Interview with Robert S. Erwin-Vietnam War Veteran

States Marine Corps what was your highest rate be five sergeant you drafted or did you enlist I received a draft notice and then we'll sit instead of being drafted you tell me a little bit about that when when was it where were you living I was living in New Milford Connecticut I had a college scholarship for your free ride I was accepted at Boston College I decided to sit out one semester three weeks later I got a draft notice no no do you recall the day when I received a notice not really we've been in July of 67 so when you got the draft notice why did you decide to enlist instead of wait Interactive I went to the recruiters office and since my draft notice it was on a Tuesday they report Thursday anybody would give me one year give me one week for one year as a service that's how I took and Marine Corps gave me two weeks which four years they gave me two weeks before I have to leave that's it it's all I could yes if they're all one room and Danbury Connecticut it's correct that's correct two weeks for three years of service two weeks together at while my belongings saw a vehicle well so after your two weeks where did you report for basic Paris Alec I think we're there short I think it was ten weeks I'm not sure and then went to ITR in Camp Lejeune Camp Lejeune oh it's ITR advanced infantry training just two months I believe what did you do at Parris Island and then what'd you do his physical training wasn't that difficult for me I played four years of soccer in high school and I ran track for four years to be part of the soccer team at that time we were state champions all four years I saw it was an in good shape there was no problem there it was just a mental mental breakdown that I had to endure like everyone else you got many of you instructors not by name though any memorable experiences in basic Perry Como's son died on the rifle range oh he looked up from the butts looked over about this evil it looked like how many other direction and we lost him at Parris Island Wheelock we had two three suicides people trying to go home I remember one fellow apparently distinctly and he his wife had a baby and he could not couldn't leave see the wife for the child and he decided to and doing the root out through the swamps that night he didn't make it we'd never never been found yeah but you know it was it was it was good training copy did they taught you reaction local Boy Scouts probably taught me what I needed to know in war to keep the body clean no matter what we were going for a long periods of time and I mean our place to sleep was the ground and we ate what we could get supply fun we got supply in advanced infantry training at Camp Lejeune what did they know us more maneuvering a little bit of jungle warfare what what to expect and then also we had a little bit more training in our individual MOS or I was a combat engineer I had learned the explosives know the detonation outer and setting them and to be able to record any basics folks of ordnance that's correct did you get to choose to be a combat engineer or did the Marine Corps no they told me was kind of do so what are the duties of combat engineers a combat engineer is to follow with the grunts the increment and you're there for their support if they find booby traps they find caches of ammunition if there's a decision made to destroy it you do that if you have even a helicopter a crash or whatever and it has to be destroyed you anything nothing could be luck for the enemy it was my job to destroy the parts that could be reused against us in the training for that there and in Japan after so after you Campbell is you write to Camp Pendleton I have it a short say thought we're going to lose my mother at the time so I was given a break in between training I think that you normally gave like ten days of two weeks before it shipped out I think I had four days yes that's correct yes that's correct did you know all along right from the get-go will you probably end up in Vietnam yes everyone know Okinawa no I just a stopover and I went to Japan for general survival school and then I will flew in today truly except leave edible foods of course and if you're in a situation like that you can't build a fire you can't give notice of where you are are you taught to live on cold-blooded animals that's the salamander snakes things like that and again to keep your body clean how to keep quiet how to disguise yourself did you go to Japan as a unit no individually so you all were there as individuals so you didn't know anybody else that's correct we're in Japan i all i remembers that began with an s so and then you flew into today that's correct what was your first reaction when did you feel we're to take Cour now we were under attack as we came in so what did you do they brought us right - foxholes on the side of that airstrip but with no ammunition no rifle no nothing we just what is this what the years gonna be like I have one that worked well he had so many of the ones that didn't when I was there they had the the first time 15 that were jamming and everything when when that initial Firefly stopped next morning I was on a convoy convoy to going up to case on a date I don't recall yes December how to be actually stopped on the way to with 2nd battalion 3rd Marines an operation fort and I went right to work as a as an engineer assigned to the second Battalion third turb Ares marine yes and I was first engineers first Marines I was with many I never know the people around me very seldom do we stay very long at all so your first one first the 2nd battalion 3rd Marines that's correct there I was operation before it was just Northland yes it was just north of the hive on test I ignored the Danang going up to coast that was a very short stay was only a couple weeks and then I we were in a sweep we're trying to we knew that the NVA had established themselves on this peninsula and we tried to give the the farmers whatnot the opportunity to to leave or to expose the DMV a and they didn't so they went in and sweep the entire peninsula was all real soft sand it was super difficult to work to walk in so when you think the wing is house the house head road ahead TRO right right from one coast to the other right down to the yes you know what's lost quite a few people a lot of us were new people and they were too trusting and so it wasn't a big operation but it was kind of a devastating on when it's a case on or actually outside of case on I worked more in the hills around Khe Sanh and actually being in Khe Sanh itself I think I started off at 326 first then I went to 126 I was back with two three I served for one night and back with two three and I left that area still well serving for a second Italian surgeries I was in ten major operations up there operation yes Dino was Husum again it was a sweep looking for the enemy same yes in the hills of Khe Sanh was day to day hell it was that's it that I was like to northern end of a seesaw Valley we're right on the that's the Laotian could not border always looking out for where the NVA were gone for dug in at Koh ROK ravine Sheldon mortared all time there was probably 5,000 strong enemy in the area and of course that's when they were trying to do a build up to take over case on which they were never able to do what operation I think the scotland's came came back Scotland one of Scotland to us the same thing there's just time time changes they're all pretty much the same than Pegasus one Pegasus two in between the two of them I think between a Pegasus Scotland's a pegasister was Napoleon and Napoleon sailing sailing si le any let's say was mainly just was all in the same area it was just a different time how many days would an operation last typically month sometimes longer sometimes it was two going at the same time do you have any memorable experiences well it's a lot of things that I've tried to forget and some things that I just don't don't want to talk about I'll try to think of good things like if you can find a ball you can have some fun it's just devastating for both sides of the ball so our site and there's I was just that's just terrible and you know it's just smells the Phils day you'll never forget and and for doing it for someone that didn't care anyway and didn't want us there same as today ten major operations that you want well they don't like one right after another many guests yeah so you from the minute you landed in Vietnam more in combat basically four months that's correct wait right thank eight months after it goes in contractor we didn't know any different you know we thought all of us was serving the same I did I know there was the the mass of P X's and everything until probably four months later once only told me the the mass of px is in freedom he'll Dan a and things like that I got one paycheck the entire time I was there there's no place to go shopping [Laughter] the Cephas for I got three months that's actually documented as a seat probably from December to laughter tap when it started to break and we were getting takeout between a thousand thirteen hundred artillery rounds a day no it was during this time one of these operations I understand putting you off for a young that was no that was in Danang I was afterwards oh this this one was yes this one was in Khe Sanh hi this this one in particular I received naval accommodation which is the lowest military combat award that's what I received that's right can you tell me what action you I received it for saving the lives of 13 people from evident death they were abandoned on 689 in an operation to find a tune of one night this all happened because the change of command in Vietnam and one officer didn't want to risk a helicopter and men to go into an area that wasn't recon so he left it less than men out there alone and they were all massacred there was no one living when we found them three days later and at the same time as it was as it was said it was not recon there was two to three thousand NVA there and we were about to beam a secured ourselves it was just a death trap was in ambush and no one would take responsibility for why had gone on and that's in several different occasions one night was first tiny 9th Marines was almost completely annihilated by so on this incident before you got it up with Toulon had a marine one oh that's correct Khe Sanh was on a plateau and they were the enemy who was trying to get in any way possible he had to maintain operating patrols 24 hours a day all the way around that area this group straight off that area just a little bit onto a hill Hill number 689 and which now is known as dead man's hill and they got in trouble when it complete radio silence so no one knew where they were what had happened and and that's when the change was going over with the command at Khe Sanh and we were getting ready to go out on the suite of Street companies from 2nd battalion 3rd Marines we were already saddled up and they decided to send us in to find them and we immediately got into trouble and we it's in the marine corps Chronicles that's known as the mess and that is the mess and it's been documented well but it's not been publicized very much well because of what had happened there and they actually came in on the wrong side of the hillside we were trapped along the hillside from their artillery from Co Rock and what the excited to do is to try to move laterally around the opposite side of the mountain so the artillery would fall over top of us but the entire area was filled with spider holes and it was a hundred citizen when they broke the ambush they were inside of our our own parameters which crossed caused massive cross fires so did you would ever even get past that point to find this oh that's when I was decided everyone was to move to go in one direction and people running out of ammunition they were stranded they couldn't get back to lines and they just moved in them to form a metal a defensive perimeter around the other side of the hill and so where were you during this and what did you do well I was traveling with Golf Company and you know we got caught in the ambush so we had both ground troops all around us and we had the artillery coming in we were still advancing toward the top of the hill what we were supposed to do until we're told to to move laterally and to get out of there well I could hear two guys screaming and I wouldn't gonna go until I brought him back I had to the difficult part about it number one it was the enemy was still there it was all hand-to-hand combat I hadn't adopted but I carried his sidearm but we got somebody up on your shoulder you're almost defenseless so it was a pistol and a machete and and my my partner was carrying yes but all the time the battalion was moving away from me I had to keep catching him so the first the first carrier was about 75 yards carry so you actually went out yes yes I was in trouble and did your yes so you went home alone to go rescue the trapped Marines that's correct so the first one they were all wounded I think everyone every someone were walking wounded but they were they were pinned down afraid without ammunition they wasted their ammunition and were out of ammunition and there was there was a few walking wounded yes but most everyone was able was not ambulatory I had to carry him so you had to go under fire to get to these guys yes you carry them one by one yes how many did you make over a dozen yourself that's correct yes I I carried it carried 8 individuals well you had yourself in quite a mess care what yes that was already near daylight so it was my next job to make an LC to get rid of to put a wounded and dead to be transported out that's correct what did you do the Megan LZ we exploded to treason was it gone removed to Treece enough declare a big enough area for the helicopters commit to come in and know which we do what expose us yes the older we got out right away dead took us a nother day or two days the the first dent from 1:9 their bodies were already I mean it was 110 120 degrees bodies were decomposing you know very quickly I would try to identify what we could put them in a bag plus our own we actually lost more people than we lovely winters to find ourselves I don't remember the exact moment it's in between 50 and 65 killed in action almost a hundred owned it the company I happen to be with is the one that took this took one of the of the ambush that's correct once you clear the LZ the next morning I didn't know anything until later on after we cleared that we went back to a staging area and at that point I was told by two gunnery sergeants that I was put in for the Medal of Honor for what I had done to save his there their men and then I was told that the colonel wasn't happy because no one of his men did anything they listen to the command of the Australian Colonel and left a wounded and dead behind and the only person that to ventured out to save these people were someone that wasn't under his command I was an attachment and he wanted to get rid of me so they put me out on a a Mike sweet iime route behind and then which somehow mysteriously came under attack by our own LZ Hawk which is under the command of the colonel not really he's he's gone he's dead so you're an original colonel as I understand did not go with you yes how did an Australian totally become in charge of your unit he left a command CP to the Australian Colonel do you know why want to gather a few more metals he wanted to lead his men into well he's always like General Custer didn't know there was the x2000 over the hill so when your colonel left and the Australian Colonel took over did an Australian girl even know any of God I don't know I just know what the Chronicles say we didn't even know that happened with any no it curls with us to the chain of command it wasn't the Australian turn on your girl that's it believe everybody here from what I understand it was once we got into trouble and didn't know exactly where we water and and how to get out of trouble you know everything had to go back to command say that the Colonel Willis would have to bend into a headquarters company he had to know what the companies were doing on both sides I I wouldn't know where the radio - you're right direct just went you did you go to him in headquarters or did it go a couple miles away in command just know that you know afterwards that the order had come down did you ever find out what happened to any of those men to rescue no we've tried to the investigation for this particular operation many of the people who were wounded on that that day were contacted many of them passed away several especially those who command are in asylums and have no recollection of what ever happened just having fun yeah I wouldn't be able to remember a name either my stay with any company was so sure tonight I never really knew that you know the people are only you know what operation was that that were the that was that April it's almost 46 years ago today I was probably Pegasus to either one or two and so now so you receive the Navy Commendation Bell for this and now I understand a year later a year later yes it was sad on someone's desk anyone else on that particular Hill was given accommodation and there were lesser ones like this within 30 days it might set mind set on someone's desk for a year well and now I don't wanna I I would accept it only in the honor of the people that I I couldn't find it but politics is wherever you go and I don't like it after after this operation where did you go um for my own safety they sent me cells and I was in the the food by July area and we were looking for transport routes from the Ho Chi Minh Trail back over to the coast yes there are many times that was the duty of our our group was to interrupt any movement there's constantly small groups that were our listening-posts and if they they cannot make contact with the group may never be so severely outnumbered but they would send messages back and then they would take a group like there I belong to to go pick a fight and then we you know let's see and then I would be out with the small groups also just to find out if they're storing stuff in the cache and what did they store diem ELLs who look like they're massing for a large operation and where were they getting their munitions from from China Russia where yes yes and that's what you were trained to do yes oh yes yes big and small that depending on the size that group was with we either destroyed it or we left it probably about two months and then I went to back down to battalion headquarters in Danang south of the day and marbled Monaco near the marvel male our facility yes just a short period of time because my time was about up I was mainly mine sweep teams I was not in construction I mean he had found a operation Meade River they thought they found it an underground Hospital and they needed someone to blow the top off up as they couldn't find an entrance and they could hear voices and they had reason to believe that there was commanding officers within the hospital so I was sent into to find a way to get into the tunnel system yes and that's when I got hit by yeah I took a direct hit with a t1 Ward around I won the lottery oh my head so so tell me about that day um the area was so thick we had we startling bang what's called Bangalore torpedo to break some of the jungle undergrowth and within 10-foot section they were NVA was already lighting the other end on us we couldn't see 3 to 5 feet in front of you was so thick so what we did was we were planning on backing up and calling in for one of the stronger doses of Agent Orange to do Foley whatever we possibly could and as we were coming pulling back when I got hit with a mortar round as in what white phosphorus board room we're in location or on the body on your body all over and this and I still have a I have the coroner's report it was both lower legs upper left thigh pull his hands off her left arm smaller back that claim is open for 40 years 46 years the VA would only recognize wouldn't accept the hospital reports or the Corman's reports that I only had one slight burn on my lower right leg and I've lived with the results of and I'm on long-term steroids still today because I was so close to the fragmentation I've got to burn from the Ashbury in my body I've got AIDS without the virus I have no do you remember getting this yes slip sauce throwing up in here right over backwards I believe we killed the person that shot it before it even hit me now we didn't think of the mortar on went high enough or was stable enough because it was one of our rounds fired in their mortar tube so it's not as stable and it was moving in here we never thought it was gonna go off but there was no place to run I was going left right up down and hit right off my left toe they happened in early in the morning and we were under constant fire all day so there was two helicopters south-southwest Danang the area called Dodge City at the bend of the river so you stayed there under more fire all day long yes and two helicopters that were gonna try to get them in we're gonna come in right at dusk and one was going to the hospital and the other one was going to where I knew it was if some of my friends on an outpost and I didn't go to the hospital I want to see my friends because I knew I'd never see him again and so I went to hospital the following day so you did everything yes yes my tendon infection already set in number one because of the Agent Orange was dropped on us and that we were in a rice paddy that was filled with both human and animal waste what hospital the model of Danang marvel male our facility they try to deep rate and clean everything as best they could start me on IV antibiotics and then within the week I was sent to 106 General Hospital Japan well it was an Army Hospital it's on a burn ward do you know where that was to me Yokohama oddly so you were on the burner how long did you stay there about a month I believe I got to see Bob Hope kidding no the burn Ward is have restricted no visitors no one allowed on that ward not because everyone had open wounds and the those who were medics it's an Army Hospital we're complaining cuz they were gonna miss Bob Hope so if you get me a pair of slippers and a bathrobe and your cameras and turn your head I'll get your pictures but I went on the fire escape to the airfield and I brought them all back their pictures all we had all we had was a towel that was the only thing we had for clothing yes it wasn't it wasn't far back yes it was just they they help me I help them well you shipped immediately home no no I said to who came from Japan by airship to Alaska and it was probably 90 degrees in Japan when we left and when we hit Alaska to refuel is about 44 it was still had the towel on and you know of course they put the the hot air ducts right into the the plane so you're only cold for a few minutes and I went to Andrews Air Force Base was the next stop and then they sent me to the Newport Naval Hospital in Newport Rhode Island that was the closest hospital to my parents another couple months no I went back to back to duty or two I had that option but I went to Lynchburg Virginia I was on high and I do these death we're number one duty was to to train reserves there was only 11 of us regulars on me on the base and we had to reserve some once a month which will respond and we had to take care of wounded and killed veterans and war was still going on what did you train the reserves in and my specialty explosive ordnance a little over a year I was given the option I was either gonna be meritoriously reported towards he promoted to Connery sergeant or I had to leave what had happened was not didn't know that for a year I have been signing documents with my name which required a gunnery sergeant signature and I was in charge of some ammo dumps and the explosive you know Arsenal's and I was signing signing off for them and requiring at least a gunnery sergeant to make the inspections so to pass inspection I either had to be a gunnery sergeant and if they did it that way I would have to go back to Vietnam or I had to leave leave the service and I was married at the time so I left I think that was May of 70 yes I got the Presidential Unit the naval unit Navy meritorious unit combat action I think there's 14 at all I got the Vietnam across the gallon to count along tree I got the Vietnam presidential and I got the I'm ashamed of it but I got the good conduct off all the anywhere in getting good conduct know all of us she knows also have your injuries continue to buy these yeah yes yes I have yes it's caused your rope neurological problems its I have little or no feeling on my feet caused me to lose my job on the cabinetmaker can't feel my hands I almost cup four fingers off on the last mistake so I've been retired from from working pretty much I no longer work on the ladder so it's time to ask you some questions about daily life sounds to me like you were in the jungle 99% of its time yes how did you stay that's with your family didn't didn't at all no very very so first letter I got was a Dear John three months after I was in country that's correct no but the night before the citation was given it was we known we had thought ourselves and we're gonna be in trouble and I wrote a just a letter back to my parents on the top of a sea ration carton and I have that I don't have a width what did you say just hope I've been the sound of something that you could be proud of what was your feeling when you got the Dear John letter here you know it bothered me but it I accepted what she had said to us there's been so many of you coming back you know in a casket that I don't play this long before you're going to - yes yes so I know that it was time to start her her life over so really there wasn't much in the line of mail or keeping in touch with family and I remember I was with so many different groups there was no way to keep up with me yes some worked in in groups you know the words there would be a battalion or I mean a squad or platoon we were down to a team level you know one one one two three that's it sea rations most of the time they were made in 1945 in a box it's three cans one of the main meal one was a biscuit earth and it's salt and pepper full package of coffee no maybe two meals at best you have to say veneer the look you know we were really well well supplied some areas who are were you ever in a place what do couldn't do it because that would throw the body so far off far as the digestive tract would be that you you would have diarrhea for a week so we had to stay on the cigarettes and especially if we knew oh no go right back out if we knew we're going to come back to a stable area and stay there you know we could do something like that but if we knew we're just going to be there to get our shots and you're then back out to a new location [Music] Oh shortages up in the hills up in the hill country or whatnot any time you got a new uniform as if somebody knew that got in there and they got killed right away and you took his uniform no we didn't know we had went to army threw away no even looked at all of 782 here me going from company company it didn't really matter what I use to what I carried for myself so I usually made me Armas stuff they use what they call the Alice packs it's just a brand name of it's it's like a belt with suspenders hey not only was it gave your back and shoulders that take some of the weight and yeah I kinda remember I carried about a hundred pounds of explosives with me so I traveled fairly heavy so the extra of suspension he'll help how did you handle the pressure and the stress of the job I mean you were constantly you can have fun at any time it's just just a state of mind all right make a ball play football play catch get made throw my balls you have your own fight one amongst one another and this it's always musical instruments this harmonica stirs something I always could do something he'd always draw mine something you know we didn't have music or anything but this hotter in the rear areas but you know there were songs that people know you made your own fun made a lot of promise that get to God but probably never kept sometimes we were you know on the small team you could be up for two or three days at a time but I'll sleep or one person on you would just pray for eight hours of sleep for making sure you go to Sunday school eight or nine months one week type-a we were lied to my friend and I received a directive that you had to take hour an hour before your tenth month I think it was a temp there maybe ninth month so we were waiting to go to Australia we didn't want to be the most senior people in the company that go so we would be first pick so we want to go in Australia and then we were given a false directive saying you have to make up your mind by a certain time so we had to take what was available what the Taipei I what you do there well I was at a Chinese Theatre I think that's probably one of the foremost things I saw and stayed away from people I'm actually not a I think they were actually Japanese a Japanese couple and I stayed with them they were very American I just spoke English well and everything and I moved my hotel to the same hotel that they were at and it just took me out and showed me the countryside we had to separate they put us on two different planes and came down to different cities what was it like after having been ambushed for so many months then going on it's nice they didn't having to go back to the jungle without you you never lost the alertness and of course fireworks and whatnots an everyday thing in the in the Orient in different countries and every day is a celebration of something that kind of bother groups of people bothered you you're always looking and coming back as you know you're back with your best friends you know your best friends were there that you are back home and again you know that's when all the college demonstrations and everything were going on and when we started getting reports that you don't want to go back home anyway I never would have come back home if they if the Red Cross hadn't messed up I signed a waiver before I left for Vietnam that my parents were not to be notified only falling in my death and I never thought that they were notified and I would have stayed in the Philippines or stayed in Hawaii wouldn't have come home but they were notified and then that I was injured but then when they try to find out where I was oh then the Red Cross picked up so all this guy signed a waiver we can't tell him so I left my parents on alert and not knowing so I didn't go where I wanted to go I came back to the United States to Hawaii or the Philippines there's many of us there yes yes didn't want any part of it how did you two new people coming up when you did good didn't have not what to Lynchburg Virginia back-to-back-to-back good service life there was nothing in you know back at my home one one lady cave gave me a party she had a homecoming kind of you know at her home which I will remember from right what was your feeling when you did get back to the United States and you saw what's going on honey people treat you I'll spit on a Penn Station yes my mother was sick and I had to take her we had to travel in uniform at the time so I came up to the bus trip in the Penn Station and was changing buses I got spit on so I didn't want to do anything that anyone took many years to accept a community what did you think my brothers always will be I was with too many people and they lost too many of our friends most of our okay especially the younger ones the second lieutenants that were right close to you and I was that was tough coming right into the middle of and life expectancy wasn't very long in Parris Island I had the option to go to OCS Candidate School and I chose not to because I didn't wanna be a second lieutenant it was the infantry unit when I figured that's where I want to go so I stayed enlisted so you will discharge from Lynchburg yes that was the end of your service you chose to that's correct try to get back to Connecticut and get a job I had a wife at the time no she was down in Virginia with me but we came back to Connecticut right I shouldn't should never have given up my federal dynamite license are explosive and I would have had a job because they were building 84 and everything else at the time so hopefully that's right it could have yes the poppy would be a way to it yes I never never followed through with it I been the carpenter cabinetmaker my whole life that's why I pursued again yes yes at the time I went to Henry Abbot Danbury and when I got out there was a lot of federal money for to get alumni to come back to to teach and the state paid for my education and then I couldn't handle couldn't handle the kids nobody went back to teach yes yes yes I some for probably three years while being as you going through my education I'm also it was nice weekends I went to West Conner I went to Central and with the Southern well almost year year round and then I had to have a certain many years in the field itself and you had to subdue something while you're doing all this also and I couldn't handle the kids there's one instance where I asked some girls to pick up their garbage they threw it on the floor and I asked the first time the second time I told them to respect to school and then they told me you assaulted us I said this is not gonna stand ever so I returned my turn to my termination right down in there I was gonna risk my reputation for some little snob I get away with picking up her own garbage did you wind up with a degree no miss yes yeah and at one time I owned a cabinet shop in I'm not a canvas shop I've had my own well from there I went to work and back out on chop sites and then I studied with an older Russian man he was in his 90s and he learned on a French mat and do picture framing and matting and I had my own shop I had a Calvary in the Milford Connecticut at an arts to our studio and a picture frame job and then I went back and in my own cabinet shop that's how I've been I just couldn't work with people and was beginning it was getting more and more difficult as the years went by to work with other people do you think yes when you guys first came home from Vietnam recalling it that they get more aware that it's a Marine Corps do anything to help no we didn't even recognize it I knew that something was wrong would never know what it was and killed things you know like the first why fight well both why said choke to death are not choke to death but damn close you know the only because something happened at night and they were the closest thing to me but it's you just get shorter and shorter you need to trust no one very very few people you're you become hyper-vigilant and that starts evolve you losing your sleep at night that's all kinds of things that happen then you just don't understand you know why it's happening to you and there's memories that never go away you know say things that have happened that this was not the worst night ever there's many more worse enough with the groups that we meet at Rocky Hill I bended half a dozen groups this is the one I trust and the ones I go with I just enjoyed a company I can speak for them very few people that speak with that day become very good friends knowing will you know to the new young warriors coming home will recommence man don't go in first place we're fighting the battle that can't be won you're not going to change people have been doing something for a thousand years and eventually you're gonna leave and believe in the same place that's you you see yes no I don't understand it all right today we're over there to try to free a people to help the children and the women get an education and a woman be able not to be abused and then we're inviting the same people in the same churches in our country we want to put them into 99 11 memorial in York City want to put a mosque there it's the same people you're fighting those are there it's stupid all we're doing is bringing apostles to our country how would you say that your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general you know you don't like it come in a little lot yes I learned a lot of Brotherhood and I got to see the world just don't like war I have no use for I want anything to do with it I used to I grew up in the in a hunting family Thanksgiving you out hunting with the grandfather father brothers when I came home for Vietnam I sold all my weapons did won't have anything to do with anything I mean I was haunted myself and I found myself was being a rabbit I over the years I went back to competitive non-shooting now it's either trapshooting or like 22 or not my body can't stand loud concussion not only the noise but the the actual concussion that sets off my nervous system and it's not too hot them with the PTSD especially with some of them becomes what they're using today but I enjoy competitive shooting you have to go into a world that you're not used to the to be competitive it has to be total concentration God listen to your heart you have to know your heartbeat your respirations everything to be good if you just want to go shoot oh shoot but if I get involved in something I either want to do it all the way or I don't want to do it at all did you join any long ago all of us you do yeah pretty much no no the one I'm most active is the AMVETS and then of course they would beat the Marine Corps League I belong to VFW walk to American Legion long Purple Heart Club upon the first Marine Division third Marine Division and Vietnam veterans which ones are those two have you ever attended they they haven't but they're usually from the Nevada you know Arizona California Texas very few us at one no I haven't no I wouldn't know anybody anyway I don't remember names no I know everyone's well I run into someone like Sam Bateman only you know talking and we were a red jacket and I saw his and I saw all the names of places that says Sam I could wear your jacket Oh positive would work he was taking the bodies off this hill yeah yeah so I mean that's the only connections I have and we do the Marine Corps birthday every year you know if ever attempt there's two people from over in New York this is up in Massachusetts so I go to and there's people that I know that have been in the same area and this group in Rocky Hill we just have a new person come in oh you spend down maybe treat for months maybe a little bit more he was from the same outfit I was it lets a guy was an a company we went north he was a B company and what south yeah how would you say that your military service affected your life change discipline of course it's just a different way of looking at things I know I probably would have ended up well the PTSD changed things quite a bit but whereas I I probably would have been more outgoing early on when they didn't have the effects of the PTSD yet I was master my Lodge and a Masonic Lodge I was a member of Grand Lodge afterwards and then that's when I started from there I went downhill but then probably took the control of my life I never been a drug or alcohol abuse it I mean I may have one drink a year yeah have him to stay awake long enough just to watch the new year come in so that that wasn't part of it that part of the office of the service no I guess that is what it is now could have been worse there's just I wish the the government gave the returning veterans a fair shake they've been abuse and infer to line their own pockets and this poof that they're actually even stealing from the veterans and what they're doing today is the same and if the budget means so much that our main hospital down on West Haven it's got filthy operating rooms that's it's not right and it's a the people to doctors and nurses and any group they're fantastic too great a lot of them have associations with with the service but it's the ones that they're trying to save a dollar and that's where we have a problem I feel sorry for the veterans now but my son put 27 years in the Navy and then he still worked for the government they didn't want to lose him so they hired him on as a private contractor and his wife put in 24 years in the Navy and he served the last three never ankle or dressed as a Marine well it's been really good for them I can't say that Folsom traveled and saw the world and have a great living today [Music] I just wish take the the veterans can't even shake now it's gonna come too late for me but I'd like to see the kids that did go over and serve and and it's the same league those that are there today just not as many that they're not as so wrong because you think they just need a job there's no jobs here they have wives and children while they're in high school they need a job I mean go and put their life on the line and then they come back and what they were promised is you know stay in the line for the education that they're not going to get that they were promised I just I wish I could do more fun that's all and that's why I stay active in the few coups that I did it's to try to help the kids coming back Wow I welcome or thank you for doing your share

Channel: ccsuvhp

Views: 18,329

Rating: 4.6060605 out of 5

Keywords: U.S. Marine Corps, Khe Sanh, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Id: GN3a1c4S36k

Length: 83min 15sec (4995 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2016