August 16, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Dick Erickson, a Marine helicopter pilot who served in Vietnam, tells the story of the time he lost contact with his base but came into contact with God during combat.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
everything here on this show, and often that means telling
stories of faith, because so many millions of people in
this country well, faith plays an important role in their life. Today,
our own Joey Cortez brings us the story of a
marine who had, let's just say, a surreal experience as
(00:30):
a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Here's Joey Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Erickson was a marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam and would
go on to start his own retail tire business. But
before he became the man he is today, he was
a different man. As a student, quick to anger, Dick
often got into trouble.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I was fooling with one of my friends and the
principle was in and out because there was a study
hall and we were goofing off. In comes the principal
and he gets after me to start with, and my
buddy's standing behind him waving his hands to get me
to laugh. And so here I am trying to be
(01:15):
serious with my principle, and so I'm trying to look
around him like, hey, someone's behind you make waving his
hands at me. So finally he turns around and Marvin
gets his hands down quick enough that he didn't see
his hands up, so now he's chewing him up. And
I get into the deal and I'm waving my hands
(01:36):
except when he turns around, I got my hands straight
in the ear and he slaps me, and next thing
you know, we're on the ground. I was on knocked
over rows of chairs, and I was swearing at him afterwards. Oh,
I completely lost it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And in college, with the distraction of girls and booze,
his grades suffered.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I got noticed two weeks in him that quarter. I'm
out of school for a year. That was for grades,
and I can remember stand out in front of the
big main hall with the guy gave me the news,
who was head of our music department, mister vanvlistens here
and I said, doctor, I said, I mean if a year,
(02:22):
I said, do you understand they're going to draft me?
He said, Ericson, you should have understood that when you're
out playing around. Just before I went to the Marine Corps,
that friend of mine came up to me, who's a
year older than me, and he'd been in the army.
He was home, he's out of the army, and he said,
Dick you'll never make it in the Marine Corps. I said,
(02:44):
why is that, Gordie, And he said, because one of
the drilling stories that were going to get in your
face and touch you, and you're going to lose it
and you'll be in a brig. And that comment kept
me from retaliating, and so I had those growth deals.
For me was to not screw.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Up my life. Getting ahead of the draft, Dick enrolled
an officer training school to become a marine helicopter pilot.
Though he was a Christian, Dick hadn't really owned that
identity for himself, and while in Vietnam, he encountered what
some might call a god wink that would help him
become the man he is today.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
One time, we got this prisoner and they wanted to
take him down to the coastline at the division headquarters
for interrogation. And that was probably an hour and a
half flight for us, and we had single engine aircraft
and we did not like to fly at night over
the mountains. So they said, guys, crank him up, let's go.
(03:49):
So we cranked up our helicopters. Two of us. Two
helicopters went down there. We dropped him off and then
we said, well, we'll take We took him the most
expedient way. It was over the We could have kind
of gone down through valleys and stuff, probably taken us
an extra thirty minutes or so, but we went the
more direct route. Well, trouble is, every time you're flying,
(04:13):
something needs some needs of the helicopter come up. You'd
be missing something or you'd need some sort of parts
brought up by the guys the next day. So we
were trying to get up with our base station that night,
which was up up the coast a little further, and
the static was so bad that night and we couldn't
(04:34):
we couldn't make contact. And we'd listened with and it'd
be something like we'd always use seer popa base, which
would be our base. This is Serpapa one five would
be our call sign. And so we were going back
and forth like this, trying to connect with our base,
(04:55):
and the static was so bad. Finally just absolutely cleared up,
no sound, and this voice comes up and says, this
is the Lord I will relay for. You couldn't hear
anything at all, didn't hear the engines running, absolutely silence.
(05:22):
The voice said, I will I will get your message
to your base camp. Trouble is, we never got back
on the radio. No one talked to each other. You know,
you think someone would quickly say who said that? It
was so? I don't know what the word would be,
but it was so. It was such a hit on us.
(05:45):
It was just like the Lord had spoken, and in
my mind he had. No one says anything. We got
about twenty minutes to get up to the base case,
no one speaks. Finally we had to get on radio
to get Clarence to land at the base. Got on it,
everyone jumps out of the aircraft. Did you hear that?
(06:10):
Did you? Everyone heard it, but no one. Everyone has
affected the point they could not talk about it till
a hit ground. It was absolutely the most startling, scary
thing I'd ever heard. Did I ever hear another voice
like that? My thirteen months? That was completely clear? No.
(06:35):
So that brought my spiritual It was kind of a
wake up call for me. I've better get my head
straight here. There is some things beyond just what we
were going.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Through, which didn't fully sink in until after coming back
from Vietnam and marrying his wife Diane.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
We went on a marriage in cow So You'll have
a couple of couples that over the weekend starts Thursday night,
and they just talk about how to have a good marriage.
I'd probably been a new Catholic about a year. Diane
had been after me to go to this event, and
she said, Dick, I said, okay, they say we can't
(07:20):
take any wine. I'm not going to take a bottle
of wine. She said, what else do you want to do?
So I said, okay, if I take the wine, yeah, okay.
So I go and about half the group, the husband
and wives are quite friendly, you know, arms around their
wives and all that. And I've never been about show
(07:41):
a lot of affection in public. So I'm looking around him, going,
I got to put up with this for two and
a half days. And so we go through this. By
this is Thursday night. By Friday night, I'm sitting a
little closer to Diane, and I'm kind of enjoying us.
By Saturday, I mean I got my arm round her.
(08:01):
I am into this. And now it's confession time. What
the priest did? He would come up to your room,
he'd go from room to room in this hotel and
have confession. And then you go into the bathroom for
your penance. And I'm still kind of new at this.
I'm you know, I've been through a few confessions, but
I hadn't overworked at it at all. So I have
(08:26):
my confession, and father says, Dick, I want you to
step in the bathroom, and I want you to take
as much time as you can give it to thank
the Lord for all the things he's done for you.
I said, okay, So I go into the bathroom. I
(08:49):
make it about three minutes and I'm sobbing like a baby,
and I remember coming back and I'm going, oh, I mean,
you're so fired up, boy, I'm over here now turned
my heart over the Lord. I said, I'm sorry. I've
been on the outside looking in the window, knowing what
those good Christians are doing, but I won't go in
the door. I'm not going in there. You know, I
(09:11):
didn't know the goodness of the Lord for sure at
that point. I'd seen it in my wife, I'd seen
in my parents and other Christians. But I was this
tough marine. I was, you know, I had just some
screwed up thinking I had. And so when that night,
all of a sudden, I just was pulled away from
(09:33):
me and then I could ooh, but I didn't realize
how much I had to go through to turn my
heart over the Lord. And people say, you know, it's
like process, she was born again. That's one way to
say it. But you know, however you want to explain
it that Lord, I'm sorry, you're in charge. I've been
trying to run this and I'm just not. This isn't
(09:59):
my job. Your job me to follow you.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And what a story, Dick Erickson, while sharing his heart
and his faith with all of us, and great job
as always to Joey for bringing us this story. Clearly
he had an encounter a bunch of the men did
in that chopper. But then he had a marriage encounter.
And this is where the rubber hits the road. I
didn't realize how much I had to go through to
(10:25):
turn my heart over to the Lord. This tough marine said, Lord,
I'm sorry, you're in charge. And while Christians know what
those words mean. By the way, you can catch the
rest of Dick's story in his book How the Rubber
Meets the Road, A blue collar Roadmap is success for
business owners and entrepreneurs. You can buy it at Amazon
dot com. Dick Erickson's story here on our American story,
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
everything here on this show, and often that means telling
stories of faith, because so many millions of people in
this country well, faith plays an important role in their life. Today,
our own Joey Cortez brings us the story of a
marine who had, let's just say, a surreal experience as
(00:30):
a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Here's Joey Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Erickson was a marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam and would
go on to start his own retail tire business. But
before he became the man he is today, he was
a different man. As a student, quick to anger, Dick
often got into trouble.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I was fooling with one of my friends and the
principle was in and out because there was a study
hall and we were goofing off. In comes the principal
and he gets after me to start with, and my
buddy's standing behind him waving his hands to get me
to laugh. And so here I am trying to be
(01:15):
serious with my principle, and so I'm trying to look
around him like, hey, someone's behind you make waving his
hands at me. So finally he turns around and Marvin
gets his hands down quick enough that he didn't see
his hands up, so now he's chewing him up. And
I get into the deal and I'm waving my hands
(01:36):
except when he turns around, I got my hands straight
in the ear and he slaps me, and next thing
you know, we're on the ground. I was on knocked
over rows of chairs, and I was swearing at him afterwards. Oh,
I completely lost it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And in college, with the distraction of girls and booze,
his grades suffered.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I got noticed two weeks in him that quarter. I'm
out of school for a year. That was for grades,
and I can remember stand out in front of the
big main hall with the guy gave me the news,
who was head of our music department, mister vanvlistens here
and I said, doctor, I said, I mean if a year,
(02:22):
I said, do you understand they're going to draft me?
He said, Ericson, you should have understood that when you're
out playing around. Just before I went to the Marine Corps,
that friend of mine came up to me, who's a
year older than me, and he'd been in the army.
He was home, he's out of the army, and he said,
Dick you'll never make it in the Marine Corps. I said,
(02:44):
why is that, Gordie, And he said, because one of
the drilling stories that were going to get in your
face and touch you, and you're going to lose it
and you'll be in a brig. And that comment kept
me from retaliating, and so I had those growth deals.
For me was to not screw.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Up my life. Getting ahead of the draft, Dick enrolled
an officer training school to become a marine helicopter pilot.
Though he was a Christian, Dick hadn't really owned that
identity for himself, and while in Vietnam, he encountered what
some might call a god wink that would help him
become the man he is today.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
One time, we got this prisoner and they wanted to
take him down to the coastline at the division headquarters
for interrogation. And that was probably an hour and a
half flight for us, and we had single engine aircraft
and we did not like to fly at night over
the mountains. So they said, guys, crank him up, let's go.
(03:49):
So we cranked up our helicopters. Two of us. Two
helicopters went down there. We dropped him off and then
we said, well, we'll take We took him the most
expedient way. It was over the We could have kind
of gone down through valleys and stuff, probably taken us
an extra thirty minutes or so, but we went the
more direct route. Well, trouble is, every time you're flying,
(04:13):
something needs some needs of the helicopter come up. You'd
be missing something or you'd need some sort of parts
brought up by the guys the next day. So we
were trying to get up with our base station that night,
which was up up the coast a little further, and
the static was so bad that night and we couldn't
(04:34):
we couldn't make contact. And we'd listened with and it'd
be something like we'd always use seer popa base, which
would be our base. This is Serpapa one five would
be our call sign. And so we were going back
and forth like this, trying to connect with our base,
(04:55):
and the static was so bad. Finally just absolutely cleared up,
no sound, and this voice comes up and says, this
is the Lord I will relay for. You couldn't hear
anything at all, didn't hear the engines running, absolutely silence.
(05:22):
The voice said, I will I will get your message
to your base camp. Trouble is, we never got back
on the radio. No one talked to each other. You know,
you think someone would quickly say who said that? It
was so? I don't know what the word would be,
but it was so. It was such a hit on us.
(05:45):
It was just like the Lord had spoken, and in
my mind he had. No one says anything. We got
about twenty minutes to get up to the base case,
no one speaks. Finally we had to get on radio
to get Clarence to land at the base. Got on it,
everyone jumps out of the aircraft. Did you hear that?
(06:10):
Did you? Everyone heard it, but no one. Everyone has
affected the point they could not talk about it till
a hit ground. It was absolutely the most startling, scary
thing I'd ever heard. Did I ever hear another voice
like that? My thirteen months? That was completely clear? No.
(06:35):
So that brought my spiritual It was kind of a
wake up call for me. I've better get my head
straight here. There is some things beyond just what we
were going.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Through, which didn't fully sink in until after coming back
from Vietnam and marrying his wife Diane.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
We went on a marriage in cow So You'll have
a couple of couples that over the weekend starts Thursday night,
and they just talk about how to have a good marriage.
I'd probably been a new Catholic about a year. Diane
had been after me to go to this event, and
she said, Dick, I said, okay, they say we can't
(07:20):
take any wine. I'm not going to take a bottle
of wine. She said, what else do you want to do?
So I said, okay, if I take the wine, yeah, okay.
So I go and about half the group, the husband
and wives are quite friendly, you know, arms around their
wives and all that. And I've never been about show
(07:41):
a lot of affection in public. So I'm looking around him, going,
I got to put up with this for two and
a half days. And so we go through this. By
this is Thursday night. By Friday night, I'm sitting a
little closer to Diane, and I'm kind of enjoying us.
By Saturday, I mean I got my arm round her.
(08:01):
I am into this. And now it's confession time. What
the priest did? He would come up to your room,
he'd go from room to room in this hotel and
have confession. And then you go into the bathroom for
your penance. And I'm still kind of new at this.
I'm you know, I've been through a few confessions, but
I hadn't overworked at it at all. So I have
(08:26):
my confession, and father says, Dick, I want you to
step in the bathroom, and I want you to take
as much time as you can give it to thank
the Lord for all the things he's done for you.
I said, okay, So I go into the bathroom. I
(08:49):
make it about three minutes and I'm sobbing like a baby,
and I remember coming back and I'm going, oh, I mean,
you're so fired up, boy, I'm over here now turned
my heart over the Lord. I said, I'm sorry. I've
been on the outside looking in the window, knowing what
those good Christians are doing, but I won't go in
the door. I'm not going in there. You know, I
(09:11):
didn't know the goodness of the Lord for sure at
that point. I'd seen it in my wife, I'd seen
in my parents and other Christians. But I was this
tough marine. I was, you know, I had just some
screwed up thinking I had. And so when that night,
all of a sudden, I just was pulled away from
(09:33):
me and then I could ooh, but I didn't realize
how much I had to go through to turn my
heart over the Lord. And people say, you know, it's
like process, she was born again. That's one way to
say it. But you know, however you want to explain
it that Lord, I'm sorry, you're in charge. I've been
trying to run this and I'm just not. This isn't
(09:59):
my job. Your job me to follow you.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And what a story, Dick Erickson, while sharing his heart
and his faith with all of us, and great job
as always to Joey for bringing us this story. Clearly
he had an encounter a bunch of the men did
in that chopper. But then he had a marriage encounter.
And this is where the rubber hits the road. I
didn't realize how much I had to go through to
(10:25):
turn my heart over to the Lord. This tough marine said, Lord,
I'm sorry, you're in charge. And while Christians know what
those words mean. By the way, you can catch the
rest of Dick's story in his book How the Rubber
Meets the Road, A blue collar Roadmap is success for
business owners and entrepreneurs. You can buy it at Amazon
dot com. Dick Erickson's story here on our American story,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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