A Moment in History Part II: Big Spring Army Hero to Leavenworth
Editor’s Note: Each week the Heritage Museum highlights a different piece of Howard County history. Last week was Part I of Big Spring Army Hero to Leavenworth. If you missed last week’s edition, stop by the Big Spring Herald for a copy of the paper or stop at the Heritage Museum to learn more about the history of Big Spring and ask about Part I while you are there.
While in Vietnam, Jim Little won more medals in two tours than the Army left room to record on form DD214 in his service records; they had to be typed on another sheet. Among them were two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Army’s highest aviation medal; a Bronze Star; and 50 Air medals. Authorities questioned, how could this man who risked his life for his country, start to break from reality. Perhaps PTSD or a mental condition that he shared with his father. Not much was known about PTSD in the 70’s.
Jim said “I left the most personal part of me in Vietnam, that part that truly enjoys life and can be happy and loving. I left it there because my country would not let me come home. They didn’t want me. I was a murderer of women and babies and old people and innocent civilians and I became impersonal. But the pain remained and festered, and pain creates anger.” During Little’s second voluntary tour in Vietnam, he established himself as a top pilot in “The Rebels,” the 235th Air Assault Company, one of the toughest Cobra gunship groups in Vietnam.
Jim put the Army life behind him in 1972 and moved wife Kathy and children to Alaska. In 1975, Jim scored near the top on an entrance exam for the Alaska troopers. He worried about having to pull his trigger once again to kill. Life as an Alaskan Trooper agreed with Jim and his family until Jim’s aggression on the job, became a liability. He never backed down and was overzealous with his tactics.
With his career as a state trooper in trouble, Little often retreated to remote parts of Alaska to “meditate.” He was fired in 1978 for an aggressive arrest but was reinstated after a hearing. He then chose to resign in 1980, as he had a "quest for truth.” And decided the only way he could find his destiny was to give away the possessions that bound him to materialism. The family moved to an isolated log cabin in remote Alaska, where he spent the next several weeks smoking dope and mediating. Jim’s behavior became even more erratic as he would go into fits of rage, throwing things against the walls. During a night terror, Jim hit Kathy in the mouth, and she found a pistol that he was hiding under his pillow. Jim never hit Kathy or the children, but they were at a breaking point and had to leave. Jim moved back to Texas and drifted from job to job before reacquainting himself with a friend from Anchorage. Marvin Rodgers, a former gun dealer, had the idea of getting together a gang for bank robberies and knew the perfect “getaway” driver would be Little.
Five months later, on July 20th, a helicopter landed in the parking lot of a small bank north of Denton Texas. The Valley View National Bank. Traffic on Interstate 35 saw a helicopter landing in the parking lot as four heavily armed men ran in a semi-crouch position from