Scope and Contents

The materials include slides; photographs; notes; articles and clippings; timelines; organizational charts; award citations; casualty lists; an audio letter Higgins sent home to his parents; ephemera, annotated maps and map scans; images; periodicals; newspapers; rosters; unit histories (361st Aviation Company); aircraft losses; award recommendation forms; certificates; correspondence; books; spot reports; data sheets; website printouts; personal recollections and narratives; motion picture caption sheets; notes; 361st Aviation Company SOP for Combat Operations; memorial service programs; operational reports-lessons learned; pamphlets; statement of personal history (DD 398); sketches; and Vietnam War Memorial rubbings. Subjects include SLAM, cross border operations in Laos/Cambodia (e.g., Prairie Fire and Daniel Boone areas of operation), helicopter crashes, and Project 972. Items of particular note are two copies of The Short-Timers Weekly Vol 15 (19 October 1966). The materials are dated predominately 1965-1970; 1982; 1997-2000; 2002; 2008-2012; and 2016.

Biographical / Historical

Captain Gary Higgins was born in Monroe, Louisiana, on December 25, 1945. In 1966, he volunteered to serve in the Army from 1966 to 1970. He served in Southeast Asia from April 1968 to June 1969. He worked in the following capacities during the Vietnam War: Combat Aviation Unit Commander and Cobra Pilot with the 361st Aviation Company. He served in Southeast Asia as a Second Lieutenant and Captain, respectively.

Captain Higgins was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Vietnam. He requested an honorable release as a Captain so that he may continue his schooling.

After serving in the military in Vietnam, he attended graduate school. He served as the President of Higgins & Associates Consulting and the Chief of Planning and Research at the Sheriff's Office at Jacksonville, Florida.