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"I always knew that I wanted to fly, I just knew I wanted to fly, the thought of going up there and flying the airplane, I thought was the ultimate, and of course to be a naval aviator was the pinnacle." (Video Interview, 30:55)

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   Marvin Francis Pixton, III
Image of Marvin Francis Pixton, III
Marvin Pixton [2007]
War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Branch: Marine Corps
Unit: HMM-162 (Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron); VMO-2 (Marine Observation Squadron); HML-167 (Marine Light Helicopter Squadron); VT-1 (Training Squadron); VMA-214 (Marine Attack Squadron); VMA-311
Service Location: Quantico, Virginia; Pensacola, Florida; North Carolina; Vietnam; California; Rhode Island; Washington, DC
Rank: Colonel
Place of Birth: TN
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Marvin Pixton yearned to be a pilot from an early age and was disappointed when he failed the eye exam to become a Marine pilot. However, he retook the exam and passed it, going on to a 25-year career in the Marines. He served two tours of duty above Vietnam: one in helicopters (1967-8), the other in jets (1972-3). (His unit was the last to leave Vietnam.) He preferred the former, which allowed him closer contact with the men on the ground he was supporting. He survived several near-catastrophes, once watching a plane in front of his hit a mountain in bad weather.

Interview (Video)
»Interview Highlights  (9 clips)
»Complete Interview  (49 min.)
More like this
»Wings of War
 Video (Interview Excerpts) (9 items)
Volunteered while in college for Platoon Leaders' Class, similar to Officer Candidate School; was attending University of Maryland on track scholarship; first days in service; visiting girlfriend on his first weekend in program, addressing an officer casually; picked on by drill instructor for his outfit; suit and straw hat. (03:45) Went to flight school to become a pilot; first job in squadron was property officer; unit had just come back from Vietnam low on equipment and about to embark on assignment in the Caribbean; he had to scramble to recover all equipment, catalogue and box it. (01:03) Tours in Vietnam, lost 30 percent of squadron; describes nature of his duties aboard Huey gunships; did everything from escorts to running airstrikes to being lead aircraft for Army's Special Operations Group. (01:38)
Family might have worried about him, not knowing exactly what he was doing; once he has to write to explain that his and another craft had been shot down; on the ground for a couple of hours; no one on the second aircraft survived; did two tours of Vietnam: in helicopters, stationed at Marble Mountain, outside Da Nang, and in A-4 jets, stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base, near Saigon. (01:11) Not much time for entertainment; flew missions at night; keeping two aircraft airborne from dusk to sunup to watch for blasts coming in to air bases to locate origin of attacks. (00:50) Preferred flying helicopters as he loved supporting ground troops; trying to rescue downed Army aircraft; caught in crossfire, went into weather and flying on instructions from control center; lead helicopter hit mountain and exploded, he pulled his up and they clipped the top of the mountain and crashed; first rescue helicopter didn't have room for all of them, so he and crew chief had to wait for a second craft. (03:59)
Dropping 500 pound bombs in Cambodia; his aircraft was hit, cockpit filled with smoke; managed to make it home. (01:14) Fascination with flying began in elementary school; in high school, lived near Pensacola, impressed with planes from nearby naval base; sees naval flying requiring more skill, landing aboard ships; failed first eye exam to become pilot; passed second and third time, the last the day after a big party where he abstained from drinking. (03:25) Too busy during mission to be scared; only afterwards, seeing where craft had been hit, did you wonder how you made it; close call when an incoming round lodged in the casing of a grenade canister; sense of invincibility; "it's not going to happen to you;" knew in bombing people, it was either them or him, as they were trying to shoot him down. (03:13)
  
 
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  October 26, 2011
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