to myself, "I'm just going to go to the National Guard when I'm done. I'm going to be a National Guard Lieutenant." There was one day, I think it was my Military Science third year as a junior. I think they were talking about our benefits, I think they were just talking...we were looking at pay scales and talking about medical benefits and dental and retirement and travel and things like that and even as a college student, it gave me a very definite feeling of security to know that that's what would be out there. There was no question...okay, this is what I'm getting paid. These are my benefits, and this is what I do. So really all at once I kind of decided, "I think I should go Active Duty." So my entire world almost went upside down because four years earlier when I was at basic training, the Drill Sergeants are saying, "You guys who think you're not going active duty, or you don't think you're making a career and you're out of here as soon as possible, you guys are the ones who are staying. You guys are the ones who are going to be career." I'm thinking to myself, "I'm going back to high school. I'm not career Army. Are you kidding me? I'm in the National Guard. That's one weekend a month!" I remember me thinking that to myself because here I am on this day going, "I'm going to go to active duty. I'm getting out of college and who knows where I'm moving. I'm going on to active duty." It was like this sense of relief. I knew what was after college. You know, because I've always been one to plan different routes for myself. So, I make a route A, and I make a route B. Route A may be my top priority. It's what I really want. But I think one of the reasons I've always been so successful is if something blocks route A for me, I don't have to stop and regroup and re-plan and take time off. All I've got to do is make a right step and continue on path B. That way I've never been slowed down. I've never had to take time and step backward and do something different. I think that's kind of what that was for me. I think, at that point, gave me security. I knew this is what I'm going to go do. I don't have to figure out finding a job when I get out of college or anything else. It's security and frankly, I think that's one of the things that the Army does to keep people in. It's a very secure environment. It's a scary idea of getting out of the Army because here I am...I'm 29 years old and I can lead a Company of 300 people, but I have no idea how health and dental insurance works. To me, health and dental is I go to the hospital and show them my ID, and they're like, "What do you need? Here's your medicine. Here's your dental." I don't have co-pays or caps or this or that or the next thing. If I have a problem, I just go to a hospital. So it's a very definite feeling of security and I think that's one of the things that drew me in. I mean, I started with military service because I was looking for something and I have a very deep sense of pride, and I don't know how to explain it. It's a pride and it's an honor to do what I do and that's part of why I do it, is just because I feel personal pride and personal honor for what I do. So, when I come home on vacation and I see schools like Seth Paine that are giving me these Welcome Home Ceremonies, they make me feel like I'm doing something different. When I'm gone, someone is going to remember what I did. That to me is immortality and when I can look at my little nieces, I feel kind of, you know...and they're laughing and playing with their toys, I have this feeling like I helped them be able to do that. So it's like my contribution almost to my family and friends, you know, to say, "I'll do this so you guys can do that." I don't know where this question started, but......

Ellen K. Bassett:

That's what I said, you just go, I'll just listen. That's the beauty of it. That's great. So obviously then, you graduated college and decided to go active duty.

Drew David Larson:

Yeah.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Was there more training involved after that?

Drew David Larson:

I was in college....and it's interesting, I started as athletic training, and I ended up in fitness. By degree, I'm a Fitness Specialist. But when I left the army, I'm sorry....I left college, I graduated with my bachelor's. Then you had to go to what's called Officers Basic Course. I was actually commissioned in the Adjutant General Corps, which is different than where I'm at now. But I can go into that. I was what was called Immediate Active Duty because when you graduate from ROTC, sometimes you don't actually go on to active duty for a few months until your first Officer Basic Course. But then some people, you get thrown on like the day of. So the day I got commissioned as a Lieutenant when I graduated from college, I was on active duty. But they didn't have a job for me. So I stayed there at ROTC, and I did what's called Gold Bar Recruiting. Gold Bar because the 2nd Lieutenant's rank looks like a gold bar, so they call us Gold Bar Recruiter. So I spent the summer at the college more or less recruiting...for that summer...and then they sent me to Fort Lewis in Washington to train cadets and land-nav, because there's an ROTC summer camp that's out there and I had just been there the summer before but now here I am, I'm back at that camp as an instructor now, which was a very different experience. So I spent four months there training those cadets and land-nav and evaluating them. After that is when I went to my first actual training for Adjutant General. I was commissioned in the Adjutant General Branch, which is basically personnel. It's everything human resources but more because it's Army. Everything that's awards and pay and paperwork and processing this and that and the next thing...it's all Adjutant General, so that's when I went to my Officer Basic Course which was down in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. So I headed there and that would have been the summer or late summer of 2000, because I know I left there in November of 2000. So when I was finished with that course, I got assigned to Germany in Heidelberg, which was my first choice. All I wanted to do was go to Germany. My father was a German teacher. I grew up with him speaking German with me, and pictures of Germany, so Germany is where I wanted to go and I got lucky. I wrote my branch manager over in Germany, I said, "This is who I am. I'm coming to Germany. I'd really love to be in Heidelberg and these are the reasons." He wrote back, he's like, "I've already got you in Heidelberg." He's like, "Don't worry about it." I was like, "Wow!" So not only did I get the location I wanted, I got the town inside of Germany I wanted. I got off the plane, and I felt like I was home. It's like, "Whoa! This doesn't make sense to me." I really felt like I was home when I stepped into Germany. I love the European way of life. It just makes a lot of sense to me. So there I was, I was in Germany as an Adjutant General Officer and my first job was as the Battalion S-1, which is the Personnel Officer. The "S" I think stands for Staff. So I was a Staff-1, or the Personnel Officer for the Battalion Commander of the Special Troops Battalion, which was the Headquarters Battalion of the 5th Corps and this is what I was doing as a 2nd Lieutenant. So I was so far out of my league. It was ridiculous. This is a job for a Senior Captain. They had me in there as a 2nd Lieutenant and everyday I just fought to stay afloat. At home on my computer, the homepage was a page to Army publications because when I was at home, I would watch TV and just pour through publications trying to find the answers to how I'm supposed to do things during the day. So, that was my first job. To this day, I'm the person all my friends come to with regulation questions and how do I research this or where do I find that or what about this? That's why earlier I was so concerned. I have to be wearing my wings right! AG is what I used to do, awards is what I used to do. I need to be wearing it right. So that was my first job and then from there I went to what's called the 411th Base Support Battalion and the 26th Area Support Group and these are the groups that actually take care of the community. They were both...the 26th Area Support Group is actually the higher echelon of the 411th Base Support Battalion but they were co-located, so they had one headquarter company and I was the Executive Officer of the 2nd in Command for that Company. We just basically administered the people who ran everything. So we were just an administrative body for them. That was branch immaterial. It didn't matter what my branch of Army was at that point but again, I had some 13 extra duties, down to Traffic Disciplinarian. I was a Food Service Officer. I was an Information Assurance Security Officer, a Security Officer, the Arms Rooms Officer, the NBC Officer. You name it because I was the only other Officer besides the Commander that was running the Company. So, every extra duty that came in, it was mine. As a matter of fact, with that Company, I ran what was called the Combined Federal Campaign. CFC is a huge thing in the government and that's our one-year drive. Every year we have a drive, and that's how we contribute money to charities. I was actually the 411th Base Support Battalion XO, it fell on me to be the area coordinator for CFC. So all the units in Heidelberg had to send a representative to me and I oversaw all that. This is just a little plug, because I had the most successful CFC year in the history of Heidelberg and that's just something I happen to be proud of.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Well you should be.

Drew David Larson:

But that's a huge thing in the military and even in other government agencies. They do the CFC. While I was there, because now I've always actually wanted to be a Medical Service Corps Officer. I've always wanted to fly. When I was in high school, I started flying. I was working at Palwaukee Airport, and I started flying there and I became a CPR instructor while I was still in high school, and I was training the sophomores that were in health class. I was there helping teach CPR.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Wow!

Drew David Larson:

I actually taught my sister's Chicago Med class. She's a Physical Therapist. I went in and taught them CPR. I was already flying. I was interested in the medicine. When I realized the Army had Medical Evacuation....so it's medical and I fly? It's like Flight for Life so it just made sense to me. That was actually my first branch of choice was Medical Service Corps, but I didn't get it. They put me in Adjutant General and I actually chose Adjutant General as my second choice, because I knew it was personnel and paperwork and I figured if any branch is going to give you the knowledge and the ability to get out and go back to what I want to be, that's going to be the one. And sure enough, I ended up meeting a gentleman at a little school I went to in Germany who worked for the Chief of the Medical Service Corps, who happened to have his office in Germany at the time and so I managed to get a letter of recommendation for branch transfer out of Adjutant General to Medical Service Corps from the Chief of the Medical Service Corps so that kind of shooed me in. But now when I did that....what's interesting is I went from a competitive branch...Adjutant General is competitive with Infantry and Armor and Military Police...there's three noncompetitive branches, which is the Army Medical Department, the Chaplain Corps and the JAG Corps or the Judges. Well because I was going into a specialized branch, they only credit you one day for every two days you've already done on active duty. So I went from a 1st Lieutenant promotable back to 2nd Lieutenant in order to take my branch transfer to Medical Service Corps and even then, I didn't know for sure I'd be able to fly because that's a separate program inside Medical Service Corps. But then I happened to also meet the right people and talk to the right people that put together a packet to get picked up and so that's where I got finally picked up to be Medical Service Corps and to get to go fly and so I left Germany around August of 2003 to go to Fort Rucker in Alabama to go to flight school. I was in flight school for a year. Half-way in the middle of that year, I found out that I was going to go to Fort Riley to join up with the 82nd Medical Company Air Ambulance, who is now the Charlie, the 121...they totally restructured...to meet up with them in Iraq. They're in the middle of their second tour. So I got out of flight school, packed up the car, drove out to Fort Riley and checked in with the company and say, "Hey! How you guys doing?" "Hey, how you doing? Throw your bags in your apartment, here's the plane." And so around the middle of October, I got on a plane and flew out to Iraq to meet up with my Company for their first...or my first tour. As far as the training question goes, what's interesting...I did the Officer Basic Course for Adjutant General, but now that I was in the Army Medical Department, I needed to do the Officer Basic Course for Army Medical Department. But they didn't want to send me to the resident course. I'm going to flight school and this and that. I actually did my Officer Basic Course for the Army Medical Department correspondence during flight school so I kind of did them both at the same time and so that was the training I did for the Army Medical Department for Medical Service Corps.

Ellen K. Bassett:

When you went through flight training, were you trained on a helicopter and a plane or just a plane?

Drew David Larson:

It was strictly for helicopters. I personally, I have civilian training in airplanes and I hold licenses in airplanes, but that was on my own time. When I went to flight school in the Army...in the Army, all flight training in the Army is helicopters and then, once they're done...once soldiers or officers are done with their flight training in helicopters in the Army, there's a limited number of seats in a fixed-wing school where they can go and learn how to fly an airplane. But yeah, from day one I was helicopters. But for me, I also knew that I would be Blackhawks whereas Aviation Officers, they go through flight school, and they don't know until flight school is over whether they're going to be in an Apache, a Blackhawk, a Kiowa Warrior or a Chinook and it's all got to do with their order of merit that they've earned, and then they go to this school for that specific aircraft. In the Medical Service Corps, we only fly Blackhawks so I knew from day one I'm going to the Blackhawks. A friend of mine and I, we were one and two in our class, but didn't really matter because we were going to Blackhawks. The other officers didn't have any animosity for us holding those first two spots, because we weren't taking away what they wanted. That worked out pretty well.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Did you know you were going over to Iraq? Did you know that would be the end result of this training?

Drew David Larson:

It was becoming pretty clear that everybody was in Iraq. But when I first showed up, I had no idea. But half-way through, my branch manager told me I was going to the 82nd Medics. So half-way through flight school, I knew I was going to Iraq as soon as I graduated.

Ellen K. Bassett:

How did you feel about that?

Drew David Larson:

It changed my view on flight school. All of a sudden, the veterans that were there who taught us...because a lot of the pilots who train primary flight school are Vietnam Veterans and pilots, the great majority of them are...and all of a sudden the things they had to say to you were a lot more meaningful and you were grasping it more. You took the flying a little bit more seriously. You started seeing scenarios in your head, because the instructors would know you were going and would start giving you more scenarios because they were flying in Vietnam themselves so they started being a little bit more, "This is how you maneuver away from this kind of small arms fire. This is how you do this. This is how you do that." They let you get a hold of it. You just start seeing those pictures in your head. You just kind of realize well, that's where I'm going...that's where I'm going, this is for real, this isn't a joke. You know, whereas, you go to basic training, and it's like, "Yeah, I'm going back to high school when I'm done with this." Now it's, "I really need to know how to land this thing and take off. I'm going to Iraq to do this." It was different but not necessarily scary just because...I know a lot of people in the military complain about back-to-back deployments and deployments after deployment but in my view, the Army doesn't pay me to sit around Fort Riley in Kansas and fly a Blackhawk for fun. They're paying me to train, so that when they need me in a war, I go and do what I do. So while back-to-back deployments are difficult, and sure, I'd love to be home more with the family, but it's my job. So I'm not going to complain about it. It's my job to be there doing that for them. That's why they pay me and take care of me and the rest of the, you know for the other 15 years of my career while I'm sitting around home. No problems for me.

Ellen K. Bassett:

So you went over there, you said in 2003?

Drew David Larson:

I left for my first tour in October of 2004. I came back in early 2005. Then I had about nine months home again and then I left on November 9th for my second tour of 2005, and we just got back on November 1, 2006.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Okay, so you've been...had two tours of duty over in Iraq.

Drew David Larson:

Yes, two tours so far.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Now, your first tour of duty....when you got over there, what was your first impression getting off the plane?

Drew David Larson:

You know, getting there, it was surprising to me. You see all of these World War II movies where the soldiers...it looks like they're hitch-hiking rides back to their unit. "Hey, are you guys going to this unit or that unit? Are you going to this country?" They're just trying to piece-meal their way back. Well I'm thinking, "This is the 21st century. It's going to be organized and they're going to know where I need to go and this, that and the next thing." But I got on a plane...because I was meeting up with my Company. It was me and a Sergeant that I was traveling with. And the two of us get on a plane with another Company that's traveling to Iraq. "Okay, you guys will go with them." So we get on the plane. We go there with them, but we land in Kuwait and at this point, I don't actually know where my Company is headquartered. I just know they're in Iraq. Now we're in Kuwait, and all the equipment of this Company is downloaded into these trucks. They're going to go drive someplace. Well I'm thinking to myself, "Well okay, I don't know where I need to be, but I know I don't want to be separated from my stuff." So the Sergeant and I are like, "Let's just get on the bus they're getting on and go with our stuff, and get out stuff and figure it out there, piece by piece." So we drive up to this other base in Kuwait, and we get off and we get ourselves a bunk in some tent someplace. I'm like, "I'm going to try to go talk to somebody." So I finally found the administrative body on that post and I'm like, "Okay, I'm with the 82nd Medical Company Air Ambulance in Iraq, you know where they're at?" They're like, "We don't even know who that is." I'm like, "Okay, how about, how do I get to Iraq?" They're like, "Okay. Well in order to get to Iraq, you'll take this...you got to get on a space-available flight out of this base in Kuwait." I said, "Okay. How do I get there?" They're like, "Well, come back at 6:00 tomorrow morning we'll hook you up with a ride." So, at six o'clock the next morning the Sergeant and I traipsed over there with all of our gear and we're like, "Okay here we are." They're said, "Alright, we'll give you a ride down there." So they give us a ride down there and dropped us off at the space-available building where we could get a space-available flight into Iraq and I just walked in there. I said, "This is who I am, and this is who my Sergeant is. I need to go to Iraq. Do you go to different places? Do you go to one place? I need to find the 82nd Medical Company Air Ambulance." They're like, "Well, we fly from here to here. You can figure it out from there." "Okay. Sounds good! At least that gets me to Iraq!" So the two of us get on the plane and fly into Iraq. We landed at Balad. In Balad I said, "Does anybody here know where the 82nd Medical Company Air Ambulance is? I think Balad is where it's actually at." I had a vague recollection that they were in Balad, but I wasn't 100 percent. They're like, "Oh yeah, they're here." I was like, "Great! Anybody know their phone number? I'd love to call them and have somebody come pick me up." So sure enough I got a hold of someone. They're like, "Oh! You're here? That sounds cool. I'll send somebody by for you." So they came over and picked us up and our stuff, and it was like, "Hi." Most people had no idea I was coming, you know, or knew I was on the way, but didn't know when I was showing up and I was just absolutely surprised that in today's day and age with as advanced as our military is, I could have hung out in Kuwait for two weeks, I could have stayed in a tent there for two weeks, and nobody would ever come looking for me. I was an officer, I wasn't going to do something like that. But you're sending privates out by themselves, they may not figure out how to do this for themselves. I'm not talking down against privates by any means.

Ellen K. Bassett:

No, I know what you mean.

Drew David Larson:

But you have an 18, 19 year old...I don't know if when I was 18 or 19 years old I would have had enough gumption or know-how to just start getting myself some place like that in the middle of a war zone. You know, it's an intimidating thing, but we got there. That was my first kind of thought, "Wow. I just hitchhiked my way to my Company." But I got there. What I was surprised was it just kind of looked like a business as usual. "There's our aircraft and this is how we do things, and this is where we eat and here's your tent and let me go show you to your trailer." I had a trailer and a tent because the tents were located by where we worked so that was kind of a daily thing, but if we needed to get away, there were some trailers we could go and stay in for a night that had a nice bed, and it was a hard floor with heating and air conditioning and that was kind of nice. It was hot and brown, and 24 hours a day seven days a week and everything you did was in a wood structure. So, that was kind of my impression but I think that I was always appreciative even from day one with how much I had even there just because I have a great cousin who was a bomber pilot in World War II, and I know what the conditions were like. My dad, whose always been a massive supporter of the military and talks about all his friends that were in Vietnam and what their conditions were like. And I'm thinking to myself, "I've got Internet. I've got microwaves, I've got heating and air conditioning. I'm okay and no problems." Those were my impressions when I first showed up.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Once you're there, and you mentioned earlier that when you fly a mission you never knew beforehand, obviously, because of what you do...when a mission would come up, can you tell me about some of the missions that stand out in your mind?

Drew David Larson:

Well first, missions for Medical Evacuation are so much different than the rest of the Army. We even have pilots that come in from air assault units and things like that who have a hard time adapting to Medical Service Corps flying, because in an air assault mission, they plan it to the second when they're dropping that soldier off. So they may really literally spend a week or two planning a mission. For us, we plan conditions so we have a risk-assessment matrix that say, okay, you can fly down to this kind of weather. You can fly this and you can fly that, blah-blah-blah, but we can't plan if we're going to fly from here to there, you know, today, for a flight tomorrow because we don't know until literally minutes after something happened that they need us there, because all we do is fly medical evacuation. The only time we fly is when there's somebody who's injured who needs us. We're dedicated to that mission. So this year for example, we worked for the Marines, and a Marine gets injured, that Marine Company calls their battalion and it goes up the chain of command to Battle Captains that are in different areas and it goes about...it went through about nine channels to get approved and then to us. And that process, believe it or not, only takes 10 or 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes at the max if they're having a hard time figuring something out or deciding. Inside that time, it even goes through a medical authority who knows where the medical assets in Iraq are, so, where they want us to take the patient and whether or not that patient actually needs air evacuation or ground evacuation and it gets to us. When it hits us, we have to get there as fast as possible. We can't stop and start doing planning and this and that. So we already have an idea, we've already done planning for our aircraft capabilities. We know what temperature it is and what aircraft we're in so I already know my performance data. I don't have to do new performance data. We have a crew of four, and that Blackhawk helicopter is some 16,000 - 17,000 pounds, and that crew of four gets that helicopter in the air in under 10 minutes most of the time, from the time a call comes over our little radios we go everywhere with, you know, saying "Nine Line, Nine Line." We call it "Nine Line" because there's nine lines of information that come in the medical evacuation request. We'll be in the air in 10 minutes or less most of the time and we move just about as fast at night even from a dead sleep. We're in the air in just about as much time, because we split up our duties. The pilot in command and the medic will typically go to the operations building and get the information because the medic is there now to be able to see what's going on medically, the pilot in command can check the weather and do things like that. Then the pilot and the crew chief...and the crew chief is like an onboard mechanic...go straight to the helicopter. No stopping at "Go" and collecting $200. Straight from your room to the helicopter, and you get the helicopter going, flipping switches and starting engines, and (?), while they're up there getting the mission. By the time the pilot in command and the medic get down to the helicopter, you're already ready to go to fly...engines are running, I'm ready to go to fly as soon as you say "Go." The pilot in command starts putting his things on, while I'm going to fly so we have that aircraft in the air within 10 minutes.

Ellen K. Bassett:

And you're the guy that would immediately run to the aircraft...you are flying.

Drew David Larson:

Yes.

Ellen K. Bassett:

You're not the co-pilot. You are the....

Drew David Larson:

Well, it's an interesting duality in the Army because as a Captain, I'm the Team Leader so I'm in charge of the team. But when it comes to the aircraft, I'm actually not the pilot in command. We have pilots and pilots in command and pilot in command is a title and a right that you earn through training and experience and an evaluation. So I'm still at the level of pilot. So, and where the interesting duality comes in is I outrank my pilot in command. But when we get into that aircraft, you know, that pilot in command, he has 2000-3000....the gentlemen I happened to have flown with, who is...the IP, Instructor Pilot, that I happened to fly with the most is CW3, or Chief-1 Officer 3, Mike Steiner. He's got 2000-3000 hours so it's ridiculous to think that I should be in charge of the aircraft when we get into it because when you're flying that aircraft, it's about your life. It's about somebody else's life. I may be able to say, "Yes, we can do this mission, no we can't do this mission or this or that." But when it comes to the control of that aircraft, he's the expert. He's the specialist so you relinquish that to them to be in charge of that aircraft. If I did something or I tried to take control of the aircraft away from him, he could actually pull my flight orders and ground me. So it's a very interesting duality in the Army. While I'm in charge of the team, when we get up in the air, he's in charge of that aircraft. But that's not to say that I can't become a pilot in command, which is something I'll probably become this summer and then I will have charge of the aircraft but it's not something I have a problem with, because when you get in the aircraft, you know, it's typically not Captain Larson and Mr. Steiner, it's usually Mike and Drew just because, you know, when you're in that aircraft, you need to just be two pilots worried about the aircraft, worried about your crew and worried about the guys you're going to pick up so a lot of those thoughts just go out of your mind. Let's handle this aircraft and let's get to where we're going. So we'll have that aircraft up in the air in 10 minutes just because it becomes...it's almost like a dance, you know. As I step right, you step right. As I go left, you go left, and we just start to know. And like you fly with one person so much, you know, different people have different nuances. He knew I'd made calls 13 miles out from the place I was going, whereas other guys make it at nine. He knows I'll make my call at 13, so if I'm 11 miles out, and I haven't made a call, he's going to say, "Making a call?" Whereas another pilot who doesn't know me like that might ask me at 15 miles, "How come you haven't made the call?" It's really interesting how much you just get to know somebody so the more you fly with one crew, the more fluent it becomes. The force projection for saving lives that we have out there is just incredible. I've spoken with Ground Commanders and I was curious, I'm like, "How long from the time your soldier was injured and you made a call did you hear me coming?" One Ground Commander said, "I think it was maybe 20 minutes from the time I made a call to the time I heard you guys coming." That's just amazing because like this morning I spoke with some Vietnam Veterans who talked about...at a 12-hour mark they weren't even sure whether a Medivac helicopter was coming or not and here I am in 20 minutes, they know I'm there and 10 minutes after that, I'm going to have you in the hands of a surgeon. Sometimes I can have a soldier in the hands of a surgeon within 30 minutes of him being injured. That's just massive, not just to me knowing that that's what I'm doing, but I think it gives them the ability to fight harder, because they know if they get hurt, someone's coming to get them.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Right away.

Drew David Larson:

One of the missions that stands out in my mind was a Point of Injury because a lot of times we fly to the actual battle positions that are prepared for us, but we went to what we call POI, a Point of Injury. We went to right where they were injured. They weren't evacuated out because a vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, or IED's as we call them nowadays. That IED just demolished his vehicle. I remember flying in and there was a fire and I'm thinking to myself, "Is that a Humvee?" I couldn't tell what it was. There was a tire on top of it. The tire had been blown off and went so high it came back down on top of the vehicle. A lot of soldiers in that particular one were killed, but there was one that was still alive, burned maybe 70% of their body and that soldier got to Fort Sam Houston in Texas, which is one of the premier burn centers in the world inside 48 hours. He was back, you know, there was no waiting. We took him to our resuscitative surgical suite, that was right there where we were located, and they didn't do anything but inubate him so he could breathe, give him pain killers and put him back on our helicopter. We didn't even stop flying and we took him all the way to the echelon that was going to fly him out of Iraq, which is more than we usually fly. We flew farther. We usually go to our main body company, and then they take the soldier from there to the next echelon, but that stop takes 10 minutes, 20 minutes sometimes and we determined this guy doesn't have that much time. We took him. We bypassed it, worked out the fuel, covert switched with, because we flew with a covert escort, a covert gun ship escort and the covert...one covert came up and took over for the other covert, because we had more fuel than they do to continue on with us so we didn't have to stop with the soldier. This wasn't my mission...no...that was my mission. I took him originally and then when he was inside getting inubated in our (?) surgical suite, a different crew took him from there, and then took him the rest of the way so he got back to the states inside of 48 hours, and I listened to the Vietnam Veterans this morning talking about 12, 24, sometimes 48 hours before they could get a Medivac altogether, and this guy's back in the states. That's one of those things, those days, that may stick out in my mind, because I have the pictures of that soldier in my mind or some of the other soldiers that didn't make it in the back of my helicopter in my mind. I also realize how much we did for that soldier, and how much we're able to do just by our speed and our projection of force, because we spread ourselves out to cover as much ground as possible. That's why I wanted to fly for the Medical Service Corps not for the Aviation Branch, because I wanted to specifically to fly Medical Evacuation.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Did you ever fly a mission where you felt...I'm sure they all feel dangerous...but one that was particularly, "Uh oh," where you just...

Drew David Larson:

You know, I think pilots are superstitious people and every once in a while you get a funny feeling and you just don't want to fly that day. And every once in a while, I'd get a funny feeling and just not fly that day. I don't want to temp fate. But when you're up there flying, there's so much adrenalin running, and you're so concerned. There's a guy on the ground who's been fighting to keep where I am safe, and he's hurt. I need to go get him. You're not thinking about it. The covert will even tell us, "Hey, you're taking tracer fire over your tail, six or seven o'clock or whatever." You don't even hear him. You're like, "Whatever." I'm going where I'm going. We've have a little radar system that might tell you something's tracking you. Whatever. I'm going to where I'm going. You so don't think about it. A lot of times it's afterwards or it's right before the mission that you're kind of like, "Oh, God, I don't want to fly there." Or afterward you're like, "Oh, God, I can't believe I just flew there." There are places that are more bothersome than others. I don't like flying over Baghdad, for example. That's what we did last year and that's just because every...Baghdad is just a mess of buildings with billions of little windows, and who knows who's sitting inside of what window with what gun is going to take what pot-shot and who's going to have an accurate shot. But also, over Baghdad, there's so many other aircraft that it's almost hard just to de-conflict yourselves. So, flying places like that, that just kind of...that makes me nervous. Flying over cities just makes me nervous and so those are the ones where I'm kind of making sure my armor wings out.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Are you fairly protected in your helicopter?

Drew David Larson:

We are actually fairly protected. I'm armored below myself, behind me, on my side and then I'll wear a protected vest. We're pretty well protected. The aircraft itself, the Blackhawk, is just an amazing machine. They've gotten shot up and shot up and shot up and they'll just keep flying. Last year we took a round in our rotor cuff, and I didn't even know the round had hit the aircraft until the next morning when our Crew Chief was doing an inspection of the aircraft and he came back in he's like, "Hey, you know we got a round pulled a chunk of the rotor cuff out?" "No, we didn't." We didn't even know it hit us.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Wow!

Drew David Larson:

It's an amazing machine. I think a lot of times that just gives you your own sense of security, and then flying with the Cobras, a dedicated gunship just to protect us. That gives you another little sense of security. But yeah, for the most part...END OF SIDE A

Ellen K. Bassett:

BEGINNING OF SIDE B We were just talking about some of your more dangerous missions. Were you ever injured or wounded?

Drew David Larson:

No, I've never been.

Ellen K. Bassett:

You're very lucky.

Drew David Larson:

I've never been wounded. Our company's been very lucky that way. We had one pilot wounded last year who actually was shot. He was hit in the leg. It came through the cabin and it hit him. The medic climbed up in front and put a ball of Curlex in his leg and taped it up and he finished his mission. So he was wounded there. This year we actually had a training accident, which killed two of our soldiers.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Oh, no.

Drew David Larson:

So we lost two in a training accident, which was...it was terrible. They had both worked with me. They were two fine, fine individuals. And then we had one more injured this year when they landed on a land mine. He was injured and not terribly even. It was a piece of shrapnel up through his hand. So, out of our three tours, we've actually been very lucky, aside from Jeff and Steve, who passed away this year, and then the training accident. But no, I've never been wounded. As far as I know, I don't know how close I've ever come either, because as long as the bullet didn't touch me, it didn't touch me.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Right. It's almost better not knowing, I suppose. Now once you...you're flying a mission and you land, do you ever exit the helicopter? Do you have to help put the wounded in there or is your job just to get it down and then get it back up?

Drew David Larson:

You know, it's funny you ask me that exact question. I've got a story for that. Because that's a question that's actually a very common question. People have always asked me, "So do you have medical training? Do you get out and do you help and things like that?" Me, personally, I happen to have medical training, but that doesn't have to do with my job. It's just because it's what I did prior to. So, Medical Evacuation Pilots...the pilots don't necessarily have medical training. Our job is just to fly the aircraft and that's what I always told people. My job is to fly the aircraft. I don't get out. I'm flying the aircraft. That's what I would say to them. "I'm flying the aircraft." I stay in front, I land, the crew chief and the medic get out, and they do what they do and they put them back in and they go. Last year, we went to Mass Cal, we call it Mass Cal, Mass Casualty and we had four helicopters from two different locations show up, so four total, but two from each location. We show up there on station, and it was a pretty severe mass casualty. The soldiers were really in not good shape, and we're talking minutes mean lives. The senior pilot in command who was a CW-4 Slusher...maybe I shouldn't say his name, hopefully he doesn't get in trouble for this...he came over the radio and he said, "PC's or pilots in command, take the controls. PI's, you need to get out and help." You're on the ground. There's nothing wrong with one person holding the controls while you're on the ground. You're not flying. I did. I actually unbuckled and got out of the helicopter to go help my crew chief and my medic. It's a very unusual situation, but you know, so much so, it was a bright day, I lifted my sun visor and put down my clear visor so my crew chief and my medic would see that I was outside the helicopter and know that's who I was coming in and out of the disk. I just remember, I was running past my medic, and the look of, "What?" Looking back at me, "Who? Was that Lieutenant Larson that just ran past me?" I could see the shock in their faces. I also happen to have medical training, so it ended up working out really well. I was able to help them. I grabbed the ones who needed to go and helped people load them up and then get back in the helicopter and go. So while that's very unconventional and you might be hard pressed to ever find a story in today's types of wars of the pilot getting out, I think it was the right call to make by that pilot in command, who was the senior pilot in command of all four of those aircraft there because it may very well have saved lives. Today, sometimes in the military we get so regimented with our rules. It's a two-pilot aircraft. Nobody ever gets out. Well, that could cost somebody their life, and for what? You make the calls you need to make. I don't know. I think it was the right call to make. We got more people loaded faster, and we got off the ground faster than we would have otherwise. Someone may be alive for it so I think he made the right call on that. The answer is, "No, I never get out of the aircraft to help." But I did once.

Ellen K. Bassett:

In other words, you do what you have to do.

Drew David Larson:

You do what you have to do but it's a very atypical situation.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Do you ever carry good luck charms with you? Anything special?

Drew David Larson:

I actually carry two charms with me. The first one is readily prevalent to everybody and to people who see pictures. It's a little stuffed dragon on a keychain. I started conversing with a third grade class, Mrs. Johnson's third grade class, from Seth Paine Elementary in Lake Zurich, Illinois. We started communicating back and forth, and they sent me letters and boxes of treats and just things...cookies and even DVD's to watch and things like that. Their generosity was amazing. We wrote back and forth a few times and then I sent them a DVD of a bunch of stuff that I had put together. Then I burned it to a DVD and sent it to them. When I got home, I was going to Mrs. Johnson's class to speak to them and I walked in the front door, and it was this big surprise birthday party for me because the kids all knew that I had been in Iraq for my birthday and wanted to have a birthday party for me, down to the teacher, Mrs. Johnson, spoke with my sister and found out that chocolate covered strawberries was one of my favorite things and had huge trays of chocolate covered strawberries. And there was a cake. That was the first time I was in the paper with this, because they had a couple newspaper reporters there. They sat me down and gave me a bunch of gifts. One of the little girls...her gift to me was this little keychain, which was a dragon. It was not only the Seth Paine Dragon, but one of the things I happen to collect in my life...I love dragons. It's a personal enjoyment of mine is dragons, I've always loved dragons. So, it caught me...the Seth Paine Dragons...she gave me this little dragon, so I put it on my flight vest. Since the day she gave it to me, I haven't flown a single mission without that on my flight vest. When I came back and I spoke with Seth Paine this time, I had all of my equipment with me, and my little Seth Paine Dragon was on there. I think the kids were just in as much amazement that they saw their Seth Paine Dragon on my flight gear, and they saw the pictures of me flying the helicopter with that on there. The little girl who gave me the Seth Paine Dragon was there and got to see me still wearing it. So, I think that was pretty special for them. Frankly, it's special to me. I don't know if I could fly without that.

Ellen K. Bassett:

I know what you mean. That's neat.

Drew David Larson:

And the second thing I never fly without...I'm actually never without it at all. It's in my pocket right now which is a small Buddha, which comes from Buddhism. I'm in medical service, I want to save people, keep people from being hurt. There's a wire bundle that runs across the top of the Blackhawk at the front of the windshield and I always clip him on there before we're flying. So much so that my crew even knows that Buddha's up there flying with us. They'll be like, "Is Buddha onboard?" I'm like, "Of course Buddha's onboard!"

Ellen K. Bassett:

Like you have to ask?

Drew David Larson:

"Like you have to ask? He's right there." One of the other guys that I fly with, he flies with a little keychain of Captain Morgan from the Captain Morgan spiced rum. That's his little guy is Captain Morgan. He's always facing forward. Like he says, "That's the only Captain I want to fly with." Of course, which is a joke because I'm a Captain so that's his little joke toward me. "This is the captain I want to fly with." So we have Captain Morgan and Buddha. It's a little bit of a dichotomy in the aircraft but I think with what we do, we try to keep things as light as possible just to get through some of the things we've got to do.

Ellen K. Bassett:

I imagine some of the things you've had to do, you've probably lost some soldiers that you were transporting for treatment.

Drew David Larson:

Well, one of the things we say is that, "We never lose a soldier on the aircraft." So, nobody's ever passed away on the aircraft. I think that's just something we say because soldiers and people pass away on the aircraft, but we always say it was at the facility afterwards. One of the nice things, actually, the Marines do that the Army doesn't is that the Marines refer to their dead as angels. So we never come over the radio...when we're working with Marines, we never came over the radio and said, "We have two KIA on board or two dead on board." You never said that around Marines. It was always angels. "We have two angels on board." It's grown on our Company, for example because even now, even when we're not with the Marines, people still refer to it as angels. "Yeah, I had two angels on board." I don't know. Maybe that's a way for us to pay respect to them at the same time removing ourselves from the hostility of it. Otherwise, yeah, there were times when we'd be bending the aircraft over the best we could, but it just wasn't fast enough or it wasn't good enough.

Ellen K. Bassett:

How many wounded can you transport on a Blackhawk?

Drew David Larson:

On a Blackhawk, we can take...typically we're configured to take up to four litter, which is a stretcher, so four stretchered or littered patients and then one ambulatory or sitting or we can drop the back to litters and then put four more ambulatory or if we're really hurting, we can configure our carousel...we have a carousel that rotates so that we can load soldiers and rotate them back for the medic to work on them...we can configure it to carry up to six litters if we have to.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Have you ever had it when it's been that full?

Drew David Larson:

I think the most I've ever carried, I think, in any one rotation was five soldiers. One of the things that we do....because the more people that are on board, the less time each one's going to get with the medic, because we only have one medic. If I know something just happened...the Nine-Line comes in that says there's five wounded or six wounded, I'm going to send two helicopters and split it up between the two so that there's more medical capability in the air with our soldiers on the way back.

Ellen K. Bassett:

That makes sense. Have you been awarded any citations or medals? Obviously, you sound very deserving.

Drew David Larson:

Deserving? I don't know. But last year, I received an Air Medal for the short time I was over, and I had also received the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, which everybody gets for being over there. This time I was awarded an Army Commendation Medal for my service as a Team Leader, and I was awarded the Air Medal twice for my service as a combat pilot.

Ellen K. Bassett:

That's great. That's just great. Now I'm going to ask you some fun things, like what you do in your spare time and you've mentioned a few funny things.

Drew David Larson:

My spare time? I have so many hobbies that I think it jumps from one thing to another. I made a joke this morning that the kids didn't realize...I was speaking with Stevenson High School students, and one of them said, "Well, when you are over there, what's the thing that you miss the most?" And I said, "Beer." Of course, it's a high school student, so they all thought that was just the greatest thing in the world. I said, "Really, the truth is that when you're over there you miss things that you can't have. It's not that you miss it. It's just that you can't have it." For example, here in Buffalo Grove, one of my favorite things is Lou Malnati's pizza. I live in Kansas. I'll go eight, nine months without being home here in Buffalo Grove and not have Lou Malnati's and not think about it. But within two weeks of being in the desert, it's like, "Man! I need some Lou Malnati's pizza!"

Ellen K. Bassett:

But you can't have it.

Drew David Larson:

So, it's the same thing. Soldiers talk about the little local joints that they want to have food at and things like that. They'll talk about the beer that they like the most and things like that. The reason I'm saying that is because brewing beer is actually a big hobby of mine. I love to brew beer. That's one of my hobbies. I typically give away far more than I ever drink because my friends seem to like it a lot. So I make it and then hand it off to other people. I've also...I like to try and learn guitar from time to time. I love camping. I love high-adrenalin sports when I can find time to do them. I used to drive a...I had a Harley Davidson last year. One of my ways of relaxing and enjoying myself was to go out on a Sunday morning and disappear for hours at a time. But with as much as I am back and forth, I just didn't have the time to drive. I sold it off to my dad, who's a big motorcycle driver. He's getting far more enjoyment out of it than I have. So, he's got that now. I love, in Kansas, we're out by two lakes and in the summertime we go camping a lot and a lot of guys have boats and so we go out boating and things like that.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Are there any hobbies that you have here that you're able to continue over in Iraq?

Drew David Larson:

One of my hobbies is probably reading, to a certain extent. I don't read novels. I've never been able to bring myself to read a novel. It's not the real world to me, and there's just so much in our world that I want to know about. I'm very much a non-fiction reader. So, I get interested in things, like in my hobbies and I'll read about it, you know, I wanted to learn how to play the guitar...I read books on guitar history and guitar present and things like that. I read books on law just because it's something I'm interested in, so I do that. We have some video games out there, and we'd play some of those but one of the things that I started doing out there that was great was building models. I love radio-controlled airplanes. That's another one of my hobbies that I love is building these full-size radio-controlled airplanes. Those have wing-spans of five, six feet. So, I couldn't do that out there, but they make little balsa models that are only, you know, have one-foot wing spans that are rubber-powered. So, in my room, I set myself up a table, a wood table, and I ordered a couple of these little, small balsa wood models and some glues and knives. When I'd be sitting in my room at night, I'd be watching maybe a movie or something on my computer, I'd be sitting and making the little models. That was one of the hobbies that I was able to kind of bring with me or adapt so that I could do it out there.

Ellen K. Bassett:

It sounds like you...you can send away for these things?

Drew David Larson:

Oh, it's amazing. The mail system nowadays is amazing... Amazon.com, Tower Hobbies is where I went for all my hobby stuff... a lot of that stuff is there in two weeks. You know? Yeah, it's like if I want an electronic or something like that or I want a new iPod, I get online, order it and send it out. It's a very different lifestyle out there in Iraq than it was in Vietnam, so much so, that I'm almost guilty talking about it. I'm sitting with these Vietnam Veterans today, and I feel guilty saying, "I sat around a lot, and I have a "frig" in my room and Internet." But I also live a lot better than most soldiers out there just because with Medical Evacuation... aviation tends to have....we're in more of a fixed place because we fly out of one place, so we're able to build up our area more than these soldiers who bounce around from battle point to battle point. When you're in a place for only four weeks, you can't really improve your area. We have time to improve our area and get people to help us wire electricity and plumbing and things like that. That was lucky. I even had a guitar sent to me so that I could play guitar out there.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Is the base you're at, it's not considered one of the places where...are you guys ever under attack or ever bombed?

Drew David Larson:

Different places come under more attack than others. Where we were last year, we got mortared almost every day. So you run down to your bunker and run Ops from there. This year where I was, we were only proverbially attacked...not proverbial but... maybe we were, maybe we weren't but we had a bunch of Cobras out there shooting at things and the soldiers out on the perimeter were shooting, and there were reports that people were scoping our perimeter and they were shooting back. That only happened once the entire time we were there. Where we were, we also had those battle points up that were forward and took all of that brunt for us. But, that was again us. We were in a lucky position. We were in a position where we didn't get mortared or attacked a lot. Other places are still mortared every day.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Well, I was reading in the paper, there was an article about military slang, and "Angels" was one of the words that they talked about...like the Atlantic Ocean, they said guys call it "the pond".

Drew David Larson:

Yes, "going over the pond" or "going over to the sandbox".

Ellen K. Bassett:

I thought the article was fascinating. Do you use this terminology regularly? Is this something everybody uses over there?

Drew David Larson:

You know, like angels. We won't use the word dead, we use angel especially with the Marines. We always call it the sandbox among ourselves. "You going back to the sandbox?" "Yeah, I'm going back to the sandbox"...jumping over the pond...I think that might have come actually from England when they went over to, you know, between England and France, the pond. I don't know. It just seems to me that that's where it came from because I believe, even back in World War II they called it the pond. I've heard Veterans refer to it as the pond, too.

Ellen K. Bassett:

That's the first time I had heard that when I saw it in the paper.

Drew David Larson:

I might be wrong, so. Some veterans reading this going, "We never said that!"

Ellen K. Bassett:

They referred to a base that was under attack as a....I can't remember what the term was for that. But I didn't know if there were any other terms that you guys used on a regular basis, any other slang terms.

Drew David Larson:

Well, you know, there's slang...and the thing is....and I started thinking about it....and it's the term that we use for Iraqi Nationals and things like that, whereas the terms that they used in Vietnam for the Vietnamese is nowadays looked at as a very racial slur. You know, I'm curious...like today, when we're over there, we refer to everything as Hodgi. A HodgiMart is like a little shop. Instead of WalMart, it's HodgiMart or we refer to the people as Hodgi's...you know "Hodgi's is contracted to do this." You know, I wonder if during the Vietnam era they used the words that they used as regularly and without thinking this was slang, or trying to be rude, as we are, today we don't use the word Hodgi with any slang or slur toward the people. It's just, you come in and that's how it's referred to, so that's how you refer to it and it's one of those things.... I'm curious...in 20 years if that's going to be looked at as a racial slur. But that's a huge slang word out there. That's used regularly by everybody, there's nobody who doesn't.

Ellen K. Bassett:

How did that, do you know how that term came about? Is it short for something?

Drew David Larson:

You know I'm really not sure, I'm really not sure. I think it comes from something. Somebody told me once....and I have no idea of the accuracy of this statement....said it was actually referring to like you might call....instead of saying, "This person is from Germany. He's German" it's kind of like saying, instead of saying, "He's Iraqi,...he's Hodgi," in their language or something like that, and I have no idea of the accuracy of that statement. But you know...or saying, "It's the Dutch." "It's the Hodgi." I don't know whether that's accurate or not. I'd like to think that it is because then it means I'm not being cruel. I actually stay away from using the term back here, because I don't know, I don't know if it's going to turn into something like that. I don't need to perpetuate it. So whenever I'm speaking with students and stuff like that, I never use the term.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Well that makes sense. Have you made...sounds like you have, especially with your crew...made good friends out there and people you keep in touch with?

Drew David Larson:

Yeah, I've made some really good friends in the military. One individual that I met when I was in Germany is an Adjutant General Officer, Pete Purzell who's still with the Adjutant General. We still keep in contact to this day. He's one of my very favorite people.

Ellen K. Bassett:

He's still in Germany?

Drew David Larson:

Actually, at this point, yeah, he still is in Germany. I believe so.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Oh.

Drew David Larson:

He's still in the Adjutant General Corps because that's where we met. We met in school, actually a safety school. We were becoming Safety Officers, and we met there and just, every once in a while, you got a combination. We were just great friends and had a lot of stuff in common. We've always been friends. We were great friends out there. We still email back and forth and talk every once in a while. And the same thing in flight school. In flight school, my stick buddy more-or-less...throughout most of it, I had a different stick buddy for my primary training, but then we were stick buddies for instruments and basic combat skills, and we went to our advanced aircraft school together. We were both Medical Service and so I think we ended up hanging out. His name is Jason Youmen. He's a Medical Service Corp Pilot, currently with what would have been the 50th , I think it's the 50th....I hate to name his Company wrong. He's at Fort Campbell right now. We happened to be on different schedules. He's there while I'm here and visa versa. So, he's a really good friend of mine, too. I've made some pretty good friends in this Company, also.

Ellen K. Bassett:

That's great. When you come back here...I guess I was under the impression you were here on vacation, but it doesn't sound like it. You're here working?

Drew David Larson:

No. Here in Buffalo Grove I'm actually on vacation because I got back from Iraq. My family is all still here. I grew up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. My sister lives in Hawthorn Woods, and my brother lives in Algonquin. My dad lives in Buffalo Grove. And all of my friends are still here. So this is where I'm back at on vacation. So yeah, I'm on vacation right now.

Ellen K. Bassett:

You mentioned you're going back to Iraq in July. So, between now and then.....

Drew David Larson:

When I'm done with vacation here, I go back to Kansas to Fort Riley where I work. It's just kind of like business as usual but more because we're actually going under a (?) structure change, so we're changing the structure of our Company. We're going to be dealing with all that administrative and physical change, and we have new people coming in that we need to start training and old people going out. It's kind of like we came home to refit, reorganize and then go back. It will be very long days and a lot of work for the next several months.

Ellen K. Bassett:

And you know for sure you're going back, then.

Drew David Larson:

Well, I can never say for sure but...

Ellen K. Bassett:

But I mean it's in the plan. Other things can change.

Drew David Larson:

That's one of the things that is frustrating with my family. They'll say, "Okay so when you going to come home?" I'm like, "Okay this is when I'm coming home. But remember I'm in the Army. It might change." Sure enough, that will change. "I'll be home for three weeks. No one week. No three weeks. Okay, two weeks. Okay, it's going to be November. No it's December. I'm going to be home in January." So things change quite a bit, but right now the way it works is there's only so many active duty Medical Evacuation Companies and so we're just rotating so it tends to be gone for a year and home for eight or nine months to refit and gone for a year and that's the way it's gone for the last three rotations. That just ends up putting us back in eight or nine months just because...and if the war's not over, then we're just going to keep rotating. So, we basically work with the assumption that we're going back but you never know what'll happen...whether it slides right or left or gets canceled or we go someplace else. You don't know. But we work with the assumption that we're going back.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Okay. I want to clarify again....you just came back from your third rotation.

Drew David Larson:

I came back from my second. It's my Company's third rotation in Iraq.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Okay, but your second rotation?

Drew David Larson:

My second.

Ellen K. Bassett:

So, you go over a year, come back for...

Drew David Larson:

...eight, nine months...yeah.

Ellen K. Bassett:

...then go back a year and...

Drew David Larson:

That typically, that's been the rotation for my Company.

Ellen K. Bassett:

Let's see, I was going to ask a few other questions, but I think we covered just about everything. Is there anything that you can think that you want to add that I haven't covered or anything important that you feel you want to say?

Drew David Larson:

No, I don't think so.

Ellen K. Bassett:

You've been very thorough.

Drew David Larson:

Well, I don't think so. I talked about how I got started and what we're doing now and things like that, so I was just more answering the questions.

Ellen K. Bassett:

You did a good job. But there's one last thing I want to say, though. I want to thank you for your service to our country and to tell you that in my eyes and everyone, you really are a hero.

Drew David Larson:

Well, I appreciate that. It's an honor. I don't think people get it when they come up to me and they thank me for what I do and things like that. The most I can say is, "It's an honor." Because saying, "Thank You" for thanking me seems odd. I feel honored that I'm able to do what I do. Like at the Thanksgiving table, my mom will say, "Okay, what are people thankful for?" And the thing I'm thankful for is that I have the physical and mental capability of doing what I do to help. And that's what I'm thankful for so it's truly an honor for me to do what I do. It's difficult for people to call me a hero. It's difficult to hear it and I say that because, for example this morning when I was speaking with the Vietnam Veterans, they were talking about how they were treated when they came back. And so then I had to talk about how I was treated when I came back. And one of the gentlemen said, "My experience was nothing like Captain Larson's who was welcomed home to this. We're a little jealous." I had to tell them. I said, "I have to be honest with you. I feel a little guilty." I almost feel guilty speaking with them. One gentleman I sat next to was actually, had the stereotypical return and was spit on and asked how many babies he had killed, which didn't actually happen that much. But it happened to him. I have to look at him and feel a little bit guilty that while that was his experience, I had an assembly of children screaming and yelling for me and it brings me a little bit of guilt and then I realized that my living conditions were nothing like theirs, that they were constantly under threat and being shot at, and their buddies were constantly being wounded and killed around them but that wasn't my experience here. I had Internet in my room, and I had a little fridge in my room that to me, in my mind, you say "hero" and I think of those people. I think of the Vietnam Veterans, the World War II Veterans. It makes it very difficult. I can't tell a third grader, "For crying out loud, I'm not a hero. I'm just Drew." I just happened to work out there in Iraq for a year. It's actually....I don't know if uncomfortable is the word. I don't know how to respond to it.

Ellen K. Bassett:

I know, but I feel like you are doing the most important job a person can do. That's what it is in my mind, and I want to thank you for that.

Drew David Larson:

As I said, it's an honor.