SANDPOINT — There were more than a few moments as a helicopter  pilot in Vietnam when Bill Collier didn’t think he’d make it out of the battlefield alive.

One of the most harrowing experiences arrived in 1966 when he and the rest of medical evacuation helicopter crew flew out in the middle of the night to pick up a gravely wounded soldier. Co-piloting the vehicle, Collier arrive at the site only to find himself in the middle of a battlefield without enough light to complete the mission. The only thing he and his team could see was the flash of tracer rounds firing back and forth below them.

They only had one option: use the helicopter flood lights. But that would make the chopper an instant target for enemy fire.

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