PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Rick O'Neill served his country in the Navy as an aviation mechanic, third class from 1967–1971. The Pittsfield native enlisted at the age of 19. 

 

"I worked on stock cars, helping a guy named Walter Pollart. Turns out he was a

Navy recruiter," he said with a laugh. 

 

He did his basic training at Great Lakes, Ill., and offered this: "It was pretty good ... they break you down to build you up. Lots of hurry up and wait ... pretty good experience." 

 

After basic, O'Neill was assigned to Squadron VAW 121 in Norfolk, Va., as an aircraft mechanic/plane captain. 

 

"Made sure planes were ready to fly for the pilots 24/7," he said. 

 

He left for Vietnam in March 1968 on the USS Intrepid and would return in February 1969. 

 

"There was some anticipation, some excitement, working on the flight deck of a carrier is highly

dangerous," he remembered. "I got blown down the flight deck a few times. First instinct is to get up but you really need to lay flat until the jet or prop blast is turned in a different

direction."

 

I asked what the holidays were like. He said it depended on the flying schedule of flying.

 

"We flew 18 hours a day and every third day you had a watch or duty responsibility. We worked two 12-hour shifts," he said. "I preferred night flying as there weren't many officers around, but it was still extremely dangerous. I spent my 21st birthday (Christmas) on watch in Vietnam."

 

I asked O'Neill if he was ever afraid and he responded with this. "At some point, yes, fighter jets would come in and hit with such force that machine guns would go off. One time a plane landed hard and his bomb fell off. A Marine rolled it off the side of a carrier," he said. "Being launched off the flight deck on a prop plane was quite scary. It doesn't go fast down the flight deck then

drops 15-20 feet off the carrier.

 

"We had a very, very good relationships with our pilots — they had to trust us — even the officers would come in and hang with us in our compartments."

 

He shared a somewhat humorous story.

 

"I was in charge of X Division, in charge of the hangar, barracks and plane maintenance. Lots of guys that worked for me were higher ranks. I was working and a senior officer comes by and gets upset that I didn't salute him. I apologized profusely because we had different guys come and go every week," he remembered. "Now my CO comes by and says he needs me to fly with him to Ohio to see his sick father, asks me what's the problem with the senior officer and I said

he's upset because I forgot to salute him. He turns to the officer and says, 'don't worry about it….O'Neill's got more time in the shitter than you!'"

 

His greatest accomplishment?

 

"Doing my job to the best of my ability and making the friendships I did. About five of us still keep in touch on a regular basis, still really feel for those guy's that fought in-country," O'Neill said. "Even though it was dangerous with bombs and fuel, we never had people shooting at us. We got to sleep in a warm rack and got three squares a day. I admire those guys that were boots on the ground."

 

He and his wife of 27 years, Jackie, have five children.

 

Aviation Mechanic 3rd Class Rick O'Neill, thank you for your service to our great country and welcome home.

 

Wayne Soares is the host of the popular, new veterans cooking show, "The Mess Hall" and entertains our troops around the globe. He is also the host and producer of the Vietnam veterans documentary "Silent Dignity – The Chapter That Never Ends." He can be reached at waynesoares1@gmail.com.