Interview

A STEP BACK IN TIME....

As America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam sank deeper and
deeper, there were many opposing views on how the nation should
respond. Some people felt that it was not our war and that we
should have nothing to do with a civil war half way around the
globe.

While others thought if we did not get in to stop it, it would only
lead to more trouble in the end. Rich was only nineteen years old
when he enlisted into the United States Army. He knew there
was a war going on and being the young, "patriotic kid" that he
said he was, he felt he needed to do his part. Even though many
others were dodging the new use of the drafting services, Rich felt
it was his duty to join. So on September 26, 1968, Rich enlisted
into the U.S. Army for four years. By this time, America was
heavily involved with the war in Vietnam and there was always
the thought on Rich’s mind that he may have to go to war.

Almost thirty-five years later, Rich was able to sit down and talk
to me of his experiences of the Vietnam War. Ten years ago, this
may not have happened as many veterans have had trouble
resurrecting the unspeakable past, but I have now had the chance
to catch a glimpse of how he felt while he was stationed in
Vietnam.

Rich was born in 1949, right here in Illinois. His family stayed
in town to raise him here as well. He grew up with both his
father and his mother, as well as two sisters.
At only 19, Rich chose to leave his family to help his country.
Enlisting on September 26, 1968, Rich was the first member of his
family to join the service. He says some of his influence to join
came from the accomplishments of World War II.

"The willingness with which our young people
are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to
how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars
were appreciated by their nation"
George Washington

Rich had several military occupational positions while serving the
country. He was an Eleventh Bravo Infantry Soldier, a 64 Charlie
(heavy-duty truck driver), as well as spending 2 years at Fort Ord,
California, as a OOF40 drill instructor and one year in Vietnam.
He had first heard about the war in the early sixties, and knew
how many Americans had opposing views. One of the biggest
concerns of that time was an idea called the "Domino Theory".
Many American officials felt that if the rest of Vietnam fell to
Communism, many of the smaller surrounding areas could also be
taken over, spreading Communism farther and wider than before
like a domino reaction. Since North Vietnam was already
Communist, we were trying to prevent the spread of Communism
from the north to the south.

To train for his eventual mission to Vietnam, Rich attended boot
camp at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky. He then was sent to advanced
infantry training in Ft. Lewis in Washington. When upon
return home for a leave, he told his parents he was to be sent to
Vietnam. Like any other loving and protective parents, they were
worried about their son but knew how strong his efforts would
be. They told him to be careful and that they would see him when he returns. Out of 214 members in his infantry training, 212
soldiers were to be sent to Vietnam, the other two were being sent
to Korea. They had all pretty much expected to be sent to help out
the American efforts already in force in Vietnam.

After 9 weeks of AIT (advanced infantry training), Rich and his
company flew out for their destination on March 3, 1969.
Arriving in Vietnam, Rich was sent along with the Alpha
company 3^rd battalion-60^th infantry-9^th infantry division as part
of the unit Mekong Delta Mobile Riverine Force, to the way south end of the Mekong delta. His division and he worked areas
of Canto, My Tho, and the village of Ben Tre. Their base camp
was located in Dong Tam, South Vietnam. They were sent to a
larger ship the USS Colleton, anchored in the middle of the river
near the village My Tho.

His first real war experience happened just a few days later of his
arrival to the USS Colleton. When I asked if he was scared, he
said it was only when you realized that your life was truly on the
line as live ammunition was being fired at you, did you really
realize how scared you were. This first war experience was also
probably his worst. He explained that he could feel his heart
pounding in his chest as the chopper was flying them to their
destination. Others in the chopper just looked at him like he was
a joke. They descended to the rice paddy with machine gun fire in
every direction and all different colored rockets. He compared this
with the "twilight’s last gleaming" in the Star-Spangled Banner.
Rich could hear the explosions and gunfire around him, as well as
someone yelling for the medic. He then ran over to the medic who
was frantically running from one wounded man to the next, with
brown medical tubing hanging from his mouth and tears streaming
down his face. After awhile, the rest of his company patched up
the wounded the best that they could and he was never to really
know which ones were to live to which had died.

Besides the first awful event Rich had experienced, a common day
of the water mobile and air mobile force consisted of the trip from
the Navy run USS Colleton (where the unit had gotten permission
to live) to shore. It was there where two sets of five helicopters
transported the soldiers by "eagle flights" to the jungle where they
operated searches and sweeps. Some days, Rich said, you could
find nothing for hours, while some other days you may be pinned
to the ground for hours under gunfire. In one occasion, of the
36-man platoon, there were already 20 casualties within the first
hour. They ate meal combat individuals, also known as C rations,
yummy vacuum-packed pouches and cans including a main meal of
possible beans and franks, along with crackers, and a pecan cake
roll. Four cigarettes in package accompanied the meal.

Rich explained what types of weapons the American troops used
over there. Rich himself used weapons such as the M16 rifle,
M60 machine gun, M79 grenade launcher, and the M72 laws
rocket, a light anti-tank weapon able to pierce armor (also seen in the second Dirty Harry movie ). He explained to me that the U.S.
had special attack techniques. These Special Operations included
night ambushes, using the tactic of blocking forces, and the use
of the jungle defoliant chemical Agent Orange. All of these
techniques went up against the techniques of the Vietnamese. He
told me of the NVA regulars (the North Vietnamese regular army,
with uniforms and all), as well as the Viet Cong (who could be
men that were farmers by day yet soldiers by night, very hard to
identify). Zappers were also men, whom within a matter of
possibly six or so hours, moved so extremely slowly and quietly
just to advance about a half a blocks distance to a position
without being noticed. America, facing these forces, also had the
help of the Korean R.O.K.s, soldiers from Korea, and the South
Vietnamese army.

As expected with so much fighting, Rich said there wasn’t really
much free time. But for every three days spent in the wet fields,
they were pulled out for a day to recuperate. They were located in
an area with many rice paddies causing many dangers, but if any
free time was found, it was mainly spent hanging out with the
other soldiers, reading books or magazines, or writing home to
family members saying how much they were all missed. Being
14,000 miles away from home, Rich said he had never felt so
homesick as he did at times in Vietnam. Letters were the only
way he could keep connected with his family.

Even though there was so much going on with the fighting in
South Vietnam, the soldiers were still able to keep up with events
happening in America. Although our troops in Afghanistan have
had the chance to watch this years Super Bowl and attend
overseas concerts and such, the soldiers of Nam were only able to
hear of, yet not participate in, what was happening at home. The
year Rich was in Vietnam was also the same year Jim Morrison
died, Woodstock was held, and Neil Armstrong was the first man
to set foot on the moon. Rich even went on to say that they did
get along very well with some of the Vietnamese, whom he feels
are good people who just got caught up in a bad war. He realizes
that 58,000 American lives were lost in the Vietnam War, but it
cannot be compared to the 3 million Vietnamese lost in their own
country.

When I asked Rich if he had made any friendships overseas, he
said yes but unfortunately you didn’t get the chance to make very
many because no one was ever really around very long. With as
many people as Rich had fought with, he said he could only
remember around 15 names of people he knew. Although in the
over 30 years he has been home, he has since three times contacted
two men with whom he fought. Unfortunately yet very
obviously, many friends were lost due to tragedy at war.

There was not just one specific day that Rich ever felt really
afraid for his life, yet it was every day that he was afraid. His
main influence to keep going was just simply to get home and be
back with his family. The thing he had missed the most while
overseas was being able to spend holidays with family, and the
freedom to do what you wanted, even if it were just to drive
down the street to the gas station for a snack. He could not wait
to return to the conveniences of home, such as hot water and
electricity, or the taste of real food like hamburgers and the sight
of round-eyed girls. Electric shavers and hot showers seemed like
such a luxury!

Exactly one year of the day he left for Vietnam, he returned home
on March 3, 1970. This was known as "Tour 365" because you
returned home on the same day as you had left one year, or 365
days earlier. Rich returned to his family, along with some war
protestors at the airport, safely. When he heard that the war was
over, to him it was kind of like, "Hey, it’s over!" although it was
a good feeling.

DROS: March 3, 1970 When the world became better

He did manage to bring home with him an authentic Vietnamese
rifle he picked up after chasing the Viet Cong who had dropped it.
Unlike the security of today’s airports have been forced to come
to, Rich was able to bring this Mossin Nagant rifle home with
him since it was not an automatic loading weapon. He keeps it in
a locked case but still has it in pretty good condition. He offered
it to me for use to bring to school for show and tell but I told him
would be jumped before I even reached the steps of the school!

Even after his return home over thirty years ago, Rich still is
affected by the war today. He was never injured during the war
itself, like being shot or such, but has been seriously injured in
other ways. In 1988, Rich was one of the first cases ever to be
diagnosed with the cancer from the handling of and exposure to
the warfare chemical Agent Orange. This was recognized to be
service connected in May of 1991. His soft tissue sarcoma cancer
caused him surgery to remove two tumors the size of softballs,
encapsulated in a sac containing five and a half liters of fluid,
from his lower intestine. As with many other veterans of the
Vietnam War, Rich has been one hundred percent service connected
with Severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He was diagnosed
with this in 1978. He has had many flashbacks, diagnosing him
with chronic flashback phenomena, fairly common to veterans of
this war. Although some soldiers returned physically wounded,
he returned mentally wounded. He dealt with many problems in
1993 and still visits the Veterans hospital on a regular basis to
help him deal with what he had faced and experienced during the
war. Rich told me that 58,000 American soldiers were killed over
in Vietnam, and because of the effects of the war, that many and
more Vietnam veterans have committed suicide…a reaction called
delayed stress since many veterans did not receive medical
treatment until an on-average 8 to 10 years later.

Overall about the war itself, Rich feels that it was necessary that
we helped in the actions to help prevent the spread of
Communism. He felt for himself that it was necessary to do his
part and help defend his country. He told me it is not something
you would ever want to have to do again, but you would if you
had to help out in a situation like it was, you didn’t want to miss
the experience of feeling you had really helped someone in some
way. He felt America’s actions saved the lives of many more
people he thought would have been killed if we had not gotten
involved. He does not regret what he had to do as his duty to his
country and he feels the efforts of all the veterans was worth it.
He has since been invited on a trip to return yet refused, avoiding
anything that happened unfortunately before. Losses like that are
not something you would like to experience again, for anything.

Even today, Rich has stayed positively involved in the war
efforts. Because of his exposure to Agent Orange, Rich is on
disability to work, but has yet been sent by the government to
return to school, where he has since received a degree in Computer
Sciences. He speaks on occasion to classes at the High School on
America’s involvement, as well as his own involvement in the
war.

When I sat down to interview Rich, I didn’t realize how much
I was really in for. I have learned an unbelievable amount of
information on this war, and of all the efforts Americans put into
the safety of our own country. With the issue of the Vietnam
War being so controversial to some, I feel that the actions and
lives of the men lost are to be honored with all respect. To look at
Rich now, standing 6’8" and weighing about 270 lbs, I cant
believe that this tough looking, Harley riding, yet caring man was
once a young and inexperienced nineteen year old having to face
all this. That is just a matter of months older than myself, and to
think of putting some of my cousins or closest male friends
through what Rich had to deal with is unreal! After this
interview, I respect Rich in all aspects of what he has done, not
only for himself or his "duty" to the country, but for what he has
done for me as an American. And the same goes to all other
veterans, of any war, who have given their lives for their nation.
I thank Rich for all I have learned.

From Rich's files:

This Story was written by Shannon, an 18 year old High School
senior, who is my next door neighbor. It was an assignment given
to her by her history teacher, to interview a Vietnam Veteran.
Thought I would add it to my site. Hope you enjoy reading it.
I'm glad that our young people are getting the opportunity to
learn more about the sacrifices that all veterans endured to
maintain freedom.

She did this interview the summer of 2002

Rich