interview with Leonardo Guzman a Vietnam Era Veteran. CCSU VHP

Maureen so I can come by and say um I robbed anybody you wanna come and see so I went in the office and I was very impressed with what he told me and the uniform and the way they uh they were to do things now where did you must rather Harper and did you have any other family members were there any other of family history associated with the Marine Corps are you the first marine family well I am the first marine before my uncle was in the Army the second war and what was it like here in the first days of service in the Marines I was terrible the first day we took a train from hard for six o'clock in the morning and we stopped along the way picking up people and by the time we got down to South Carolina far as Island it was two o'clock in the morning and they put us in the warehouse like I'm with and they told us to go to sleep because we had to wake up at 5:00 so we all later in the floor because it was nothing nothing in the building to sleep or anything it was a plain concrete floor and the next morning about 5:00 I think somebody come in and threw a garbage can against the wall and I already jump so that was the first traduction named wow I have a my book home with the names that I don't I don't remember I remember her name throughout right off no now ah well the first things you learned and based a book app is really for you learned to March drill and ceremonies the the UCM jail how to March how to how to learn first eight how to so you learned in structure of the Marines from enlisted two officers and uh and also they teach you the history of the Marine Corps I was demanding both mentally and physically I was petrified most the time I there was so much screaming and yelling and they kick you and punch you and everything in it that's Tomic and they come real close to your faith and scream at you and so do er and like on a shock all through the to the training because you never been in this and situations of lab before it people screaming and yelling and you and you can do you can do anything on today to tell you to don't even speak or take a shower and now you have to go by where they tell you all the time and the best way to get through it is just do it don't argue don't ask questions it's gonna be worse for you people who didn't speak up or ask questions they gang up on you they scream at you and yell at you and tried to the bring you down to the like that you sing there you are nothing they're worthless and and if you are answer some questions they usually give you push-ups or they make it to stand in attention for hours or when you go to the chow hall you they put you in the end of the line all the time for about a week or three days or four days well after boot camp you have to go through when they call advanced infantry training and the people that goes to different human bein tanks or motors or engineer or after that advanced infantry training which is twelve more weeks they they give you orders are you gonna be go through 11 which was infantry I don't remember the other ones that was the job title owed to 11 means infantry so you had to go to another training you had to learn how to try to prepare for ambushes how to advance and if when somebody's firing at you how to charge into bunkers how to interpret situations that you face or how how to if you are observing an enemy how to tell the officers from the enlisted men what are they doing what are they heading what kind of weapons they carry and all that stuff sixty machine gun I am fourteen rifle pistol 45 flamethrower 50 machine gun bazooka 3.5 itsuka what was the other one I was another room weapon that well that was afterwards when I went in they didn't have it they had the m14 getting him 16 in 16 came in maybe 1969-70 I think it was but when I went in we had the m14 they took us to Camp Lejeune and it's a camp within Captain Joe Geiger that's where you take you AIT advanced infantry training in a litter camp with inside camp resume because capital journey so the home of the second Marine Division so the division barracks were on one side and can guide within the other side yes I think I was ready yeah worse than you ah from Geiger we went to Hilton in San Diego for a month or two months no one wants to much of survival training and there you learn how to find different kinds of animals and a young galore how to kill them bugs and snakes and things like that how to how to cook things and how to escape a Novation now how to if you like the last the last thing they tell you is you had to escape from an appeal wki remember oh no do until you escape from this video w camp and it's a big fire far away say die wood that's what you had to hit head to that fire and you had to boy enemy patrol during your way down so you had to escape from there like on one and dudes and three guys at the time and hit to that fire so they give you you had to skip at a night maybe one o'clock and r1 it's a minute so they give you that whatever is left then iron all day to make it to them to the to the camp you don't make it you have to start over again the next time yes yes yeah yeah yeah did they begin doing that for Marine Corps soldiers during Vietnam or how that existed beforehand I don't know how to I don't know if they the Korean guys went through that well I know we we all went through there through that the guys from from the easy and the guys that that those have pedal can what I don't remember I don't think you I don't know the Second World War or the Korean War had to go through that was only for the calm bar armed branch of the service because in a service you had cold bronze which is the tanks combat engineers artillery on tanks those are the comer arms element the other the other like cooks supply clerks administration finance they don't have to go through that but they don't qualify as combat after the death we we left then we stopped in Hawaii for the day from how why we went to Okinawa and okay now I will stay for about a month getting shots and getting different kind of supply for clothing boots talks and stuff like that did you get any special equipment for the jungle special jungle clothing or weapons or we had to change our boots to give us a jungle boots with it was had like a little holes in that side so when you go through the water instead of staying inside you every time you walk this leaves out trails liver holes and the the palm or the boot has a metal and it cuz those pointy picks they have you stepped on it so that will will help you that metal on the sole of the boot from one from the toes all the way to the he'll help you and yes I so the ones that you stepped on it and put nails on it nails and they had sticks on the bottom like now nails when you step on it that thing the flops go like this so they get you in there from both sides of the foot and underneath and although it wasn't mines and traps they make with cans see Russian cans and all that they they make mines with that they they get powder or they fill her up with nails or glass or something and they put a primer or blasting cap and they put put them on one arrow to trail and they put his little fine threat that you don't hardly see it so you trip it and boom sometime to use grenades that one we lose or the ones that capture and when they take from the Arvin's and they pulled the pin almost all the way out and they put same thread and when you trip it the thing comes out on a grenade explode I saw a lot of guys hit the booby traps mind and I also so some of the guys get we got some good points though you had point means that they they can't see it but mine or ever I had a they got this this some kind of extra yeah that's the extent so you see him very dear here but you worth appointment but they they sends it so they stopped and you had to look and you know is there mine or it will be trap of something I hate and sometimes they even ambushes you know they walk and take sense there is an ambush out there and also that smell you can't carry the the enemy had smell smell like rotten fish some stuff they are maker of vegetables and see we yeah yeah it smell rotten so they also make like that you can smell if they went through there the smell will last there for days I think and then the other maybe day smell of two who know maybe with melt also know but because they carry the fish and those does the thing that made out of vegetable or see with something they carry that with them so you you usually can smell that now how it appointment be selected this is something you volunteer for no they usually when you get into country they the company commander of the the platoon as leading the little commander usually a lieutenant stared they squat the square will be leading the say that's quality the squad leader will choose the appointment and he will know who will be the best guy to try his experience usually the United would be really longer is what six seven or eight months had a lot of experience will leave no it is yeah because you'll be the first one to get it you hear in ambush Laura hello also sometimes appointment come face to face with the enemy whoever react first survive most the time disappointment they carried a rifle and safety off in full automatic so they don't have to just pull the trigger and a lot of point in to survive that way yes we land at Tom's Illinois they go out here well in Saigon they took us north north towards the DMC a place called and wah I was our combat base the 5th Marine Regiment combat base we were we were way way north we never went to Saigon we don't even know us I don't look like the only way you can go down to the town that Aang was when you get wounded that you had to go to the Naval Hospital which he was in denial by the by the ocean there how close were you to the 17th parallel community we the the nice foreign regimen which was in quandary I think it was they were they were like maybe 300 mild for the DMC because they will get Browns every those big heavy guns render from the North Vietnamese Army they used to bombard him out or once in a while we must have being maybe 200 master in a mile from the DMC when we write to the combat Basin and what you had to go I think it was a week or two weeks to acclimate ation they call them a clip a close acclamation here so they take you to different places and they taught you about booby traps and the enemy and there they figured you had to acclimate to the heat until the monsoon so for two weeks we stay in the rear learning all that stuff that you had to learn when you go into the jungle how deep into the jungle did you go well Jambo was very thick and so many vines coming left you know from everywhere and you have so many things here in your back when you walk the binds to cut on you and you be told in here and pull in there Oh 60 or 70 pounds maybe because you had to carry in a bat and you pack that carry extra socks your riding gear you know riding gear for the plastic bag now we had to carry I carry for canteens of water yeah which they were very heavy the plastic ones no the metal ones the better ones they're smaller I use plastic canteens and then you had to carry rifle one flare hand flare they went along with when they took the top put her in the back and get it half layers then you have to carry your own eggs a guys grenade like five six fragmentation grenades seven seven well I mean you want because their own age go really fast when she start throwing them yeah yeah I had carried smoke grenade either green or yellow or red also you had to carry three flares and motor around 460 motors and claymore mine and extra ammo the bandolier I carry 16 magazines of ammo plus an extra bandolier yes that's the old magazines 20 but you can put 20 because the jab you have to put like 18 because you put 20 it this spring yeah would jam because he's experienced I have enough room I guess so yet for about 18 of them magazine no we some people had the m14 by the time we got there they already had switched to the m16 but some guys carry the m14 and the a protein was a good rifle the m14 which he was heavier was made out of wood has a longer longer range and he was very solid the interesting was the made out of plastic everything was made out of plastic the handguard that bought a rifle you hit somebody hard and all your break the interesting yes yeah well we have a have up after it's so many guys after the advanced infantry training they get qualified the machine gunner so they go to this machine gun training for several weeks so they become out they had to qualify with a machine gun m60 machine gun so each platoon have two two machine guns crew a machine machine gun crew is a honor the a corner and the Yamaha two armored humpers and sometimes you get protection by the infantry but that's does the machine gun crew the donor and he gonna the Yama humper and we're we had to we had to carry each oh I had to carry one can of m60 or for the machine gun because when the firefighters just machine guns they even though you're supposed to fire like in and burps like you know tatata there's a table during supposed to squish the tree and then let everything fly because machine gun belt every file is a tracer yeah so that they put a stranger in there so you know what were you hearing now so like every treasured you squeeze the tree and you let it fly like pop up appalling so you can't see where were you were you hitting what does this machine gunner their error or excellent bazooka bazooka and claymores yeah yeah yeah that's a Friday blooper forget we we've got a blooper are no loop around it was a gunner I'd open up like that and you stick to around and close it we had a guy that especially for that he carry most uh maybe 30 rounds yeah we we carry extra those because that blooper had had AG real high-explosive they had a spoke rounds to and they have they had a I know smoke smoke and was turning it around yeah they wound up burned yes yeah yeah yeah little blooper has a lot of a lot of firepower a little round light blunt but you know hey there's the m79 yeah with all this equipment and all the ammunition that you carry if you got into one of these firefights how long would your ammunition last would it depend on the situation or did you feel like if you guys were ambushed or we're planning an attack you had enough ammunition well you had to you had to write to figure if it's a you know long fire you're gonna burn our ahamill so you had to discipline yourself also you had to figured you had to try to suppress the enemy fire like you fire be more than pay for I used to they will keep the head down instead of you so you had to keep a steady fire but you had to I don't know either Firefox goes by 20 minutes a half an hour and you have to look at you my magazine how many you got left and see how many grenades you have left because in some cases even got to you have flair this aim it straight and because I think goes like 90 miles an hour shoot yeah and you see a guy they are exploring in all kinds of colors yeah it comes to just use anything you want you have even we had a gas grenade no Tyrion I think was teared yes I think it was but when you try you had to look at the wind when it was blowing because my blow right back into you yes yeah yeah glass that's why we had the flak jackets the economy it was a jacket that you put underneath you with the square yes yes yes it's have an offset off the sheet question but in photographs from the Vietnam War I've noticed that when you look at pictures of the US Army and then look at pictures of the US Marine Corps the Marines always seem to be wearing flak jackets more often than the army so was there some kind of discipline or some kind of border among the NCOs and officers did you have to wear your black jacket at all times yes well in order that you have to wear it you have to wear your flag and your helmet all the time there was an order easier or we since the first week in boot camp or it has to be away or suffer the consequences so they tell you to put your flak jacket and your helmet all the time and that that what you had to do because there will keep you alive and help you well if the explosion was close to you that does does the title I said when you say that the ceramic tile tiled they they would stop a lot of fragmentation yeah I need to come from from well even a helmet your helmet stuff well help me stop a bullet if it comes from a long in the helmets very hard you know those metal helmets we have yet still but if it's still sometimes some guys get shortened and a helmet and somehow because inside the helmet is a liner you know as a liner with the straps yeah a headband so some guys get shot for that helmet and somehow the bullet yet he maybe they did straps because they strapped her whole by mail metal thing maybe the bullet he went and it goes around in there they don't get you know they're locking you see you guys holding a helmet was shot in there and they're lucky that didn't you know that they didn't get kill flight jacket Oh Jack was very heavy must be oh maybe 7 10 pounds or all those little ceramic tiles in there I know now in the service I don't think the rifles are fully automatic but with the m14 the m16 m60 I think did you put all those weapons a lot of yeah same inro you have to have a switch you can change it to semi and full just flip the switch here with your discretion well most of the time you go of semi fully mostly for a 4:00 appointment or you go on internet ambush you put it on full automatic because full automatic you do the whole 18 rounds will go in second and you it's the aim is not good when you fire your aromatic you have more more aim when you file semi even yet you can squish the trigger faster you can and you get more it's more efficient what no way so why how often did you go on ambush missions as opposed to controls patrol during every day but battalion you know each battalion has four company so each company so entire company goes one out of the CRO one time is they're together but sometimes would you go by yourself as a company so you had to send a patrol to different places like ghost so 100 kilometres they make a left and go around you here or you stayin and well I patrol he doesn't they don't send patrol so far away in a jungle because maybe it squad was under strength you know it wasn't it wasn't like fume few people as quest was hard twelve twelve men I think it is twelve thirteen many thing and now we only have like eight or nine minutes in it squad so you can't send that many people too far away maybe a hundred meters 200 meters or 300 meters out trying to make a left around and come back and the well there was operations that the whole battalion was so for company was a little different you get you got more people and you've you you got more fire support and they they send you farther away and so Danny within you overnight for an ambush you you take four or five six people and they ambush and you have to wait until it's dark to leave because you the enemy is watching you they will well you have to go in the daytime and find the place then come back and leave when it's dark not too far from you when you company a perimeter because you had to run back you know but you want you don't want to get caught between the enemy and yeah so they don't send you to and then is those it was some kind of trouble they called you back you know if they call you back so you had to run back fast as you can in your own lines because or everything out there will be hating me so go by base there was a fifth Regiment combat base my and we had all around our lines we we had I think it was a battalion of 105 on 155 now they do come from the 10th regiment which is artillery and we had combat engineers and we had we had some Arvin's that's the South Vietnamese Army and we had some snipers too yeah we had an officer from the from their artillery callin fo forward a server he called and he called for I'm from for the planes I think - well that was the original type of what was a commander called for they're playing for the Jets and also you can call for the ships with our near ocean I think that's up to the lieutenant mutant commander he can also call if the f4 is not around or he's been hit or the platoon commander is not authorized to call for air sea or land and support when you left your base would you would you usually walk out on patrols or for you helicopter down sometimes sometimes we walk sometimes will your hair like after out to talk about how far are we going to see actually fixes yeah so that's the that's the they call them Bronze Stars that's for the this I think this is for this that seats to this one kind of metals the ones you go gonna give you on the one that country that the country you're firing for would give you this medal is given by the Vietnamese and I think they give you a lot stars for for defending their country yes yes so you mentioned before there are men stationed at your base what was your relationship with the Army at the time like you would you ever go out on patrols with them or what was their responsibility on base well they they uh they were the I think there was a battalion infantry battalion there where but nobody really because they're not you were very poor fighters some of them I guess and they stood still from you know what I wouldn't want to stole my boots on the number and and some of those the Arvin's they they go you go with them you know and you feel like blocking force or you suppose to help them and sometimes they even fire you you be getting fired from a place I used to personally get in fire and they say well that's an armored unit oh they are you telling that we're we're with them and now take they'd rather let somebody else do the fighting that they do it itself well you had some good units doing in the South Vietnamese Army yeah they they for good sometimes they fought very good well sometimes I they got overrun by the Viet Cong and the NBA so who did you come into contact with more often the sorry I'll Morley BCG akan daughter in a flat lands then you go up in the highlands those mostly go MBA well the NBA it was a regular soldier they went to training and everything they were berber soldiers and they become Wakanda they usually were farmers during the day and knighting they attack heal and they eat you and they fly they run away sir so they were hard too hard to catch now did you ever see your enemy when you're around most of the ones I throw they're dead I saw some running in the distance not so some about prisoners here but the one time so mostly were dead that we and fights and we went by Tron I that's the only ones I saw yeah so for the most part when you were overseas and we're going out on these patrols how often were you engaged in combat it wasn't a regular thing where you almost in you have did you feel like your other see each or would it be that's correct sometimes you go for days without you know they're there I could just you know you see the track and you see the different things that you know there but you won't do one seeing that sometimes you're walking on everything break losing machine guns and modern and everything coming to you and now I say that it was like plus you you also on the trail you hit the mines and booby traps that was that was very bad too because they you even booby-trapped the rice paddy dikes you know those types of wartime so yeah because then they never they never sent to I knew asking they say no no nobody see no busy but they never I never hit those mine so they must know we'll put him there and on who we goes you go to a village deep in a you know in a jungle and you don't see no young man's are all you'll see mostly women babies and augmented and in a village and you see babies and some pregnant woman so it must be somebody around but I guess they get when they see us coming they run into the jungle I guess and like those who which is they are in the jungle although they had a little drop bunker he had a little bunker that's what he used to go asleep at 9 this Colonel Tom yeah I went to one one time I went to it one towel and I borrowed the corpsman pistol and he had never used it and it was yeah I think though everything was taught that that you not even fire it was that everything was topped a he has any fire at all and he goes through water and more and everything so that thing was stuck together and now I didn't know that afterwards I did it when I went into the tunnel with a pistol even fire you imagine and I talked with a corpsman I said I never fired that's pistols but it was a river side bunker insider they had bamboo going like this oh you know all the way through the bunker I went it was I didn't go too far then I went down because I was possibly I was this smaller than the skinny and in my squad the smaller than the skinniest go through the hole yeah yeah yeah the holes are small but when you go into it expand to a big big place and some of those places they have booby-trapped Liat snakes there they had they had tunnels that you go then you you get well like that so you had to do it you you go up and the first thing that stick out your head so they had some kind of trap to go right to your neck and your hair and everything yeah I found some bloody bandages and about two bags of rice sold I think like they run away when they see us coming so when a k47 a large Chinese ska Chinese the wall along pioneer metal yes yes clear that's Chinese right yeah now yeah yeah that's what I wonder they were supplying him well you get brand new ak-47s in this guy the one that there's a rifle and the one that look like leader machine gun has a met it has a metal supposed to lift it up when you know is that said you saw one it has a hook like that then you put it underneath and when you want to put her in your shoulder you lift yeah yeah yeah brand-new our guys wants them you see guys walking around with brand new a case after fie and send them to the rear and the officers taken were there any Marines in the field that prefer to use yeah it was part of rifle yeah you can put a rapper and rice party for a month and take it out and firing a fire like it's made very solid wood heavy you know like the m14 yes that's we was we was using the m14 uses 7.62 I think it is well and the a K is seven point it's bigger they will fit and and each other so you talked about how officers like take these in the rear that I think recover the weapons were or any of these considered trophies by the Marines I mean would you when you capture a rifle what would it be what would happen to it we sent away we are you good you can could you you know you won't be able to carry that away with you they take it away right away and send it back to the rear and theyõre disappear in the rear so but I don't think in any enlisted man has the one of those rifles most 8k there I know so on the topic as you stayed in Vietnam and completed your tour did you notice anything different going on with the equipment that you're issued by the US Marine Corps you know two things you do to get nylon here instead of canvas gear or did you know uniforms change at all well we're wearing that camouflage uniform tropical camouflage uniform it's evergreen we wear the climate like he had Amerindian but most of the time when you go when the quality go around who needs the trousers or shirts or socks what I saying it was all you stuff would you get the next time the supply comes with use the only time you get new stuff when you go to the hospital and then at the Naval Hospital when they to start you they give you a brand new kind of fresh uniform brand-new boots where I knew had everything brand then to the army used that that green you know that green jungle with those big pockets whatever green yeah and I think the some of the that some of the Arbenz units they use have camouflage the tiger yeah yeah yeah try the stripes yeah yeah so on some of the Americans with and they adapt a uniform or any of these special forces when you're out in the field did you ever work with any Marine Special Forces in the Navy we we know we work with the I think it was one 199th Light Infantry Brigade I think it was one night it was 119 I was the 196 and one night I my infantry were they from the Army we worked with them in the actual valley but we sometimes we we was used as a support for the blocking force for their Korean Marines yeah they were good they were the best you didn't fool around when he went to a village they kill him water buffalo chicken cut people they didn't fool around eight is ROK Marines her diversity now sometimes we work with him as a block and forth and they were uniform similar to do you rock their Korean yeah they were they how I know that they were a Marine Corps Korean Marines they know they dig out your own training I mean Korea South Korea the I guess they get Marine Corps officers training them in South Korea yeah and well they had a whole division of Italians in in Vietnam or they were the best they're all around the the enemy didn't fool around they they make a big bird around the Koreans when they if they know there were somewhere they'd be the VC and the MBA they ready to fight somebody else Danette Koreans so were there any other nationalities in area Koreans Australians Marine Australians and I think was a Filipino of our jewelry battalion there too and New Zealand Caston when I remember mostly Korean Marines and New Zealand Australian they're feathered South though so when I came into your daily life in the service when you're in the marine world how do you mean at and country oh why you were in Vietnam Oh letters I took a month two months to get a letter that I stream on Chardonnay yeah are in a jungle because used to go out for 90 days three months four months and sometimes it was hard to get letters because uh urine and a hot Elsie's to call him a hard landing zone so the helicopters in Ueno you want to come so sometimes a month two months three a letter three months the letters from from home and so other questions about you know day-to-day personal life when you're in country young where you served meals link in a cafeteria like or with all canned food C rationed yeah you know those three rights on for a second world war yeah green drink and liver can see have in a box you had like a meal we call John Wayne crackers here at lyric and we're about four crackers and a real hard crackers then you have the can with peanut butter or jam then you have a little can of fruit big container inside that container you had the toilet paper chewing gum on a cigarette with four sugars in it and yeah shooing gum cigarettes toilet paper and all salt pepper and coffee and cream probably very done squatches why bases but with your officers or NCOs leave smoke in the field and while you're out of control well not because that the smoke the smell you can smell smoking in the jungle you around also at night you too you know when you take a cigarette your mouth a little light and see a miles away gee sniper here somewhere a guy he might he can a good sniper can now figure it out when you bring your cigarette in your mouth the distance between you know that thing I hit you right in the forehead so dude ins know out night you had to cover it up you know when you smoke if you smoke I didn't smoke so I strained my cigarette for I used to give him away or training for chewing gum or coffee everybody gets I drink a lot of coffee comes in a and I'm like in a sugar yeah paper yeah I can see yeah yeah for me was good well you had nothing else to eat when yeah nothing else to eat and then we we learned how to mix them up sometimes you can you get to the ham and eggs that was that was bad that was helpful with ham and eggs and I can you can mix them up with something else you get ground beef and potatoes ham pork slices pork taxes were bad too the best was beans in France that was a good one those cans are bigger than the other can't being some friends and the fruit everywhere was after the fruit once it everybody likes was still fruitcakes nobody likes that but I used to saving because though a lot of people did because sometimes if you hit the fan somewhere I'm fine you won't get nothing for days that's time you see people walking around looking for anything we and that's when you see people eating the fruitcake they'd heat so much well I'll give you a box a box head what's up one two three four five what 15 little boxes in it think what and the squad leader open the box and you go and get because some meals are better than others I remember a bunker watch because I used to go out for 90 days come back but hope Italian goes out come back and the battalion was back goes out and while you were back in a combat base you go out in bunker watch at night you know that around the perimeter they had these huge bunkers and let me actually go by the fire all the choirmaster was there and the air old is supplied and everything and I still grab it and a whole kind of c-rations I used three of us in the bunker there and you can see reactions all night and you can get the best meals out really good hat oh I had cases the whole building like this an arrow full of sea rations so did you ever feel especially pressured or stressed out [Music] well sometimes I guess when one now what you don't show it because you're supposed to you can't dwell on it because you had to it's like an imam at a moment thing you know it happened then you block it away you know because you have to be alert you know all the time so yeah well they give you like in my case I've been in country like eight-month they give you are on our and they usually had a Australia Japan Philippines what was that British colony in China Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur I think it was they dig they call you and say hey we have an opening for our are are you wanna go so I went to Bangkok and Thailand for six days they have everything paid for it in there when you go yeah the motel pay for it and they pick you up and they fly you from freedom hill is to call them we don't have this value to the Thailand by in Bangkok from there they pull you in a boss they bring you to the hotel and a hotel they got meals waiting for you or everything I was the oriental food they had you know that's the first time I eat oriental when you imagine oriental rice and Thailand and they are they have two American faces in Thailand because from China that's what is to send the b-52's I think wasn't it Donna Donna no Hoopa four spaces in Thailand yeah I think there were two others we I think b-52 strike splitter yeah did you ever see in our place right while you were in the field did you ever see a b-52 bombing right yeah I I saw him in a distant on the b-52 dish to come like in the morning most most of the time early in the morning and late in the afternoon you can see him in a distance line of bomb coming from the plane to the ground and it took a few minutes by the time you hear that the boom boom boom boom by having that from where they were to you but that that plane I think what we call him how spooky was new Pia yeah it has a plane plane that comes at night yes yeah playing yeah which is those planes used to come and get here that's right a lot of pressure from the plane to the ground yes and I only swim a diet I guess the accommodated but I never saw the plane - I saw the bullet and all that and they used to the some Mercedes - whole football field like and why one of those one day fire yeah wait goes they are and they go around and around like that like when they drop those are h-bomb flame not flying but there's a liquid yeah as a liquid burns truth everything yeah an a-bomb those things are I don't even know if somebody was dropping on hinge on me I would surrender wait I don't know how can anybody understand that because sometimes we they used to drop those things like from here to there on the wall I knew were in a hole and you can feel that he was intense my god I think you were burning up and now you something like melted something it after we just see that melted metal or something was not sponsored those bones are very very mean how close were you to well when he called in the air strike well sometimes you close you you hear that the big chunks of metal flying by you and all when they call that jet top to drop those the bombs this whole whole depends because when is the planes arriving around that the artery can't fire or the other year or the ship so if the planes are in the ground they they don't fire when the planes leave then the Navy start and you can hear that they make that sound like a the movies you know that time you're here in the movies if it sounds too sexy saying but you know it's hard because when you had the Navy of the those heavy guns fire over you he's always dad all right to wear these always a short round some reason it's always a short round he's lying right on you on your lap the powder somehow the powder is not the same is always a short round that doesn't go where it supposed to go there's worries about something happening to you did you do anything special for good luck I remember I was watching that the Second World War an Italian movie with their fighting and the Italian twist the stage you had in combat you had three miracles you know three miracles to our if you got those true miracles you survived then I was there remember I used to count how this was my first murder and it was my second miracle Karen and I used to pray I see the chaplain so I I was right as a Catholic that I had a lot of faith so I keep me going I wasn't afraid that will keep me keep me going huh my my faith religion I'd know I was gonna make it so also so I I knew I was going to make it so that helps right there oh no I'm not gonna I'm not gonna die here I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make it because I know some guys they they they say oh I got it this premonition premonition premonition that I'm gonna die and they do die you know they do die yeah how did you keep yourself entertained and a crowdin in the irony in jungles oh you know you're so tired because you wanna sleep like two three hours a night sometimes you one hour at night you're so tired are you walking continue walking and they stop the line and you see a little guy leaning against the falling asleep foreign stream walking you're so tired so out in the jungle if you get a little time off just drop because you never know if you're gonna be awake all night long I'd have to walking for miles and miles a mild and in juvenile like eight seven months you know how many sleep you're you're missing oh you had that stare looking in your eyes used to call him that there are big stare I think what's the name of it yeah yeah yeah yeah might be a question for drafted for conscripted army troops the deployment times in here as a volunteer for the United States Marine Corps how long was your deployment sorry 10 months 30 months then if you want extend it sixteen six six months which you understand thirteen months and while you're in God you know in the the country of South Vietnam you said to your station and while and also down the A Shau Valley did you have any other deployments oh we we used to go in operations at different places are sure a place called Arizona Territory I was a hot place here - that was an MBA battalion in there we go there and without plates would everybody goes in there fight that was a fight day and night in there and ain't no that's why they call him Arizona Territory because that place was tough they had Italians me8 in there and every regiment battalion goes in there fights every day every night was a fight fight everywhere you went you had to be sure it was a fight fight with regulars no no be a con we we still go to Arizona for if you go as a battalion it was maybe a month or two did you get hit real bad they put you out right away you lose a lot of people yes when they're in the shoulder and that's when I went to dinner and also I got malaria I end up in the ninth - with malaria that was very very tough yeah because they say malaria never they put him asleep that's why they say in your system that's asleep so sometimes he wakes up so while you're in the service so it seems like you had playing combat experience what was that like poppies in combat sometimes some time was pure or madness and everything and that's why that's why it and boot camp they train you that way so you can't face combat because combat is a very very awful thing that's why they afterwards you go to but get done we all learned that's why they would treat you in boot camp and advanced infantry training the way they treat you screaming and gelling and pushing you to the limits because combat oh that takes everything are you combat physically mentally and it's one thing that they you know you just say oh I'm leaving I'm not going home it's funny you had to go day after day after day after day after day you really get wounded or you get killed or something okay catcher so now those days months years an exhausting experience do you still feel like you saw that stress yeah you know I get older it's less and less but younger your are things that bring you back it smelled or planes or noises or nightmares of sometimes you were seen in somebody talks you in their back and you jump like up in the air I mean it they call it a flashbacks I think that's what I call those but I think that are you go along in life it gets less and less and less but you never get you know now how the percent you always remember you're with Luke you always a night if I stake and earn a motel or I'm moving to a different house or apartment I always go there and look all around and go around outside and checking everything that bunker mentality or something now you're looking for first things I don't do that because I wanted what I do like I do it you know without thinking checking the doors checking the windows checking this go around the house looking at so those things are you I think never never goes away you took to the Second World War veteran they're their eighties nowadays the ones that like 'no Pacific or Normandy they tell you that scene that there it goes away but sometimes you have to learn how to live with it you know well when we come back we we had time left and servant he was 18 months so we landed at Treasure Island and it's funny because I walked to the pier and I look across at so Alcatraz first time I see how can present my life and it was dark is it I think that's a navy Navy school or a Navy base I remember you know about you know what God a Treasure Island yeah I think that's the Navy base there that's what we land it was dark so the next morning we went down what is close to San Francisco all the time he was a trifle yeah what is the closest to DD I don't remember these little changes the Oceanside yeah yeah yeah so I know we went there was a lot of hippies didn't so that our first ride in wet widows my first item was in his fifties and he treated like his sons so he he when were with him we we feel they were like like he was a Superman we defend him well we are life because we've been with him for truth so many things and he always was there with us so we're all these hippies in San Francisco when we came in and it's we're walking down the street and it was some hippies on the other side and they started yelling stuff for us and now first I didn't say down don't don't say anything Boris they come heroes we all gonna be fighting so you'll really mean you know there you're saying it's a lot of things that they wasn't true or things that really hurt some of them I was well all of us they weren't here but we were past there so we went in this restaurant and in a restaurant with wasn't bad some people start looking but we were in uniform that and class a uniform we walked out and we had the same problem down the street with some other hippies or singing in there Kalen about telling us about what we're doing over ere why we didn't went to the enemy why with finding awards for the politician that all things like that so now do you remember the first time I think was maybe back in the 90s yeah and the night you know night is right I saw some people cuz I didn't tell anybody do you know what most people didn't know I wasn't dead well I I went to school I came here when this place they didn't call him University back in the day it was a state college teacher teachers psychologists too : I was so small back in the state but it was nice nice college I came here teachers state college and I two years I came here then I found a job and Pratt Whitney in East Hartford then I went part-time here I'm working there and it took me a long time to finish my degree because I would you know I was only doing part time I took me like three years altogether about five six years to finish six years because I was working part time and going to school and uh after that I went to I teach in Catholic school because then the cattle are killed you know nature you don't need a new date new you don't need a certification and you can't teach only with a BA you don't need a master's degree history yeah so I went there teaching sixth seventh grade for about two years then I went back to Pratt Whitney on I work in Pratt winning retired from Pratt winning and was your education supported by the GI Bill yet and also back to your service do you have any lasting friendships from the during the war did you oh yeah while looking I met some guys in massachusett when I went to nor Hampton hospital there one time for a test for agent orange and they from there they sent me to White River Junction Vermont because that's where they do the real test up there in White River Junction Vermont the veteran Hospital there which is nice a beautiful Hospital in Denver mud is happening Hill mountains all around a beautiful place to be in White River now I met two guys earlier during the first Battalion I was in a third you were first now I just contact two friends of mine one is the Colorado you know I just I just find out I put an ad in now some paper and they we got together because I lost contact with them and I I talk to them often you know the the American Legion VFW and Catholic War veterans on a first for innovation first Preservation Association so all these experiences military veterans associations you think about war from the time that you joined the service until now how does genie uh well I think that when you go to war you should go to war no no fooling around it you can't do this you can't do that you can't fire it at this you can fire it there you know in the Army it's firing acquired it gain you why you had to choose this that don't do this don't do dad on fire this I mean when you go to work go to work do it and get out you know the water fire word do what it takes to finish early don't don't drag her for years and years and years try to follow rules that doesn't make any sense you can fire them to the enemy fire you first you can you can't use this kind of weapon against the enemy you can't like the enemy of you now they're using all kind of traps and mines and we could we're not allowed to do any of that somebody did it you know behind their back but oh you can't do that you can't put traps for the enemy that's the against the Geneva Convention that against ''tis that's Oh doesn't make sense and war is very tough wars it's one thing that does the soon as you can get war finish the better days for everybody thousand I think it's better to fire war and somebody else at the country turn you on hey hey because war is very crazy it when somebody occupied a country or they toured weird crazy things to the civilians or everything else so it's better we're gonna fight it somewhere else country then the war comes to your country that's when you learn were really worried when they were come to you oh then you learn why despair is bad you know you should avoid Wharton - it's really necessary no but if you go to war fire war don't don't fool around are you welcome

Channel: ccsuvhp

Views: 1,616

Rating: 4.4285712 out of 5

Keywords: Guzman, new, Vietnam War (Military Conflict), War (Quotation Subject), Interview

Id: NiBeTpmSyBg

Length: 83min 45sec (5025 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2015