Lt. Col. Charles 'Frank' Blount, USAF, Vietnam

Frank Blount was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1960 upon graduation from Florida State University and completion of its ROTC program. Over the next 20 years, Blount would pilot planes carrying everyone from the President of the United States to heroes of our space program to precocious kids. He would also see intense action as a gunship pilot in Vietnam.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Col. Blount takes us through his early days as a Super Constellation pilot and some of the unusual circumstances he faced in that role. He then tells us about changing to the C-130 and flying through 18 typhoons in East Asia before returning to the U.S., where he flew the Apollo 13 crew to Washington after the dramatic conclusion of that mission. He also flew the president and vice-president as a pilot of Boeing 707's commonly known as Air Force One and Air Force Two.

Finally, he describes rejecting an assignment stateside in order to fly an AC-130 gunship in Vietnam. Blount takes us inside the intensity of that combat, being close to one of the rare gunship disasters of the war, and flying a mission after the war was officially over.