Cy Nolan was a pilot in WWII. He was also a pilot for Det D Delivery Platoon.

I remember flying on a trip to Phu Bai with Cyril Nolen, our WW II pilot. He was a treasure.

In brief we landed on the airstrip (it was short and designed for "birddog" use) with the brakes locked and after delivering some prints, he buzzed us down to the end of the runway. In turning around the tail wheel became entangled in the barbed wire. He was only trying to get every inch of runway to take off because it was close.

The whole damn plane was vibrating, the instrument panel was jumping up and down from the plane being firewalled with the brakes on. I was sweating bullets and Mr Nolen just grinned and continued to scare the crap out of me all the way down the runway….I’ll bet he didn’t waste 20 feet of that entire runway. I thought we were gonna crash in the wire and nearly pissed my pants…..it was another day at work for Mr Nolen and I accused him of enjoying my discomfort a little too much; he really laughed at that and once at altitude he let me use the yoke to steer the plane a little.

He was a super soldier and a superb pilot with nerves of steel.

I don’t remember when the flight took place but sometime between Jun 67 and Jun 68 when I was SSG Greene, S1 Sgt, HHC.

James Greene

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