The frightening events aboard a recent Flydubai flight in the Middle East brought back memories of an experience I had more than half a century ago — one that began as an ordinary airline flight and ended with a hijacker dead on the tarmac in Saigon.

On July 2, 1972, I was returning to Vietnam for my second combat tour. I was a Marine captain traveling on orders to fly as an aerial observer in support of friendly ground forces fighting five reinforced North Vietnamese divisions. I eventually flew 190 combat missions in 184 days, primarily with the Vietnamese Air Force during the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.