COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Henry Newinn - Army +5 Total Videos

  MACV-SOG

  After his time on reconnaissance patrol Newinn joined the Vietnam Special Forces, helping to uncover secrets and information about the enemy. At one point during his service, the Viet Cong were seen trying to ambush a US helicopter. Fortunately, the operation failed and Newinn and the other men lived to see another day.

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  Roger Cox - Army +12 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division

  The air cavalry attached to the armored cavalry had the job of supporting the ground unit. When Roger Cox got to Vietnam, he became a Cobra gunship pilot. Each Cobra was paired with a smaller scout helicopter in a hunter-killer team. After a couple of months, he switched to scout pilot, which had some advantages that appealed to him.

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  Alex Ortolano - Army +7 Total Videos

  57 Medical Detachment

  Lt. Ortolano continues talking about his experience flying Dust Off missions, some of which were rather unpleasant due to dealing with dying soldiers and dead bodies. When operating missions like these, it was very important that Dust Off members conducted these medical evacuations with the proper procedures and methods.

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  Doug Moore - Army +4 Total Videos

  57 Medical Detachment

  After a month of painful travel, Doug Moore and his medevac team finally made it over to Vietnam. There he had a lot of interactions with the Vietnamese officers and people, and quickly caught on to the behavior of the North Vietnamese Army. The north invaded a lot of small towns and convoys and stole all their resources. It was Moore's job to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield by flying them away by helicopter.

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  Henry Templin - Army +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division

  He felt like a million bucks in his new uniform, headed home from Vietnam. That changed quickly when he got to Los Angeles. He couldn't believe what was happening, though it changed when he got home to Louisiana. There, his service was appreciated.

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  John Parker - Army +9 Total Videos

  H Troop, 17th Cavalry Division

  After a while of fighting back the NVA, the end of the Battle of An Loc was upon Parker and his men. It was at this point that a lot of US troops had started to come home, and he was instructed to go to Da Nang to help support the effort over there. By the time the 1st Cavalry Division was instructed to return home, Parker didn't have enough points yet so he joined up with the 17th Cavalry Division instead.

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  Roger Cox - Army +12 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division

  Visual reconnaissance was one type of mission that scout helicopter pilot Roger Cox flew in Vietnam. When you found some enemy on the ground, you struck first and hard. His other job was to support the infantry platoon of his cavalry unit. When they got into trouble, he went to bail them out.

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  Jack Swallows - Marines +14 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment

  Jack Swallows remembers two things from his Vietnam tour that he probably shouldn't have done. One involved birthday cake and one involved an unexploded artillery round.

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  LTG (Ret) Freddy McFarren - Army +10 Total Videos

  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)

  They got careless. American advisor Freddy McFarren and his Vietnamese unit were about to be airlifted out of the bush when the attack came. He was the tall guy so, naturally, he drew fire.

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  Mike Kenney - Army +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  At the end of a long career that began in Vietnam and drew to a close with General Norman Schwarzkopf, Mike Kenney followed his wife to a teaching job at their alma mater, Western Kentucky University. It wasn't long before he had one of those, too.

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  Mike Paque - Army +13 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  Newly minted Lieutenant Mike Paque was at Fort Polk, moving large numbers of draftees through training and on to Vietnam. It was not a satisfying job, so he volunteered to go ahead and go himself. He knew he would be going, anyway, so he might as well get out of that place.

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  Ray Fairman - Marines +10 Total Videos

  Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314)

  Before he was off to Vietnam, Ray Fairman had plenty of tests and obstacles to overcome. He went through many different schools and camps before finally making it into aviation.

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  Thomas Gipson - Army +10 Total Videos

  4th Aviation Battalion, 4th Infantry Division

  Thomas Gipson was lucky enough to be able to go to Hawaii on R&R to meet his wife, getting away from Vietnam for a break. That was great, but there was a downside.

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  Mike Paque - Army +13 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  Why were there US tanks in Vietnam? Mike Paque answers that question and tells what happened when a new commander thought he had a better idea about how to use them. It was a civil war there and a difficult situation for an outside force to intervene on one side.

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  Jim Littig - Army +14 Total Videos

  505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division

  Airborne units were always light in the vehicle department while on the ground, so as Jim Littig's men made their way toward their eventual destination in Vietnam, they "found" a jeep and their multi-talented medic made it legit with some white paint.

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  Alex Ortolano - Army +7 Total Videos

  57 Medical Detachment

  Alex Ortolano talks about his interesting early life growing up in New Orleans as the son of a grocer. Despite his parents both being against the idea of flying in an aircraft, he decided that upon his enlistment into the Army that he was going to apply for flight school.

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  Greg Lowe - Army +9 Total Videos

  615th MP Company, 95th MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade

  Mail call was a big deal and Greg Lowe cherished news from home and the occasional box of goodies, as well. He would give the candy to the local Vietnamese kids.

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  Ray Fairman - Marines +10 Total Videos

  VMFA314

  Ray Fairman had a fairly challenging first chapter in his life, having to move around countless times during his youth. However, one thing remained consistent: he knew he was destined for the Marine Corps.

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  George Ferkes - Air Force +12 Total Videos

  20th Tactical Air Support Squadron

  The base was at Quang Tri, up near the DMZ. George Ferkes was a new forward air controller, or FAC, whose job was to support the South Vietnamese forces in the area and their American advisors.

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  Thien Van Huynh - Army +5 Total Videos

  1st Cavalry Division, 9th Cavalry Regiment

  After passing language school, Thien Van Huynh was assigned as an interpreter in South Vietnam. While he was never part of a combat troop, his job was no less dangerous.

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  Carl King - Marines +12 Total Videos

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

  Carl had sustained an injury during a time many others were also being sent to Okinawa to recover. He recalls some of his experience in the hospitals, including one man who lost his life during treatment. (Caution: May contain strong language)

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  Mike Leonard - Air Force +14 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Mike Leonard was an Air Force pilot but he also had a growing family to support. When he met a forward air controller and heard all about flying the O-1 Bird dog in Vietnam, he signed up for that just to get the raise in pay. He got through FAC school just fine but he ran into a little trouble in survival school.

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  Zach Johnson - Marines +10 Total Videos

  1st Force Reconnaissance Company

  1st Force Recon was an elite and prestigious organization and Zach Johnson was proud to have been a part of it for his Vietnam tour. It was years later before it dawned on him just how dangerous it had been. But he knew that, considering all the training and procedures that special operations teams were involved in, it wasn't near the top of what he calls the Hierarchy of Crazy.

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  Bob Hayes - Marines +8 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment

  When the thing popped out of the ground, Bob Hayes didn't know what it was. It was a Bouncing Betty mine and he was lucky it failed to detonate. The mines in his area were plentiful and deadly, and when one killed a Marine near a village, one of the men took out his frustrations on a civilian.

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  Ron Dillard - Army +6 Total Videos

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

  Ron Dillard describes some of the details of life in the air mobile cavalry in Vietnam. He was isolated from the civilian population and during his only visit to Saigon, he raised some eyebrows at the officers club. Correspondece with his wife provided some distraction, as did building a basketball court.

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  LTG (Ret) Robert T. Clark - Army +15 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry (Airmobile), 1st Cavalry Division

  When Bob Clark finally got to talk to his wife from Vietnam, it was to tell her he was coming home. The tour was over. He was treated royally in an airport bar when he landed and lovingly when he got home to his wife. He had none of the negative treatment many vets were receiving, not until years later in a McDonald's.

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  Quincy Collins - Air Force +18 Total Videos

  80th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  On Christmas Eve of 1965, Collins and all of the other POWs in his area, were moved around to their respective cells of one or two people each. He remembers trying to communicate with men in other cells, which proved to be harder than it sounds. Eventually, they were regrouped again in Hanoi, Vietnam into groups of five men per cell.

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  Jim Smith - Army +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  He had no idea what to take with him. Helicopter pilot Jim Smith was headed to Vietnam and had received no information about what he needed, so he stuffed some clothes and boots into an ill-fated footlocker and took the long flight over the Pacific. He was first sent to the 101st Airborne up north, where he marveled at the ferocity of the Korean troops based nearby.

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  Dan McMahon - Army +7 Total Videos

  180th Assault Support Helicopter Company

  For Chinook pilot Dan McMahon, Vietnamization meant that he had to fly with co-pilots that he could not understand, which meant that all crew coordination was gone. This contributed to the chaos during a crash landing in which he managed to get the aircraft safely down.

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  Ron Schuh - Air Force +12 Total Videos

  13th Tactical Fighter Squadron

  When new F-4 Phantom pilot Ron Schuh got to his base in Thailand, he quickly found out that he knew nothing. On an early mission, he asked his crew mate what were those white puffy things? They're shooting at us! That was the first time he saw ground fire. He became part of a new program which used F-4's as a Forward Air Controller platform. It was too dangerous over North Vietnam for the small unarmed aircraft.