My name is Eric Lee Wooddell.

I served with the United States Army from 1968 until 1971. I went to basic training at Fort Knox and then off to Ft Leonard Wood for Wheeled Vehicle Mechanics school and a Leadership Course for helping to become an officer. I also attended Ft Sill Oklahoma for Heavy Wheel and Track Mechanics school and got my orders for Nam while there.

I joined the Army to get out of that small hometown in West Virginia. My dad, Wlliam Kyle Wooddell served in the Navy at the end of WWII. I never heard him utter a word about his time in the military but know he was badly injured when the ramp/door was let go and fell on him breaking his shoulder. He never spoke a word about it.

I was in Vietnam from April of 1969 to April of 1970. In Vietnam I worked mainly as a driver for tech supply. When I came back to the States, I was stationed at Ft Meade Maryland where I drove for General Samuel Coster who had been the American Division Commander in Vietnam. Being in his position ended up with the pointed finger of blame at him and several others for that horrible deed done by our American Soldiers at the Mi Lai Massacre.. I have always had mixed emotions about the massacre in Nam and with the fear level and things many of our ground troops had to endure was an enormous undertaking even for a fit man or woman. The worst part came down to the loneliness. My wartime experience changed me. The tour of duty taught me to always be slow in actions and attitude. My greatest fear was the unfamiliarity of ARMY LIFE and the attitude towards those who did serve. My reception back home wasn’t what any of us expected because of the flavor of so many attitudes against that WAR. As far as readjusting back to civilian life, there wasn’t any except to continue on in civilian life as one had done before. But I am still being affected by the Vietnam War. Many years ago while moving from Lubbock, Texas, I carried with me only my clothing and things that I needed to continue on in my life. I had over 4,000 pictures of Vietnam, which were lost in the move. What a terrible loss of history and time served in the combat zone.

The pictures shown are of me married and leaving for Nam. Little did either of us know of the future and the pain it would bring. My truck was named Truck 5 Ton. I personally turned up the injection pump and would haul 70 miles per hour, which the MPS outside of Long Binh ticketed me for. It was hard to explain how the rig gained so much power. It smoked like a forest fire on wheels! In the other picture, I am digging up the tail fin of a large Chi Com Mortar round that landed 14 feet from the head of my bunk. I had just stepped behind the blast wall when it came in. It nearly knocked me out.
It’s been forty years now, and my jaws are still clenched. The following is a poem that I wrote.

WHY DID YOU LEAVE US
On highway QL-4 somewhere near BEN LUC
Slic & I were traveling in an ARMY truck
To Saigon & Long Binh picking up supplies
Riding in a country under a bright blue sky
These missions we shared were always great fun
we enjoyed what we did under the hottest of sun
Our souls were as one our hearts were of rock
If we’d been able we’d have driven round the clock
Unknown to us that day long ago and far away
an act of hate would forever cause us to pay
for an act of murder by a man we’ll call brother
killing a busload of people, a baby and its mother.
Suddenly in my mirror like a big train smoking
came a familiar green steel that wasn’t joking.
Quickly rolling by us PEACE was given by hand &
four soldiers shared ground in this strange land.
Rolling on ahead of us was a bus bound for market
full of people and goods & an unlikely TARGET.
As the TEN TON cleared with its trailer and D8
Slic and I watched murder, motivated by hate.
As the giant did strike the buss half its size
people got thrown out, crushed before our eyes.
Under the bluest of sky and the hottest of sun
coming to a stop we watched our brothers run.
Climbing from our truck & walking deep into that HELL
Cries of dying people are still clear as a bell.
Lying in its own blood a baby just barely alive
while its mothers crushed body was unable to survive.
Remembrance of that day has never gone far away
& I have often wondered, HAS SLIC HAD TO PAY ?
Murder has nothing to do with things done right
while haunted memories pain brings many sleepless nights.
Thirty years have passed since that awful day
& memory has faded dim so purposely I now pray,
under BLUE SKIES & HOT SUN often I see that bus
Think of those BROTHERS often, WHY DID YOU LEAVE US?

~ Eric Wooddell, Vietnam Veteran

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