Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

Johnny Fielding - Army +5 Total Videos

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

Johnny Fielding remembers his company's role in Vietnam, as a backup unit to support landing zones receiving a lot of action. Being a soldier makes you learn quickly so that you can help future soldiers.
Dick Dyer - Army +12 Total Videos

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

Helicopter pilot Dick Dyer was sent to pickup supplies from a ship in the Mekong Delta, but when he approached, the call sign and frequency he was given for contact elicited no reply. Circling the ship, he saw other helicopters land and take off so he went on in. Then he got an earful.
Jim Benson - Marines +14 Total Videos

I Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

Jim Benson had been in the field for a long time getting thin on K-rations, that it only took a few beers to get him looped, and that's exactly what happened on the next R&R. Good thing he had an excellent sergeant looking out for him.
Ron Sherman - Army +6 Total Videos

45th Military Intelligence Detachment, 1st Military Intelligence Battalion (Air Reconnaissance Support)

Photographer Ron Sherman signed up for the Officer Candidate School with the Signal Corps in order to be able to work in his area of expertise instead of being drafted. Though he dreamed of being a Life Magazine photographer, he prepared at Fort Bragg to head into Vietnam as a part of the military intelligence aerial reconnaissance team.
Ron Rutowski - Army +9 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry, 9th Division

After leaving the Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Ron Rutowski spent time building up the Bear Cat base camp. Here, he experienced the horrors of the Viet Cong firsthand.
Robert Goddard - Navy +7 Total Videos

Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light)3

Huey gunship pilot Robert Goddard recalls the time some "hot intel" turned into a hot reception from the Viet Cong. He can't pinpoint who it was who planted the false information, but it was a set up, for sure.
Willard Womack - Army +13 Total Videos

18th Aviation Operating Detachment

After receiving his pilot's license through Army ROTC, Willard Womack was committed to Army flight school. There he met an instructor who reminded him of someone and he made it the top of his class. Flying came naturally to him, it seemed. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH J. TINGLE.)
John Jones - Marines +9 Total Videos

Marine Medium Tilt Rotor Squadron 165

After beginning flight training at Pensacola, Marine helicopter pilot John Jones moved to New River, a facility next to Camp Lejeune. He transitioned to the twin rotor H-46 helicopter, a military version of the Sea Knight passenger craft used by Pan Am. He knew he would be going to Vietnam and he didn't care.
Dick Sklar - Army +10 Total Videos

1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division

Dick Sklar and his company had to face a lot of fire while stationed in South Vietnam. After fighting back as best they could, they were able to push the enemy back. During this firefight, some of his friends and colleagues lost their lives.
LTG Larry Jordan - Army +11 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division

The best day of his tour in Vietnam? That was the day Larry Jordan got the message that he had become a father. The worst day involved a pleasant young soldier who kept ignoring a basic safety precaution.
Mike Waugh - Army +10 Total Videos

128th Assault Helicopter Company, 11th Aviation Battalion, 12th Aviation Group

His first Vietnam tour was like a romantic adventure, a young man off doing macho stuff. When he left for his second tour, he had a wife and a child, so it was quite different. This time he was a helicopter pilot and a captain, although he deferred to lower ranking pilots who were more experienced. Now he would really learn to fly by picking up on and perfecting the things they can't teach you in flight school.
Bill Camper - Army +13 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

They aren't all heroes, they were just doing their jobs, says Bill Camper, veteran of Korea and Vietnam. He remembers laying in bed in basic training and trying to breakdown his $55 a month into what his hourly rate was. You don't do it for the money.
Larry Taylor - Army +8 Total Videos

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

College wasn't in the picture, so Larry Taylor entered the draft in 1967. He only had one bit of trouble in training, but a DI's boot set him straight.
Bill Becker - Army +1 Video

1st Cavalry Division

Bill Becker was one year out of high school when he was drafted and sent to train at Ft. Polk's Tiger Land, training specifically designed to prepare troops for Vietnam. He wasn't great at running, but he was good at taking tests. This led to some stress when he arrived in country and was thrust into the role of squad leader even though he had absolutely no experience.
John Harms - Marines +6 Total Videos

1st Armored Company, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

Racial tensions in Vietnam were very high between black and white soldiers, which John Harms was tasked with helping resolve. On one particular mission, he and his battalion came across a lost NVA company that they laid pretty heavy fire on.
Bob Babcock - Army +8 Total Videos

B Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division

As his unit began operations in Vietnam, Bob Babcock encountered the soldiers of the Korean White Horse Division. They were much more hard-nosed and disciplined than any other unit there, and when one of their men ran afoul of the law, they took him out and shot him. When Babcock's outfit suffered their first KIA, Albert Collins, it set off a ridiculous chain of events regarding the naming of the base camp.
Brad Snyder - Army +6 Total Videos

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

The ARVN unit he advised was a reactionary force, usually sent on short operations to chase away encroaching enemy forces. During one of these firefights, he was helping a wounded man when his beret was knocked off. The advisors wore the hats of their host units for unit cohesion, but he realized he was crazy for being in a firefight without a helmet. As soon as he put it on, a guy with an AK-47 stood up and did a John Wayne.
Al Flory - Army +9 Total Videos

54th Medical Detachment

In his last few weeks in Vietnam, Al Flory was anxious to get home and took steps to ensure he would get there alright. On his way home from Vietnam, he had an unfortunate show of disrespect from a citizen he came across that disappointed him.
Willard Womack - Army +13 Total Videos

18th Aviation Operating Detachment

Army pilot Willard Womack's job was to support a helicopter company in his spotter plane, usually from above the action. He tells how he came to be just 300 feet off the ground the only time he took a round in the plane. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH J. TINGLE.)
Barry Howard - Air Force +3 Total Videos

13th Tactical Fighter Squadron

If you punch a colonel, it's handy to have the chaplain standing there. That was fighter pilot Barry Howard's experience at his base in Thailand, where he also amused himself by baiting the general's twin sons to fight. Not so funny are the memories of smoke in the cockpit.
Tony Coalson - Army +15 Total Videos

201st Aviation Company, 1st Field Force

He'd gotten his private pilot's license through Army ROTC, but it was in helicopters that they wanted Tony Coalson to be trained. He wasn't real excited about that until he got in one. It was in training that a grim sense of humor began to form among the close knit pilots.
Duwayne Balk - Army +4 Total Videos

95th Evacuation Hospital

As the 95th began to get settled in Da Nang, they started building tents and getting some semblance of a base going so that they could take on patients. As an OR tech, Balk assisted doctors during the various types of procedures that went on at the base.
Joe Bruckner - Army +9 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

Military advisor Joe Bruckner kept in touch with his Vietnamese interpreter for a while, but after the war, it became dangerous for him to receive mail from America. Joe and his wife visited the country years later, just as it was opening up to tourism.
Bill Smith - Air Force +3 Total Videos

23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron

Forward Air Controller Bill Smith was part of the covert air war based in Thailand covering Laos and Cambodia. When not being shot at by angry insurgents with AK-47's, he found time to teach classes in a Thai middle school. The toughest job he had was search and rescue missions.
Richard Dorsey - Army +10 Total Videos

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

Rich Dorsey's platoon was written off back at battalion. A relief force had been stalled and there wasn't much chance of reaching the pinned down unit. In a helicopter overhead was Captain Barry McCaffrey, who was on his way to take command of another company. Hearing their plight on the radio, he instructed his pilot to land. He was going to get them out of this. Part 3 of 3.
Bob Ballagh - Army +9 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 19th Field Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division

To keep his artillery fire base from being mortared, Bob Ballagh relied on intelligence and pre-planning. Plotting all possible firing sites for the enemy allowed for a very fast response, sometimes even before the offending shell landed.
Myron Harrington - Marines +7 Total Videos

D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

Due to his network of friends and colleagues, Lt. Harrington was able to find himself taking over the Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. This unit was heavily trained and ready for combat, which really helped in the long run.
Tom Pemberton - Army +10 Total Videos

4th Transportation Command

Tom Pemberton was in charge of an area at the Saigon port and he recalls the sad story of a Vietnamese stevedore who wandered behind a stack of pallets for some reason.
Paul Noyes - Army +2 Total Videos

U.S. Army, Lt. Colonel, Military Assistance Command

During Ranger training, Paul is severely injured in his eye.
Gary Lawrence - Navy +11 Total Videos

SEAL Team One

It was the last operation of his first Vietnam tour. Navy SEAL Gary Lawrence yielded the point to another man on the simple recon mission and that kept him from getting shot. The team ran into a huge Viet Cong ambush and a fierce firefight ensued. As they were getting extracted by helicopter, he was making a last check of the landing zone when he noticed the chopper was taking off. He grabbed the skids and hung on. (Caution: strong language.)