Frank Maldonado started working at a young age in his hometown of Caldwell. In the summer heat, he’d pick cotton and chop wood – all to help his family.
It’s just what you had to do. But Maldonado said his parents encouraged their ten children to strive for more.
“My dad and my mom were both from Mexico,” he said. “Mom and dad didn’t have any education, but they made sure that we did… And all ten of us graduated from high school.”
After graduating, Maldonado moved to Austin and started working. Soon, he enlisted in the Army.
“Mom was real upset – real upset. My dad was honored and also cautious about it,” Maldonado said.
The elder Maldonado saw his son’s military service as a way of proving his commitment to his new country.
“He was a U.S. citizen, but he always felt that he was still Mexican until I went to Vietnam. Then he felt that he had given one of his sons to his new country,” Maldonado said. “That made him a full-fledged citizen.”
Maldonado went through training at Fort Knox in Kentucky and at bases in Texas and Alabama. He had started out as a paratrooper but soon moved on to working as a helicopter mechanic and then was encouraged to become a pilot.
Maldonado landed in Vietnam in 1968. The helicopter he flew was the UH-1, known as the “Huey.”
“It was the most common helicopter in Vietnam,” Maldonado said. “Everybody depended on the UH-1. That’s the only way that we get in and out of there.”
By one estimate, there were some 40,000 U.S. helicopter pilots during the Vietnam War. It was considered one of the most dangerous jobs.
Pilots, Maldonado said, would fly soldiers in and out of the battlefield. They’d take supplies to troops, protect helicopters that were shot down, and rescue injured soldiers.
