Seawolves: First Choice

by Daniel E. Kelly

Overview

They called themselves Seawolves . . .
The men of SEALs, PBRs, and SF called them saviors . . .

Created in 1967, the HAL-3 helicopter squadron--aka Seawolves--provided quick-reaction close air support to SEALs, PBR River Rats, and Special Forces advisers and their troops. During the five years of the unit's existence, the seven detachments of Seawolves amassed stunning statistics: 78,000 missions, 8,200 enemy kills, 8,700 sampans sunk, and 9,500 structures destroyed. These 200 men collected a total of 17,339 medals.

This is the story of one of those men. . . .

Taking enemy fire while braced against the rocket pod of a Huey gunship and shooting an M-60 freehand in 110 mph winds was just part of Dan Kelly's job in Vietnam. As a gunner in the all-volunteer Seawolves, he served with distinction until three bullets bought him a trip home. Here is his amazing story of the Seawolves--a harrowing tale of unsung heroism and undaunted courage in combat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307490612
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/10/2008
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Daniel E. Kelly lives with his wife, Belle, in Plano, Texas. After leaving the navy, he graduated from college with a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa. Despite the loss of a leg four inches above the knee, he holds a deputy's commission with the Dallas County sheriff's department. He has worked with the Dallas Tactical Team and gone undercover for BATF. He likes horseback riding and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
 
Life is full of choices. We choose to fight, we choose to run, or we choose to do nothing and just take whatever comes, wallowing in self-pity. All of these involve attitude, which in turn affects our actions.
 
Attitude is developed through upbringing, just like language. The parents you have and the social surroundings they raise you in, the children you play with, peer pressure, all affect your attitude, which in turn affects the choices you make on how to act when “shit happens.” I’ve had experience with all three, and I don’t mind telling you there’s not much satisfaction in the third choice.
 
Do you remember seeing that all-too-famous bumper sticker SHIT HAPPENS? Well, I used to think of that as a very negative thing to have stuck on the back of your car. However, I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot of wisdom in it.
 
Things do happen that we have no control over, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner a lot of stress disappears from our lives. We spend entirely too much time worrying about things before they happen. Problem is, you can do everything right and still have a bad result.
 
For example, my wife and I have a very good friend who had shit happen to her. This lady and mother, who shall remain nameless, married another good friend of ours. Both were very successful in their chosen professions. He was an architect, and she was a stewardess. They both seemed to be doing everything correctly, making all the right choices in life, financially and emotionally.
 
They have two beautiful children. The daughter is extremely sweet, outgoing, artistic. And she is a cheerleader. Their son has taken part in all sports, loves golf, is involved in the Scouts. He’s a musician and very creative.
 
On the surface, all was well. What the mother didn’t know was that her husband was living another life. There was another woman. When the truth finally came out, divorce came into their lives. Another seemingly perfect pair of lives destroyed.
 
Adjustments had to be made by all involved. Change always seems to bring pain. She realized that there was only one person she could count on and one to make decisions for. That was herself! You can’t control your partner, so why should you worry about what they might or might not do while you’re not there? You make the choices for you, no one else. Our friend chose to make the best of her situation and move on. Crying about it wouldn’t change things. Because of her good attitude, she fought back and is moving on with her life because she chooses to. She will be rewarded for choosing wisely.
 
Everyone I have ever known who has chosen to fight back has been rewarded. Those who chose to run away, or to stay the same in the face of changing circumstances, never made it. Things just got worse. Sure, we do make choices in our lives that can cause negative things to occur, but usually, we have no way of knowing that until it happens. Remember, if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing anything. So, shit happens to all of us; the choice we all have is how we handle it.
 
One day when I was seven years old, halfway through the second grade, I walked into class, and in front of everyone, the teacher said, “Why are you here? You’re supposed to be back in the first-grade classroom. You’ve been put back a year. Didn’t your parents tell you?”
 
Taking me by the hand, the teacher walked me out, in front of all the laughing children, and escorted me into the first-grade classroom.
 
Years later, I learned that happened because in those days in Iowa it was apparently against the law to be left-handed in school. You had to be taught to write right-handed; I was born left-handed. In the attempt to change me into a right-handed student, I developed a learning disability and did very poorly in school.
 
None of that had anything to do with my choices except how I handled it. As I had not been warned by my parents and was embarrassed, I chose to lower my self-image a few notches.
 
When I was halfway through the second grade a second time, we moved to Texas. When we were living in Austin, my dad would sit me down to help me with my reading. When I made a mistake, he would slap me out of my chair. I remember not being able to see the words through the tears in my eyes. I chose from that point on to hate reading, and I chose to drop my self-image a few more notches. We lived in a household that believed in negative motivation. We were never rewarded for positive performance, so I really never had a reason to choose to raise my self-image.
 
Fourth grade, I didn’t want to go to school one day because I wasn’t feeling well. My dad beat me because he was convinced I was faking. Mom protected me, so he beat her, too. I chose to blame myself for her beating, and of course, it follows that I chose to drop my self-image even further.
 
After a long series of such situations, my parents divorced. I chose to live with my mother because of the abusive nature of my father. My older brother, John, stayed with Dad because they had a better relationship than Dad and I had.
 
I joined a Little League team to play baseball, and just as my self-esteem was coming back up because I did the Little League thing on my own, my thumb was torn off in the gears of a cement mixer, which ended my baseball career. My thumb did get sewn back on. Never was quite the same, though. Shit happens.
 
To add insult to injury, trying to come back from that minor setback, I joined the school band and became a band geek. I couldn’t even be a good geek, because I made bad grades in all my other classes.
 
Then my mom married a band geek who was smart. He got me to join the Civil Air Patrol because he knew that I liked “army stuff.” That helped my self-image some, but not enough to overcome the damage that had been done. Older brother John did all he could to help me. He had great insight and could see what was going on. Unfortunately, being big brother just didn’t give him enough clout to make things right. I owe him a lot. He was the best protector little me could have had!
 
My first childhood hero was Fred Jones. He was in the army while I was going to Pearce Junior High School in Austin. He was the older half brother to Bill Strawser, who also played a big role in my development. I looked up to both of them. They were smart, and they were natural athletes. Bill was two years ahead of me, a football hero and a basketball star at school. Fred, whom I’ll never forget, came and picked me up from school in his uniform the day he got back from Vietnam. He made me feel important. Both of them always treated me like I was somebody special.
 
Looking back at it all today, I think it was a few special moments like that that kept a fire going in my dream machine. The fantasy that I lived in my head, one that shielded me from a lot of strife, was to someday be an Action-Adventure Hero!
 
However, this dumb geek was destined to drop out of school and join the navy. But all the choices had been made by me.
 
We all could cop out and say that the choices were made by circumstance, and we were forced to make those choices, but that’s just not the truth. The one God-given thing we all have is freedom of choice. That’s one thing nobody can take from us.
 
I eventually discovered that the older you get, the more choices you have to alter your destiny. You have the God-given power to change directions and be whoever you want to be. If you’re an underachiever, the way I was, because of negative reinforcement in your upbringing, then you have to work twice as hard as others to achieve the same thing. Obviously, to alter the direction in which I was headed was going to take a lot of work.