My name is Francis Edward Renaud, and I am a Vietnam Veteran.

I am better known to all as Carmine G. I served with A Company, 2/502nd, PIR 101st Airborne Division. I also served with A Company, 1/505th PIR 82nd Airborne Division and finished out my service with HQ and HQ Company 19th Special Forces, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne).

I served from 1965 to 1975. I served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968 with a side trip to Africa that was a short-term direct action mission.

While with the 101st I was a rifleman in a line platoon. While with the 82nd, I was operating with long range patrols at company and battalion level. I finished as a light weapons specialist while cross-trained in operations and planning while serving on an operational A Team. However I consider myself first and foremost a Screaming Eagle.
My father and his brother both served during WW II. My father landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944. My uncle was a gunner on a B-25 in the Army Air Corp.
My father never spoke about his experiences except for the fact that he hated the German SS and he had a great respect for the German 88. For the most part my father was an enigma to me. He was a supremely private person. You would never know what he was thinking or what his opinions were.

I enlisted in July of 1965. I knew I was going to be a paratrooper. There was no second choice. I had to prove to myself that I was good enough. I had already formed the opinion that institutionalized learning was a waste of time. I find being autodidact more satisfying.

To answer what was the worst part of the war for me would take a couple of chapters. I found the cheapness of life particularly troublesome. I will touch on one incident about this. A very elderly Vietnamese was executed by a just commissioned West Point 2nd lieutenant. In his mind this man was guilty of aiding the enemy. The elder was made to stand in a rice paddy. The lieutenant shot him in the chest with his service pistol. Three things still remain with me, the stoic calmness of the victim, why I didn’t do more to try to stop it and last I told the officer it was cold-blooded murder.

War changes everybody, just in different ways. I became pretty jaded. When I returned from my second tour I was told, I was different. When I asked how I couldn’t get a real answer. I knew I had changed that’s all. Today I pray for the ones that I knew that were lost. I also pray for the souls of the ones I took out personally. When you take a life even in combat you change. No one can tell me otherwise.

What was my greatest fear? If you mean what was my greatest fear in Vietnam, it would be ‘being taken prisoner’ getting caught. I don’t know what my metal or how strong my fortitude would have been.

When I got home is when I almost lost it. I hated civilians. Even the WWII vets didn’t like us. Everyone knows about LAX, getting spit on, yelled at and all the rhetoric. They threw eggs at me in New York. Till my last day I will never consider myself a civilian.

As of today I still do not consider myself fully adjusted. I keep myself wired tight. I don’t have dreams or anything like that. During idle moments the faces of the dead are right in front of me, always.

Today I am semi retired. I am a full patch member of the U.S. Military Vets MC. I ride with a NC chapter. This is a motorcycle club made up of veterans. These are my brothers and we take care of each other. We cover each other’s back, just like the military you might say.

Being an American paratrooper is the greatest thing I could pass on as a legacy if I may use it in those terms. Ask any of us and we will tell you ‘We stand alone together’.
~ Francis Renaud
A co. 2/502nd PIR
101st Airborne Division

We offer special thanks to Francis Jones for sharing his service and story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper where we are all connected. It is a great privilege and honor to collect these stories from our Veterans. These stories are their stories.

My Passion Is Sharing Veteran Stories: jennylasala.com/

Veteran Tribute Page: www.facebook.com/ComesASoldiersWhisper

‪#‎VietnamWar‬ ‪#‎history‬ ‪#‎veterans‬ ‪#‎ComesASoldiersWhisper‬