Minnesota

US Army

Colonel Harry Wisdom

     On the 16^th of May 1970, CPT Harry Wisdom, a Med-Evac pilot with the 1^st Calvary Div, responded to an urgent request in the Republic of Cambodia.  An aircraft was hit and had to abort the mission, with four wounded needing evacuation.  CPT Wisdom hovered his aircraft at tree top level and began the hoist mission.  Hoisting up two wounded soldiers and a third on the way, his aircraft took two hits from an RPG that severed his tail rotor and mast, causing the aircraft to crash through the jungle trees.  While under fire, Cpt. Wisdom pulled his patients and crew members to safety. Returning to the aircraft he freed a soldier pinned in the rubble.  He ordered the copters machine guns to be set in a defensive perimeter, directied suppressive fire on the enemy, and continued the extraction of personnel.   Still under fire, CPT Wisdom carried his crew and patients away from the enemy to a bomb crater used as a sit down LZ. 

    CPT Wisdom was awarded the Silver Star and numerous other awards for valor during his tour in Vietnam.  He retired in 1988.  He and his wife Kathy, who served as an Army nurse, reside in Burnsville, MN.  He currently is VP of Tee-It-Up-For-The-Troops and is an active supporter of the courageous men and women who protect us.