COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

Please Wait...

Showing : Vietnam Videos

• 

  Lucio Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marines

  His first night in the field was memorable. Lucio Lopez sat down to a spartan meal and then the base came under attack with VC in the wire. He didn't even have a weapon yet.

• 

  Dan Swiger - Air Force +2 Total Videos

  21st Tactical Air Support Squadron

  While a radio operator in Vietnam, Dan Swiger heard a frantic pilot screaming for air support for some troops on the ground. Decades later, he found that pilot. Veterans get the best therapy from other veterans and that has meant a lot to him. It was good to meet other radio operators when he finally attended a reunion, especially when he met one who had also been involved in a friendly fire incident. Part 3 of 3.

• 

  Paul Curs - Air Force +15 Total Videos

  20th Tactical Air Support Squadron

  Paul Curs didn't realize the extent of the Ho Chi Minh Trail until he began flying missions over it. He was a forward air controller, or FAC, and his little Cessna had no real armament, yet he flew right into the anti-aircraft fire to coordinate attacks. The goal was to interdict men, weapons and supplies coming down the trail.

• 

  Gene McCandless - Marines +11 Total Videos

  3rd Amtrac Battalion, 3rd Marine Division

  When Gene McCandless got to his assignment at Cua Viet, up near the DMZ, he was greeted by a ferocious artillery barrage. He was certain the next one would hit the back of his head as he headed for the bunker. He was just seventeen and had slipped through the cracks to make it into the war zone.

• 

  Dan McMahon - Army +7 Total Videos

  180th Assault Support Helicopter Company

  Chinook pilot Dan McMahon hated to hear it when there was a Tac-E, a tactical emergency. That meant he would probably be flying howitzers to a fire base in the middle of the night with ground fire coming up to meet him. When some aircraft had mysterious explosions, they looked for some maintenance issue, but what they discovered was a new enemy weapon.

• 

  Dennis Eakin - Army +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  He was another kid who always wanted to fly. When the Army said he could go to flight school, Dennis Eakin volunteered ahead of the draft. His first time in the air was on the trip down to Ft. Polk for basic training but he did just fine when he sat at the controls of the helicopter.

• 

  Lucio Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marines

  Squad leader Lucio Lopez would take the point a lot. He did not want another Marine in danger and he, frankly, did not trust all of them to do it right. He was also the demolition man and tunnel rat for his unit. Some of the underground facilities he found were truly amazing.

• 

  Bruce Hojnacki - Army +9 Total Videos

  504th Military Police Battalion

  After basic training, Bruce Hojnacki found out he was going to be an MP. The advanced training for the military police was right there at Fort Gordon, where he had his basic. Then, like most draftees at the time, he got orders for Vietnam.

• 

  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Army nurse Sue Stohr did get R&R while she was in Vietnam. She also got to meet a lot of entertainers who toured the hospital in Saigon as part of their USO activities. She missed the Bob Hope show but he came in to greet the wounded troops and Richard Nixon came through, which prompted an innocent but hilarious question from a soldier.

• 

  Carl King - Marines +12 Total Videos

  H. Company, 1st Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment

  Carl describes some of the heavy foliage Marines often fought through in Vietnam and the one occasion he was extremely grateful for the additional map training he received just before his tour. (Caution: May contain strong language)

• 

  David Samuels - Army +12 Total Videos

  135th Assault Helicopter Company, 145th Combat Aviation Battalion

  Two things happened after David Samuels finished primary flight training, He convinced his fiance's father to agree to a wedding, and the helicopters got much larger at the next school. He went from tiny two seaters to big Huey's. He planned a late honeymoon after the Huey training was done and before deploying to Vietnam, but the Army had other plans.

• 

  Bill Greinke - Army +18 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Bill Greinke graduated college and was commissioned an Army officer on the same day. He went for a regular Army enlistment with a four year obligation. It was winter when he went to Ranger school, which meant no snakes during the jungle phase but freezing cold during the mountain phase.

• 

  Paul Curs - Air Force +15 Total Videos

  20th Tactical Air Support Squadron

  Some commanders flew combat missions along with everybody else and some didn't. You can guess which ones got the respect of the pilots. Paul Curs was a FAC pilot flying out of Pleiku and he recalls when the tactics officer tried out a new tactic. It didn't go over too well.

• 

  John Page - Army +10 Total Videos

  5th Special Forces Group

  John Page recalls the time his Special Forces team had to hide from the NVA in pit viper infested bamboo. The mission had to be scrubbed and the team were extracted from the side of a mountain by a daredevil helicopter pilot.

• 

  Bill Greinke - Army +18 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  American advisor Bill Greinke was now out of the field and working in a command bunker. It was so boring that he would hitch rides on sniffer birds and spotter planes just for something to do. On one of these flights, the spotter got into a duel with a lone VC on a hilltop who defied and survived every attempt to get him.

• 

  Roger Lutz - Army +10 Total Videos

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

  The 7th Cavalry was constantly in the field. You slept on the ground and kept on the move. Medic Roger Lutz recalls treating the wounded as the unit moved to support operations in Hue during the Tet Offensive.

• 

  Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Howie Bachman had commanded back to back units in combat, a unique feat for an armor officer. This set him up for a nice career even though he inadvertently missed out on a plum job with General Creighton Abrams.

• 

  Bill Gessner - Navy +9 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 9th Marines (Attached)

  Before Navy Corpsman Bill Gessner was attached to the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, they already had the nickname, The Walking Dead, based on their high casualty rate. When he arrived at the unit, an artillery barrage was just beginning. Welcome to Vietnam.

• 

  Roger Lutz - Army +10 Total Videos

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

  When you're under fire, you drop to the ground. When you're the medic and someone is shot, you have to crawl on the ground to the wounded man, hence the term "Lizard." Roger Lutz describes the job of a Lizard in Vietnam, when he was doing exactly that.

• 

  Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Rescued from his lowly staff job, Howie Bachman visited each company of his new unit, the 3-5 Cav. The last one was actually an attached company, Dreadnaught Charlie. It's commander did not run a tight ship and his job was in jeopardy.

• 

  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  It was long hours for the staff at the military hospitals in Vietnam. Terry Caskey recalls one wounded soldier who stepped on a land mine and underwent multiple amputations. Years later, seeing photos of that day set off a PTSD episode which resulted in him finally getting the needed help from the VA.

• 

  Carl King - Marines +12 Total Videos

  H. Company, 1st Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment

  Carl King hadn’t been in Vietnam long when he was sent out on a blocking force. His platoon quickly found themselves in the middle of a firefight that would leave him wounded and medevaced out of the field. (Caution: May contain strong language)

• 

  Gene McCandless - Marines +11 Total Videos

  3rd Amtrac Battalion, 1st Marine Division

  Gene McCandless had been shipped out of the war zone to Okinawa to await his eighteenth birthday. When he got back, he was sent to Marble Mountain, where he was reunited with his buddies from the Amtrac unit. His job was to transport Marines around their area of operation and support them with supplies and logistics.

• 

  Frank Heiny - Army +10 Total Videos

  15th Public Information Detachment, 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade

  Frank Heiny describes some of the trouble he went through to operate as a photographer in Vietnam, from finding a camera of his own to building a dark room.

• 

  Roland Guidry - Air Force +18 Total Videos

  350th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron

  Analysis of photo-reconnaissance showed that American POW's were being held at a compound in Son Tay. C-130 pilot Roland Guidry flew top secret missions releasing drones that captured intelligence over North Vietnam and he explains how none of the pilots knew who was responsible for the discovery. A task force was formed and a rescue mission launched but it was too late.

• 

  Marshall Eubanks - Army +14 Total Videos

  18th Corps Aviation Company

  It was very late in the war but lives were still being lost. Helicopter pilot Marshall Eubanks remembers the deadly crash of a Chinook which sunk down into the Mekong mud. He nearly lost his own life on his last flight in Vietnam when his Huey developed engine trouble.

• 

  Dan Swiger - Air Force +2 Total Videos

  21st Tactical Air Support Squadron

  After an innocent mistake caused a friendly fire incident, forward air controller Dan Swiger was reassigned. His new job was running an administrative radio network in Nha Trang. Later, he coordinated air activities for a Special Forces base. He was eager to prove himself and was surprised that there seemed to be no repercussions. Part 2 of 3.

• 

  Carl King - Marines +12 Total Videos

  H. Company, 1st Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment

  Coming off an operation, Carl King noticed he had been losing his hair. After getting his diagnosis, the doctor gave him some advice that was very unexpected. He also recalls a helicopter pilot friend of his who got a taste of life on the ground. (Caution: Strong Language)

• 

  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  He really wanted to be a Marine but John Bates went off to college to prove to his folks that he was not college material, at least not yet. Sure enough, it wasn't long before he was standing on the yellow footprints in San Diego.

• 

  Lucio Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marines

  It was almost like he had less trouble in the jungle. Lucio Lopez first went to Okinawa, where he got picked up by the MP's after a barroom brawl. Then he was robbed and then he got home to California where things had not gone well for his family. (Caution: coarse language.)