My name is Pete Granger, and my father was a Vietnam Veteran.

His name was Gerald “Jerry” Ellis Humble, and he served with 5th bn 27th field artillery from 1969 to 1970. He was a “gun bunny” and worked on a 175mm self propelled long range gun. Most of the stuff I have, I didn’t find until Pops died. My biological father was in Vietnam 1962 to 1963 on a crew that filled the tanks on the planes and copters with Agent Orange.

He died in a car crash when my mother was 5 months pregnant for me. Jerry raised me from 8 months old on. I’m so overwhelmed with curiosity, as it was something Pops never spoke of until just before he died, and even that was understandably very little. As a child of a Vietnam Veteran, I saw a very angry, violent and sometimes rage filled father many times over. I remember always being afraid of him and yet being so proud of him. I always bragged about him being in the war, and I remember being criticized for it. It was still a very unpopular war. Every time it was mentioned, the subject seemed to change fast. We were told to never ever ask him or his friends about it, and when we did they all seemed to have a sickened look of disgust. The photo is from around late 1971 or early 1972 when I was probably less than a year old. The other is of Dad and me from 1990 at my first wedding. I was 19 and he was 41.

This is a picture of a painting that Dad bought for his mother over there. The story was that he snapped a picture of it because it became a ritual before fire missions for the guys to run their fingers on it for luck. He was afraid it wouldn’t make it home and didn’t want my grandmother to think he didn’t actually buy it for her. Whether its true or not, I don’t know. But it’s a neat story. This was his his bible. You can see where he was counting down the days. Inside was a poem folded up.

His first cousin James Adrian Setter, was a marine who went over in 1965 and was killed in action in 1967. He had his papers and date to return and was scheduled to ship home two weeks after he was killed. I remember hearing stories about the bitterness the family felt about the war by the time Pops was drafted.

We come from a farm family and a long line of soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors. And the feelings about the military hadn’t changed by the time I was old enough to consider it. One thing that always stuck out was when I was a little boy I remember saying to him “I can’t wait until I’m old enough to go in the army” and he said in a harsh and almost fearful voice, “my sons will never join the army.” I never understood why. I also never ever questioned it.
We were also absolutely forbidden to wake him by touch, and always had to say “Dad”. Not even our mom would wake him up by touching him. My two brothers and I again never questioned it. We knew it was ” because of the war “. Anytime Pops freaked out or beat someone up the explanation was ” he just gets like that because of the war”.

I was in 3rd grade when he actually was able to get a real job. Before that he was a bar bouncer. I remember his knuckles were always scabbed. I also remember taking the neighborhood kids up to the bar parking lot to show off the blood from a guy dad beat up. I’m not telling you this to brag, but this was how it was for me as a child. Pops never forgot the war. He only opened up about two locations with no specifics. I was about 6 or 7 years old, when Pops started getting the sores from Agent Orange. First a few, and then it seemed like overnight he was covered. He said he was sprayed on 4 different ocassions that he knew of for sure. He stayed covered with them until his death in 2003. He was only 54 years old and struggled with the mental and physical reminders from the Vietnam War until he passed. Our entire lives were affected and still are from Vietnam.

Since I am still trying to connect with anyone who served with or knew my dad, please contact me through Facebook or e-mail me direct.

~ Pete Granger
www.facebook.com/pete.granger.733
historybuff44.pg@gmail.com

We are grateful to Pete for sharing his personal story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, and wish him much success in making the connections that he seeks.

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We Collect And Share Veteran Stories: about.me/jennylas51