Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

Bill Cunningham - Marines +24 Total Videos

Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 263 (HMM 263)

Marine helicopter pilot Bill Cunningham was paired with a gunship pilot called Hostage Jack on many of the search and rescue missions he flew in Vietnam. The missions were dangerous but it was a little weather scouting flight that cost Hostage Jack his life.
Tom Reilly - Army +7 Total Videos

3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 199th Light Infantry Brigade

Tom Reilly felt the call to serve and dropped his deferments to let the draft take him. After basic, he was offered a slot at Officer Candidate School, but, to him, that was “the sorriest thing I ever saw in the service,” and he declined.
Joe LaBranche - Marines +7 Total Videos

M Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

He was one of seventeen children and he always wanted to be a Marine. Joe LaBranche headed to Vietnam and was a little nervous because he had not yet been issued a weapon. He got real nervous on his first patrol when the man next to him was shot in the head by a sniper. This was in one of the most contested areas of the country, where the village of My Lai was located.
Michael Marshall - Marines +7 Total Videos

3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division

What was it like moving through thick jungle? Michael Marshall answers that question and more as he recalls his time in Vietnam. He loved his M14 rifle, but he wasn't too crazy about the C-rations and the old grenades.
John Weinig - Air Force +8 Total Videos

6th Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing

John Weinig flew the A-1 Skyraider out of Pleiku in the central highlands of Vietnam. The missions were either close support for units on the ground or search and rescue missions. They were in the air every day, even if just waiting for a call.
Mike McCormick - Army +8 Total Videos

Multiple Units

At a certain point during his first tour of Vietnam, Mike McCormick reached two years of duty in the signal field and was sent to military intelligence. Despite a lack of formal training, he ran the counterintelligence branch and their first order of business was the vetting of all the Vietnamese workers on base.
COL Jack Jacobs (ret.) - Army +5 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

COL Jack Jacobs (ret.) recalls his first combat experience in Vietnam as an advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Ernest Banasau - Army +17 Total Videos

A Company, 4th Infantry Division

Back at the firebase, Banasau and his buddy receive some very unexpected news - they're going home. True to his nature, he uses his newfound leverage to mess with the higher ranks.
David Andrews - Army +9 Total Videos

17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division

David Andrews explains the feeling that overcame him when he departed Vietnam and a funny story about what occurred between him and another passenger that almost led to a fight.
Bruce D'Agostino - Air Force +7 Total Videos

1876th Communications Squadron

Told he was at the top of the list to be drafted, Bruce D'Agostino enlisted in the Air Force to get some electronics training. Based in Japan with a communications squadron, he sought an assignment in Vietnam because he didn't feel right sitting there while a war was going on. He was already a crack shot, thanks to a Marine sniper.
Ron and Judie Richtsmeier - Army +9 Total Videos

119th Assault Helicopter Company, 18th Surgical Hospital

Newly minted helicopter pilot Ron Richtsmeier was flying to his assigned unit in Pleiku when he struck up a conversation with another pilot. He let on that he would much rather fly a gunship than a "slick," an unarmed transport aircraft. Luckily, the other pilot had some strings to pull.
Marshall Carter - Marines +16 Total Videos

1st Marine Division

Marshall Carter's unit was moving across a big cemetery. Suddenly, the ground gave way and he knew immediately he was falling into a punji pit. Not only were there punji stakes, there was a grenade with a trip wire. The Viet Cong were masters at adapting to American tactics. After steel shanks were added to American boots, the punji traps were made with a sideways closing motion.
Curtis James - Marines +5 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Curtis James was the first officer in charge of a Pentagon effort to manage crises during the Cold War. It was a brand new office inside the giant headquarters and, after running that for a while, he served in Vietnam at MACV in Saigon, managing the logistics of the war effort.
James Holmes - Army +5 Total Videos

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

Growing up in Philadelphia to single mother, James Holmes was raised to work hard during his entire upbringing. Being an athlete all of high school, he decided to join the Army at age 17, trained and shipped off to Germany.
David Harrington - Army +6 Total Videos

47th Infantry Division

David Harrington recounts a particularly harrowing experience fighting Viet Cong while his platoon was under heavy fire from RPGs at their company basecamp Camp Rowe. Harrington recounts one of his injuries and a member of his company that came to their rescue in that moment.
Joe LaBranche - Marines +7 Total Videos

M Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

Joe LaBranche laughs when he recalls the Marines ribbing each other over country music versus soul music. He'll also never forget meeting the tough Korean Marines. But he was eager to leave Vietnam and dropped everything when he was told it was his time.
Marshall Carter - Marines +16 Total Videos

1st Marine Division

Marshall Carter recalls a Medivac flight that was flown by two wounded pilots, one with leg wounds and one hit in the arm. Together they worked the stick and the pedals. He then explains the struggle over tactics. Westmoreland and the Army were looking for the big battle. The Marine approach was to pacify the area and protect the people.
John Craven - Army +4 Total Videos

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

Radio operator John Craven was back at battalion recovering from jungle rot on his feet when they decided to put him to work in the TOC, the Tactical Operations Center. Now he was attached to a colonel instead of a captain, and had a much easier time of it, better food, too. After his tour, he was reluctant to talk about his experiences, given the political climate in the country.
John Wilhite - Army +9 Total Videos

1099th Transportation Company

There was a Buddhist hooch on the other side of the river near their base camp. John Wilhite had seen people coming and going there for a long time, but they were respectful of religious locations so it was left alone. One day, while they were playing cards on the boat, the man across from him was hit by a large caliber round. Soon it was apparent where it had come from.
Jim Benson - Marines +14 Total Videos

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

After failing for three days to ambush a Viet Cong supply run, Jim Benson's unit was finally getting some sleep when word came, Charlie was moving. He reached the scene and, following a blood trail, he was just turning back when someone spotted a cave entrance. Part 2 of 2.
Richard Jackson - Marines +15 Total Videos

Multiple Units

He'd considered having a longer career in the Marines, but when Richard Jackson returned from Vietnam, he decided to move on. The lessons he learned there would animate and inspire his business career.
LTG Larry Jordan - Army +11 Total Videos

Multiple Units

"Good morning, Vietnam!" That was Larry Jordan's wake up call with the 1st Infantry Division in the field. When the entire division was ordered back to the United States, he still had time left on his tour so he wound up in the 1st Cavalry where he finished out his time.
Don Zimmer - Army +10 Total Videos

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

In the A Shau Valley, Don Zimmer's unit was securing and clearing area for an artillery base. A pretty meadow was there, but it harbored an unseen wildlife menace. There was little contact with the enemy, so they found a chance to make creative use of a bomb crater.
Ernest Banasau - Army +17 Total Videos

A Company, 4th Infantry Division

Banasau returns to the base at Dak To, where he used his masterful scrounging skills to acquire alcohol for his team. An opportunity to attend a USO show is thwarted by enterprising base commandos.
Steve Long - Marines +24 Total Videos

Marine Light Helicopter Squadron 167 (HML-167)

It was hot in Vietnam, so avionics technician Steve Long took off his shirt before he climbed into an access hatch. He felt someone pulling on his leg and yelled something not altogether complimentary. Then he realized who it was.
Bob Havens - Navy +9 Total Videos

Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67)

Bob Havens recalls a sweet story about seeing Raquel Welch at a Bob Hope show during the Vietnam war, and then meeting her twenty years later. Then, he has some observations on his experience in that war.
Bob Averill - Marines +12 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division

After a meeting with his company commander, Bob Averill was tasked with a fire team to push further into NVA territory. While camped outside of Viet Cong territory, they would often take enemy mortars .
Tim Dunn - Marines +16 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 1st Marines

Hotel Company was the only unit at the outpost south of Da Nang on Highway 4. Marine Tim Dunn later learned that this was area was heavily contested when the French were there. There was a combination of VC and NVA forces active in the area.
Bill Cunningham - Marines +24 Total Videos

Multiple Units

It was a strange trip home. Bill Cunningham was in a full body cast and next to a patient who was ranting and raving. Then an engine went out, which caused him to make an urgent request to the nurse.
Vis Kimenis - Army +10 Total Videos

266th Supply and Service Battalion

As food was getting scarce after the 1968 Tet Offensive, supply officer Vis Kimenis describes how he "wheeled and dealed" a few useless trinkets into 2700 pounds of "good stuff" to feed his troops.