Berg Vietnam helicopter door gunner

we didn't know a great deal about what was going on the media was not readily available to us we heard about it here and there weren't excited about what was going on it was more like why is it going on you know is there something wrong or doing because in our minds you know the military as we knew it at that age was something you did for your country and like it or not we were forewarned when you're discharged from the service obviously you have to be discharging service full dress greens if it's wintertime or khakis if it was summertime and the first thing you did once you cleared the site of the discharge location to change into civilian clothes you didn't want to get on an airplane in uniform you put it in a box or you threw it away when you got home he struggled in the attic and the garage or in the basement you didn't wear it anymore and if the subject matter came up at around a cold beer you didn't want to be in the conversation I know I didn't I know a lot of people felt that way being against a war is one thing being against the participants in that war which is so much different than what we've had in recent years with Wars people in the 60s and early 70s hated both the war the government and the troops that went there shame on you for being there you know it you know it was probably 35 36 years before somebody actually thanked me for my service it wasn't much more than a year and a half ago two years ago where somebody welcomed me home and those words welcome home the service did deal for me as it's done for a lot of people whether they wanted to join or draft it or or but it makes you grow up pretty quick I mean it takes a little bit of your youth away to a certain degree but you still have that youth and the mindset to move on and be successful or have a happy marriage but you grew up you were able to function a little differently than a lot of kids probably would had they not had that experience I don't I don't want to say that have going to war is a good experience by any means but the the experience you get from the military as a whole I think is a very valuable asset to growing up and becoming part of society and I've always felt that way I I benefited from my my service and and that part I'm happy with I'm very happy with that as far as thinking about the war and I probably do all the time I have for 40 years 40 plus I won't live another 40 years but as long as I do I'll probably think of it and think of my friends and boast at her home and better not when I do think about things I've always thought about you know some of the good times we had the camaraderie aspect if you want but I try not to think of some of the tough times I try not to think about Nutella you saw today and wonder around next day but the good times for the best part of being there they had some problems down in camera on Bay God must have been late 68 where we couldn't get any beverages beer liquor anything up north northern area where we were at we managed to hijack a packed pala the beer and I don't know if they still got a record over enough we stole the helicopter do it we did it with our own helicopter but unauthorized unauthorized hijacking a pallet of beer and it only took about 30 seconds once it hit the runway the flight line for the guys to come out and grab cases in cases and clean it up and the only thing was left there was a pallet and some straps within a couple minutes so but we improvised when we had to and those were fun things I gave it the best I could give and it did a little over three years and I did in my part and that's how I felt and I figured if everybody did that boy we would have any problems at all you know but unfortunately not everybody did but I don't regret one day service I probably have some regrets now things he could have done differently and why you were in the most part now I'm content with what I've done and happy that I did do it and I'm very proud to be a veteran and proud of the veterans today

Channel: Jeff Fromberg

Views: 436,344

Keywords: Vietnam veteran interview, Helicopter door gunner, Vietnam oral history, berg Vietnam Veteran Talk, Vietnam veteran, Vietnam veteran coming home, Oral history, veterans stories, Vietnam war, Vietnam, Soldier stories, Military stories, Vietnam vet, Phu Bai, Vietnam tet offensive

Id: D3IGOzC0Dz4

Length: 6min 20sec (380 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2011