Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

David Farthing - Navy +7 Total Videos

135th Assault Helicopter Co. (EMU)

It was an assault helicopter company composed of US and Australian personnel. David Farthing was the leader of the Australian contingent and he had to go over the head of the American commander when an unqualified pilot arrived as an instructor. The outcome of that incident tragically confirmed his opinion of the man.
Keith Nightingale - Army +27 Total Videos

ROTC Instructor

After his first tour of Vietnam, Keith Nightingale was assigned as an ROTC Instructor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. The anti-war movement was heating up and he and the cadets had to endure the hateful taunts of protestors. As a result of the widespread protests, the Army as a whole became more insular and isolated from society.
John Overcash - Army +11 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

During his last Vietnam tour, John Overcash was advising an ARVN division and coordinating air support. He managed to reduce the response time significantly. This was his last rodeo and he headed home to North Carolina.
John Parker - Army +9 Total Videos

B Company, 4th Aviation Battalion, 4th Infantry Division

Parker talks about the types of missions he had as part of a gun platoon, as well as how he became an aircraft commander. After some time, Cobra Helicopters were being introduced to the Vietnam War and, as a result, he went to Cobra School in Bien Hoa to learn the ins and outs of flying them. There was a casualty where one of his friends made a miscalculation in the air and flew into the side of a mountain.
Ray Vaske - Army +5 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 94th Artillery Regiment, 108th Artillery Group

His helicopter was unarmed. Ray Vaske ferried battalion commanders around and did some scout work, all the while admiring the beautiful scenery of Vietnam. His entire outlook was altered when, during a briefing, he got a lesson in the absurd rules of engagement of the time. The weather was often his most immediate problem and he describes a tense flight through the monsoon clouds.
Jesse Tamayo - Army +5 Total Videos

Company C, 1st Medical Battalion

Throughout his time serving as a medic in Vietnam, Tamayo remembers a few close calls he and his doctors had while set up in their aid station tents. In addition there were a few humorous stories he remembers, such as the hectic time he almost had to deliver a baby.
Bob Havens - Navy +9 Total Videos

Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67)

During the battle of Khe Sanh, there was confusion about the enemy forces besieging the Marines there. Bob Havens was part of a clandestine Navy unit placing listening devices on the Ho Chi Minh trail and this outfit was brought in to gather intelligence.
Roger Cox - Army +12 Total Videos

1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division

When helicopter pilot Roger Cox responded to a call for help from an infantry platoon caught in an ambush, he first tried to get the layout of the battlefield. Where are the good guys? Where are the bad guys? Then he went to work.
William Moncus - Marines +7 Total Videos

Marine Support Battalion

He needed a new MOS because of his wounds, so Marine William Moncus became a communications specialist. He went to Vietnam with a secretive new unit called the Marine Support Battalion. That innocuous name shielded a secret intelligence gathering operation.
Dave Oliver - Air Force +11 Total Videos

Multiple Units

The war was getting hotter, but Dave Oliver's Vietnam tour was over and he headed to a plum post in Hawaii. The rescue and recovery pilot spent the next seven years there retrieving satellite film canisters, among other things. He finished up his Air Force career in the Philippines, where he'd served at the beginning.
Ron Dillard - Army +6 Total Videos

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

Flying was his lifelong dream but new helicopter pilot Ron Dillard got stuck in a desk job when he got to Vietnam. Not only that, he was the safety officer, which meant that the other pilots thought he was monitoring them. He was over five months in before he managed to get out of headquarters and fly actual missions.
Tom Seybold +5 Total Videos

Air America

While he was with Air America, Tom Seybold worked both directly and indirectly with a man named Anthony Poshepny, better known for his nickname 'Tony Poe.' He talks about how he helped engage the Vietnamese during the war by providing what they called "hard rice", or refueling ammo. He also talks about the types of uniforms he was instructed to wear.
Ron and Judie Richtsmeier - Army +9 Total Videos

119th Assault Helicopter Company, 18th Surgical Hospital

Judie Richtsmeier received orders that required her to get a plague shot, but didn't specify where she was going. She knew it was Vietnam, though. Where else could it be? As her plane approached the runway near Saigon, she saw what appeared to be fireworks.
Jack Swickard - Army +12 Total Videos

118th Assault Helicopter Company

Jack Swickard recalls a couple of incidents from his days as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. One involved a Viet Cong hand grenade brought into the cockpit as a trophy. In the other, his aircraft was mysteriously propelled straight up with no control.
Bill Ryan - Army +5 Total Videos

4th Infantry Division

Bill Ryan spent his early life mostly in other countries such as Germany due to the fact that his father also served in the military. This factor is what ultimately would lead him down a similar pathway, and eventually to Vietnam.
Don Chapman - Navy +6 Total Videos

Strike Fighter Squadron 143 (VFA-143)

It was all business aboard the USS Constellation in the Gulf of Tonkin, with around the clock operations. F-4 pilot Don Chapman was also the scheduling officer and he was always looking for a little sleep. At least the accommodations were luxurious compared to the bush.
Don Zimmer - Army +10 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Division

Cam Ranh Bay looked pretty nice to Don Zimmer when he arrived in Vietnam. The barracks were comfortable, but as he progressed though different places toward his destination in the field, the living conditions steadily slipped.
Bob Havens - Navy +9 Total Videos

Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67)

His brief stop in Saigon was eye-opening, to say the least, but Bob Havens was going on to a secret air base in Thailand. No one knew what the Navy unit was doing in the middle of the jungle, but it was disrupting enemy movements on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Don Chapman - Navy +6 Total Videos

Strike Fighter Squadron 143 (VFA-143)

Every carrier aviator has his "night in a barrel." That's when you finish covered in sweat and for F-4 pilot Don Chapman, that night came when he had to make four passes to land the plane on the deck of the USS Constellation.
Don Zimmer - Army +10 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Division

It was supposed to be a short patrol, so they had limited ammo and water. The platoon leader decided to follow a trail they found just as a bomb strike thundered nearby. There was evidence of NVA activity all around and, as they continued, Don Zimmer thought, "We are going the wrong way." Part 1 of 2.
Jerry Gast - Army +6 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Division

Jerry Gast became a squad leader soon after he arrived in the field in Vietnam, but he is quick to sing the praises of the other men in his platoon. A lot of good men in that unit.
Tim Dunn - Marines +16 Total Videos

Scout Sniper Platoon, 1st Marines

The Marine sniper teams were sent to help rifle companies in the bush. Tim Dunn was one of these snipers and he recalls one mission in which he cleanly dispatched an enemy and caught flak for it from the platoon leader he was sent to help.
John Reed - Army +8 Total Videos

101st Airborne Division

As John Reed documents a mission in which he and his men had to move into new territory along a river in Vietnam, he also remembers a machine gun opening fire on them and one man in particular who almost met death as a result. One person Reed remembers from his unit is a man named Sammy, who was his team's medic. Part 1 of 2.
Clebe McClary - Marines +10 Total Videos

1st Reconnaissance Battalion

It was a long, hard recovery for Clebe McClary after being wounded in Vietnam. When it was over, he had a new career as a public speaker. He figures he recruited way more than any recruiter but something bothers him about that.
Mike Morris - Army +11 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 5th Infantry (Mechanized), 25th Infantry Division

It was a culture shock, arriving in Vietnam. Mike Morris remembers the wire mesh on the bus windows to keep out hand grenades. He was an NCO, but totally green, and the old hands began to groom the newbie. The first night, artillery shook him awake. Was it theirs or ours?
Henry Templin - Army +6 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division

It started off slowly, but when Henry Templin's unit was moved further north, it became heavy combat. He had gotten used to living in the field and being in the middle of live fire and having jungle rot. It was at Hilltop Mary Lou that he learned just how devastating a fight in Vietnam could be.
Nat Robb - Army +9 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

On a sweep through a rubber plantation, the South Vietnamese unit made contact with the enemy and the fighting became fierce. American Advisor Nat Robb fell behind with one of his men and he had one thought. This was it. It was be killed or be captured and he knew which it would be.
Jake Jacobson - Army +8 Total Videos

1st Special Forces Group

At first, it was a mission to Laos, then the 1st Special Forces Group out of Okinawa was ordered to send two A-Teams to Vietnam, the first to be committed there. Jake Jacobson was on a team that was training Vietnamese Special Forces. He also went out on patrols looking for the hard to find Viet Cong.
John Reed - Army +8 Total Videos

101st Airborne Division

After witnessing a close call for one of his fellow soldiers, Reed remembers it was Sammy that helped that very same soldier get back on his feet after the injury. He was very close to Sammy growing up, so he was especially impacted seeing him serve in the line of duty. Part 2 of 2.
LTG (Ret) Quinn Becker - Army +9 Total Videos

Multiple Units

As Quinn Becker advanced in the ranks as an Army doctor, he had two assignments in Germany dealing with readiness and training for medical operations there. He then went to Walter Reed where he was surprised at the number of casualties from Vietnam and the severity of their cases.