Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

James Trapp - Air Force +9 Total Videos

F-105D Crew Chief

(Part 1/2) Mr. Trapp shares the reasons for his return to Takhli and describes his experiences from the time he spent stationed there.
Henry Dunn - Army +9 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment

After his intense experience at the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Henry Dunn finally got to do the job for which he was trained when he acted as air observer during the Bong Son operation. The coordination of artillery and air power while flying over the battlefield was very exciting, and the pure exhilaration of those two hours could only be celebrated one way.
Joe LaBranche - Marines +7 Total Videos

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

Once you kill someone, there's no going back. That's one reason Joe LaBranche feels he left his soul in Vietnam, and since so few have served in battle, he also feels that almost no one can understand what veterans have gone through. Based on strategies used in Vietnam, which still persist today, he wonders what value is placed on the soldier's life.
Tarlon Mobley +7 Total Videos

U.S. Army, 173 Airborne Brigade

Tarlon describes a close call with a trip wire during a patrol.
Mike Law - Army +8 Total Videos

7th Squadron, 17th Air Cavalry, Headquarters Company B & C

Staying on the same page as a unit and as a branch was very important for efficiency. Meetings, communication and listening to superiors was essential.
Bill Cunningham - Marines +24 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Bill Cunningham had completed his helicopter training at Ellyson field and was at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miami. He flew any aircraft he could just for the experience, and one day, he spotted a massive crate containing an oddball Sikorsky craft that he just had to assemble and try out.
Michael Richey - Army +6 Total Videos

3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division

After eating breakfast early in the morning, a sergeant told Richey and some other men to inspect guns in the armors room. Richey was scared to death of messing up, and what would have been a harmless mistake turned into a painful one.
Dick Sklar - Army +10 Total Videos

1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division

After leaving Cam Ranh Bay, Sklar and his company set up base camp at Phan Rang with very minimal supplies. While trying to clear their camp for safe settlement, they faced some of the booby traps left behind by their enemy.
Terry Sater - Navy +9 Total Videos

River Assault Squadron 13

Terry Sater describes the fear of minesweeping and firefights on the rivers and tributaries of the Mekong Delta. Details of the weapons systems and maintaining the 20mm Cannon on the heavily armed Monitor Riverine boat are described.
Marshall Carter - Marines +16 Total Videos

1st Marine Division

Commanders in Vietnam were encouraged not to contact the families of soldiers who died under their command. Captain Marshall Carter says this was because the war was very unpopular at home. He tried it...once.
Bill Ray - Army +4 Total Videos

ARVN Advisor, Topographic Company

During the early days of the Vietnam War, West Pointer Bill Ray expected to be advisor to an ARVN engineer company, but he wound up advising the topographic company instead. He was comfortably housed at the Five Oceans hotel in Saigon and he remembers the great day when the huge mapmaking camera arrived.
Ken Adams - Navy +6 Total Videos

Capt., U.S. Navy Pilot, AW16 USS Oriskany, VA-163

Ken Adams loses a close friend during a night flight. Ken later makes a harrowing landing.
Michael Marshall - Marines +7 Total Videos

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

When he stepped off the plane in Da Nang, Michael Marshall knew this was not a place you wanted to be. It was hot and there was a strange smell. Within days, he was with his Marine unit at An Hoa, providing security for bridge building engineers. It did not take long before he saw death.
Kenneth Moorefield - Army +12 Total Videos

Advisor, 21st Infantry Division, ARVN

In Vietnam, the biggest challenge was to get the enemy to concentrate in enough numbers to be boxed in and defeated. It was an asymmetrical approach, says Kenneth Moorefield, who advised an ARVN division in the Mekong Delta. His worst days there all involved the accidental killing of civilians.
Jim Lawrence - Army +12 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry

He was wary of the Vietnamese civilians who were workers at the unit's base camp, but Jim Lawrence was fully confident in the tightly knit group of officers and men who had bonded on the month long voyage to the country. His best friend, Don Cornett and his sergeant, Ron Benton, were two of them.
Albert Montillo - Army +8 Total Videos

U.S. Army, 3rd Battalion, 60th Inf. Reg., Bravo Company, 2nd Platoon, 9th Inf. Div.

Mr. Montillo shares a funny and relieving incident he experienced during guard duty.
Pat Richardson - Army +8 Total Videos

128th Assault Helicopter Company

Most days, helicopter pilot Pat Richardson ferried troops on assaults. On other days, there were a variety of single ship missions including "sniffer" missions that were highly technical and a little boring. He would also ferry VIP's and special teams. He recounts one mission down to the Mekong Delta where he picked up an entirely new skill.
Rob Doll - Army +5 Total Videos

U.S. Army, 1st Cavalry

Rob describes a funny incident that took place in a Chicago bar before he left for Vietnam.
David Brown - Army +6 Total Videos

82nd Airborne Division

David Brown met a man in a pool hall who had Jump Wings on his chest and he knew he had to get some of those. Volunteering ahead of the draft, he went to jump school after basic and got his own wings despite the trepidation he felt when he saw the raggedy plane they would use. After a year of spit shine and Brasso with the 82nd Airborne, it was time for Vietnam.
Greg Camp - Army +9 Total Videos

1st Cavalry Division

Newly commissioned from West Point, Greg Camp prepared to leave for Vietnam. First matter of business, his car. Some of his memories from this time are funny, some poignant.
Harvey C. Barnum - Marines +6 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 12th Marines

Barney Barnum remembers having to bring the discipline down on his command and they eventually got the message. Being in charge of other people's lives was a lot of responsibility for Barnum.
John Walker - Army +4 Total Videos

170th Assault Helicopter Company, 1st Aviation Brigade

The veterans group meets weekly, and John E. Walker is grateful for the friendship which helps him overcome the fallout from his Vietnam experience. He recalls his first night home which included a leap from a second floor after a nightmare. He is proud of his military life, but bitter over the slow response to his developing health problems.
Bill Cunningham - Marines +24 Total Videos

Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364 (HMM 364)

He was ferrying South Vietnamese troops to an operation when helicopter pilot Bill Cunningham heard over the radio, "You've got smoke!" After setting down he saw the ship had been hit and everyone scrambled to get out. Everyone except his co-pilot, who was having trouble with his new weapon, the M-16.
Jim Lawrence - Army +12 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry

After surviving the plebe system at The Citadel, Jim Lawrence became a platoon leader in the reformed 1st Cavalry, the Army's new air mobile division. They were the first sizable unit sent to Vietnam, but they didn't expect anything more than an "action," certainly not a war.
David Andrews - Army +9 Total Videos

17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division

David Andrews discusses what it was like to be on the receiving end of an ambush. He tells the story of how they successfully turned the tide on one major ambush.
Bill Huff - Marines +3 Total Videos

3rd Marine Division, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines

Mr. Huff explains how a soldier in his platoon stepped on a land mine that miraculously did not detonate.
Hugh Bell - Army +6 Total Videos

73rd Surveillance Airplane Company

Hugh Bell began his second Vietnam tour flying night surveillance missions over the midsection of the country, but he was then sent to Udorn air base in Thailand. His new mission area was Laos, where he was shot at constantly without result because the enemy gunners had no radar.
Rody Conway - Army +14 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command Vietnam

Even in the field, Rody Conway enjoyed the South Vietnamese food and the French coffee provided by the troops he was advising. His first operations were uneventful, since any North Vietnamese troops were usually passing through and gone.
John Walker - Army +4 Total Videos

170th Assault Helicopter Company, 1st Aviation Brigade

The best day of his tour in Vietnam was the day he got the hell out of there. He had missed his tight knit family, particularly during the holidays. But before John E. Walker could see them, he had to face a gauntlet of angry protesters. Now, after a long career which included Desert Storm, he appreciates the apologies he sometimes hears.
Henry Dunn - Army +9 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry

Henry Dunn thought he had it made in the Army but then he got "volunteered" for Vietnam because he was the only single officer in the outfit. Attached to the 7th Cavalry as a forward observer, he shipped out with the newly formed air mobile division. He was a little disturbed when they were issued no ammunition before they went ashore. Then there was that smell.