My mother, father and uncle were all Marines in WWII. My brother was a Marine in 1966 to 1970, and I was in the Army.
Since I had enlisted for 3 years, I thought there was a good chance that I wouldn’t go to Vietnam but I was wrong! So I went and I did my job, to the best of my ability. I was in the 1st Cav Division, MOS 12B (combat engineer) in Vietnam in February 1970 and was stationed in Tay Ninh Province near the Cambodian border until I was reassigned to Military History sector for the remaining 8 months.
When I first reported to Military History, Capt. Feild and one other enlisted man discovered I had a degree in history, Capt. Feild said, “Your first assignment is to write of history about the 1st Cav division, limiting it to 10 pages from General Casey in 2 weeks!” I finished the assignment in lest than 2 weeks and I heard, probably scuttlebutt, that the General said “fantastic.” I interviewed anywhere from sergeants to colonels the rest of the time. There was one interview that has always stood out and that was when I interviewed one colonel who was involved in a firefight in Cambodia (I think in April) for one of the infantry units. He had tears in his eyes as he told of being pinned against a wall with bodies all around him. Somehow, he made it out.
When I was with 8th Engineers in Tay Ninh, Co. A, we were also in Cambodia, which is when I was awarded the Bronze Star. I was just doing my job. I was assigned to Firebase Charlie when a unit of Vietcong attacked us at night. That’s what I remember most. There was one guy wounded (I don’t remember his name) and twenty Vietcong dead. The last weapon I fired was in the Army. I couldn’t wait to get home from the combat.
Christmas Day 1970 was just another day for the officers and men of Charlie Company with one exception. We had received passes for two men to attend the Bob Hope Christmas Show in Saigon, a two-hour flight from our camp. Colonel Scott, the battalion commander had reserved a helicopter for the occasion and First Sergeant Wallace had arranged a lottery to choose the attendees in a “fair” and impartial manner.” It’s not that we were enamored with Bob Hope and his outdated humor. It was the notion of getting away even if for only one day and the opportunity to see and hear a bevy of beautiful women that had us wishing, hoping and praying as we stood in formation that morning. There were one hundred and twenty men and only two passes. The odds seemed reasonable as we scribbled our names on sheets of paper, which were deposited in an empty sandbag. Hearts were pounding as the First Sergeant reached into the recesses of the sandbag and extracted the first winner. “Colonel Scott,” he called out in his sonorous timbre. The colonel beamed and muttered something about being lucky. “Well I’ll be hanged,” exclaimed First Sergeant Wallace as he opened the second sheet, “First Sergeant Wallace.” If we had a rope we might have accommodated him! As we ambled off to the mess tent for breakfast my friend Jerry said, “I couldn’t have gone anyway. I just washed my hair and I can’t do a thing with it.”
I served in Eschborn, Germany with the 1st Cav 317th unit for another year after I left Vietnam. I got out of the Army in April 1972. I’d had enough of fighting and combat. The Army helped pay for two graduate programs, a master in Radio/TV and an MBA, both at Indiana University. I was young and reckless when I joined the Army. I wasn’t drafted – never again!
When I returned home to the states, I was walking at airport in San Francisco, dressed in my brand new Class A uniform, and finally home from Vietnam, when a young woman who was 18 or 19 came up to me and said “How many babies did you kill?”
When the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, I was working in the business office of Massasoit Community College in Brockton, MA. I had been married in October 1974 and we moved out there. I felt sorry for the people of South Vietnam who were being shot or sent to detention camps. It was all for naught.
I see a big difference in those returning from Vietnam and those returning from the Middle East today. People care today whereas very few cared when I got home. But that’s water over the dam. To help and reach out to our veterans today, I would recommend that our civilians support their local VA hospital, I do.
Today I’m working part time for Phi Kappa Theta National Fraternity in Indianapolis doing accounting. I’m not involved with any Veteran groups but I do stand up at music concerts when they play “The Army Goes Rolling Along.”
~ Bill Ryan, Vietnam Veteran
Veteran Interviews and Stories Collected by Jenny La Sala www.JennyLasala.com
