![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Richard-Lee-Carr-450x333.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nAverageNCO found this article at the Alton Telegraph<\/a> about Alton, Ill. veteran Richard Lee Carr who claims that although he was a auto mechanic in Vietnam, he was shot down and became a prisoner of war for several months until he escaped and spent weeks getting back to US forces;<\/p>\n Carr, 70, was a sergeant and helicopter door gunner in the 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam from 1967-1968. For approximately seven months of that time, he was a prisoner of war after being captured when his helicopter was shot down.<\/p>\n \u201cIt landed in the river and somehow I got on the wrong side,\u201d he said. \u201cI actually thought we were gone.\u201d<\/p>\n He was able to escape, and eventually walked into a friendly military encampment. Carr said he was unsure exactly how far he traveled.<\/p>\n \u201cYou lay in by day and travel by night,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re scared to death of booby traps, so you travel by inches instead of miles.\u201d<\/p>\n The irony was that he was supposed to be a wheeled-vehicle mechanic and stay on the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a sergeant who would take out a few of us and fire different weapons,\u201d he said. \u201cWe thought it was fun. But when I got over there, I was classified as a multi-weapons expert.\u201d<\/p>\n When he arrived in Vietnam, he was given his orders and told to get his equipment.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came back with a machine gun and two cans of ammunition,\u201d Carr said, noting that he looked around at the time, somewhat confused as to who indeed was supposed to receive the gun and ammo.<\/p>\n The supply clerk\u2019s answer was a shock \u2014 \u201cYou do,\u201d Carr was told.<\/p>\n When he finally was on board the helicopter and test-firing the gun, he asked the pilot what the life expectancy of a door gunner was.<\/p>\n \u201cSeven minutes, you\u2019re on borrowed time,\u201d came the reply.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t think about it,\u201d Carr recalled. \u201cWe had gone into hot LZs (landing zones) to extract infantrymen who had been hit. Your job is to get them out as best you can.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, he was busted before for the same stuff, so it was just a simple process to find the FOIA we already had. He was indeed in Vietnam from February 1967 – January 1968 as a mechanic. He spent three years on active duty and three years in the Reserves and he got out as a Private First Class, not sergeant. <\/p>\n The only DPAA listing for an Army POW named Carr is Donald Gene, an O-3 whose remains were returned late last year;<\/p>\n I guess it wasn’t enough that he served when most of his generation wouldn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Richard-Carr-article-header-303x333.jpg\")
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