I was a Marine flying as a gunner on Huey gunships during the TET of 68.

I was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and lived in Hammond until my parents moved us to Tampa, Florida when I was 8. I still have relatives up there. I enlisted.

My father served in the Marine Corps during WWII. Growing up, a lot of my father’s fellow Marines would visit. I heard all the stories. He was wounded twice, Okinawa and Peleliu. I remember when I was older, I would kid him. He was wounded on the 3rd day in Peleliu, and I would say, how bad could it have been? You were only there for 3 days! When my father was wounded on Okinawa, he was being taking out on a stretcher. His best friend BoBo, had taken a Japanese pistol off a officer he had killed. He put the pistol under my father on the stretcher and told him, I’m not going to make it, so this is yours. Well BoBo did live and when they would visit over the years, he always kiddingly asked for it back and my father wouldn’t give it to him. I have it now.

Since Dad and my two cousins were Marines, I enlisted and joined too. Most worst experience, was the Marine Corps boot camp in the summer of 1964. I enlisted for 4 years, and was in the rear with the beer for 3 1/2 years. I kept trying to get into some kind of combat. Some would say I was lucky, but being a Marine I needed to prove my worth. I finally ended up in a helicopter squadron, where I could fly as a gunner, for my last 6 months. I was in a three man operations shop in VMO-2, a Marine Corps Huey gunship squadron. We were at Marble Mountain just east of Danang. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The three of us flew every other day. My gunnery sergeant was wounded and medi-vaced to Japan. I was a sergeant and my corporal was killed when his chopper was shot down. His body was never recovered. I was never wounded. But every other day, it could have easily been me flying the days that they did. My greatest fear was that I would be afraid, but I overcame it… I’ve been asked if the war changed me, and I didn’t think so at first. But when I came home, it was hard to relate to the people I grew up with, and so I was changed and different. I have stayed in touch with several people that I served with on www.popasmoke.com

I wasn’t too happy about the war when I came home. I didn’t pay much attention to the anti-war people and was never confronted. I would have gone ballistic if someone had spit on me like some of the stories I heard. I was dating a nurse soon after I came home and one Saturday I went by her apartment. She was making an anti-war poster. I fired her after that.

I wrote my book called ‘And My Mother Danced with Chesty Puller’ to recall the good times, and at the end wrote about being a gunner. Chesty Puller is a famous Marine Corps general, and my mother danced with him once.

This artist rendition of my service photo was done by Terry Ergle, a local artist in my town. He is an Army Veteran and did it for free.
~Bruce Hoffman, Vietnam Veteran and author of And My Mother Danced with Chesty Puller, available @ www.amazon.com/Mother-Danced-Chesty-Pu…/…/ref=sr_1_1…
www.mymarineyears.com

We are very grateful to Bruce for sharing his personal story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, where we are all connected.
God Bless all who serve and keep us safe.

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