Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment

No one had ever heard of this happening. A faulty mortar round blew up in the tube, killing three soldiers. Howie Bachman had that lot of mortar rounds taken out of the ammo stocks. When it came time to fire some rounds for night time positioning, the men refused to fire the mortars. He had to take matters into his own hands.
Jim Teixeira - Marines +9 Total Videos

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

It was overwhelming and it happened fast. Marine Lieutenant Jim Teixeira went from the States to Okinawa and from there to Da Nang and points north until he found himself on an idyllic beach with the 9th Marines. There were a couple of months before the action was heavy and that was good. He could get his feet under him as a new platoon leader.
Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment

A long range patrol unit came into the night position of one of Howie Bachman's tank platoons. Unfortunately a specially trained anti-armor NVA unit followed them. Fortunately, one of them triggered a trip flare. The battle was on. When it was all over, a PFC had some heartfelt words for his commander.
Jim Teixeira - Marines +9 Total Videos

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

It was near the Laotian border that Jim Teixeira's Marines were ambushed. They won that fight but were then nearly killed by their own air power in a classic Vietnam screw up. They were there to intercept traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The built up infrastructure was very elaborate.
Mike Leonard - Air Force +14 Total Videos

Multiple Units

When he was a kid, Mike Leonard had a neighbor who was a Marine and drilled the neighborhood boys with wooden rifles. Between that and going to a military high school, the seeds of a military career were planted.
Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment

Dreadnaught Charlie was a mess. The tank company had been run in a lax manner but new company commander Howie Bachman had them shaping up fast. It earned him an uncomplimentary nickname but then the men saw that he ate what they ate and slept where they slept. Then came the infamous overheard radio conversation that really earned their respect.
Frank Farrell - Army +7 Total Videos

4th Infantry Division

Upon finishing a grueling 8 weeks of Ranger school and 4 more weeks of Airborne school, Farrell took on artillery school with the intention of following the path of his father. He wound up in artillery training at Fort Sill, and at this time he also got married at Fort Bragg. Before he even went to Vietnam, he was deployed to Italy as nuclear support for a total of three years and returned back to the states in 1966.
Bruce Hojnacki - Army +9 Total Videos

504th Military Police Battalion

It was strange, arriving in Vietnam and beginning your movement through Saigon and you have no weapon. Bruce Hojnacki got over it and moved steadily northward toward his assignment with the 504th MP Battalion.
Sar Phouthasack +12 Total Videos

Royal Lao Army, Special Guerrilla Unit (SGU)

The Paris Peace Accords meant that the Pathet Lao and the Royal government were going to participate in a power sharing regime. Sar Phouthasack says there was just one problem, the communists did not disarm and kept on fighting.
Carl King - Marines +12 Total Videos

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

After becoming a Marine in 1957, Carl King spent some time in the infantry and as an MP before becoming a Drill Instructor. He recalls one recruit who wasn’t like the other Marines. (Caution: May contain strong language)
Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Howie Bachman arrived well prepared and experienced but his second tour of Vietnam was not starting off well. He was locked into an insulting job and reluctantly put his head down and worked. In the course of his mundane duties, he met Mustang, the commander of the 3-5 Cavalry. Sir, I'm a prisoner at a staff job. I will take any position in your fine unit.
Larry Washington - Army +10 Total Videos

D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment

The warrant officers had their own officers club. They had to, after a brouhaha at the main base. Huey pilot Larry Washington recalls the rowdy volleyball games and the hooch ladies who could never get his laundry right.
Roland Guidry - Air Force +18 Total Videos

350th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron

After four years spent mostly in the Arctic, C-130 pilot Roland Guidry's next assignment was to a SAC unit that was developing reconnaissance drones. The Soviets had beefed up the air defenses in Vietnam and it had become too dangerous for manned flights over the North.
Ed Fulghum - Army +14 Total Videos

25th Infantry Division

After relating a gruesome story about some fellow GI's playing possum, Ed Fulghum has his own combat story about a stop fire order that seemed ridiculous to him. He even got a general to agree with him, not that it did any good. Then there was the time he cleared out a bamboo stand full of unauthorized personnel, including his commander.
David Samuels - Army +12 Total Videos

135th Assault Helicopter Company, 145th Combat Aviation Battalion

Gunship pilot David Samuels was on a gun run when unanticipated fire from off to the side knocked out his engine. He got the Huey down without crashing and he and the crew took the radios and guns and hustled to cover. That began a long wait for rescue.
Paul Curs - Air Force +15 Total Videos

20th Tactical Air Support Squadron

Both his parents encouraged him to serve, so Paul Curs chose VMI for higher learning and a route into flight school. Like everyone, he wanted to fly fighters but chose to fly as a forward air controller in Vietnam as a stepping stone to the fast jets.
David Samuels - Army +12 Total Videos

135th Assault Helicopter Company, 145th Combat Aviation Battalion

It was an experimental unit, combining US Army pilots and Australian Navy pilots in an assault helicopter company. Huey pilot David Samuels remembers the Aussies as good pilots and big drinkers who had their beer delivered monthly on pallets. There was also marijuana around and he was astounded at who might be indulging.
LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Vietnam was full of important lessons for John Le Moyne, who tried to pass the knowledge on throughout his career. Should we have been there? Maybe not, when you consider who was in charge at the time. At least he missed the ill treatment that many experienced when he returned.
Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Young lieutenant Howie Bachman was at the East German border when he found his name on the list of officers that Robert McNamara was poaching from the unit there to go to Vietnam. He helped build up a cavalry troop from scratch and shipped out with them to Vietnam but, when he got there, his promotion to captain was accelerated and he had to leave that unit, winding up as advisor to an ARVN armored cavalry unit.
Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

1st Special Forces Group

When Special Forces officer Jim Bolan got to Vietnam, he was waiting for a slot so he went to the field to help out there for a couple of days. He stayed for 2 months. When the higher ups found out there was a major out there, they pulled him out and put him in charge of a B-team at Xuan Loc. His Vietnamese counterpart was not helpful.
Louis Gonzalez - Air Force +5 Total Videos

8th Special Operations Squadron

While in Tan Son Nhut, Gonzalez had a myriad of memorable experiences which he talks about, as well as volunteering to go to Bien Hoa. While there, he had his first close call in the form of an enemy rocket attack. He was so close to the blast radius that he kept a shrapnel souvenir to always remind him of how close he came to losing his life.
Paul Curs - Air Force +15 Total Videos

20th Tactical Air Support Squadron

The Viet Cong would fire some small rockets into the air base every now and then, just for harassment. Paul Curs recalls the startling scene of airmen watching the barrage in a very nonchalant manner. Once he found a dud sticking up out of the ground.
Bill Gessner - Navy +9 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 9th Marines (Attached)

One of the first things you learned at Khe Sanh was when it was safe to go to the bathroom. Bill Gessner remembers that and other lessons like learning the difference between incoming and outgoing artillery. There were bad things, like the occasional shortages of food and water, and good things, like B-52 strikes on the enemy.
Howie Bachman - Army +19 Total Videos

Multiple Units

It was decided that all West Point graduates would go to Ranger school. Howie Bachman was in that first class of non-volunteer candidates. When he led the last patrol exercise, he out foxed the opposing force and they weren't very happy about it. He got married and shipped out to Germany.
Tony Nadal - Army +16 Total Videos

1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

Before his second deployment to Vietnam, Tony Nadal did quite a bit of reading on the French experience in Indochina. Shortly after his arrival, he and battalion commander Hal Moore went off to find a monument left by them.
LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

The VC were scarce. After the Tet Offensive severely reduced their numbers, the battle for John Le Moyne was with the NVA. He had access to a range of supporting fire, and when he called in air power, he preferred the A-1E Skyraider, a powerful prop plane that was more suited to close support than jet aircraft.
Louis Gonzalez - Air Force +5 Total Videos

8th Special Operations Squadron

Gonzalez talks about his specific job constructing, repairing and using aircraft and how he would get them in the best shape possible before the pilots would use them to fly. While over there, he found it increasingly difficult to help his peers cope with ongoing problems with drug use and alcoholism.
Mike McCormick - Army +8 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Mike McCormick remembers Christmas of 1966, celebrated in the first permanent structure completed at the new base camp in Vietnam, the chapel. They were treated to a show with Bob Hope and other celebrities.
Ron Dillard - Army +6 Total Videos

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

Ron Dillard recalls several interesting events from his days as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, including his first formation flight with a cocky young pilot. Once, he was alone in a small aircraft when two Marine Corps jet pilots tried to scare him. Another hairy experience was landing in triple canopy jungle.
Vic Grahn - Air Force +7 Total Videos

604th Special Operations Squadron

A-37 pilot Vic Grahn was having a good time, unlike so many others in Vietnam. He had good friends, flew a good aircraft and had a good bar at the air base to relax in. If only he didn't have to smell that damn fish sauce.