Ron Morgan Interview | Echoes of the Vietnam War: Episode 51

so you were saying you uh you joined the Marine Corps in 1966 yes graduated from Michigan State and uh summer of 66 and then went to Marine OCS in August of 66. and when you went to Michigan state was it your intention to join the service after uh no sir but we back then we were all facing the draft upon college graduation and um uh I walked into the Michigan State Student Union one uh one afternoon with a buddy of mine and uh uh the officer selection officer Captain Norbert Beckerman I'll never forget him he was in his dress blues had the had a neck about as thick as his head you know and he was surrounded by some protesters sitting sitting around his booth and so my buddy and I sort of stepped through the protesters and started talking to him and lo and behold that afternoon we took the oath that afternoon yep wow did you discuss it with your family first uh no um so was it something that he said that you found really compelling or was it just the realization that you're probably going to be drafted anyway so you might as well I didn't want to be in I didn't want to be enlisted in the Army and uh the appeal of the dress blues was uh pretty strong sure yeah yeah so um you said you went to OCS and then received your commission from there yeah we had we were OCS for uh what was it 12 weeks back then um and then um got her Commission in November uh 66 and then went to the basic School uh for five months after OCS and where was that in Quantico Quantico right right yeah so what happened after basic School well uh 25 days leave and the right to Vietnam wow uh the uh at that time there was a uh a very strong need for lieutenants because there was a pretty strong uh lack of survival low survival rate I guess and so they needed a lot of tenants mostly O3 and in our infantry and artillery so uh five of us uh were the first to show up from our class at the very uh the very end of April 67. that was your arrival in Vietnam yes sir what do you remember about arriving there hot Dusty uh we were in uh Danang and it's one of the main airstrips for the Marines and and Air Force and uh we stayed in a quonset hut alongside the Airfield a lot of noise all night long and then next day uh five of us went into the uh another Quonset hut in a young lens corporal was assigning us to our our units a little Side Story the uh the lance corporal said I have one spot for uh third Force Recon and Heinz almeyer one of our classmates um raised his hand right away he was a real stud he was one of the athletic studs of our class uh and then there's a side note 10 days later he was dead he was killed on his first Patrol uh and uh 30 34 years later his body was was found and set back along with some other other people on his Patrol but they they were out in the boonies and they were never recovered until 34 years later wow anyway then I got assigned to uh first Battalion fourth Marines um and uh in a couple of days I was up at the gln on the uh on the DMZ uh with my new platoon what was that line was your first time leading a platoon um well for the first month we sort of sat at gln uh taking incoming artillery and Rocket fire from across the border uh from across the DMZ across the river um and we did very little patrolling initially then it finally went out onto the DMZ to strip if you will the strip that was bulldozed between uh Glen and kantian and uh it was it was unique I mean I had I had a good group of guys uh uh some it had been a lot a lot of them were you know veterans have been there you know almost a year and so it was uh it was a a challenge being uh being with them but uh uh I quickly uh became accepted by them uh so that was neat you remember anything in particular excuse me that was my dog um do you remember anything in particular that you uh that you learned from them to remain calm I wrote a I wrote a piece one time about the uh the weapons I carried and didn't carry um as I went through I went through uh lieutenants wanted to needed to blend in uh with the troops and so I carried an M14 for a while uh our original rifle uh that got too heavy and uh then we switched to m15s so I had an M15 for a while AR-15 um in our patrols I wanted to be up in the War towards the front um on patrols and stuff like that I ended up carrying a sawed-off shotgun which made him which made me real Genji Lieutenant had a sawed-off shotgun mm-hmm uh so I went through that evolution of uh of uh carrying various things blending in um I've talked to a couple of combat infantry platoon leaders from the Army and uh they've said that usually you'd be out there you know in in combat situations leading a platoon for for six months and I don't know if it was an official policy or an unofficial one but after six months they usually try to rotate you into a staff position because they figured the stress of leading a platoon in combat and enduring everything that your platoon endured but also having on top of that the responsibility for keeping them safe and effective that six months was a you know was about as much as they could ask and I'm I'm wondering whether the Marines were similar yeah pretty much so uh I became the senior I became the senior due to rotation and all that I became the senior lieutenant uh uh so I was uh rotated into the company executive officer officer position so I was the company XO um and I think I had made first lieutenant by that time um and then so that became more of a sometimes it was a more of an admin rear area if we were in a rear area position where I was responsible for uh you know the record books and the company office and all that kind of stuff um a couple of issues I made my I had two different captains that uh uh I was the second command and when they got shot or wounded I I took over the company uh never for very long because there's always a captain Marine captains ready to come in and take over companies so I was the company commanding officer two different times after the captains got shot and then about the eighth month period uh they made me the uh the S2 I was the intelligence officer with absolutely no training but you know uh so I I spent my last uh three four months as the Battalion S2 so if you got there you said you got there in April and Marines do 13 months right so you were there for Tet yes at the tail end of your at the tail end of your tour yeah well it came in January February then I have uh and left in May of 68 right so where were you during during Tet uh during the actual pet offensive we were 25 miles west of way um acting as security for uh some artillery units Army one 175 guns and Marine 155 self-propelled guns and they were firing uh into the oshaw valley and uh we uh we were at several different sites out out that way protecting the the uh the artillery uh groups and then later on we came back to Camp Evans uh South away right so I spent my entire time in in the i-core region uh started at gln and then finished at kantian um and uh when you came home was it were you injured or was it just your 13 months were up yeah 13 months was up I was not wounded I was uh cutting from falling several other times but I was I was fortunate to never never wanted but came home uh uh in May uh have had leave obviously in my hometown my uh home in Michigan uh on the way to Camp Lejeune North Carolina uh where I was uh first of platoon Commander in uh in Fox Fox 2-6 second Battalion six Marines and then we went on a uh uh got married in September of 68. uh and then left shortly thereafter for a cruise in the Mediterranean uh for uh what four months and down there I became uh uh the EXO executive offer an h s company then I became the commanding officer of an h s company uh you're a captain by this time uh uh not I can't remember the date when I was a captain but uh uh now I wasn't promoted to Captain until until I got up on Independent Duty so uh your was your was your new bra I mean obviously your your what your new bride couldn't come with you on this four-month Cruise right so where was she she worked for uh she worked for uh Onslow County social services uh they're they're in Jacksonville uh while uh while I was going Jacksonville Florida Jacksonville North Carolina oh I didn't realize there was a Jacksonville in North that's where that's where Camp Lejeune is okay okay uh it's over on the coast the coast of North Carolina yeah that's amazing because I'm I'm pretty familiar with that Coast I don't remember I don't remember Jacksonville Jacksonville and then uh the air station was New River okay all right and the uh Marine air base over that way was Cherry Point all fairly close to the coast so when you came back from the Mediterranean uh you were at Camp Lejeune yes yes the uh getting into the independent duty is that I was thinking about them making the Marine Corps career um and uh but I wanted to try something other than a fleet Marine Force Duty and so they came up with this uh idea that oh gee we got this Billet for an assistant inspector instructor up in Flint Michigan well that was appealing to me because uh Flint was my you know uh I grown up in Michigan my hometown was a couple hours from Flint and I of course I went to school in East Lansing so um and in an effort to find out more about the Marine Corps I took this job as an assistant inspector instructor and it was a Delta first Battalion 24th Marines that were out there the reserves that were up there uh but anyway I I guess I knew this beforehand but uh uh when I got there I realized that the priority of my assignment and my job was to be the casually Affairs officer for that part of the state uh uh that's how I got involved in all the casualty Affairs work uh from uh May of 69 through November 1970. what kind of preparation did you have for that Duty uh none I went on one casualty call with a major Johnson the the inspector instructor was John Slater uh later Colonel Slater um and I went on one call with him um to assist and then he said Ron it's all yours so I took over uh those those calls but there was no I mean they were I I guess I don't remember reading very much but I guess they were regulations there was an understanding of what how it had to be done how it should be done but it was just uh uh OJT yeah I guess I'm just surprised because you in that role you know you run into the I I would imagine you run into the you know the full range of of grief right which there are lots of different ways that that that shows up and you can't possibly on one one shadowing uh on one visit have any sense for the the range of reactions you're going to get and how to how to deal with those very true very true yeah I often say I met the I met the best of people and I met the worst of people um in that 18-month period people that uh obviously everybody everybody Grieves and everybody Grieves in a different way all right but uh uh [Music] most of my experiences that the the families the parents of the young man were were mostly honored by their service and sacrifice mostly not all um uh but so there's some really really good people that were very uh uh accepting of us because one of the requirements is is that to talk about about training one of the things you have to do is you have to uh after you sit down with them initially inform them and tell them the timeline that uh that you've been hopefully have been provided uh uh the casualty Affairs officers required to be with the family to assist with all the paperwork you know uh in getting the insurance things straightened out and getting uh back pay straightened out of receiving uh receiving the uh their uh deceased Sons uh stuff all right so that's part of the part of the requirement what's the uh the earliest visit that you remember was it your first one or was it a little farther in did when did you first have an experience in that Duty that that really stuck with you yeah first of all this one issue is this is 50 53 years ago yeah so uh uh memories of a lot of memories disappear uh they come back sometimes uh but uh uh they sort of uh Fade Into and they all sort of uh merge into merge into memories of trying to you know lose the individuality the individual experience but I remember one family just you know a typical uh solid family small town in America uh strong grief but their uh their son was a popular kid yeah and in the high school in the local area high school and but anyway it ended up where the insurance money uh uh helped help them purchase a farm you know and in the honor of the Sun um that I think I mentioned before there but there's one one that I remember very well all right is that myself and the young sergeant that I had with me uh we pulled up into the gravel driveway and the mother a very large Hispanic woman comes out running towards the car uh uh screaming hollering and I got out of the car and shouted at her across the yard he's only wounded he's only wounded uh which was I guess a violation of what you're supposed to do it but uh you know we had to deal with her heavy emotional state right away and let her know that her son was still alive uh that is something I'll remember right I guess another thing I remember too is the uh where uh Young Marines wife had started messing around already uh when when he was over overseas and uh we couldn't Define her right away and so we made the call on on his parents uh which thankfully thankfully they were together um to let them know and then and then we had to inform the the wife uh uh that he was dead sometimes casually calls turned into three calls uh you made the call at the home and the mother might have been there but the father was at work and there's several times we had to go to the father's work and or mother's work uh to find them to inform both parents uh that their son was dead so if the Marine is married I mean is there some sort of protocol that tells you who you have to inform first like if the Marine is married does the spouse top the parents uh if I remember right we were allowed to tell parents and or wife first okay but based on who was there at the address you had information came in from a marine office in Kansas City Missouri uh it gave you the you know the individual's name uh limited information about the deaths obviously the date of death uh and then it provided then it uh provided you with a next next to Kin um and uh in an address uh and sometimes it included the uh uh the religion of the individual I.E Catholic or Protestant um and sometimes you try to when you could you tried to identify the priest and or Minister uh that knew the family but that only happened a couple of times with me uh I think I had uh priests with me twice and I can't remember other things but it was a so when you showed up you had their family minister with you I mean that was the ideal situation ideal if the minister or the priest could handle it and so I had a couple of at least one situation where the uh uh the priest and her Minister was very belligerent against the Marine Corps and we had several times we had several times too when they were uh male cousins Brothers cousins whatever that uh were somewhat uh belligerent uh but we were usually able to calm that down so excuse me how many how many months did you say that you performed this Duty and how many how many calls did you make during that period yeah 45 calls in the 18 months some of those were wounded calls I I don't remember how many yeah but there were 45 calls from May 69 to uh November 1970. I don't know this for certain but I I have heard that there were casualty Affairs officers who may not have been in Vietnam but you were you had already you had already done a tour in Vietnam before you had this Duty and so I wonder how how do you think that might have changed your approach to the job or to the to the families you had to inform I'd like to thank more care more concerned based on the losses that I had as a commander in Vietnam and um as the time as the time went on I became more and more uh I don't know how to say opposed to the war and the conduct of the war uh you know we've been through President Johnson and then got into President Nixon and all that but anyway the uh uh uh it became very disheartened as uh these young men were losing their lives for uh a very uh questionable purpose one of the things he had to do is he had to hide that hide those feelings simply because of the parents that you were facing you know you couldn't let them know that you thought that their son's loss of life was uh uh useless you know you you couldn't do that you had this you know talk talk The strong talk about how he gave his life for his country etc etc um and uh so that that became tougher as the time went on but uh we had one October the 27th 1967 my company got into uh an ambush and we lost a Bravo Company bravo charlie company lost 15 people and that that was tough but I guess it uh it made me want to make sure that I I did my duty as the casualty Affairs officer the best that I could uh partially because of those losses that I suffered myself uh [Music] uh but it you know it was the uh obligation of the Marine Corps to do what we were doing yeah did you ever feel like those 15 guys were with you on these calls uh yeah so yes so yes yeah the uh one of the things we always had not always but we always had to take two people and so I went through the inspector instructor staff trying to identify who the best people or the best Marines were to take with me uh I mentioned that our first sergeant of our inspector instructor actor Duty guy he had problems controlling his emotions uh on these calls and he cried all the time and he said you know Captain I guess I was a captain by that time he says you know I just can't do this anymore uh and then I had to uh uh one black staff sergeant that went with me usually on all uh all calls that were uh you know from the black community in Flint uh but I ended up with uh and I guess uh I ended up with a young E5 sergeant that uh small guy uh stocky but small guy he was uh I remember his name is Woodard now but anyway he was a boy next door and so I looked very young at that time and so we we sort of like had an easier time blending in with the families because we both look young at ourselves and so uh as much as we I think we were appreciated more yeah like if you had been more mature they might have been quicker to blame you yeah like they might have seen you as part of the decision-making structure but if you have a young face maybe they just you remind them of their of their son yep that was the uh that was my thought yeah how did you there's a lot to deal with right I mean 45 calls in 18 months is that's a lot of grief to take on um how did you cope I mean were you just able to compartmentalize you know so that when you went home at the end of the day you know you didn't think about work anymore or how did you I can't imagine how you how you processed so much grief in such a short time other people's grief yeah um it was a challenge the uh whenever we had a funeral uh the iodized staff and some reservists joined us you know as the pallbearers and the uh the uh holding the flag and all that kind of stuff uh when we left of the cemetery and we found the closest bar and uh stopped and had had drinks uh just to uh get over that the time at the cemetery and so we uh we became real light-hearted we tended to become very light-hearted as as quickly as possible but um we had a as far as the reserve duty goes uh we had a staff who had 11 12 11 12 the active duty marines that uh that were responsible for training and controlling the the reserve unit but we had a uh we didn't spend a lot of time working hard at that yeah we about 11 o'clock we went on our our our run casual run then we played volleyball for about an hour um in the Reserve Center just to uh get over that and then sometimes after after volleyball we showered and changed clothes and uh and went went to the Diamond Bar which was close by and this includes the major and myself and first sergeant we we uh left one guy back on on duty to answer the phone at The Reserve Center and if we had a call that came in for any reason other in a casually call um you know I could be back at the Reserve Center in five minutes you know so uh we were less than dedicated to uh performing a full day of Duty yeah well I mean a half day for you guys is pretty heavy yeah but sometimes I had you know I had to come back come back to take a call and like I said it would be one of two sergeants from Kansas City that you know would say hey we got it we got one for you and then I'd have to uh selected one of the one of the other staff members to go with me and we go make the make go make the call when you received the uh information out of Kansas City you know you said that there was a timeline usually uh you had some information you could share with the families about the circumstances yeah usually very little yeah uh the date of death uh I've probably heard this before but they were uh there were several uh Friendly Fire deaths and that wasn't usually available and or shared uh at the beginning it came up later on you later how do you mean how do you mean later on in the conversation or later on and later on to uh buddies and or the commanding officer of the individual would write a letter uh somehow the families found out uh from command that there was a an issue a friendly fire I think that happened a couple of times I don't have any real knowledge of anybody in the chain of command trying to necessarily trying to hide it I think I read about it later on more than I actually experienced it um but it definitely did happen every once in a while you hear stories about men just getting in fights with each other you know there are a few really sad stories I've heard about you know essentially just one man killing another yeah would something like that have also come through that channel would you have notified families if their sons had been killed by their comrades I suppose so yeah I don't remember I just didn't know if there was a different channels I mean as far as occasionally notification you're it for your area nice I see yeah backed up backed up by your command if you will if I was indisposed I think major Slater would have had to you know make her make the calls um but I had yeah I mean uh one of our one of my classmates uh uh Tim roller was uh uh victim of sacroside uh killed by uh by some troops that didn't like him very well um so I'm and there's some stories about about uh his father being informed I can't remember uh I can't remember the details and stuff like that but it you know it costs and real issues when there were other Marines involved and uh in somebody's death yeah after 53 years it's it's challenging to remember what I remember versus what I read since then sure uh I'm a heavy I'm a heavy reader um and I think I've read a lot of or most of uh the Vietnam novels and the Vietnam uh autobiographies that have gone out and sometimes after 53 years things tend to blend themselves together yeah yeah well everybody's you know there's all sorts of science now that just demonstrates how bad we are at remembering all of us we're all just terrible at it yeah you know things things get things get munched together for everybody I think I have I have a couple of friends that are uh exactly the opposite the detail that they remember about their War experiences is just uh amazing all right um uh but those individuals are few and far between yeah yeah so did are there ways that you look back on that experience as a casualty Affairs officer and you think that that you can you can see ways that that that job changed you that are still true today I did that job did that job have a lasting impact on you as a person yes uh I I believe that most of us my classmates I'm talking about now the people that I know are new or no um uh some of the past others that are still around we all suffer from some form of PTS um and if the flashbacks happen to each of us the dreams are still there the nightmares are still there uh but it it affects each of us in different ways uh I read some books about uh uh post-traumatic stress but also post-traumatic uh growth and uh one of my results or one of my uh what's the word word I want is it I'm uh I get very emotional uh uh very quickly uh it usually involves somebody else I mean I I can cry on the drop of a dime you know uh from a motion of whatever so I'm hearing some great music or or somebody accomplishing something very um uh very good uh I get emotional over that and I don't think I ever was that way before uh but it's post-traumatic growth just means uh uh emotions are on the tip of your or uh experience um but we all we all have some level of that and it doesn't affect us in a lot of ways uh you can have PTS pretty uh pretty strongly and be very successful in the civilian world no problem uh but yeah so the the experiences uh uh of combat the experiences of being a casually Affairs officer never leaves yeah I just I I find that interesting because you know I talked to a lot of Vietnam Vets obviously in this role and and uh you know most of them are you know 70 give or take yeah right in their 70s and uh for many of them their entire lives were defined by one year out of 70. uh but when I talk to casualty information officers you know the amount of time they spent doing that job left just as big an impact as their tour in Vietnam I've also long believed that uh uh PTSD uh became an excuse or later actions um in some individuals all right they said hey wait a second I can blame this on PTSD uh for uh my uh bad actions uh later on in life that so that that's happened I know it's happened I've seen it uh where uh the experiences of Vietnam uh became their uh fallback and uh and uh and if you went if you went in a lot of cases if you went over with if you went over with issues you came back with issues if you went over into the drug scene you came back into that same scene no these are exaggerations these are one-offs all right but uh if you went over with your crap together uh uh you came back much the same or changed uh but uh you overcame the uh the issues that uh combat and or losses uh caused and in no way am I trying to downplay the whole the whole issue but um you know I'm wondering I'm wondering about the uh I read now and I understand the issue of uh of suicide veteran suicide and there doesn't seem to be a common denominator suicide is a issue with people that were not in combat all right uh other issues caused caused a lot of that and in no way am I trying to downplay it but it just uh it's interesting to try to understand the reason for veteran suicide so after 18 months in that role and 45 calls to to families um did you just get new orders or a new assignment or did you say that's enough I want to do something else now how did you get out of that job yeah the uh my expiration of active service was supposed to be uh November the 15th uh 1970. I had extended for one year to go on Independent Duty well uh I was still thinking about making the Marine Corps a career and so uh in the fall late summer fall of 1970 I applied for augmentation the linear Reserve officer you have to apply for augmentation to be accepted into the USMC all right well the problem was is that the results of the augmentation board were not going to be published until December December 17th so anyway the the major and some others pull pull strings and found out from headquarters Marine Corps that I had been I was going to be accepted for augmentation so anyway we're into November and uh uh the Sunday before um I was supposed to get out following Wednesday uh I got a call from Kansas City and they said Captain Morgan we got one for you and uh it was occasionally and uh I took down the information and thanked him very much uh and said uh came up about why I was thanking them I said well you made my decision I'm getting out of the Marine Corps on on Wednesday so that call that I got on Sunday with occasionally uh uh I went out and made the call and then you know three days later I uh uh I got off after duty and the funny the joke is if you will is that if I hadn't got that call uh on that Sunday what would my life been like uh would I have stayed in uh and if I'd have stayed in what would have happened well right when I got that call on Sunday I knew that I uh if I didn't get out of the Marine Corps if I didn't get off of active duty I had at least six more months of Duty up in Flint doing casually Ferris work and uh most likely my next Duty assignment would have been overseas uh because of my overseas control date would have meant that I probably would have been assigned back to Vietnam but that didn't that was not the reason I got out the reason I got out is because I didn't want to do any more casually Affairs stuff I might admit but I would have uh because the Marine Corps was still in Vietnam in November 70 I would have I would have gone back uh uh you know as much as I was opposed to the war you know my orders would have probably meant I was back in Vietnam and which which would have been okay I just didn't want to do any more casually Affair stuff thank you so you got that call on a Sunday you made the visit and then you left the Marine Corps you left active duty on the way on Wednesday yeah I joined I joined the reserves uh the following year uh uh we started my Reserve career I moved down to uh moved down to Indianapolis Indiana and uh uh for a civilian job and then joined the reserves down in Indianapolis and then stayed in the reserves for the next uh 24 years 26 years yeah you said you retired a colonel yes sir what'd you do in civilian life I worked I worked for various contract food service companies uh growing up in Hillsdale Michigan uh a company called Saga had the contract food service at Hillsdale College and I worked there as a high school kid all right and then uh uh when I was looking for jobs I thought about going to law school at the University of Michigan but I had a family all right um and a son on the way and uh [Music] I had to have a job so I got into contract food service with a company and then I uh my whole civilian career was in contract Food Services both as an operator uh district manager and then a sales guy I ended up uh selling contracts we're getting contracts for uh for the company so it was contract Food Service fortunately I was I had a lot of the Summers off so it was very conducive to doing Reserve work and a lot of Summers I did uh six weeks of of active duty uh in the reserves either in schools or or exercises um and then I had some one time I I was activated uh I had made colonel and I was activated to be a senior watch officer at headquarters Marine Corps uh during the Somaya uh experience so it was conducive to uh maintaining a pretty good Reserve career yeah so during uh all those years in the reserves and and all the years since have you have you been in touch have you been active at all in the Vietnam veterans community is that a yes uh well for years I was uh I was a officer and National officer in the Marine Corps Reserve Officers Association which was called macroa um and uh with a lot of Vietnam vets um the uh and then now I'm still active in the military options Association uh uh here in Charlotte and we do a lot of Veteran support activities with some some very good veteran support organizations here in Charlotte um what is that can you talk about what that work means to you well um veteran support um had a couple of uh grants that our chapter was provided for provided uh support for a veterans and I my uh thought at the very beginning is that we're going to be supporting Young Veterans and the families a lot of the support Ashley was for older veterans uh and in Vietnam Vietnam War veterans that had issues Financial issues mostly um but the uh going way back I was uh uh my wife and I took a uh one of our my wife and I went to the dedication of the wall way back when and uh we had one of the neighbors one of our neighbors from Michigan uh whose son was killed uh her uh the mother and and his sister came to our house and we went down to the dedication of the wall uh don't remember what year that was 1982 yeah that was meaningful interesting have you been there since oh yeah yeah we have a very our basic school class 367 has a very active reunion schedule which started in 2000 in 2006 I think uh with reunions and we've had several in DC and we always we always uh always go to the wall last time we were there uh gymnots uh Dan Dan Moore got Jim knots there with us and spoke and then we had a couple of our retired generals uh classmates that became General uh speak um and it's a very uh continues to be a very moving experience very moving I'm sure you're uh your 15 guys you talked about um are all together on the wall do you know off the top of your head which panel no I don't I don't remember I know I had several other casualties that are spread out you know uh based on the timeline I lost one my first my first week in country lost one of our guys purple Fitzgerald who was the son of a sergeant major which is anyway the uh uh no I don't know the panel um and the uh the The Jock who raised his hand for the Recon Duty in LA and was killed 10 days later Heinz Omar uh Memorial Day two two years ago Memorial Day my son is in the Navy or we were tires from the Navy this June but anyway he was at the Pentagon and Memorial Day two years ago uh we went to Arlington and uh I went to the grave site of uh Heinz almeyer and the other they have a common headstone that he and three or four others uh have their names on them but I stood there at heinz's uh headstone and read off the 47 names of our classmates that we lost uh uh back then we say classmates you mean your OCS classmates yeah OCS and Basic School the 47. 47. yeah 10 of which were uh helicopter helicopter guys that uh we were in OCS with but back back in 67 those guys that were going to flight school did not go to the basic School they went right to Pensacola so uh 37 ground officers and 10 helicopter Pilots but then we have a moment then we have a memorial at the Marine Corps Museum uh out in separate Park that we put up in 2000 2012 with all the names on it was there anything else you want to say that about about casualty Affairs work that I didn't ask you or just any final thoughts on what it was like to have that job well in hindsight says it was an honor to have that job all right and uh uh I don't know if I've fully realized the impact uh uh that it had on me um I survived you know uh I think it says an awful lot that you know you were thinking seriously about staying in the Marine Corps and then you got you got one more call one more call and that was enough and you just said yeah I remember that vividly remember that Sunday and uh do you remember that call I mean do you remember yeah well because you don't remember the I don't remember the individual I know that I had a deep concern about following up making sure that somebody followed up with a family uh you know after I left but uh Majors major Slater took over uh from then on you know as far as the paperwork and all that kind of stuff goes um but yeah that was it I mean uh thinking that I had to do that continue with those jobs those those responsibilities another another six months or so uh just you know said I said no

Channel: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

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Id: ucfpvkzjl-g

Length: 59min 22sec (3562 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023