Toon Daddy: Twelve Months in Vietnam as a Commissioned Officer and Combat Helicopter Pilot

Toon Daddy is the memoir of Joseph P. "Pat" Dougan, a twenty-one-year-old commissioned officer and combat helicopter pilot who flew twelve months with the 187th Assault Helicopter Company — the Crusaders — at Tay Ninh, Vietnam, in 1968 and 1969.

This is not a war story built on blood and spectacle. It is an honest account of what sustained combat does to a person — the growth, the loss, the decisions made in seconds with lives on the line, and the permanent change that no one warns you about when you raise your right hand.

Dougan arrived in Vietnam as a newly minted RLO (Real Live Officer) with wings, rank, and no real understanding of what either would require. Over twelve months and over 1,200 combat hours, he flew every major mission profile his unit offered — slick platoon leader, fire team leader, SMOKEY, Air Mission Commander — earning responsibilities that ordinarily belonged to officers with years more experience. His men gave him a nickname: 'Toon Daddy when he was promoted to platoon leader. He was twenty-one years old.

At the center of this memoir is November 27, 1968 — the worst day in the history of the 187th, when Dougan flew nearly sixteen hours as helicopters went down around him, six men died, and an entire infantry unit was decimated. He has written it all here, and he has written it honestly.

'Toon Daddy is for the families, the friends, and anyone who has ever tried to understand what happens when a young person is placed in sustained, controlled danger and expected to function as if it were normal. Combat changes people — whether Vietnam, Afghanistan, or any war in between. That change is permanent. This book is one man's compelling account of how it happened, and what it cost.

You don't have to take a bullet to become a casualty of war.