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

Al Lipphardt - Army +10 Total Videos

D Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade

Of all the casualties around Al Lipphardt in his first Vietnam tour, one in particular haunted him for years, the death of Rodney Loatman. It was an article in a magazine that brought it all flooding back into his consciousness decades later.
Bill Cunningham - Marines +24 Total Videos

Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 263 (HMM 263)

Marine aviator Bill Cunningham served with a fellow officer named John Archibald during his second tour in Vietnam. One night, Archibald wandered into his quarters and made an ominous pronouncement.
Al Copeland - Army +5 Total Videos

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

He made Buck Sergeant about the time he figured out that he and his buddies were basically fighting for each other and for no other reason. They were taking a large bunker complex and when two others were under fire, he went out to get them. After the fight was over, he was disturbed to learn what his superiors intended to do about the enemy base.
Arthur Hurst - Army +5 Total Videos

125th Air Traffic Control Company

Before he shipped out for Vietnam, Army Air Traffic Controller Arthur Hurst studied the geography and landmarks of the country so he could get oriented more quickly. He was based mostly in the central highlands, and visited many of the restored French air fields. He recalls how some farmers would drop their hoes and rakes and pick up rifles and start firing.
Michael Richey - Army +6 Total Videos

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

During a brigade operation in the Plain of Reeds close to the Cambodian border, Richey's platoon was asked to stay behind to see what the Viet Cong would do. That night the men encountered a few Viet Cong, but the next morning they found themselves far outnumbered.
LtGen Mac Armstrong - Air Force +6 Total Videos

8th Tactical Fighter Wing, 433rd Fighter Squadron

Mac Armstrong took certain things away from the Vietnam War. The shortcomings that the U.S. faced during this conflict helped to inform future conflicts that we were involved in.
Beirne Lovely - Marines +7 Total Videos

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

Despite the overwhelming attitude of other college students, Beirne Lovely wanted to go fight in Vietnam. The Dartmouth student switched from Army ROTC to the Marines, but a missing credit in his transcript nearly derailed his career before it began.
Grayson Roulston - Army +7 Total Videos

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

Grayson Roulston remembers February 26th, 1968, when Bravo Company was in one of the worst firefights they’d ever seen at a hot landing zone. After facing very heavy casualties, they managed to medevac most of the company to safety and regain order.
Jesse Groves - Army +6 Total Videos

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

Coming home from Vietnam was a difficult experience. Jesse Groves was perplexed by the apathy and outright abuse. He suppressed his memories and moved on. Once later wars made service respectable again, and once he began to reconnect with his comrades, he could feel proud of his service.
Maurice Northcutt - Army +1 Video

69th Engineer Battalion

"Bud" Northcutt remembers a surprise infiltration by Viet Cong "youngsters" onto his military base in Vietnam. Armed only with explosives, the VC managed to destroy a bunker full of sleeping guards and several helicopters on the runway.
LTG Larry Jordan - Army +11 Total Videos

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

It was The Big Red One for Larry Jordan when he arrived in Vietnam. The West Pointer was assigned to a mechanized company in the 1st Infantry Division, where he lived out of an armored personnel carrier. When he was made reconnaissance platoon leader, he had more machine guns and some flametracks, vehicles which shot a stream of napalm.
Gordon Roberts - Army +7 Total Videos

B Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

Initial contact had been made with the enemy at a site known as Hamburger Hill. Two days after Gordon Roberts arrived in the A Shau Valley, the battle began to grow, and lasted ten days as a vast bunker complex was discovered and taken. The main lesson he took from this fight was to press hard after initial contact so the opposition can't set up and execute their plan.
David Brown - Army +6 Total Videos

4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade

The battle for Hill 875 took five days but David Brown was only there for two of them. He heard the piece of shrapnel from the enemy mortar shell whizzing through the trees before it hit him in the chin. As the Medevac chopper rose, he was told to throw out his weapon. This was very difficult for him but they convinced him he wouldn't need it anymore. At the hospital, he noticed the man in the next bed had something odd on his nightstand. "You don't want to see."
Willard Womack - Army +13 Total Videos

18th Aviation Operating Detachment

Willard Womack gives his account of the Battle of Ap Bac, a significant turning point in the Vietnam War. It begins with him hitching a flight to Saigon to pick up the pay for his outfit. Detoured on his way back to his base, he saw a group of men listening intently to a firefight on a radio. Part 1 of 3. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH J. TINGLE.)
Kenneth Moorefield +12 Total Videos

United States Embassy, Republic of Vietnam

After two combat tours of Vietnam, Kenneth Moorefield returned as an aide to the US Ambassador. He describes the chaos of the final days of the doomed South Vietnamese government, and the desperate evacuation from the rooftop of the embassy at the end of April 1975.
Paul Jacobs - Navy +8 Total Videos

USS Kirk (FF-1087)

Captain Paul Jacobs served seven tours in Vietnam waters and the first time he returned home, he was welcomed. By the last time, he and his men were suffering the typical abusive homecoming remembered by veterans of that war. This despite the fact that they had just completed a miraculous refugee rescue operation which saved thousands.
Bill Cunningham - Marines +24 Total Videos

Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364 (HMM 364)

There were 87 men on some high ground surrounded by Viet Cong and Marine helicopter pilot Bill Cunningham had a problem. There was only room for one ship at a time to land in the tiny landing zone they had hacked out of the bush. It would be one at a time so he spiraled down for the first load. Then he felt like a sledgehammer hit his leg.
LtGen Ron Christmas - Marines +16 Total Videos

H Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

When Gen. Westmoreland decided to move around and reinforce certain units in Operation Checkers, Captain Ron Christmas found himself just outside of the city of Hue in a camp where hostiles owned the high ground.
Jerry Sinn - Army +6 Total Videos

Reconnaissance Platoon, Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division

Jerry Sinn retired as a three star General but he started out as a draftee who decided to go to Officer Candidate School. Trained as a combat engineer and sent to Vietnam, he was surprised at the type of equipment he was issued for an assignment to the reconnaissance platoon. That's when he found out he was a Tunnel Rat.
Bill Ray - Army +4 Total Videos

Headquarters Company, 35th Combat Engineer Battalion

On his second Vietnam tour, Bill Ray commanded a combat engineer battalion. The large unit was still housed in tents, which raised some eyebrows, and was tasked with building a national road including many bridges. They also built some airstrips way down in the delta where he encountered entertainer Martha Ray, to his great surprise.
Joe Galloway (Co-author of +13 Total Videos

Civilian Journalist

Reporter Joe Galloway was with COL Hal Moore and the 1st Cavalry Division, operating in the central highlands of Vietnam, when word came of enemy movement in the Ia Drang Valley. He waited with a group of correspondents, including Peter Arnett, all trying to get to the front. But it was Galloway who finessed a ride into the pages of history at the battle.
Harvey C. Barnum - Marines +6 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 9th Marines

Barney Barnum recounts his rising through the ranks during his time with the 12th Marines, and then eventually serving in Vietnam with the 9th Marines. In a village in rural Vietnam, one of his most defining moments as a Marine began suddenly, causing him to think on his feet. Part 1/3
Rody Conway - Army +14 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command Vietnam

The activity in his area was picking up. Every time Rody Conway, and the South Vietnamese troops he was advising, went out on sweeps, they would find something. When they could not budge the enemy from a bunker, his solution was nearly comic.
LtGen Ron Christmas - Marines +16 Total Videos

3rd Marine Battalion, 2nd Marine Division

Naval ROTC graduate Ron Christmas took a Marine commission and headed to Camp LeJeune where he learned basic facts of leadership. One is that you share all hardships with your men. Another, unique to the Marines, is that everyone is trained as a rifleman.
Tommy Clack - Army +8 Total Videos

II Field Force, USARV

Tommy Clack was the first officer in eight generations of enlisted men. Advice from his dad to always listen to his NCOs served him well in the chaos of Vietnam, where the book went out the window.
GEN Barry McCaffrey - Army +10 Total Videos

1st Cavalry Division

"The Story of Captain Barry McCaffrey and the men of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, Vietnam" In this compilation, men of the 2nd Battalion discuss being rescued from a dire situation by McCaffrey, and then discuss his incredible leadership.
Rocky Bleier - Army +2 Total Videos

Americal Division (23rd Infantry Division)

Rocky Bleier remembers making use of his running back skills to retrieve a precious gift from home during a Vietnamese artillery attack. (4-time Super Bowl winning Pittsburgh Steeler. www.rockybleier.com)
George Forrest - Army +11 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

It was a classic L-shaped ambush that decimated several companies on the march to LZ Albany. George Forrest's company had fared better, but instead of heading to a Thanksgiving dinner like some, they went straight to another battle at Bong Son. He observes that you can go through hell and come out better for it and his company was stronger for the experience. Decades later, he gained an appreciation for the way the opposition must have felt. Part 4 of 4.
Albert Montillo - Army +8 Total Videos

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

Mr. Montillo recalls nearly being hit by a large piece of shrapnel during an engagement.
Tom Buchan - Army +11 Total Videos

3rd Battalion, 4th Cavalry Regiment

Following a harrowing first day of combat, Tom Buchan was surprised to find hot food flown in and cots to sleep on. He managed to finally get himself on a tank crew through sheer will and intelligence. It was the day he helped out one of the APC crews, though, that earned him recognition.