Sam was born in Ocmulgee, Oklahoma to Glen Echols and Frances Leslie Echols. Two weeks later the family moved to Sapulpa, near Tulsa. There Frances taught third grade and Glen managed the local Oklahoma Natural Gas office. Sam had one half brother, Tom, from his father's first marriage. He graduated from high school in 1966 and entered college at Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, his half-brother, serving as a Navy pilot, died in a flight accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 1964. Desiring to follow in his brother's footsteps, Sam earned his pilot's license in February of 1967 as part of his curriculum at Northeastern State. Knowing he was probably going to Vietnam, Sam joined warrant officer flight school in 1968. He went through basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, then reported to Fort Wolters near Mineral Wells, Texas for U.S. Army primary helicopter training. He took advanced training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, in the UH-1 Huey. Sam earned his wings in late July of 1969 and was commissioned as a warrant officer. On 31 August 1969 he flew from Oklahoma to Oakland California, and from there, aboard Flying Tiger Airlines to Long Binh, South Vietnam. "As soon as they opened the door you could smell the place, the country, and I can still smell it," he remarks. "It was humid. It was hot. It was dank. It stank like something you'd never smelled before." Soon he was assigned to the 114^th Helicopter Company in Vinh Long where they supported Green Berets and Navy SEALS. He flew many night "hunter-killer" missions. Soon after he arrived he was serving as a co-pilot when his helicopter was disabled but the crew was picked up quickly. He was shot down a second time south of Ben Tre near the Delta. "We were zipping along and one-shot Charlie, some old farmer was `p-oed' and pop, right through the engine," he recalls. Sam set the aircraft down in a rice field and was soon rescued. Often he flew daily, doing "three or four or five or six combat assaults in one day," supporting an ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) division. In approximately ten months Sam chalked up more than one thousand hours of combat flight time. He was later transferred to the 135^th Assault Helicopter Company. Sam spent 30 days in the states on a sad mission. The wife of one of his friends Jim Burgoyne, who was shot and killed requested that Sam escort the body home. "That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Of course, I was dating their daughter, Cathy, through flight school. I really knew him and was really close to him and presenting his widow with the flag was the hardest thing I ever had to do." He then took a week of R&R in Sydney, Australia. When Sam returned to Vietnam he had only three weeks left on his tour and he quit flying with five days left "in-country". Sam flew home on arriving in Sapulpa in August 1970, his birthday. "I kind of wanted to surprise my parents. My Dad was mowing the lawn." Inside, his Mom had hade a birthday cake, with a mother's instinct that her son would be home that day. After a month off, he reported to his next duty station, Fort Wolters, where he served as an instructor pilot in TH-55s. Sam completed service and returned to Sapulpa in 1971. Eventually he moved to Shreveport to fly for Norton Aviation and worked in Shreveport for 32 years before retiring.