COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  When the VC were about to overrun the hill, the order was given for a howitzer to fire on the Marines own position. This broke Charlie's back and they fled back up the ridge where gunships chased them and made it rain brass. Chuck Traviolia was a friend of some of those killed that night and he made it a point to meet their families after he went home. Part 2 of 2.

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  Tom Morrissey - Army +11 Total Videos

  117th Assault Helicopter Company

  The helicopter outfit was a Special Missions Unit which meant they did anything that Army command needed. Huey pilot Tom Morrissey would often join large combat assaults which impressed him with their intricate staging. If only they had built the aircraft with a cigarette lighter.

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  Don Bowman - Army +10 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After a stint in Germany, Don Bowman returned to Fort Benning where he ran the Pathfinder committee. He wound up back at West Point as the very first Protocol Officer, in charge of the constant flow of visitors.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  As a new guy in Vietnam, Mack Riggs had to sit in the front seat where he was a better target. After he'd been in country for a while, he began to wonder why they would take a place and then leave. Then they would return and take the same place and leave again. This was not like past wars.

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  Robin Bartlett - Army +11 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  At the end of each phase of Ranger School, the soldier must face a confidence test. The first two involve high ropes up in trees and over water. The last one is the toughest, the night swamp navigation test. Robin Bartlett knew just what to do when he got in the swamp.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  The Marines rode around a lot in helicopters and it was always unnerving to Manuel Vigil when the door gunner would start shooting with no warning. For a while, he was based right on the China Sea, combined with a South Vietnamese unit in a camp they constructed themselves.

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  Robin Bartlett - Army +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Robin Bartlett was only a 2nd Lieutenant but he got the job as S1 when he joined his battalion at the 82nd. One day he saw his name on orders for Vietnam. They were sending him to the 101st there and he was very apprehensive because it was just after the mayhem of the Tet offensive. When he got there, the plans had changed.

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  Chuck Traviolia went to visit some wounded buddies in Da Nang. He was in the back of a truck on his way back to his unit when the truck hit a land mine. He remembers opening his eyes and he was at tree top level.

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  Walter Beardslee - Army +9 Total Videos

  5th Special Forces Group

  It was in basic training that Walter Beardslee decided he would try for Officer Candidate School. After his next training stop at Fort Sill, he was accepted. OCS at Fort Benning was grueling but he earned his commission and was lucky enough to get what he preferred, Airborne and Special Forces.

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  David Ray - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  For their booby traps, the VC preferred to use American hand grenades. They would shorten the fuse as much as possible for a quick reaction when the trip line was hit. They would also use artillery rounds but, by 1970, punji pits were no longer used. (Caution: strong language)

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  As Manning Stahl arrived at Quy Nhon, he was treated to the awesome sight of an F-4 buzzing the ship. He was in for some culture shock in Vietnam, like what the women would do for some K-rations and what would pass for a bathroom.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs came from a family filled with service members so it was not surprising when he signed up. His parents came to see him at an open house during his basic training and this is when he learned that his cousin had been killed in Vietnam in a very famous battle.

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  Robin Bartlett - Army +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

  There was a new guy, or FNG, in Robin Bartlett's platoon and, like all new guys, his first job was to burn the waste from the latrine barrels with diesel fuel. He followed his instructions to the letter except for a crucial mistake at the end.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs was there to do a job in Vietnam, and he opines on why they were there and what it was like to be in the middle of that war.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Just before he left Vietnam, John Cahill had a memorable demonstration of what air power can do when a Phantom came in low and leveled a hilltop. They rushed him out of the country when it was his time. He didn't even have time to say goodbye to his buddies, which really rubbed him the wrong way.

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  Manning Stahl +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  His father had landed at Omaha Beach and he did two things for his son. He taught him to shoot and he told him to stay out of the infantry. Manning Stahl knew the Vietnam draft was coming for him so he enlisted and chose artillery.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Jon Wallenius broke his leg on his last jump at Airborne School. Because of this he waited around on a temporary assignment there at Fort Benning until it healed. He was pleased to go to the 7th Cavalry Regiment, a storied unit with which he was familiar. They were trained and prepped for Cold War Germany but it was Vietnam that was in their future.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  Manning Stahl ran into the same stewardess while flying before he went to Vietnam and after he returned. Her attitude had completely changed. The public had soured on the war and the Lt. Calley situation did not help.

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  Don Bowman - Army +10 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry Division

  Air Mobile was the new thing and Don Bowman was excited to be a part of it when he arrived in Vietnam to join the 1st Cavalry Division. After getting to know his fellow staff officers, he became concerned about the slowness of the Medevac process and set about doing something about it.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  He doesn't want to hear about atrocities. John Wallenius and the others in his unit did their jobs like professionals and were very careful with the Vietnamese civilians they encountered. He pays tribute to a replacement platoon sergeant who caused everyone to be skeptical, at first.

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  Walter Beardslee - Army +9 Total Videos

  5th Special Forces Group

  The captured NVA soldier had on him a new sight for an RPG launcher. It had never been seen before. Perhaps because of that a company of the 1st Air Cav was airlifted to the Special Forces camp which was home to Walter Beardslee and the rest of his team. The extra manpower came in handy when a fire broke out in the ammo bunker.

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  Chuck Traviolia just happened to be on a direct line towards an enemy target when a short mortar round hit. He wasn't badly wounded and walked back to the aid station. Later during this engagement, he saw an example of a gunney outranking an XO.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  It took a long time but, eventually, Vietnam veterans began to get the respect they deserved and they enjoyed the belated welcome home. Manning Stahl pays tribute to a friend from his hometown, Donald Rummel, who was killed by friendly fire and finds common ground with the soldiers dying now in Ukraine.

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  Walter Beardslee - Army +9 Total Videos

  5th Special Forces Group

  Halfway through his tour, Special Forces officer Walter Beardslee was transferred to group headquarters where he was in charge of procuring food supplies and building materials to be distributed to civilians near the Special forces camps in the area. He was there when the Tet Offensive broke out.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  He'd been to jump school but John Cahill wound up in the 7th Cavalry as part of the new focus on air mobile units which moved by helicopter. They gave him an M79 grenade launcher and a .45, neither of which which he'd ever fired in training. That didn't faze him a bit.

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  Walter Beardslee - Army +9 Total Videos

  5th Special Forces Group

  Flying into Cam Ranh bay, rookie Lieutenant Walter Beardslee noticed flares hanging in the night sky. That got his attention. When he got to the 5th Special Forces group HQ in Nha Trang, he ran into a former instructor he knew from Fort Benning who just happened to need a junior officer.

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  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  He wanted to join the Army from as far back as he could remember. As a small child, Jack Tragis experienced some of the drama of the home front in World War II. Both his parents served and, when he was eighteen, it was his turn. First up, a year in the infantry on the Korean DMZ.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  After jump school, John Cahill assumed he'd go to the 82nd or the 101st Airborne. Instead he got orders to go to Vietnam with the 7th Cavalry. It was a real shock when he got there. First, the heat was staggering. Then, the strangeness of another culture baffled him for a while but he learned to like and appreciate the Vietnamese.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  At LZ X-Ray, his mortar platoon never fired a round. Jon Wallenius did fire his rifle, though, when he spotted an enemy soldier poking his head up in the crook of a tree. He fired a quick shot. In a little while, there was a second. He fired again. He emptied a clip toward that tree and it really paid off.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs was lucky. He didn't have to face the anti-war hysteria that so many veterans had to deal with when they returned from Vietnam. He stayed in the service and he lived in a small town so he was insulated from that. But he could not insulate his wife from what happens when you're married to a soldier.