Anyone else really afraid of flying?

I’ve had friends with similar fears. Going with a friend usually helps. Podcasts might help as well (drowns out ambient plane noise). Hang in there buddy.

I always found 'fears' to be interesting, at least on an introspective basis. Since I have a house under construction, I find myself irrationally facing my fear, heights. I say irrational because my house is a one story with a flat roof. Worst case if I fell of would be a broken leg or something relatively minor. Yet, I get lightheaded when I'm near the edge.

The other hand says that when I was a soldier in Vietnam, I commanded a five man unit that always made either hot or warm insertions. I can honestly say that fear didn't enter the picture no matter how hot the action was, either on the way in a helicopter or on the ground. On the other hand, when it was over and we were being extracted, the emotions hit me like a Mack truck.

 Thank you for your service!

 When watching military action I have often wondered how I would react under duress. Having never experienced it before how would one know when there is nothing in life that comes close. My hat is off to anyone who has. It sounds like you had a pretty good handle on it mentally.

 What was the emotion you felt during extraction?

I've been mulling over my reply relative to Vietnam and there's really no way to short answer since I think war situations are highly individual both in circumstance and mindset. lol, I've had friends tell me I should write a book about it, it's basically that long sooo...

A few comments though; I've never viewed myself as courageous. A better picture is an expression we had, "gung ho". I commanded a hand picked unit and we were all gung ho meaning we were looking for action. Our unit technically didn't exist and only the Brigade Commander knew what we were doing. Because of that, my unit didn't receive many individual medals but two things we did won unit ribbons for the 1st Infantry Division flag but they have other unit's names on them. That's all well and fine but my biggest accomplishment and biggest source of pride is that none of us were killed or wounded.

Going into and during the mission, the mission pretty much occupied my thoughts. Afterwards the emotions ranged depending on what happened. Either disappointment if nothing happened, major relief which can best be described by the expression "holy shit" or else exuberance if we successfully avenged something (if we took it as personal) which can best be described by the expression "yes, yes, yes".

Not a problem but as I said, mindset was different for each of us, particularly the mindset going into Vietnam, at the start. The movie Platoon does a great job of illustrating how combat participants changed over the course of their tours. I'd do it today if I thought I'd be useful (no way, lol, I haven't pulled a trigger on a weapon since I left Vietnam, haven't had to).

I grew up with weapons, my father bought me a Springfield 22 when I was 10 and spent far more time in a pool hall than a study hall. By the time I was drafted I owned 3 rifles and a revolver. I was young, immature and a bit stupid. I viewed my year in Vietnam as an all expenses paid hunting trip. Realistically, that was my mindset, not patriotism.

The Vietnam movie character I most relate to is Tom Berringer in Platoon. Nowhere near as badass though. Interestingly the whole chain of events that led me to the unit started when I threatened the Brigade Commander telling him he was going to need a body bag. That threat came in the heat of battle and was treated as such and the unit was formed shortly after.

Haha, you could also try parachuting once or twice. I guarantee you will have a newfound appreciation for being inside an airplane.

I'm more anxious about flying now that I'm older and started thinking about the excessive radiation in the body scanners, the toxic chemicals used to disinfect planes and the really bad air quality.  I used to have about a half million frequent flier miles.