After her father passed away, TikToker Ali (@ali_forpresident) and her family received a call from a man who wanted to talk to them because their dad had saved his life.
He learned of their dad’s death when he saw their dad’s name in the newspaper with his obituary.
The man said that they were in Vietnam together during the war. He was fighting on the ground and was under heavy enemy attack.
He saw the rescue helicopter fly in, but then it started to fly away. He thought he wasn’t going to make it out alive, but he ran through rice paddy fields and chased after the helicopter anyway.
That’s when he saw someone pop their head out from the door of the helicopter and motion for him to keep moving forward. That someone was Ali’s dad. Back at the camp, he thanked Ali’s dad for what he did. He responded that he was just doing his job.
Her father told the story a little differently. According to him, he woke up hungover that day and was in a bad mood. They were on a routine reconnaissance mission when they spotted some troops under heavy enemy fire.
His pilot said it was too dangerous to perform a rescue mission and decided to retreat. Ali’s dad pulled his gun on the commanding officer and said, “I don’t need you; I know how to fly.”
“It was at that point that the commanding officer, in my dad’s words, reconsidered his position, and they saved those men,” said Ali.
“Afterward, my dad was put on house arrest, obviously, for pulling his weapon on his commanding officer.”
Later, he was awarded the Bronze Medal of Honor for heroism and the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was typically reserved for pilots and other airmen, not door gunners like her father.
In the comments section, several TikTok users praised Ali’s dad for being a true hero and shared similar stories about their own relatives who were Vietnam veterans.
“I had a friend who was a helicopter pilot who saved countless lives in Vietnam. He was lucky enough to come back like your father did. They were truly heroes. Be proud of him,” commented one user.
“My grandpa was a Vietnam veteran as well. He was awarded two bronze stars with valor. We lost him back in 2019. I’d really like to think that your dad and my grandpa are up there trading war stories,” shared another.
“My father served three tours in Vietnam. He made it home, but didn’t make it past the age of 34,” wrote a third.
“I lost my grandpa two years ago. He was a door gunner, and none of us ever knew because he never talked much about it. We did tons of digging and found out…he was on one of the smaller choppers, and they did over 95 fly-overs and never once got shot down, but he lost a lot of his close buddies who were in other choppers,” added someone else.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
