COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  At LZ X-Ray, his mortar platoon never fired a round. Jon Wallenius did fire his rifle, though, when he spotted an enemy soldier poking his head up in the crook of a tree. He fired a quick shot. In a little while, there was a second. He fired again. He emptied a clip toward that tree and it really paid off.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  Manning Stahl was an outstanding athlete in high school and he continued playing sports once he was in the Army. At Fort Sill before his Vietnam tour and at Fort Meade after he returned, he continued to stand out in football and track.

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  David Ray - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  His MOS was 0341, Mortars, but he never touched a mortar while he was in Vietnam. David Ray was now a rifleman and a jungle grunt. When a buddy of his who went to a different unit was killed after one month in country, he was shocked. One month?

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  John Wallenius was in the best company in the battalion and he attributes that to the CO, who was fearless but not careless. The noncoms were good, as well, including one who tried to get everyone Air Medals for all the air assaults they had done.

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  Robin Bartlett - Army +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

  When Robin Bartlett's platoon was assigned as the Quick Reaction Force, they would wait next to the helipad until they were needed. Then they would board helicopters and head for the action. He had a close call once when he was being extracted. The chopper rose to cruising altitude at which point the engine stopped and everyone except the pilot prepared to meet their maker. (Caution: strong language)

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  He had done construction work, mostly, but Manning Stahl became an insurance agent after his Vietnam tour. It was a good career and he was good at it. He has a couple of favorite songs that remind him of those days and he has vivid memories of the strangeness of that foreign land.

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  Don Bowman - Army +10 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry Division

  It was a grim and filthy place. When Don Bowman's Cavalry unit got to Khe Sanh to relieve the besieged Marines, it was quickly determined that the place would be abandoned. It was too filthy to continue as a base. The next move was to the A Shau Valley for a hard fought battle.

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  Robin Bartlett - Army +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  When the division moved from I Corps to III Corps, Robin Bartlett noticed that the Public Information Office had thrown out a lot of photos and artwork. He gathered up some of it and, years later, developed it into a documentary video about his experience as a platoon leader in Vietnam.

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  After basic and infantry training, Chuck Traviolia went to mortar school. Next stop, Vietnam. When he got there, the company he joined had just finished shooting a documentary called A Face Of War. Everyone on the film crew had been wounded.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs moved around a lot. There were so many fire bases in Vietnam that he lost track of the names. Once he took part in an artillery raid. The guns were airlifted into an area where they shot off a hundred rounds and then they were airlifted out. At least they were supposed to be.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  He was wounded at LZ X-Ray so, naturally, John Cahill bought the book, "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young." He relates how he met Hal Moore and how he began to enjoy the reunions of his unit.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  Manuel Vigil had heard the Marines were the best fighters so, when he decided to enlist in the military ahead of the draft, he chose the Corps. He didn't know anything about Vietnam but he was on the fast track to go there.

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  Robin Bartlett - Army +11 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Newly commissioned Lieutenant Robin Bartlett arrived at the 82nd Airborne as a "Leg," that is a non-Airborne qualified soldier. He did some staff work in the office for a bit and then it was off to Fort Benning for jump school, the Infantry officer's Basic Course and then the toughest school of all, Ranger training.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  During his first operation in Vietnam, forward observer Jon Wallenius and his mortar crew were asked to hold a North Vietnamese prisoner until he was picked up. When it was time for chow, he felt sorry for the guy and untied him and gave him some C-rations. What he didn't know is that he was hiding a secret.

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  Don Bowman - Army +10 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry Division

  Thanks to some captured NVA documents, Don Bowman knew an attack was coming but he didn't know when. This allowed him to prepare some surprises. When a platoon got cut off as they pursued the fleeing enemy, one of the pilots volunteered to try to drop them some supplies.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Many men in his family had served so it was not unusual when Jon Wallenius enlisted in the Army in 1963. He was lucky when a friend was made acting Platoon Sergeant in basic training because he was picked as an acting squad leader. This made life easy for him right up until he got to Airborne training.

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  David Ray - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  David Ray played football for two years in college but his grades started slipping and he had to start thinking about the draft. He thought he might as well do it up right and so he enlisted in the Marines. About the time he was standing on the yellow footprints, he decided that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Unlike many others, Mack Riggs was actually trying to get to Vietnam. He was determined to avenge his cousin who died there and, once he was there, he was baffled by the orientation training. He was an artilleryman and it was all geared to the infantry. Fortunately, he met someone who showed him the ropes.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Jon Wallenius was near the Ho Chi Minh Trail looking for North Vietnamese when his unit got a call. They had to leave immediately to reinforce a place called LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. It was the beginning of the first major battle of the war. On the second day, he spotted some guys in pith helmets. Were they the Australians?

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Having recovered from the wound he received at LZ X-Ray, John Cahill was waiting for the chopper to take him into the Battle of Bong Son. When the bird came in, he was shocked to see a door gunner dead at his weapon, shot through the head.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  Occasionally, you would get an intel target called in by an aerial observer. Manning Stahl's artillery battery let loose one lone shell which took out an NVA unit which had paused their march. They also destroyed some Russian artillery pieces this way.

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  Mike Pomakis - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  There was a sniper shooting at them from across the river. He wasn't very good because he had no kills but he was annoying enough that a squad was dispatched to take him out. Mike Pomakis recalls that as soon as they got him, the enemy came swarming out like ants. Luckily they had an excellent mortar gunner back on their side of the river.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  He was the next man up. That's how Manuel Vigil became a squad leader in Vietnam. The first night ambush he ran was aborted due to what can only be described as poor siting. He also cost the government some money when he dealt with an obstinate water buffalo.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  355th Field Maintenance Squadron

  During the Tet Offensive, Don Cope had to fly into Da Nang from his base in Thailand to repair an aircraft. The part that was needed would take months to arrive. Undaunted, he made a makeshift part from a common household item.

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  Candace Carter-Miller - Army +5 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  Coming home from Vietnam was surreal. It seemed the entire country was against the war and the military. Candace Carter-Miller had her eye on an Army career but she couldn't even travel in her uniform. Years later, as she readied for a possible deployment to Desert Storm with the national guard, she sensed that a change had occurred.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  355th Field Maintenance Squadron

  When Don Cope was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War, he was elated to meet President Johnson during a visit to the air base. He was less than elated, however, with the restrictive policies that prevented US forces from actually defeating the enemy and he relates the story of a pilot who felt the same way.

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  Bob Tibbitts - Army +10 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  The Americans in the armored personnel carriers were looking for the NVA and the NVA were looking for the Americans. Bob Tibbitts developed a healthy respect for them. They were holding their own with the best equipped army on Earth. After seven months of that cat and mouse game, he was transferred to the 101st for a staff job.

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  Leo Hill - Army +8 Total Videos

  4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade

  He'd been in the Army for a while but, in Vietnam, he was the new guy. Leo Hill was back in the rear during a big firefight and most of his platoon was wiped out. When he returned, the Captain said you are the new platoon sergeant.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  355th Field Maintenance Squadron

  When Don Cope returned from Vietnam, he was confronted by a group of anti-war protestors. He calmly told them what he would do if they didn't get out of his way. He was already bitter over the way the war had been fought.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  John Cahill has all the respect in the world for the Greatest Generation but he does have one bone pick with them. They sent his generation to Vietnam but they didn't allow them to really fight the war.