My name is Billie Two Feathers, and I am a Vietnam Veteran.

I served with the U.S. Army Pathfinders, a “ghost unit” whose primary mission was to infiltrate areas and set up parachute drop zones and helicopter landing zones for Airborne and Air Assault missions. The Pathfinders began in World War II when American paratrooper units needed a way to mark areas and guide aircraft to a specific spot. This is my Pathfinder class picture, Pathfinder Class 2-68. I’m under the helmet in the back, just about dead center. We were told that we could wear what we wanted, as long as it was government issue (GI), so I donned that old steel pot. I couldn’t afford one of my own, so made a copy from a friend’s picture that his son emailed me. That friend committed suicide exactly 20 years after enlisting. It’s one of three pictures that I have of me in the military. My Jump School picture was taken in July 1967.

The MOS was special, and they even censored my mail and monitored phone calls home because of the security clearance. Did it make me better than others? No, I just had a different job than most. I was basically a glorified “grunt”. I served two months with the 9th Infantry Division’s Pathfinder Detachment. I was then transferred to the 1st Brigade (Separate) of the 101st, where I was embedded as a Pathfinder with the 2/502nd Infantry Battalion “Widow Makers”. I sometimes wear the cav hat to recognize that time in the 82nd after I made corporal for the second time. While with the 17th Cav, vets from Nam were used to help train Cav Scouts that hadn’t been to Nam yet.

I saw Vietnam from the Mekong Deltas to A Shau Valley and both western suburbs. Both divisions were busy doing what was needed at the time (1967-1968). Yes, I even met some old friends from the 9th Infantry when we were replaced by them in Cholon during the TET Offensive of 1968, also called the Battle of Saigon by some. I led a company recon squad for a while right after the 101st went airmobile in 1968. After returning to the States, I was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division where I attended Raider (Recondo) School and enjoyed a few weeks of vacation at Ft Greeley, AK for Northern Warfare Training. I was discharged in February of 1970.

I was one of the lucky ones. I have several friends with their names etched into The Wall. I was also fortunate enough to serve with some of the best soldiers in the Army’s history. I am still trying to come to grips with a lot that I saw and experienced while in Vietnam. As the saying goes, “PTSD; don’t leave Vietnam without it.”

My best friend from the 101st died screaming for me and I knew if I had gone to calm him that we would probably be overrun. Hanoi had bounties on all of us. If I had calmed him, they might have figured out who were I always know as the anniversary of that terrible night approaches even without looking at the calendar. He and four other died that night.

You would think after all of these years that I’d be used to it. Nope, it returns about a week before and runs for about 2 weeks. That’s the cost of getting close to people during a war. We took so many casualties that summer that I was told it totaled a complete battalion changeover what with the dead and wounded. I got where I didn’t even want to know names of new troops.

My major accomplishment of my tour in Nam was finding out that the entire recon squad I had hand-picked all came back alive. I have to say that without Wayne “Sneezy” Snyder saving my life the day before we took FSB Bastogne, I wouldn’t be here. I had run out of ammo and saw an NVA working his way towards me. Sneezy came over and sent that NVA on to his next incarnation.

My return to the States was typical of several people I’ve talked to. Family and friends would say, “Been a while” and leave it at that. Others would call names that I won’t repeat. At one job interview after discharge where I was applying to the biggest security company in the country at the time, I was asked “off the record” if I or anyone I knew had committed war crimes. I calmly looked him in the eye with that 1000 meter stare, picked up the application and told him, “I don’t think you need this.” That’s when I tore the application into confetti and dropped it all over his desk and him. I did an about face and proudly left.

Like many, I have changed over the years. I quit lying about who I truly was and came out as a woman in 1998.
~Billie Two Feathers, Vietnam Veteran

We are grateful to Billie for sharing his service and story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, where we are all connected.

God Bless all who serve and keep us safe.

www.VietnamAndBeyond.com

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