COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Joe Bruckner - Army +9 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  There were a lot of negative things written about the Phoenix Program after the war, but to military advisor Joe Bruckner, who worked with operatives from the program, it was effective in rooting out Communist infiltrators.

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  Bill Patterson - Army +7 Total Videos

  319th Transportation Company, 6th Transportation Battalion, 48th Transportation Group

  Before they deployed to Vietnam, the transportation unit got brand new 5 ton trucks, which were loaded on a ship while the men flew over on a cargo plane. Bill Patterson will always remember the heat and the smell that greeted them on the tarmac at Bien Hoa.

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  Galen Foster - Army +11 Total Videos

  196th Light Infantry Brigade

  Galen Foster's first night after joining his unit in was memorable. They were mortared and, since the fire base was new and had no bunkers yet, a half dozen new guys huddled on the floor of their tent with their duffel bags around them. Welcome to Vietnam. After the barrage, they emerged and readied for a fight which did not come.

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  Henry Dunn - Army +9 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment

  What is the lesson to be learned from the Vietnam War? For Henry Dunn it is simple, don't get into a war unless you absolutely have to.

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  John Craven - Army +4 Total Videos

  D Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  Many deaths in Vietnam were accidents, reports radio operator John Craven, who remembers one grisly incident involving a soldier walking into a helicopter blade. The young age of the troops had a lot to do with it, he says. His radio job started out well, but then he realized how much weight he would have to carry in the field.

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  Dick Dyer - Army +12 Total Videos

  118th Assault Helicopter Company, 145th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade

  The call went out. There was a unit in trouble and they needed casualties evacuated. Huey pilot Dick Dyer responded, but as he was taking off with the wounded, there was a loud boom. He settled back on the ground and then he heard from his crew chief. This helicopter wasn't going anywhere.

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  Johnny Fielding - Army +5 Total Videos

  C Company, 7th Infantry Regiment, 199th Infantry Brigade

  Johnny Fielding remembers growing up in Alabama and later attending college during the Vietnam War. It wasn't long after he dropped out of school that he received his draft papers. Training at Fort Benning was difficult but it made him stronger and a better leader.

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  Ron Schuh - Air Force +12 Total Videos

  13th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  F-4 pilot Ron Schuh recounts two missions from his first tour in Vietnam, one of which earned him a Silver Star. In that one, his job was to mark targets with smoke and he went back repeatedly in the face of fierce ground fire. In the other, he decided to stage a surprise strafing run on a Pathet Lao ping pong game.

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  Bill Brezina - Army +5 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  Bill Brezina had his first assignment at the MASH hospital in Chu Lai. Dealing with that quantity of casualties is difficult to see and takes time to adjust to.

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  Ray Fairman - Marines +10 Total Videos

  Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314)

  The closest encounter that Fairman had while in Vietnam was way too close for comfort. On top of all of this, it happened to be friendly fire instead of from the enemy. As one can imagine, he still has a vivid memory of how it all happened.

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  Frank Francois III - Army +7 Total Videos

  Support Command, 1st Cavalry

  The 1st Cavalry had shed its horses and was now Air Mobile. Frank Francois III deployed to Vietnam as the Transportation Officer for the unit. His responsibilities were supplying the troops at the forward bases and running the shuttle flights that moved personnel around the country. This made him a popular fellow. He was too busy for a reporter from Time Magazine and missed out on being the subject of a feature story.

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  Bill Pearson - Army +11 Total Videos

  199th Light Infantry Brigade

  After a month guarding an ammo dump, the men of Bill Pearson's platoon were anxious to see some action. Their first real assignment was in the delta south of Saigon and it wasn't long before those same men missed the boredom of that guard duty.

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  Willard Womack - Army +13 Total Videos

  18th Aviation Operating Detachment

  Wherever there are weapons, there is always the potential for accidents. Army pilot Willard Womack recalls several times when carelessness caused trouble during his tour in Vietnam. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH J. TINGLE.)

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  Bennie Koon - Army +6 Total Videos

  HHC 1st Battalion 5th Cavalry Regiment 1st Cavalry Division Air Mobile

  Growing up near Columbus, Georgia, Bennie Koon always had a military influence. After working on base as a kid, he joined the Army.

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  Mike Province - Marines +5 Total Videos

  E Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Division

  Marine Mike Province compares the personalities of the three Lieutenants he served under in Vietnam. Two out of three ain't bad. He pays tribute to the Corpsmen, who were alongside the Marines, taking care of the wounded. The wildlife and the elements were front and center, namely snakes and Jungle Rot.

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  Wayne Waddell - Air Force +14 Total Videos

  354th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  Wayne Waddell remembers his Air Force career after his time in the prison camp.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  He was an aviation nut when he was a a kid, so when it came time to choose a branch, it was the Army for Fred Behrens. They offered the quickest route to the sky. He could be trained as a helicopter pilot rather quickly and that's what he did. In his mind, he still had a romantic and heroic notion of what war was like thanks to Hollywood.

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  Brian West - Marines +5 Total Videos

  HMM 363

  Learning how to fly over Vietnam was difficult to master, but Brian West started to get the hang of it. West remembers the mission he was on when he was shot over Phu Bai.

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  Rick Bates - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  8th Tactical Fighter Wing, 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron

  Rick Bates remembers one of his most memorable missions over North Vietnam. Taking enemy fire that took off the right wing of his airplane, he and his flying partner had to eject to save their lives. Getting captured upon landing would set into motion their time as prisoners-of-war.

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  Omer McCants - Army +8 Total Videos

  162nd Assault Helicopter Company, 13th Combat Aviation Battalion

  He had three close friends in Vietnam, but he struggles to remember any other names. The other relationships were professional, but not close. He actually outranked the man he thought was the best leader he encountered, a Warrant Officer who was talented and knowledgable.

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  Ron and Judie Richtsmeier - Army +9 Total Videos

  119th Assault Helicopter Company, 18th Surgical Hospital

  While recovering from the effects of an air crash, Ron Richtsmeier was lucky to be released to the care of his unit's flight surgeon. This kept him from being reassigned after he was healed. Another reason he was lucky was that he could borrow a jeep and go back to visit that sweet blonde nurse who had cared for him.

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  Charles White, Jr. - Air Force +10 Total Videos

  23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron

  Pilot Charles White, Jr. was first on the scene during the rescue operation when one of his fellow Air Controllers in a small plane collided with a B-57 bomber. He recalls that mission and another when an F-4 went down due to pilot error. Accidents and fratricide account for a great percentage of casualties in every war, he says.

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  Robert Wolfe - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Bob Wolfe's two children were both born while he was far from home on assignment. He asked the Air Force for a more family friendly job and he got it, flying navigator on C-124's out of Hawaii. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War was heating up, so he was still away a lot, flying between Hawaii and Vietnam. Eventually, it was his time to go to the combat, as a forward air controller.

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  Bud Alley - Army +13 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry

  The young Lieutenants were bugging the Colonel with their raucous singing so he told them to build an officers' club. Amazingly, it didn't fall over. Bud Alley says that unit cohesion was good despite the disparate races and backgrounds of the men. He had no personnel issues at all in his headquarters unit except one persistent drunk cook.

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  Kevin Hathaway - Army +11 Total Videos

  173rd Assault Helicopter Company

  Kevin Hathaway already knew the M60 machine gun very well when he arrived in Vietnam. Now he had to learn about the helicopters. He was a new door gunner, which means he had to help the crew chief maintain the choppers.

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  John Parker - Army +9 Total Videos

  H Troop, 17th Cavalry Division

  Parker had spent a lot of time in Vietnam and working for the military. He gives his final thoughts about the war, his reflections about how it has affected him, and what he wants people to remember about the war in Vietnam.

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  Albert Watson - Army +5 Total Videos

  5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)

  The airliner was full of young soldiers and Marines, who left the cold of Spokane for the heat and humidity of Vietnam. Albert Watson was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, a unit specifically designed for the war in Vietnam. Most of his time was spent in the flat delta, where you could see for miles. When they were sent north on an operation, the visibility in the jungle was more like five feet.

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  Sonny Dellinger - Army +4 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade

  After witnessing the tragic loss of a brave soldier, Dellinger resolves not to get close to anyone in his brigade. He observes a fighting force that is held back by its leadership and its objectives.

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  Rick Marotte - Army +6 Total Videos

  237th Medical Detachment

  As a medical evacuation pilot, Rick Marotte had relatively nice living conditions in Vietnam. He fondly recalls the hooch maids who cleaned his quarters and the barbecues on the beach during down time. He was as close as family with his fellow service men and women, and with the gregarious Australians. The Koreans, though, were too scary for socializing.

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  Brad Snyder - Army +6 Total Videos

  Advisor, 4th Troop, 3rd Armored Cavalry, ARVN

  Even though Brad Snyder was booed and spit on when he returned from Vietnam, the full meaning of the public's anger at this war was lost on him until he was invited to speak at Harvard. His contact advised him to not wear his uniform. What? He goes on to describe his thoughts on the war's legacy, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the all volunteer military.