Capt. Scott Alwin has the distinction of being the pilot awarded the most Combat Air Medals out of any branch of the U.S. Armed Services. Official records show 136, while his battalion records indicate that number is 207.
The eldest son out of 16 siblings, Alwin started out his service in the U.S. Air Force, but the continued conflict in Vietnam prompted him to enlist in the U.S. Army to fly helicopters. He served in the 68th Assault Helicopter Company for five tours of duty from 1967-72 in Vietnam.
Despite several crashes, Alwin returned home from war and started a family, but his life was cut short at age 31 when he was driving from Fort Benning to Washington, D.C., for meetings at the new War College and struck down by a suicidal drunk driver.
Alwin’s life and career in the military are front and center in the documentary “Honor in the Air.” Much of the documentary was shown April 18 to students at Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School, with two of Alwin’s sisters speaking to provide some context on their brother’s heroism.
“We were preacher’s kids,” Pamela Fullerton said about her big family. “That meant we didn’t get to swear, we didn’t get to curse, but you’re not going to believe this — your principal caught me saying ‘hell’ and ‘damn it’ a little while ago.”
Alwin himself adhered to being a preacher’s son, not using foul language or consuming alcohol in his life, said Fullerton, who was a producer for the documentary.
“We’re here to tell you a story today, and the thing about this story, is that it could belong to any of you,” she said. “You many not have 15 brothers and sisters, and you may not be a preacher’s kid, but if you want to be a hero like Scott, all that is necessary is that you dedicate yourself to serving other people and loving your country.”
Fullerton recounted how Alwin, as a child, always enjoyed taking his younger siblings on “great adventures” like rafting down a river that occasionally came close to doing her in.
“He didn’t seem to mind that I was being put in danger,” Fullerton said. “I never quite understood that.”
Much of Alwin’s story was not known to his siblings until recently, and a lot of it came from others who served with him in Vietnam. The family knew that Alwin had earned multiple Purple Hearts, Distinguished Flying Crosses and Bronze Stars, along with a Silver Star, but they discovered that he developed the auto-rotation maneuver that counteracted tail-rotor and engine failure. It is still standard training for all pilots, according to Fullerton.
“It is still saving lives, today,” she said.
Fullerton noted that pilots received a Combat Air Medal for every 25 hours of flight time, which means that if his battalion records reflect the true number of medals he earned, he spent more than 5,000 hours in the skies over Vietnam, moving troops across the land.
“In combat, the life expectancy for a helicopter and its crew — including the pilot, co-pilot, gunner and crew chief — was 30 seconds,” Fullerton said to the students. “He wasn’t there to be a hero. He was just there because his country asked him to go, and that’s probably something a lot of you don’t know.”
Fullerton noted that 70% of those who fought in Vietnam volunteered for service and recalled the less-than-grateful greeting that Alwin and others received.
“There were no great big celebrations of their homecoming,” Fullerton said. “Many of them were beaten up as they came home, spit upon, reviled, called baby killers, among other things. They came home without the support that was accorded World War II veterans.”
Alwin wasn’t always treated right in the service, either, according to Fullerton. Alwin had crashed twice already due to enemy fire at the time a new executive officer took command, she said, and that officer warned Alwin that if he crashed again, his flying days were over.
When the inevitable happened and Alwin was relieved of duty, Fullerton said, his fellow pilots vowed they would not fly, either.
“Every single pilot in that unit came into that man’s office, took their wings off their chest, slapped them on the desk and said, ‘If Alwin doesn’t fly, we don’t fly. It’s stupid for us to be taking off and leaving our best pilot behind,’” Fullerton said, noting that the executive officer threatened to court martial all of them, and the pilots said to go right ahead and do that.
That convinced the officer to change his tune and reinstate Alwin.
“These were brothers in a way that was every bit as significant as the fact that he was our brother,” Fullerton said.
Alwin’s younger sister compared the fight in Vietnam to the war in Ukraine, where those people are fighting to keep their freedoms from being taken away by Russia.
“The Ukrainians feel right now that if the Communists in Russia get back into Ukraine, they are going to take over that territory, and Putin can have his empire back,” Fullerton said. “In a sense, history is repeating itself.”
Penny Alwin, Scott’s older sister, told the students that another brother, who served as a medic during Vietnam, said the pilot summed up his bravery very succinctly one time, saying: “When in doubt, do your duty.”
“Sometimes, that’s all it comes down to,” said Penny Alwin.
ONLINE
To see the documentary and find out more about Capt. Scott Alwin, go to www.honorintheair.com.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Documentary shows Vietnam pilot’s heroism
