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Robert Mitchell didn’t go looking for war.
In 1966, his student deferment disappeared and the draft was closing in. Instead of waiting to see where the Army would send him, Robert made a choice: if he was going to serve, he wanted to fly.
That decision put him into the Army’s Warrant Officer Rotary Wing Aviation program and eventually behind the controls of helicopters headed for Vietnam.
In Part 1 of my conversation with Robert, we talk about his path from a struggling college student to Army helicopter pilot, nine months of flight training, and the incredible moment when his plan was selected from roughly 400 students to lead a massive training exercise involving 200 helicopters.
Then came Vietnam.
Robert arrived in January 1968, just before the Tet Offensive. Within days, he was being fired on while flying a Huey toward Dong Ha near the DMZ. He would go on to fly command and control missions, support missions, and scout operations where finding the enemy meant deliberately flying out in front.
But Robert’s story isn’t only about flying helicopters.
It’s about what he calls the warrior spirit and what happens when the military trains someone for combat, awakens that instinct inside them, and then suddenly takes the battlefield away.
Robert’s tour ended violently when his helicopter crashed, rupturing a fuel line and erupting in fire. He was badly burned, medevaced out of Vietnam, and spent eight months in the hospital.
The fire sent him home.
The war came with him.
Robert openly discusses returning home still carrying the desire to fight, the internal conflict that followed, and the long journey that would eventually take his life in a completely different direction.
This is only Part 1.
036 P1: Robert Mitchell: Sent Home by Fire, Still Wired for War
📚 Find Robert Mitchell’s books, including Journey to Mirtos, on Amazon:
Robert Mitchell’s Amazon Author Page
🎙️ Semper Try Podcast
Because Trying Beats Quitting.
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