COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

Please Wait...

Showing : Vietnam Videos

• 

  Candace Carter-Miller - Marines +5 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  They were persona non grata. Candace Carter-Miller laments the stigma and hostility encountered by all Vietnam veterans. To have served faithfully and then be subjected to that has left a lingering bitterness.

• 

  Lee Riley - Marines +5 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Lee Riley was a poor kid from a large family when he joined the Marines. Some of his older brothers had served in other branches but it was the Marines for him because he thought they were so cool. It wasn't cool what a particular sergeant did to him at boot camp.

• 

  Candace Carter-Miller - Army +5 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  What was it like to be one of the few women serving in Vietnam? Candace Carter-Miller remembers that she never felt unsafe but that it could be very awkward to be in a room full of men where she stood out. The nurses were a close knit group. You had to be when you could hardly ever get off post.

• 

  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  82nd Medical Detachment

  He was in charge of the Delta Dustoff unit but Jack Tragis was green. His CO was also a pilot and began to show him the ropes of evacuating casualties, sometimes under fire. There were other good pilots who had been flying in country for a while and he began to learn what they don't teach in flight school.

• 

  Tim Orr - Marines +6 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  It was his worst day in Vietnam. Tim Orr's unit was breaking camp and the mortar crew was going to fire off some unused ammo so they didn't have to carry it back. Something went wrong and the rounds began to fall right on top of his squad.

• 

  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  It was a struggle for Jack Tragis to pass the flight physical but with a waiver and a little help from a friend, he managed. Then, it was a year of moving his family to various flight schools which he knew was leading up to a tour in Vietnam.

• 

  Mike Pomakis - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  When he returned from Vietnam, Mike Pomakis was in no hurry to get home. He stayed in San Francisco for a couple of weeks with some girls he knew before he finally went to see Mom and Dad. He didn't have any trouble with anti-war protestors but the tight job market for veterans cause him to move to Newfoundland, which worked out well for him.

• 

  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Nothing can live through that. John Bates watched as a massive air strike hit the NVA position in front of him. What he didn't know is that they had a plan for that and one of them would send him to the rear with a hole through his chest.

• 

  Larry Washington - Army +10 Total Videos

  D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment

  Larry Washington was only 19 years old but he flew into combat in Vietnam. He had a good rapport with his crew chief, who was older. They were convinced they had a lucky aircraft and took loving care of it.

• 

  Don Rohde - Navy +8 Total Videos

  Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment (Attached)

  It took a long time, but Don Rohde finally attended a reunion of his comrades from Vietnam. Men with common suffering at the hands of the powers that be who messed up that war. It was so bad that they don't teach about it very much in school. (Caution:strong language)

• 

  Leo Hill - Army +8 Total Videos

  4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade

  Coming home was difficult for Leo Hill. First there were the protestors at the airport. Then there was the woman who rejected him when she found out he served in Vietnam. This caused him to begin keeping his service a secret.

• 

  Gary Cantwell - Army +8 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  It was search and destroy. Looking for NVA. Looking for weapons caches. Gary Cantwell remembers a big cache next to a river surrounded by booby traps. At one point he was loaned to the Riverine force as a gunner. That was interesting.

• 

  Jeff Lippka +16 Total Videos

  Navy Corpsman (Attached 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines)

  Newly arrived Corpsman Jeff Lippka had to wait at an outlying camp because the base at Con Thien was being shelled. It continued daily while he was there. He went out on patrols with the Marines and on one of these, a lot of noise in the brush got everyone's attention. Was it the enemy?

• 

  Walt Lineberger - Navy +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Walt Lineberger learned some things in Vietnam. One is that Americans and people of another place and culture are more similar than different. He also learned confidence, which he brought to his business career. He benefited from good leadership in the Navy, but he had one big disagreement, which he felt put his men at risk.

• 

  Gary Cantwell - Army +8 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  Gary Cantwell remembers the time he talked a Cobra pilot into giving him a ride. What a thrill! He was assigned to the rear because of a bum ankle but that didn't mean he was safe. He was hauling sandbags with a Mule vehicle across a landing area which the engineers had swept and cleared. They missed one land mine.

• 

  Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Howie Bachman didn't experience any anti-war protests when he returned from his first tour of Vietnam but he did drop to the floor when his wife scared him at home. A little adjusting was needed. He got command of a tank company at Fort Hood but was then tapped as an aide-de-camp, a job he was not suited for. He started making it known to armor branch that he was available for another combat command.

• 

  Andrew Robbins - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  When Andrew Robbins stepped off the plane in Vietnam, he could barely stand the heat. It was the middle of the night. What would it be like during the day? He began to notice a lack of leadership that he had first noticed back in the States. They waited for days to organize a convoy to go twenty miles.

• 

  Gary Cantwell - Army +8 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  Gary Cantwell broke a few M-16's in Vietnam. Once he shot so many clips so quickly that he warped the barrel. He was "volunteered" by his squad leader to act as a Forward Observer's radio operator on one operation. He wound up doing a lot more than that and it led to his first Purple Heart.

• 

  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  If you're going to war, commit to winning it. Don't play around with people's lives. That's the plea of Jack Tragis, a helicopter pilot who saved a lot of people in Vietnam. During the ill-fated Operation Lam Son 719, he learned an important lesson; that Medevac pilots must be prepared to fly other kinds of missions.

• 

  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Sue Stohr had a roommate in Saigon and they still correspond. Her roommate was a Red Cross worker and she and the Red Cross in general were a tremendous help to the nurses at the 3rd Field Hospital. Many more wounded men were saved during the Vietnam War as opposed to previous wars because of the advent of helicopter evacuations.

• 

  Leo Hill - Army +8 Total Videos

  4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade

  The unit had already had one devastating friendly fire incident and they nearly had another. Leo Hill was in a foxhole in the triple canopy jungle when a Phantom let loose a bomb that hit a tall tree then careened straight towards him.

• 

  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Army nurse Sue Stohr arrived in Vietnam, was issued her fatigues and patches, and taken on a bus to Saigon, where the 3rd Field Hospital was located. Saigon was chaotic and busy and the surgery ward only a little less so.

• 

  Larry Washington - Army +10 Total Videos

  D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment

  He had a decent experience returning from Vietnam. First, Huey pilot Larry Washington managed to meet a fellow pilot he wanted to see before he left, then he had an uneventful journey without protestors. He stayed on as an Army pilot for a while, which helped him decompress from his combat experience.

• 

  Leo Hill - Army +8 Total Videos

  4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade

  It was very gratifying. When eighteen year old Leo Hill was field promoted to platoon sergeant, the more seasoned men in the platoon accepted him in that role. Vietnam was tough. It was a life without beds or showers and, surprisingly, with a lot of boredom.

• 

  Don Rohde - Navy +8 Total Videos

  Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment (Attached)

  The Corpsman in Vietnam really saw the most difficult parts of war. Don Rohde will never forget the first Marine who died in his arms nor will he forget the first life he took, considering who she was and what she was doing. The Marines weren't arbitrary in their actions but if they took fire from a village, that village would burn.

• 

  John Page - Army +10 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After a long Army career in Airborne and Special Forces, John Page has something to say about the news media and the military leadership at the top. He also pays tribute to some of those he encountered along the way which made a big impression on him.

• 

  Donald Singleton - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  Vietnam had a lot of bad terrain, a lot of climbing. The enemy fought well, recalls Donald Singleton. In fact, if they'd had our resources, he feels the outcome would have been much worse.

• 

  Don Rohde - Navy +8 Total Videos

  Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment (Attached)

  Don Rohde decided to re-enlist. The Navy Corpsman really had his eyes opened in Vietnam and civilian life just wasn't working out for him. He and his pregnant wife headed for Camp Lejeune, where no one knew it yet, but there was something wrong with the water. (Caution: strong language)

• 

  Candace Carter-Miller - Army +5 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  There was a lot going on in triage at the 95th Evacuation Hospital in Da Nang. Army nurse Candace Carter-Miller saw a lot of crazy things there but the most outlandish involved a tree limb. After every shift the nurses sat and analyzed the days work and brainstormed about how they could have done better.

• 

  Walt Lineberger - Navy +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  He thought it would be a hard question. Vietnam veteran Walt Lineberger asked a psychiatrist what is the deciding factor that makes some returning vets adjust well and some not. The reply startled him.