The UH-1 Helicopter pitched nose up and to the right violently, propelling crew, aircraft and gear against each other with tremendous force!  The pilot in command, Army Cpt. Roland Jarvis, and the crew knew they had taken a serious hit somewhere, but where?  Cpt. Jarvis needed to know what was damaged , fast, or his decisions for emergency procedures could cause his ship and crew to crash into the thick Vietnam jungle a few feet under their skids, instead of saving their lives. 

At a recent meeting of our squadron, Captain Roland Jarvis, Commander of the Dallas Composite Squadron, changed hats and was the featured guest speaker at the Squadron's  meeting.  Capt. Jarvis spoke to an audience in excess of sixty people.  He related about the experiences leading him to and including his tours of duty in Vietnam. He presented a slide show of his experiences prior to and during Vietnam as a helicopter platoon commander in the Jungles of Vietnam's Central Highlands.  He backed up the presentation with a video-tape of his unit as well as books, photographs and even displayed an SKS assault rifle presented to him by the Vietnam Army for an exhausting single ship rescue mission under fire.

There was a short lifetime of experiences in Cpt. Jarvis' possession when his UH-1 began it's attempt to take the lives of  his crew into history.  Those experiences accumulated to save their lives, now, and at other times during this war.  As the aircraft yawed dramatically, Cpt. Jarvis found both his legs had jammed against the communication console in the center of the chopper.  He had been hit by a steel jacketed small arms round, knocking his feet violently off the foot pedals causing the helicopter to pitch into a possible spinning stall.  Armed with this discovery the aircraft was quickly recovered , injuries noted as  minor (leg flesh wound-but Purple Heart bound) and the mission continued.  All boughts with the war where not as quick or complete in their successes as this one, as you will read later.

Jarvis was originally introduced to the Civil Air Patrol when he became a cadet member of the Monterrey Bay Squadron in California.  As Cadet Commander, he was learning to guide his cadets through various training exercises that would help build leadership skills in them all and help prepare each for what the future may bring.  Little did he know what foundations were being set that would make major changes in how the rest of his life would progress.  The year is 1965.

Cadet Jarvis later approached the squadron commander, William Clark, with his fears of being drafted  into the US Army and going to Vietnam.  Commander Clark gave him some advice he has used many times for and will continue to use for the rest of his life.  "If your afraid of it," Clark stated, "then take the task head on and do it your way."

He is eighteen years old when he joins the United States Army and, as a private, trains to be a member of an Infantry Airborne Mortar Platoon, MOS 11C.  During his first months in the service, his experience in the Civil Air Patrol and his high scores in the Army's testing brought him to the attention of his officers.  With their help, and while completing his training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, Jarvis was selected to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  Surprisingly, he chose, instead, to attend Infantry Officers Candidate School believing, at the time, he was not going to stay in the Army past three years and not wanting to incur an obligation of service past 5 years.  He ended up staying in for ten years.