Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

A Kim | 5th Marine Regiment

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

Tony Nadal - Army +16 Total Videos

Multiple Units

After his second Vietnam tour, Tony Nadal was sent to graduate school. This led to an interesting exchange with some anti-war students. He would go on to teach at West Point, where he tried to implement lessons he had learned about combat leadership, lessons that the Army had overlooked.
Andrew Robbins - Army +8 Total Videos

3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

Coming from rural Michigan, Andrew Robbins absorbed John Wayne movies and, when the time came, he opted for Army over Marines because he could go airborne in the Army. He still feels those landings in his back.
LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

Multiple Units

It was about the closest he came to a bad end in Vietnam. John Le Moyne had to low crawl up to a dug in machine gun position for the better part of an afternoon. Fortunately, there was a flaw in their building design.
Bill Greinke - Army +18 Total Videos

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

What should be remembered about the Vietnam War? Bill Greinke has a definite opinion on that. What was it that turned turned that war from a sure victory into a political fiasco and an embarrassment for the Army?
Edwina Morrison - Army +3 Total Videos

30th Engineer Battalion

Edwina Morrison describes the tough time faced by women soldiers during the early days of men and women serving together. The treatment ranged from degrading to dismissive, but she persevered and did her job.
Jim Smith - Army +9 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Only one helicopter pilot was killed in Jim Smith's unit, but it wasn't for lack of trying that there weren't more. He describes the incredible amalgamation of ballistic seats, flak jackets and armor that he and his fellow Huey pilots utilized during hot operations.
Larry Washington - Army +10 Total Videos

D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment

He had read about the Kent State protests but the news from back home didn't distract Huey pilot Larry Washington from the job at hand. It wasn't about politics, you fought for the others on the crew. He reflects on the fate of a friend on a different crew, whose passing had an effect on him years later.
Ron Schuh - Air Force +12 Total Videos

13th Tactical Fighter Squadron

The officers club at Udorn was a lively place and even led to the writing of a book, remembers F-4 pilot Ron Schuh. His first stop back home after his first tour was Chicago in the dead of winter, quite a change from the tropics. The hot climate made the pilots dislike a new flame retardant flight suit, until it kept someone from getting seriously injured.
John Page - Army +10 Total Videos

5th Special Forces Group

The Montagnards were valuable allies and for Special Forces team members like John Page, that meant you had to sit and eat their traditional food with them. This could get a little dicey. And you had to help them with their personal dramas. At one point, a group was put through jump training which had to be eye-opening for them.
Jack Swickard - Army +12 Total Videos

118th Assault Helicopter Company

The group of new pilots was split up for the flight to Vietnam and Jack Swickard was on the first plane out. He was a little miffed that he was on the way while the other guys were partying in San Francisco. When he reached Honolulu, an engine failure gave him his revenge.
Joe Richardson - Air Force +9 Total Videos

497th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing

Just as he was finishing flight school, Joe Richardson contracted Valley Fever, a respiratory illness connected to fungus in the soil in that part of Texas. It set him back because it took a while for the doctors to figure out what he had. He recovered and continued in his training as a fighter pilot. Finally, he was headed to Southeast Asia.
Leo Hill - Army +8 Total Videos

4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade

They were going to help out a unit that was hit bad. Leo Hill was the point man and as he crawled up Hill 875, his biggest worry was being shot by the guys he was there to help. He got to the top and did his best to comfort the wounded. The next day, they assaulted the enemy position. It did not go well. Part 1 of 2.
Allyn Johnson - Air Force +8 Total Videos

Multiple Units

After flying multi-engine transports and passenger aircraft for years, pilot Allyn Johnson decided to retire from the Air Force. He put in his papers but the Air Force still needed him in Vietnam. He went from flying the huge planes to the tiny ones as a Forward Air Controller.
Thomas Gipson - Army +10 Total Videos

4th Aviation Battalion, 4th Infantry Division

Every helicopter pilot in Vietnam had to take a check ride every 90 days to make sure his skills were holding steady. When Thomas Gipson was on his check ride, sudden engine failure nearly caused a disaster.
Debby Moore - Army +5 Total Videos

Army Special Services

Moore's experience coming home from Vietnam was pretty ordinary compared with the troops. When she got back, she started noticing early signs of post traumatic stress disorder popping up in her life that were triggered by things such as loud noises. She spent a few years teaching, but eventually went to Korea and worked for the Special Services again.
Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

Not long before he left Vietnam, Mike Carey had an in-country R&R at China Beach that was memorable, at least the part he can remember. He had three Purple Hearts so he got sent to Okinawa and eventually home.
Kevin Hathaway - Army +11 Total Videos

173rd Assault Helicopter Company

Kevin Hathaway would often remember something his drill instructor told him in basic training. Never do anything stupid. He tried to follow that rule but, one night, as a rocket barrage started, he did something stupid.
Jim Littig - Army +14 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Later in his Army career, it was time for a masters degree and Jim Littig chose an unusual major. This led to an assignment which found him in South Africa just as the country was undergoing monumental change.
Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

Mike Carey has some advice for politicians if they dispense with diplomacy and send in the Marines. Let them do their job. His favorite song from his Vietnam days is one that many veterans of that war will mention and he had some leaders there that made an impression on him.
Franklin Monroe - Army +3 Total Videos

702nd Medical Brigade

When he returned from Vietnam, Franklin Monroe was haunted by the memory of all the refugees crowded outside the compound walls. They all wanted to leave for America with him, but there was only so much he could do.
Mike Kenney - Army +8 Total Videos

11th Armored Cavalry Regiment

It was a long trip across the Pacific with typhoons pushing the ship around. Mike Kenney finally arrived in Vietnam and his very first night there, sappers attacked another ship in the harbor. Once ashore, the unit was trucked to Bien Hoa, where a huge base camp had been prepared for the 11th Cavalry.
Tom Agnew - Army +4 Total Videos

571st Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance)

After a huge typhoon devastated Chu Lai, Tom Agnew was sent to a different Dustoff unit at Da Nang. The job was the same, medical evacuation. This late in the war, it was more often ARVN troops.
Louis Gonzalez - Air Force +5 Total Videos

8th Special Operations Squadron

Gonzalez got his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and his aircraft mechanic training was at Sheppard Air Force Base. It was around this time he married his high school sweetheart, and was at the time stationed in Tucson, Arizona. When he flew to Vietnam, he was stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. While in Vietnam, he remembers that there was always a lingering problem with drug use. He tells about the first times he saw other kids smoking cigarettes laced with heroin.
Marshall Eubanks - Army +14 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Marshall Eubanks was determined to go to Vietnam. He felt personally called to duty after going to college during the turbulent sixties. Also, his father, who was a career military man, had died there. He went to flight school in his senior year of ROTC and, after graduation, became a helicopter pilot.
Bill Greinke - Army +18 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Most of the men in his Ranger class knew they were going to Vietnam, so they were paying close attention to the tasks they were made to perform. Bill Greinke remembers a lighter story from the training that involved a candidate who did not want to kill a chicken when it became necessary. He also remembers having to get over his fear of heights.
Debby Moore - Army +5 Total Videos

Army Special Services

While in Vietnam, Debby Moore worked with plenty of orphans, some of whom she got fairly attached to. She remembers one tragic moment when she encountered a young girl who had her hands cut off. She was told that the Viet Cong did that to her after her family said they had no rice to give them.
Donald Singleton - Army +12 Total Videos

Multiple Units

Within a month of getting out of the Army, Donald Singleton went to work on the railroad. He became a locomotive engineer, but he had to deal with the usual racism of the time.
Don Zimmer - Army +10 Total Videos

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

After his basic and and advanced infantry training, Don Zimmer signed up for Airborne training. He injured his knee, so he volunteered as a driver at Fort Benning. He drove quite a few injured soldiers to the hospital, so he started having second thoughts about this endeavor.
Jim Teixeira - Marines +9 Total Videos

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

OCS was less mentally challenging than basic training but more physically challenging, at least to Jim Teixeira. The newly minted Marine officer went to Vietnam where he got his dream job, rifle platoon leader. He didn't really know what that entailed but he had some first rate help from his squad leaders.
Brig Gen Tom Fleming - Air Force +12 Total Videos

23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron

Operation Lam Son 719 was a joint operation involving South Vietnamese troops and American air power. The goal was to advance into Laos, where US troops were forbidden to operate, and execute a pre-emptive strike on the enemy who were planning an offensive. It did not go well, as recalled by forward air controller Tom Fleming.