Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

125 | comm

Share

Share to email

More From A Kim

Showing : Vietnam Videos

Bennie Koon - Army +6 Total Videos

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

Bennie Koon got used to living a rough life in Vietnam. Overtime, things got easier for him as he got smarter and learned what he did and didn't need.
Les Carter - Army +6 Total Videos

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

When Les Carter arrived in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, his battalion’s District was very unstable. By the time he left, nearly all enemies had been killed or driven off. That was the assessment of a North Vietnamese commander.
David Andrews - Army +9 Total Videos

17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division

While on ambush patrol, soon after the Tet Offensive, David Andrews recalls a time where they actually ambushed the enemy. There were heavy casualties on the enemy. Andrews shares a descriptive the visual of the aftermath.
Mike Morris - Army +11 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 5th Infantry (Mechanized), 25th Infantry Division

Before the Tet offensive began, there were reports of enemy movements and infiltration, but no one expected the size or scope of the attacks. For Mike Morris, it was the beginning of three months of chasing the Communist forces away from Saigon and back to the north and west.
Rody Conway - Army +14 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command Vietnam

Rody Conway survived the Tet Offensive, but he was not allowed the transfer to Da Lat that he requested. The belligerent colonel in charge told him he had no choice but to accept an assignment as HQ Commandant or that his career would be ruined.
Jerry Sinn - Army +6 Total Videos

Multiple Units

In his initial Vietnam assignment, Jerry Sinn respected and trusted his Vietnamese scouts. But when he later served with a different outfit, the South Vietnamese soldiers he was assisting were incompetent and he was not very impressed with them. He was impressed by the Australians and enjoyed working with them and he has nothing but praise for the officers and enlisted men of the 1st Infantry Division.
Grayson Roulston - Army +7 Total Videos

3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, B. Co

While patrolling, Grayson Roulston hit a booby trap that knocked him unconscious and in very rough shape. Fortunately, he was able to be evacuated to Dong Tam where he was able to be treated, but even that hospital was not totally safe from danger.
Vis Kimenis - Army +10 Total Videos

266th Supply and Service Battalion

Vis Kimenis recalls two separate rocket attacks while deployed to Vietnam and describes the "Kentucky Courage" that soldiers learned to develop during these attacks.
Hugh Bell - Army +6 Total Videos

A Company, 25th Aviation Battalion, 25th Infantry Division

Hugh Bell was already a fixed wing pilot when the Army decided that he would go to helicopter school. He was soon living in a hooch in Vietnam on the first of two tours, performing a variety of different missions from simple courier to air assault.
Marshall Carter - Marines +16 Total Videos

1st Marine Division

Three of Captain Marshall Carter's men who were on a fateful raid with him, went to the battalion commander to tell him what Captain Carter had done during the operation. That conversation worked out well for him, much better than the conversation he had years later with a reporter from WGBH.
Joe Galloway (Co-author of +13 Total Videos

Civilian Journalist

After his first trip to the front in Chinos and loafers, reporter Joe Galloway acquired a proper field kit and began observing and reporting on the strange war that was Vietnam. In Pleiku, he jumped off the plane because he saw bodies being stacked and was soon meeting up with a South Vietnamese unit. Their advisor, a new Major named Norman Schwarzkopf, would prove to be a valuable contact.
Brice Barnes - Army +9 Total Videos

9th Infantry Division, 47th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion Mechanized

After his first deployment, Brice Barnes was stationed in Thailand and then retired as a civilian in the Army National Guard. During Desert Storm, his unit was mobilized to provide support for training for that conflict.
Al Lipphardt - Army +10 Total Videos

National Photographic Interpretation Center

The sign on the windowless building of the National Photographic Interpretation Center in Washington D.C. suggested academic research, but the drunks across the street in the liquor store knew what it really was. Inside, Al Lipphardt, was busy predicting the October War of 1973.
William Hanna - Air Force +10 Total Videos

Military Advisory Assistance Group (MAAG)

As an advisor in Vietnam, Bill Hanna faced an unusual obstacle, the cultural phenomenon known as "saving face." This led to some perplexing situations as he tried to school the Vietnamese in running a modern Air Force.
Omer McCants - Army +8 Total Videos

162nd Assault Helicopter Company, 13th Combat Aviation Battalion

It was an easy commitment to make. Omer McCants stayed in the ROTC program so he would enter the Army as an officer, not a private. Not only that, but he was going to flight school. He had an advantage there because at Tuskegee he received flying lessons from the legendary Chief Anderson.
Jim Benson - Marines +14 Total Videos

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

His platoon was defending the Tu Cau Bridge when a Viet Cong came walking down the road right toward the machine gun emplacement. "Chu hoi," came the cry from the injured Vietnamese fighter and Jim Benson took him in and questioned him. A successful operation followed, marred only by some errant artillery shells that killed some civilians. This enraged his medic, who was not allowed to remain and treat the wounded.
Paul Jacobs - Navy +8 Total Videos

Multiple Ships

Retired Captain Paul Jacobs still has a strong relationship with Vietnamese refugees and their descendants. As captain of the USS Kirk, he led the famous rescue of the Vietnamese Navy. Speaking to a group of them recently, he called out the hull number of his ship, "1087!" A cheer went up.
Joe Ponds - Army +5 Total Videos

13th Combat Aviation Battalion, 121st Assault Helicopter Company,

Departing for Vietnam for the first time, Joe Ponds received his orders over the Mekong Delta in 4 Corps. Being prepared for any sort of combat environment was always essential for his company due to the surprise nature of the conflict.
Beirne Lovely - Marines +7 Total Videos

A Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division

When a blood-curdling scream wakes you up in the middle of the night at a jungle outpost, it may not be because of the enemy. It was Lt. Beirne Lovely 's job to track down the intruder. It was also his job to lead the unit off the helicopter ramp, but the first time was a little embarrassing.
Rody Conway - Army +14 Total Videos

82nd Airborne Division

Fresh from training, Rody Conway was a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne, but his first duty assignment was less exciting, handling security in Minneapolis. Then he headed for the Advanced Infantry Course at Ft. Benning.
Marshall Carter - Marines +16 Total Videos

1st Marine Division

Marshall Carter went for the Marines when he graduated from West Point to escape the family business. His father and grandfather were both West Point graduates who were in the Army. They considered the Marines a small service with limited career opportunities, but to Carter, that was no problem.
GEN Barry McCaffrey - Army +10 Total Videos

1st Cavalry Division

Barry McCaffrey remembers his two instances getting wounded. Fortunately for him, he had a strong support team that helped him get out to safety for his treatment.
Joe Galloway (Co-author of +13 Total Videos

Civilian Journalist

Tired of the dying and killing, reporter Joe Galloway went back to Tokyo to cover Asia for UPI, but he would find himself going back to Vietnam three more times to document the dark descent into chaos.
Allen Robinson - Navy +4 Total Videos

USS Jamestown AGTR-3

His dad told him to join the Navy if he wanted be in the military because he'd always have a dry bed and a warm meal. That sounded better to Allen Robinson than slogging through the jungle, so with the draft looming, he enlisted and put his foreign language skills to work.
Henry Dunn - Army +9 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment

Henry Dunn's life when he returned from Vietnam was a whirlwind of marriage, career and children, so he was too busy to process his war experience. That changed when accounts of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley were published and he began to reach out to fellow veterans.
Bill McCowen - Air Force +5 Total Videos

Strategic Air Command

Bill McCowen participated in his third war when SAC was levied for pilots to send to Vietnam, and that's not counting the Cold War. Going from mammoth B-52's to the C-123 assault transport, and from high altitude cruising to treetop level and dirt strips, was no problem for him. He loved flying and was ready for any mission.
Dennis Haines - Army +15 Total Videos

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

Dennis Haines and his friend Jack Kirchner came across a Viet Cong bunker that they thought was empty. After Kirchner fired a shotgun round through a port, he turned to leave and was nearly cut in two by enemy rounds.
Armand Chapeau - Coast Guard +7 Total Videos

USCGC Point Ellis (WPB-82330)

Nearly lost in transit with many Army troops to Vietnam, Armand Chapeau and his small Coast Guard contingent finally made it to Da Nang where his ship, the Point Ellis was based. Search and interdiction was the mission.
Joe Peoples - Army +5 Total Videos

Air Cavalry

Joe Peoples tells the story of an unexpected visit from his Vietnamese barber.
Marshall Carter - Marines +16 Total Videos

1st Marine Division

When Marshall Carter arrived in Vietnam, he was looking forward to commanding a rifle company and learning from the veteran sergeants he would be working with. Right away, he got a lesson in keeping his head down when he stood on top of a vehicle to try and free two others that were stuck.