COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Harold Sterrett - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Air Force photo interpreter and briefing officer Rollie Sterrett was fortunate to not experience any of the disrespect that many returning veterans had to face. He attributes this to going straight to an intense military environment right away, Strategic Air Command headquarters.

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  Quincy Collins - Air Force +18 Total Videos

  80th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  After the North Vietnamese found out about the secret message hidden in the choir's performance, Quincy Collins was not killed because of it, but he was sent away on an isolated tour afterwards. After five whole years, he got his first letter from back home. It was his mother explaining that his dad had died. Turns out his loved ones had thought he was dead for years.

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  Henry Newinn - Army +5 Total Videos

  MACV-SOG

  Even after all that happened at the ambush site with the Viet Cong, Newinn and his special forces were instructed to return there once again to finish what they started. Upon arriving in the area once again, he came across a dead VC man, and it was his job to search the body for any kind of identification and clues.

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  Walt Richardson - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  During his Air Force career, Walt Richardson made it his duty to help other black airmen get through the prejudice they encountered. He remembers one particular young man who got into some trouble in Thailand.

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  Edward Ayson - Army +4 Total Videos

  54th Medical Detachment

  After getting wounded in his first Vietnam tour, Ayson got out of the hospital and went to flight school. After that he was sent to medevac school to learn how to become part of an aircraft rescue medical team. He explains exactly what a medevac team is and does for those who may not know. From there he had his second tour in Vietnam, helping rescue as many injured infantry men as he could.

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  Roger Lutz - Army +10 Total Videos

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

  Something big was coming up. Roger Lutz got what passed for a little break before his unit moved to support Operation Pegasus, the relief of the Marines at Khe Sanh. Part 1 of 3.

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  Tim Dunn - Marines +16 Total Videos

  Scout Sniper Platoon, 1st Marines

  When he was "volunteered" to become a Marine sniper, Tim Dunn was sent back to battalion to train. They used a variety of older weapons but settled on a Remington with a walnut stock. That weapon was developed into the modern Marine sniper rifle.

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  Harold Sterrett - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  7th Air Force Headquarters

  If an air unit failed to take out the target in a strike over North Vietnam, the same unit was obligated to return and finish the job. Rollie Sterrett was only a Lieutenant as he elbowed his way through pilots, who were colonels, to get to a table full of photographs. He was a photo interpreter and Gen. Wesmoreland's briefing officer. They gave way. (Warning: strong language.)

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  Tony Nadal - Army +16 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  They had fought hard for three days and now what was left of Tony Nadal's company was airlifted out of the Ia Drang valley. Other units, however were just beginning another fierce firefight at LZ Albany, where the men were strung out in a long column. They had been hiking to get clear of an impending B-52 strike, which was not usually the preferred form of air support by the men on the ground. Part 5 of 5.

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  Lee Ellis - Air Force +23 Total Videos

  390th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 366th Tactical Fighter Wing

  Although prisoners were kept on high lockdown and weren't allowed to communicate with any other prisoners outside their own cell, Ellis and his fellow POWs still found ways to do it occasionally. The North Vietnamese wanted to fool the world into thinking they were treating their prisoners kindly, so they created propaganda to hide how they were actually being treated.

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  Debby Moore - Army +5 Total Videos

  Army Special Services

  Debby Moore grew up in Stockton, California. Although her father was the commander of a B-29 in World War II, she originally had no intention of following in his footsteps. She entered college at the age of 17 and eventually found her way into the Special Services for the US Army.

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  Brig Gen Tom Fleming - Air Force +12 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  With one eye on the space race and one eye on Vietnam, Tom Fleming started his military career as the battalion commander of his high school ROTC. He got an appointment to the Air Force Academy, where he earned a private pilots license in between the hazing.

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  Bob Hayes - Marines +8 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment

  His first assignment in Vietnam was guarding the perimeter of the airport in Da Nang, but Bob Hayes did not get along with his staff sergeant. This led to a threat, which led to a hearing in which he was given a choice, the brig or reassignment to the most dangerous Marine outfit in the country.

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  LTG (Ret) Quinn Becker - Army +9 Total Videos

  85th Evacuation Hospital

  It was just like the show MASH, says Army doctor Quinn Becker. He served as a surgeon at an evacuation hospital in Vietnam where it was not unusual to operate for eighteen hours straight. There was also a tremendous physical and mental strain on the young nurses, who had volunteered to come help take care of the troops.

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  Sar Phouthasack +12 Total Videos

  Royal Lao Army, Special Guerrilla Unit (SGU)

  He was a commando in a secret CIA directed special forces unit, but he was also a man who met a woman and he wanted to get married. Sar Phouthasack got his time off for nuptials but it was cut short when an order came down to move the unit from Thailand back into Laos.

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  Mike McCormick - Army +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Fortunately, Mike McCormick did not encounter any of the dangerous wildlife in Vietnam. Death found you easily enough at the end of a Viet Cong rifle. The enemy, though, had to deal with the massive power of a B-52 strike.

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  Phil Mayrand - Army +9 Total Videos

  F Co., 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger), 25th Infantry Division

  Despite his wound, he was able to get back to Cu Chi, but sadly not everyone would make it. By the time the doctors and nurses could get to him, they realized how close to death he really was, running purely on adrenaline and the need to get everyone back safely. Phil Mayrand tells of his admiration of the men he trained with, served with, and fought beside in Vietnam. Part 3 of 3 (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, The Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas.- https://theveteransmuseum.org/)

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  3rd Marine Division

  When Ray Davis was in command of the 3rd Marine Division in Vietnam, his son, Miles, arrived to command a rifle platoon. The general even walked patrol with him a few times. Years later, he would hear some gentle ribbing because he was usually flying overhead in his command chopper while Miles was slogging his way through the jungle.

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  Stephen Saunders - Army +6 Total Videos

  C Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  When he got to Vietnam, Saunders landed in Tan Son Nhut in Saigon. He was placed in a replacement depot for a few days until the Army had somewhere to put him. He talks about the men he flew over with, and what kind of jobs awaited him when he arrived in country.

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  David Kirk - Army +3 Total Videos

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

  Kirk didn't have a lot of wildlife experience, but he remembers one time with a cobra encounter. When he returned back to the United States, he went to work for a friend of his in their beauty shop right in his hometown. He gives his reflections and final thoughts about the Vietnam War, and how he wants people to remember it.

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  Bill Knowlton - Army +11 Total Videos

  5th Special Forces Group

  Bill Knowlton recalls leading a very successful ambush on a supply line moving through Cambodia. (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, The Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas.- https://theveteransmuseum.org/)

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  David Farthing - Navy +7 Total Videos

  135th Assault Helicopter Co. (EMU)

  He was a mariner and a pilot but David Farthing felt that he needed a more academic skill, so he went to law school while still serving as an Australian Navy officer. That allowed him to have a very nice second career when he left the service.

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  Roger Cox - Army +12 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division

  When the pilots were gathered at the bar, they could not help but laugh at something that happened that day. A platoon leader on the ground was under attack and could not get out any words except expletives.

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  Bill Knowlton - Army +11 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Special Operations Command

  On his second tour in Vietnam, Bill Knowlton was sent to the 3rd Battalion, where he was tasked with cleaning out ambush sites. He was promoted to Company Commander where he visited his platoons and taught them how to fight. (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, The Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas.- https://theveteransmuseum.org/)

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  Rick Goddard - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  31st Tactical Fighter Wing, 309th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  Flying over the Ho Chi Minh Trail was a very dangerous. There was a large number of heavy guns on the ground that could fill the sky with tracers and could bring down jets going over 400 knots. Rick tells the stories of some of the men that were lost bombing the Trail, and those lost to accidents.

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  David Samuels - Army +12 Total Videos

  135th Assault Helicopter Company, 145th Combat Aviation Battalion

  The 135th AHC flew a lot of missions in support of many different units in the Mekong Delta, both US and South Vietnamese. Pilot David Samuels recalls that there were Korean Marines and one British mercenary, as well. It was dangerous work since their helicopters were constructed entirely of lightweight materials and were susceptible to damage from even small arms fire.

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  Sar Phouthasack +12 Total Videos

  Royal Lao Army, Special Guerrilla Unit (SGU)

  Sar Phouthasack is still working, volunteering on behalf of the Laotian war veterans who are living in the United States. He has warm words for his new country.

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  Dan McMahon - Army +7 Total Videos

  180th Assault Support Helicopter Company

  It was miserable at Fort Wolters with the heat and the mosquitos, but Dan McMahon was learning to fly and that made it bearable. When he moved to the next phase at Hunter Field, the training got more serious and he realized he had to be a soldier, not just an aviator.

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  Kevin Hathaway - Army +11 Total Videos

  173rd Assault Helicopter Company

  When he came home from Vietnam in his uniform, Kevin Hathaway's attitude was that he didn't care what you said to him, but you better not get in his space. There was no work to be found, at first, but he finally landed a job at Pratt and Whitney refurbishing jet engines. (Caution: coarse language.)

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  Lee Ellis - Air Force +23 Total Videos

  390th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 366th Tactical Fighter Wing

  Ellis shares more miscellaneous stories of his days as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He covers what he and the other prisoners did from day to day, as well as the first laugh they all shared together. Since everyone was on edge all the time, it had been three whole months in captivity before they felt comfortable enough to laugh with each other.