Veterans History Project: Vietnam Veteran William Herod

we are about to begin the veterans history project interview my name is Anthony Cara now I am the genealogy coordinator of the Shabbat Township District Library in Schaumburg Illinois I will be interviewing William Herod US Army regarding his military service today's date is January the 22nd 2019 the student the interview is being conducted in the Schaumburg Township District Library TV studio bill thank you for participating in the veterans history project thank you for your military service and it is a privilege and an honor to conduct this interview with you thank you so let's start at somewhat at the beginning give us a little bit of background where were you born I was born in Chicago Illinois an inner-city kid and what year 1948 and how about your mom and dad what are their names my mother's name was viola and my dad's name was Bill William Fred Herod okay he worked as a in a steel manufacturing company and my mother was a homemaker and did you have brothers and sisters I had a sister and a half brother or a stepbrother okay and what are their names John and my sister's name was Susan okay and school wise where did you go to grammar school high school yeah I went north west side and went to Nixon grammar school and then it went to Kelvin Park High School after high school I went to junior college okay and what area is there because I awesome from the Chicago area so what would you call that area where you grew up in Northwest Side of Chicago okay all right and so now you went to what college did you go to you said winter Wilbur Wright junior college was called Community College now but back then Wilbur like junior college okay okay and and were you able to finish your degree program there yeah I finished two years of so sheís degree and the day I graduated I got my from the US Army congratulating me and I've now drafted Wow the day I graduated talked about timing I guess yeah had you been let's say even while you were going to Wilbur Wright college and stuff like that and you've been employed were you having a job or you a full-time student I worked full-time as a full-time student I worked full-time in national supermarkets okay well that's good to know so now you got your letter from Uncle Sam that you were drafted and and what was the process how did that what were the next steps you had to do well they gave you so many days to go down my dad took me downtown to the induction Center remember shook hands and I went in there and you were inducted down there given some tests given a physical and with a whole bunch of other kids some kids from Northwest Side okay did you have friends or did you know of other people that were in the same induction process I had one friend who was in the same induction process but the other kids were from sure's high school and other high schools north west side they were drafted also okay wow that's pretty it's pretty good a bunch of people at least she had some friendly faces our friendly people from the neighborhoods and stuff like where they had drafted like you everyone was drafted every but I was with ESA okay so what was the next steps when you got I guess sworn in and then what happened after that then they put you on buses and then they take you over to Fort Leonard Wood Missouri which was basic training everything was done by buses yeah no airplanes busting to Fort Leonard Wood for basic training and then a bus after that down south of Fort Polk Louisiana or advanced infantry training now what was the interval of training at Fort Leonard Wood that was basic training introduction into the military basic how to shoot a rifle out of March there take four guys I think we're not eight weeks oh yeah and it was more or less indoctrinated into the military following orders and doing what they wanted to do and there was one thing that kept on saying hurry up hurry up and was hurried and wait I hated that but was creeping wait wherever you want and so after that was done first introductory training part you said you went to Fort Polk yeah you went home for two weeks and then I went down to Fort Polk Louisiana for advanced infantry training there they gave you a detailed training on different kind of weapons what the Southeast Asian was gonna be like because Fort Polk Louisiana was in a hot warm wet climate almost like Vietnam so the inductor than you're doing that was it during this process that you had any choices that you were allowed to make on your own direction to go into or was everybody pretty much assigned the same everybody was more or less assign the same thing I thought that since I had a degree from Wright junior college that I would be off of some material but now you a number and that there was like a group two people came and a good people left that's how it was and so how so that how long was the process at Fort Polk another eight weeks yeah and then there you learned how to shoot a 45 an m14 rifle an m16 rifle m79 grenade launcher learn how to throw grenades how to shoot a light anti-tank weapon any kind of weapon that you would need when you're in Vietnam they trained you with qualified how about the training of like tactics or something always they had left to the officers know they had hit training on hand-to-hand combat training on how to fight with a with a no weapon with just a rifle against somebody else when you have no more bullets left and stuff like that and they had us use I never forget this we had to use pugil sticks they were long sticks with foam at both ends and then everybody was in a big circle and one guy that go out there and then he would call nothing go out there and you'd have to beat the heck out of each other all you had was a hell man with the face mask okay and you had the first guy in the ground he leaves that another guy takes his place it's like you know this is what you're gonna do in case you don't have any bullets and you have of where your rightful you got to fight with the rifle strange but that's real wise did you have like during either the beginning part of training at Fort Leonard Wood Fort Polk did you have like any discoveries of something about yourself that was like wow I didn't realize this was as bad or I didn't realized I could be as good as I was at this well all the exercises and the running was no problem me because I was I was an athlete but all these weapons were all brand new to me and if I like saying I want to shoot this I'm gonna reading to shoot at somebody I'm gonna kill somebody and not gonna come on team but there's gonna be somebody and they're gonna be shooting back at me that was the biggest transition for me thinking that this is a real you know these weapons are real and these are you know they'll go the bullets go right through you look at you and then what have you so it's not like you shoot and you fall down dead like in movies and you get up and say goodbye you know it's like these things are real and they're very very potent were you getting a sense at their time of what the next step was gonna be you know and when you were gonna be sent over well we kind of got the idea that if you went to advanced infantry training school they weren't going to senator Germany everybody wanted to go to Germany and what-have-you but when you go to Fort Polk and you trained for that similar tactics similar climate as Vietnam we knew where most of us were gonna go to Vietnam and let's say you did the training part was done were you allowed to get back home before they shipped you out I think for Rico - yeah and then they then they shipped you out from there or actually my dad took me to Midway I got in a plane went to Seattle Washington and Seattle Washington you you know all the other military people and then you take planes over the Vietnam okay so what did your parents think of you when you came back that time just before being sent overseas well there my dad was a little apprehensive because he was a chief in the Navy and he thought I should have went in the Navy but everybody in my neighborhood went to high school graduated when the Navy for years came back and got married I Greg from high school and I went to junior college I didn't do like everybody else and then I was going to work for a whole year to get some money so I'm going to university Illinois okay but they got me before I had a chance to do that and so but by my mom was a little scared but nobody in the block at that wasn't Vietnam when I was in there three more of the people on my block were in Vietnam and then that's when that's when reality hit you know her my mama did did you feel that the training that you had and all the physical activity that had bumped you up beef two up did you feel different yourself oh it's still a skinny kid but they don't brainwash you but they say would be the best you can be and stuff like that and those guys are small and we're big and we're bigger and stronger and we have more things behind us like the Air Force and the Navy and that all those people can be behind you that it should be no problem okay so now did you get you get orders too now that you have to meet someplace go back from your visit from Chicago and now we got the orders when we left advance that when we left Fort Polk we got orders they say go home and that scariest thing that I knew something was up was when no drill sergeant said go home make peace with your maker and then report for duty over in Seattle Washington he was an infantry guy from Vietnam so okay I know he was looking at all of us and I can't help but think that he was saying some you're gonna make it some of your heart that's why you said make peace with your maker in what year I don't think I asked you what year was this that you were actually drafted them 1969 okay and I think from even just the recollections of what I understand about that time / that was sort of the busiest heaviest parts of our involvement there I think what it was you know yeah it was pretty busy but that also at that time there's a lot of like negative press coverage and stuff like that this didn't have in the beginning but yeah okay so now when you have to do your reporting to get shipped out wherever it was everybody who had the orders you all met up at some some central place and then you all went up together to say yeah we all took plane from all the places met and Seattle at the airport there were buses waiting for us there to take us to Fort Lewis Washington okay and we were we stayed there they checked everything out and then I think a day later they we went on a plane flying tiger airline I forget that my entire Airlines from CLO Washington and I flew over to Japan then to Alaska than the Vietnam okay did you have any problems getting over there with the trip itself it must've been a long trip feels long trip but it wasn't you know wasn't that bad okay so now you arrived in Vietnam what's your first gut feelings when you disembarked off the plane well Flying Tiger Airlines flew into Cam Ranh Bay so we would get off the plane and would be walking over to these these as buses to take us where we're going to go and there'll be a line other guys facing the other direction gonna go on the plane okay so we'll I'm I'm a little kid I'm like 5 foot you know five foot 850 pounds and I'm looking at ladies other guys they look bigger and stronger and they look tougher than I am and I'm kind of scratching my head you know hope I'm as good as these guys here because these guys made it but they're looking at us you know kind of judging us what have you and then we went in the bus and we don't - Cam Ranh Bay - a big compound and there we waited for almost a week to get our name called when I name was called and they gave us they flew us to where we're gonna be in Vietnam Cameron Bay was like a staging area where all the new all of their new draftees recruits were coming in to replace others in other parts of Vietnam and stuff like direct so you waited for a week how is it acclimating to what it was in Vietnam did it seem like the Fort Polk experience really did prepare you yeah and it more or less did during that time we had pull guard duty on all the bunkers around camera a like them daytime we'd have to sit in there and then we wait for our name to be called also they gave us some kind of training where they would bring like 30 of us in this area and they would be by we're all over there and they toast this is the enemy they're part of Vietnamese guy this is the enemy and he's called a sapper ese pper and they showed how he would start in the back of the barbed wire and crawl through the barbed wire and then right up to the front they won that show us that this is how ingenious these little guys what area and using a sapper who does something like that has explosives so they one that can press upon that set even though we are the best and their brightest and all the stuff like that these people can sneak through the Bible air with explosives and can do lot of damage that was part of our education before going out in the field was was waiting a week about maybe the average that everybody waited for were there people that waited longer to get I waited a week and I didn't see anybody else that I knew they came in with me so they came in pretty quick turnaround the elect and so once what was the process of how you got notified to go report to your ultimate location well we've all gathered in the morning and they call the names out and we got to go to a certain location and from there we'll be in a helicopter and they would send us over to where we were designated we went we were we replenished men in the field over either on the way going home or there's been some contact and there was short people whether people are killed or wounded or what have you they had to be replenished and that's what they did with us okay and again as the Train that you got for infantry it fit their needs and they weren't looking for other kind of specialists or anything like that they were just what we're all private first class all qualified on m16 rifles and things like that so they just plugged in where they need in them okay so what was it like actually reporting to your first location and well I thought we'd have to go out in the field and we breathed up hundreds of guys now they actually flew us over to duck Foley duck phone and from ducks well they took us a truck and we went to a village called van Tron and at that time we didn't know what it was but that was part of the pacification program we didn't go out in the field and hump or walk the fields 3-3 you know 30 days out of the month we went into a village where that was our base of operation of a Vietnamese village okay and they interred they told us about the pacification program you're now in that and this is what you're gonna do decide you're gonna do it and was that sort of like a new technique tak that we were doing to start the pacification program a thing called Vietnamization where their Army and the Air Force worked with the Vietnamese Army and what have you when the pacification program what they did is they corralled all the people into one particular area secured it with barbed wire and the GIS or we lived in the village with the people we learn part of their house and they lived in the part of the house the people could work the fields during the day and come back to the village at nighttime nothing was stolen like the Vietcong before this was all instituted the Vietcong would raid their village at nighttime take all the food they needed or take their sons or daughters to make them Vietcong and stuff like that so the Army said we're going to pacify them we're going to protect them and we're going to be their friends and the people that are in the village which were villagers and also pieps and our SPS our popular forces and harvests our regional forces they're not army Republican Vietnam their third local local and then we would train them on our missions working out of that village okay and what what part of the country of Vietnam is the village that you were in located and north central south well Vietnam was was cut into two three four different areas one two three and four one being the northernmost area near the Demilitarized Zone and that's where my section was Saigon was and the third I think the third part down way down south never saw Saigon and so I don't know how that is but okay what was the army through the pacification program doing it for more villages around the one that you were in or were you guys sort of like a standalone trial that they were doing well we were in Bravo Company and Bravo Company had one platoon was in the village and I was in petunias like 30 guys and also the mortar platoon was in there which is like 15 20 guys and also the captain of the company was there further down the road there was a city called mo Duck there was another platoon down a mobile duck and that was run by lieutenants and then there's also another area called the bridge which another platoon secured that with PFS and irfs what have you there was no lieutenant down there but each the two villages we were the heart of the pacification program and to my knowledge I wasn't aware that anybody else in Vietnam did that there's a book called a distant challenge and the chapter is written called pacification Duc pho by the captain who had captain boy Harris and he wrote all about it and explained everything and when I said Correll everybody together let the people work we protect them we teach them how to fight someone would wear and go they can be self-sufficient what was the total size of the unit that was in ductal flooring at this I mean was it hundreds of soldiers there were like 30 soldiers in our village okay and there were thirty up in MO duck and I think there maybe 20 at the bridge okay so it's not a huge force no what was an average day like for you right there out there we had three things do we just did over and over and over again there were three platoons in in my village which is van Chong village one would stay in the village during the day warmer patrol in the vicinity during the day and one would have ambushes at nighttime that rotated every of heavy every day you may be something different but those are three things happen every day stayed in secured the village they Patrol and then nine ambush so thirty people are responsible for doing all these three functions then it sounds like it well different squads different squads would do that you know like my squad like five guys there's supposed to be 12 guys in a squad but in reality only nearly at five in Vietnam but when we went out on patrol we went out with the RFS of the PF so we showed them how to do this - how to do that how to throw a grenade I'm shooting stuff like that and so that's that's when you had see you had over here yeah yeah yeah yeah hit about 30 people so and each one you know some guys stayed home some guys were on sick call what have you a quick go out because he had their problems what have you so that's not warrant how far when you went out on patrol but how far the distance did you go from the village well they call it clicks but it was probably like the most we had like three to four miles what have you and then you would go out there and you would come back but you go different ways out in different ways back and we were there a lot like helicopter support in this too because I know that there is a whole process of warfare that we were using with helicopters that was many used by the companies that that that they called the grunts that walked all the time we stayed on the village we didn't use helicopters the only time we called in helicopters was where needed gunships to help to help us what have you so we very rarely did we ever get helicopters come to get us okay sometimes we did when that village down the way modak got got overrun they came and took us got helicopters cuz way to get down there quick they said it took all of us and dropped us over Modoc to help them out but most the time it was you walked everywhere you went in the mr. Diaz program okay and again the heat I'm sure you're gonna tell me that it was sort of like a lot of heat out there any humidity yeah when I went there it was in November and the it was during the rainy season and it rained 24/7 for like four or five weeks everything was mud and if you have any kind of like a sore if you got ringworm they call that the dink sore and you always carry extra dry socks things like that but it was you know and then after that it was hot very very hot even though we would do patrols and jungle is called triple-canopy jungle there are so many layers that it was called triple-canopy even that they're still hot because they're still moist you know oh the whole countryside was was wet and hot or wet and cold in the monsoons what was it like going out on your first patrol real scary but we hadn't hit any contact yet so you're still full of you know young whole stuff like that the teaching in advanced infantry training but the thing that that that we had across a river and went across the river we had a whole rifles above our heads and things like that and then everybody got the other side of river and everyone starts taking out insect repellant okay what do you guys doing he said look at your neck and leeches I hate leeches they cling to everything your neck all of you couldn't feel them but when you go through there when you cross a river those leeches are clean to you like that and you take insect repellent and they come right off or sometimes we smoke we touch them in a cigarette they come off when you take a packet of salt those salt them and they come right off my first patrol when you went out on patrol what was the time period that you were out of the village then for yeah it's probably around 45 hours you leave at and you're on radio contact all the time so you have to everywhere you go maybe 15 every 30 minutes you have to say you what's your situation you just sit with your situation report you have tell me where you are and what you're doing if you have contact or what you see so let's say you would be a successful patrol or something like that you guys would just come back to the village then and then maybe the night operation would then start but it would be with another group of another people go out at nighttime right okay how was it when you went out the first time at night real scary you know because you know where you're going you just trust a guy other veterans who were to take you in the right place you know and there's the guy who runs it usually a sergeant and he's been there longer than anybody else heat when one of us goes and tells you what to do with how to do it and you just follow these orders you know okay and so let's say is you rotated through all these three operations and so what was it like being actually when you were in the village them well if you're night you sleep into during the daytime what have you and a few other time if you're in the village during the daytime usually are in a bunker or you talk with the people or the captain comes over they talk to you tell you what's going on in the area what's new or who has been hit where the Vietcong have been stuff like that and the lieutenant like he had the captain had lieutenant over over us and he would come and want us to say the same thing also okay how about your ability to communicate back home with your family and stuff was that pretty good at least because obviously it's before internet and stuff like that and everything was the old-fashioned writing process right everything was written and you have you ready to letter you put it in the envelope and you break free across it anyways it would take 70 days to get home and then they would be and they take seven days to get back and so it was like a 14 day process okay and then sometimes my mother would we put like a care package cooking something and bringing that and they send it'll take longer than that we'd take longer than seven days to get that but yeah and then when you get it it's like leaves Christmas and then all your buddies come around what do you got what he got and you got to share anything did you right back home frequently and did you receive letters frequently I received maybe my maybe I wrote me every other week home I didn't want to write a whole bunch because I don't want her to get too scared what's going on and things like that because they were always watching the news or watching TV my dad bought a huge map of Vietnam and I tell him where we were and he'd look in the map see oh he's here today or he's going up a key or he's going over here and I don't want to tell him a whole bunch of what we did but some of the stuff that happened I couldn't tell him but because I believe to even when you wrote back home there were sensors right going over your stuff what's your role so they said but I've never I've never I've never even happened they never told me okay well you must have been writing good stuff that wasn't cross Anna lioness well I when the really bad stuff happened I told him I couldn't talk about it you know and and they never asked why did you get anything that was really special there that you wanted to receive from home when you got the packages from your family well you know we lived in the village in Liberty this one house is a straw house two rooms and it was five kids in a mother and father and here we are taking half of their house Bible sgi's and you got to know the kids and stuff like that and they were very nice you talk you know folk in English they talk you know GI this other kind of stuff that but they were generally pretty nice there were via Kong in there which we found out later but not invented I live with and the kids were young and I would talk to them about you know you know the United States and stuff like that and I told my mama I'm talking to him they may or may not understand do this for me please send me the viewmaster you have at home and a little little how much little card so they sent me a V Max and they and then I showed him this and then lift up the light and they click that and they their jaws dropped and they were my buddies from that day for real a that's pretty good to know when you were in the village did you feel that that did you feel many from the villagers that were maybe really antagonistic towards you guys that literally you're living in their homes you're in a village for them did they did they get a sense that the protection process that you were offering was ultimately helping them yes overall they did the men didn't say much and the women were more vocal you know because they don't do this talk to you that this is this is my house do stuff like that in Vietnamese terminology and what that like that the men will resign that this is what's gonna happen and after a while they became pretty good pretty pretty laid back with us I'd even have when they would have food they would offer us some of their food and when he would make rice wine they often have some of the rice wine which I'm not a big drinker and that stuff like a little sip and that is gonna take anymore but they were drinking like it's sooo nothing but they would offer us their some of their food and they made these big rice everything was rice based they would take they have big bins of rice which they work in the field and then they sold and then one big bin must have been around four foot wide about four foot tall and they would always scoop the rice out there and cook it and sometimes they make it into a paste and then they would put it on a flatus and bake it in the Sun and that was the bread it was like a wafer they would give that to us and we'd eat it oh this is good land no seasoning whatsoever but we had that we had their fish which was wavy and their rice wine and your in your rice bread just out of curiosity did you share any of your own sea rations or whatever the combat food was they had with them to see what their reaction would be we always tried to do that they would never eat it really what they would do is they would take it and then the kids to duck fo and sell it and use that money to bring back to their father with anything like that it made it like eating our food even when we had stuff left over what have you they would they would eat it so even while you were based in the village was it mainly that you were that you were surviving off of C rations and combat rations or did you have the ability to cook up anything yourselves everything was with C rations sometimes that phone would make stew and they depended big metal things they would bring on a bus and they tell them off the bus and maybe once this was the military bringing the military the army and I think maybe once once a week they would throw something up there and be through school or whatever you know but it wasn't very good but it was better than serious but b8c reckon all the time okay so how long let's say you know you'd been there what maybe a couple weeks already and all of this was unfolding in ed and the pacification process would you were you going to be scheduled to stay in that one village the entire tour through your pacification program or were you gonna be moving around they never told us but we were there for eight months I was afraid months and there was there a month before I got there okay and they never really tells that and the villagers always ask us are you gonna leave what had you I said no we're not gonna leave until all VCI crocodile crocodile bees killed okay and the captain here said well yeah we're gonna be this and eventually you're gonna train these people and somewhere down the road will they leave and they're gonna take over and they're gonna defend your own village okay should wait did you have any sense that from the beginning when you started at the village until let's say that eight-month period ended did you feel that there was significant progress that the protection was working to me it was okay I know people hated Vietnam war and stuff like that but in this particular program okay it felt good that see if the villagers could make their own of grow their own crops and keep all their own crops we had a young boy deal who was 11 years old 12 years old he would be perfect target for the VC to take to take VC he stayed all the time so that was nice to see that okay secondly the the family I had with actually took some iron and some sea reactionary boxes and some tin and they made it like a little school out of that so while they were there in the particular village they had a they built a ceramics or a little school for the kids and India would teach and then follow teach and all the kids would come over there maybe 10 15 kids who come there and it was like an education for that they didn't have that before if that was around they probably ought to go to duck pole which is 20 miles down the road with Angela but they felt secure enough to do this to educate their village new stuff like that so look I thought that was a positive thing that we had okay and was basically the protection that was around the entire village was just barbed wire strung around with barbed wire and then we would have we would put claymore mines which are square rectangular little things with the thousand babies and explosive behind it and there'd be a wire and we click that and then the electricity would hit the seafloor hit the babies and anything that would shred within 30 feet of it 1,000 people you go at it so we had by warrior and we had claymore mines in that and then also we had like five bunkers built of sandbags all around there which we would have to man doing today or man during the night time and we had skylight scopes which you can look through that thing and everything is green back then nowadays it's a lot better but you have a satellite scope so when there's no light at all you could turn that and see if there's any moving on the field around the village did you feel that you always had support from the back lines area if something were to happen well we we were attacked four or five times in when it when they really started hitting that's really heavy we would call on the radio for gunships from duck fo and within five minutes it would be over here and then the village would be here and then the VC of NVA would come and try and shoot you know stuff like it when they sat Rockets we knew where it was gonna be a battle would have you so we would call the gunships on a duck phone and they would come and they'd be two of them one was called Ace of Spades the Vietnamese were very superstitious and piece of Spades they didn't like so that particular helicopter gunship for the ace of spades on it so it would come from from duck fo and we should even have you and then the helicopter come around and he would just completely annihilate anything around their circle then he would leave and the other guy was up here came down he took this place okay so they basically work the perimeter right for wherever it was too obvious ly so they wouldn't protect you guys on the inside right perimeter Wow and so for this time period you know that the eight months and stuff like that you're you were just you know in the village night patrols day tiny and all the stuff and everything like that did you have any close calls oh I knew was close calls we had that the one that were sweetie summer 26 1969 and we had went out on patrol and there were five GIS and two popular forces and we were gonna go on a trip on a patrol way out and we took it a mile or two and we were going across a river and we heard some noise on the other side of the river so we got behind a rice paddy dike and we blew an ambush on them and we thought we did pretty darn good because there's a fire power we got a lemonade surprise it was this at night at all at night time and it was cloudy so we couldn't see anything okay and then the clouds moved and the moon came and moves real bright and also me saw what we we flew the amber shine there's two men be a so we were really grossly outnumbered what have you but anyways they shot back at us and then the guy next to me I was hit with a like a law even rocket and he got it went through the dike and through him and with him and everybody else also everybody's getting hit Frank RC is over here and I'm over here and they exchanged a couple times the person who got hit was our radio operator so we had no way of calling for help okay so that was kind of scary you know Here I am a North West Side kid really had too many fights in his life and here I'm fighting for my life so anyways after a few minutes they went kind of got silent and the captain who was like five miles away in the compound or two the compound couldn't get a hold of us captain boy Harris who's Gary Sinise's from Allah and anyways he said I can't don't know where these guys are I'm how to help them we can't go out in the middle of nighttime see where they are we really don't know where they are we know in the general vicinity we don't do everything do it shoot illumination so they popped lumination all over the valley and all son the NVA saw the illumination being popped and they thought maybe these guys to get a home hold of somebody in there get reinforcements you know because they kept trying to come across the river over here over here and we tend to come on no you do what you have to to stop up and stuff like that Mike wasn't left and that was on the right and the other guys were kind of really gonna do much because they were they were wounded anyways after all the the illumination burnt out we just grabbed a buddy and pulled everybody through the rice paddy dikes into the jungle and then for some reason the NVA never they could they stopped trying to cross the river so lucky for us so we stay there all night okay and we just put our Claymore amount I play more mines out put all I am you in front of us in case we had to use it instead of going down here you know and during the daytime six o'clock that morning we looked over there that anything was gone so one dead guy in the water over there so frank says there's no way for them to know where we are who we are so he says you guys stay with the wounded guys and he's gonna go walk at the village so went all the way back to the village by himself and then he called Nelson maybe an hour later helicopters coming all over the place helicopter gunships helicopter was metal in the nighttime or is this early at 6 o'clock in the morning he left at 6 so this about 7:00 7:30 so often it's all over us and I see Frank come with the company over there that was that was nice so Frank we got a wound on the helicopters you search for the guy's body next to mine couldn't find it actually the body was cut too and with water we didn't find it until two weeks later down there girl and had you so the wounded were taken off Frank and I went back with the with the company with him and we debriefed by the captain Harris back there when you went out on these patrols how much gear how much ammo how much all kinds of stuff did you have to bring with well usually have a you have two or three bandoliers of m16 rifle okay you have more clip in there and that's dirty why they're supposed to be thirty round to a clip we never put thirty rounds in there because it would jam so you were 2728 anyways then you have a band lair here been here and lay around your waistline the m79 guy and i cleared in 79 for a while we'd have a vest of all the m79 is it grenade launcher and blue grenades like this would you open the briefs like a shotgun and you shoot it juda grenade along a long ways away you had a vest with all these different m79 rounds on that baby thirty what have you usually a Frank Garcia was a big guy sometimes he would carry the m60 machine gun which was heavy Frank with the big guy 63 251 but he would have to have been players extra that and sometimes we'd have to carry it manually of that because you couldn't carry all the ammunition for that the m16 guys carry theirs and you had grenades you carry the two or three good age you have carry usually a flare what have you in case of problems yeah okay we smoke grenades in case something happened you have to pop up smoking and thrown in there and then we and then when the meta bat would come over here they'd have to identify what smoke that is before the came down so it's specific by collar right because sometimes we would sort of smoking a doll son smoking anyway over there would be done the PC would have a smokin eight you know then we have to tell the health care guys know our smokers this and they got the the smoke grenades through Americans or them how they got smoke grenades you know anyway so then they tried to do that to attract the helicopter to come by them and then do an ambush I shall we have to do another smoke grenade out there and then that would more less and then that the helicopters here I'm not coming down till I get the gunship here so the gunship would come over here and then when that country came then he came down the matter that guy came down guys so what how much weight do you think you wanted wound up carrying on a normal not a regular with the rucksack when you walk it when you're walking this is about fifty pounds but we have to sometimes if you're walking this 60 75 pounds because you have to have your ammunition sometimes you have to have a mortar because the mortar rounds everybody has to carry more around one guy has to quick here we the mortar play with you real heavy so big big I would do that but you don't have to carry your your ammunition I mean issued by the m60 machine gunner and sometimes a mortar round and plus your hand grenades and stuff like that and your food and you know you didn't you had maybe a t-shirt ready socks it's about all and if you needed anything else your tough luck you don't get it yeah well that seems like an immense amount of stuff that you had to Carol I mean it's obviously to save your life if anybody did it but it's not it's not because anyone special I'm a should be understood everybody did the same thing we didn't know any better you know the same thing that sounds amazing so it seems me like it in a way your description of this at least I get a sense that your backs were covered when you were in trouble and it seems like the helicopters and support came in along the radio man as long as you read it was operating so what what other experiences did you see so you've been there for like say eight eight months you were coming near the end did you have any idea what the next things we're gonna be for you because your time period in Vietnam was a year right so eight months was almost done let's say at duck though what was next in lying for you well it what you had is you have to if you want it's called humping in the boonies so you just the helicopters come pick you up and you deposit over here and you walk around and look for stuff and nothing happens they come and pick you up and they put you over here and then every couple maybe two months if something called stand down they would pick you up and you'd bring it back to duck boat for four days to three or four days therefore you could get a shower drink some coke or beer what have you sometimes you had like a little short Filipino band would come and they'd play the show then after that you suppose you recharge and they put you back over here over there over there it was this this activity you were doing now the the patrols out there in the open what was this in the ductile area or was this a whole nother part of Vietnam that you were in no well Duc pho was around here on 20 miles south of us oh yeah and then van trunk we were more or less by ourselves and then up here you would have Chu Lai so it was like you in the middle it was unfortunate by the one that poor sections are Vietnam and there is no heat no electricity one well for the entire village everybody take that you know you wash yourself what have you no bathrooms you know gee I better make no bathrooms and kind of a big oil container half put two by fours over it sit on that and then you had to burn that put put fuel in there then burn it have you the Vietnamese no big deal they had water the head of a bathroom they go in the rice paddies in excess when you were in the bathroom you know and what we got to do is dig a hole in the ground put a mortar tube into the hole put rocks in it that's right that's where we urinate so when you were doing this I mean you were basically then I would in the open all the time you didn't even have a village or a place to retreat back to you were out in the open and they'd you got picked up and just yeah but you were usually there with like a whole bunch of guys maybe 60 guys okay so is a larger amount of men they were out there doing this as opposed to how much he had in the villa rent stuff like that and was this again morning noon and night operations you were doing or was this mainly daytime operation say time you would help like time somebody once glad to go to a bush over here maybe once got to do what how much over there so the VC wouldn't come and get the big main area but that's that's how was when you they call humping abilities so what if you thought that there was some success coming from the pacification program part in the village what did you think about this aspect of it you know there during the daytime and you come back here at nighttime did anybody have that at nighttime that's why the first case was was my opinion because what you had they couldn't get but when you're humping their ponies you're over here you're not stationary here you may find the village or or BC what have you then you take them and you put them back on the helicopter and then you go over here and they'd come right back over there it was their neighborhood it was our country you know another thing when you catch somebody our instructions were if they have a pamphlet called a chi-wai pamphlet you could be in a terrible fire fight what have you and then if it stopped and they had this pamphlet and they hung up in the air it's a chi-wai pamphlet I mean open arms we'd have to stop what we're doing and then we have to take him in then they would be sent on a helicopter sent back to the rear re-educated and come back out in the field and both of you help find us help help us fight the economy like that did you ever have ever ever have anyone actually prevalence in our village we had one shoe high in the village he was the Vietcong in the in the neighborhood that was caught and actually been wounded with back educated they put them back in their neighborhood and back in our village and he helped us in the beginning helped us where the booby traps were he told us what trails not to go down what have you he's really really good and then he got he got to hit one time and then he got trapped like a booby trap and then that his own demeanor change he didn't wanna go on anyway you know would help us and stuff like that but he was actually given clothes given a monthly salary and give it a bullets and stuff like that you had to try and come help the Americans stuff like that in Magan he was good at the end he wasn't he was too scared of anything okay how about friendship and comradery with your your fellow soldiers there it was good because you were tight because in combat you got to rely on your friends what have you got to have your back the only crime with Vietnam is there is a constant rotation of people you could have come in with six guys and then some of that will do what have you or they going different Squatch and you never seen okay it's not like everybody came in and everybody left together there was a constant you have 30 days or 60 days you come and get something brand-new I the squad I was initially in I think we must have had like all together right 20 to 25 different people throughout this month I was there some guys that wounded so I'm going to killed some guys uh could take it and they went back into the rear one heavy like that so you never really bonded we bonded when there was combat okay after combat I wasn't a I was in the squad with five black guys okay and they'll not like me there's because I was at that time I was very good at the m79 and we were very close very tight with him and I guess I ought see them on the street today see how you're doing stuff like that but we would type then but when they went to the rear they drifted off into their friendships with him all the years out that year I was there I never I saw a friend on Facebook but I never saw anybody face-to-face that was good yeah even the guy in my neighborhood when she was killed with him but all the other people I've joined different organizations Vietnam VFW haven't found any veterans on a couple on Facebook a couple of my friends in New York we've talked but that's about it as far as face to face hopefully maybe even an interview like this when it'll yeah hopefully through us or just going through the Library of Congress that it may open up and start right there for you because I've gone on websites and I've looked at people I looked at people on Facebook I've looked at people on Google that no luck so far two guys in New York did you get the opportunity to get a full blown iron hour where you could get away completely and I know from what my understanding of that during the Vietnam process was used as the soldiers you were able to actually get removed from the front lines go off to some other countries well some guys yeah we got seven days hour an hour okay and some guys went to Hawaii to meet their wives a guy named a Tom Ridge was a wonderful surgeon fever Lily give Pennsylvania mayor and Elsa was not only a security guy he went home to see his they went to Hawaii to see wife got appendicitis never came back some guys went to Australia some guys went to Bangkok Thailand I went to Hong Kong but I never been to Hong Kong I saw pictures there so you have seven days in Hong Kong the first day they're telling you about what to do when that's do what to beware of and stuff like that and the other days they sends you out there you gonna be back here at this time so that's what we did you know you go out there and you're drinking you your party what-have-you but they also had the particulars call but it was like a gift shop for GIS and I bought tons of stuff and I said home because I bought three suits sent them home to my tailor my dad said get some TaylorMade's I bought Japanese kimonos from my mother and my sister and my grandsons up I might my nephew what had like that so I spent more time doing that than I probably haven't had been fun but now when you went to to Hong Kong were you with members of your same unit or was this if you went by yourself and others went by themselves and by yourself frequently you looked back to Duc pho they put you on the plane who's going to Hong Kong put you on a plane going to Hong Kong and and that was it it was by yourself yeah and you had one chance to do that was that near the end of your year once a year Yeah right is that near the end of the time now that was I think I think I was there in July what have you somewhere on there near the end but yeah I always wanted to see another part of the world besides Vietnam but and I know anything about Australia and Hawaii had nobody in Hawaii for so I figured I'd go to Hong Kong cos different find the world okay so now you come back and you're is it the same process you were sort of being used as bait going out to these various open areas and trying to make contact well you come I came back to the village and we stayed another month or so there okay and then they said okay now we're gonna leave they feel that there's bitter stuff they could be self-sufficient have you we are not gonna be humping now for the next few months what had you so and when you're done when you're humping around it's like you're relying on the mcavee military assistance command Vietnam they look and see where the problems are where the potential NBA or VCR talk to the army and they say okay they were here and they plan out their strategic move and how to lock in force you go over here and stuff like that you rely on them to tell you where you gotta go we have no idea where the VCR we knew where they were when we lived in the village we know what what areas were the BC Wallace were because we were in the village that PC were all around the nighttime they become with the megahorn and they talked to the black guys and there's a black but you know why you're black man making a white man's war and stuff like that we could not shoot so they were actually speaking this in English then so everybody's open English yeah well we couldn't shoot them because they would they would talk from another village and we could shoot in their village you know so it was a restraint but when you're humping and when you're walking in the boonies they say like that what have you and your Walker this thick thick elephant grass stuff will cut you like crazy and one guy's got a machete and stuff like that and I'm saying I know there's nothing here because if I could if I got a kind of machete you know they're not here there's one thing that when you were humping though you knew where the enemy was it was called a some kind of a mosa plant it's called a touch plant okay it's a fern and you touch it and shrivels up and we would be walking and when hit these ferns and all sudden they would show them up they said they know exactly where we're gonna be yeah II know exactly where they're gonna be too but I think what some kind of mimosa some kind of ammo Safari I look I googled it I found out what it was but anyways it was so yeah that was kind of a scary when you're out there but when you saw the leaves like that well it also sounds the way you're describing it as just the thick vegetation but also I assume the height of this was that you saw literally nothing in front of you and many times right many times have nothing what you could see that's why the first elite guy always had a machete but we were taking our orders from the guys from the rear saying there should be something over here so go in this area and they were basing that direction on other information they got back from intelligence or something if they take prisoners the prisoners will give them information or a Mac B would have snitches somewhere and stuff like that and they would plan their or our courses on that information so at this point are you getting near the here one year yeah getting to the end of one year and when you're like two or three weeks left they take you out of the field and they put you at a firebase now a firebase is just a big hill but with our to me all over what have you and it's that razor wire all the rounds and what-have-you and usually at the base they they put us at the base of the of the firebase in case the VC come on head most times they can't because the firebase would just have my late everybody so when you get two weeks of three weeks what have you called being short and you'd be walking short short short you know trying to make everybody in DS because you know you're going home and again I think earlier island we were conversing about this everybody had their own time period when there was in so it wasn't the entire unit going back it was whoever was in this end of their whining a period in it right so did you go back with any people that you started with I went back with guys from the I was a Bravo Company I went back with guys from Alpha Company or Delta Company what have you like that never were nobody nobody from my company nobody from my platoon only from my squad went home with me even though when I went there I had like Schneider and Garry Manchester Robinson and Pina but they were gone so now you're at the firebase Annette in a daze or coming short or for you and stuff like that were you going out on any kind of operations then or were you pretty much they sort of just recognize the shortness of your stay left we stayed at the base crew stay at the base there and every time we went out at night time when we got word from them that maybe there was some BC in the area then we'd have to go out but we go out very far and then we'd have to come back you know because no offense but they wanted to they want they don't want guys who are short to get good killed but had like that so because up there you had you had then infrared they could tell who's walking around what heavy like that and they could shoot illumination all over the valley and they could see people and stuff like that otherwise they had bigger starlight scopes they could something's way over there that we can't see so but the other Wireless kept us at the base as a protection for them but it was fairly safe during this whole time where he's still and sort of routine communication with your family back home letters being written on roots yeah yeah more or less yeah Kyle tell me I'm coming home what have you I know a couple times some of my friends had left before me and I said hey Hans is gonna leave he's going to come and see you what have you like that cuz hands-on with the high school together we didn't know each other in high school but we met him in Vietnam and I told my parents a Hans is coming home but unfortunately Hans three days before Hans was supposed to go home he walked down the wrong path in a blue chip he got killed so I had to tell my parents he's not gonna he's not gonna come and see you I told that what happened when I got home I didn't tell me the letters okay so how did you how were you told that your time was up and so was it like another order and you know are you knew exactly the day that it was gonna well you know what it was and they also gave you a seat of new-path sheet of paper and there's 30 days on it and you could put an X on thirty days okay and that was called a short-timers calendar what have you and they did that want us to tell you hey here it is you're getting short pay attention don't get careless because so many might so many people who got wounded and got killed because they got careless and this is more here's a short timers thing and check off every day what have you so you're closer to home and closer to home with him okay so now the day comes how's that work that they finally leave well but they what did they took took me the duck both and flew of the camera on Bay what have you and they give you those speech about Dhokla home and talk about this don't don't talk about that and we were unfortunately in the area where the mail I was and they because you don't know anything about this stuff well you came here the other report well you can talk them then don't talk to him now you still have friends over here don't do anything that could embarrass you your family all your friends would have you and when you go home you can be assigned to a fort and from there they'll make a decision you can stay your three or four months there and then you can read up and get $10,000 or you can just stay at that particular fort and do whatever they tell you down there that's right I did forget that because when you were drafted you were drafted for a two-year period your period so one year that was almost all in Vietnam obviously and it was early soon after being inducted so you did have time that you had to then fill in or something yeah and I think had four months over at Fort Knox and it was the assignment there it was a mechanized unit and we were not recognized we're all infantry men but they put all the guys over there and you had to go to the motor pool and they said let's do just stand around and don't do nothing and you gotta go over patrol over here you can patrol the grounds over here what about us check the oil and that officer comes pretend like it's Shepard checking the oil on that under yeah take that was that okay so let's just back up just a little bit so the day came when you actually were leaving you know the patrol area and then the base over there what was it like you me what was the process that you got helicoptered out to some other back base and then ultimately went back to camera and Bay how was that wait you took a they took a Jeep oh yeah a truck it's a duck phone okay and then from duck phone they sent you over to Cam Ranh Bay okay and then they gave you new clothes they gave you new boots so cuz you're a pretty nasty pretty nasty what had you and then they he briefed you on all this other kind of stuff and they said you'll be going home at this day at this time so K maybe within when you went the camera on babe maybe within two or three days that you were gone and then all son you they take a bus may take you and take it out to the to the Air Force Base and the Flying Tiger guy would come by here and PFC who'd get off and all the other just like when I great start basically it was a mirror image yes one came in you were coming in but now you had the chance to be the one leaving when they were coming in correct yeah and it was like I'm looking at them I'm saying hey this is deja boo' what have you know I'm looking at and then looking at me and they have all crisp iron fatigues shiny boots and stuff like this like you do yeah and you guys had the chance to exchange any words with them or nobody said nothing and then we got on the plane and then we were holding on like this and then the plane took off and where did the plaintiff was a camera in baking round baked and then we're holding on to this to the to the seats and the plane takes off because there's so many fictitious room is about plane gets shot out of the air and stuff like that we're believing that stuff and well holding that I'll send it got up and when it got to a certain thing we all screamed and yelled it was unbelievable and then we flew all the way back to Fort Lewis Washington and then we got off there and there were photographers up here and as we got off the plane they're taking pictures you guys are getting off the plane kissing the ground I got a picture of me going like this to them what happened and it was a big relief so now you got back there now you were able to get back home at least for a while right before you have to finish the service part how is then I got home I took a fight from Fort Lewis Washington from the sailors channel Airport to Chicago and I think I get it up 12:30 1:00 o'clock in the morning O'Hare was dead nobody there there's some and there were some radicals who were you know some guys long Kippy guys with signs sleeping what have you and my sister and do you think that they were there like that that was that just a harass returning that's right I don't know all I know is they look pretty grungy in the head signs you know so I don't know if they were if they take turns what-have-you like that but anyways because I sold my uniform on and my mom and my dad and my sister and my nephew were there and then you know you get the hug and stuff like that and then I'm walking into my mom's under percent you know so I this is a crazy question but were you in essence recognizable by them or have you just simply you know I would think being gone here under the conditions that you were that maybe you know you were changing something or something no not really at that time is just a more relation you know I just feel my hug and kiss and stuff like that and as far as being haunted and stuff like that I can't say I was the only thing I have from Vietnam is survivor's guilt because other guys who I thought were bigger and stronger than me didn't make it you know that's the only thing I do with the heavy so but I've come to peace with that so how long were you able to stay home before he had to report back for your final just a week yeah then you look for it and I took another plane on the Midway - it was crazy I took a plane for the Midway to Fort Knox Kentucky what happened or - to Kentucky and at that time I was on the plane with the the the play here okay and there was like fibrous acid and I didn't wear my uniform I don't wear my uniform anybody know and this is kind of cool and all these these kids are on this plane what they're coming from Chicago to play from here thinking that's going in there and it's kind of neat and then hey that's probably like part of the play for crying out loud you know but it was it was really kind of neat because they had no idea who I was they were very nice like kids and stuff like that but there was kind of another unique experience you know a military guy going with the hair so it for Nestle was there more to come after Fort Knox until you've finished your server so did you finish through there I finished through Fort Knox and then when you get to the end they they give you physical and they check everything out oh you're okay you could have a broken leg and you just want to get out of there you know so because it's just so now you're home for good to be where you staying at home then yeah I stayed at home and what was how was the transition for you no big transition I know guys and they but hey come on let's go have a beer you know talk about what sorry I we don't want to talk about war stories you know and my dad never asked my mom never asked my sister never asked I never said nothing so I wrote my memoirs maybe like 15 20 or 20 or 20 years later what had like that but I had no major problems I got home I went back to work for the company four and then I saved up some money and I got my GI Bill went to Illinois never wore my my my jacket or any kind of army stuff that you ever stolen Oy because they were still now we say you mean University of Illinois yeah you feel like Chicago Circle okay so I got the junior year was this I came back in 1772 I think it was and I graduated in 74 you had the two years that Wilbur Wright and you were just finishing two more years yeah and what was it what was the degree you're getting good job justice okay and that's I was okay as a scheme but when I got the criminal justice I was a very good student I just didn't know what I wanted you know but and it was very nice to GI Bill cuz I couldn't afford that and the GI bill paid you go to college pay for your books that's great okay well that's I mean I'm glad I'm very happy that that still was in existence at that time that you were able to take advantage of them so then did the degree that you get that became your career after they well did you sort of get other things well I I'd take an exam for the gurney Police Department I passed it you know and at that time I was going with this this girl who I was writing with all the time and she said what do you do listen I'll be a gurney police officer what have you because really I was an 11 Bravo infantry they don't train you to do nothing after at the military if you were if you were a military police you could be a cop what have you but being a little problem you really I qualified to do whole bunch of stuff so I think it might be a very cop and then the company I was with says were they going to pay you and they said this and the company symbol will give you six thousand dollars more well I stayed with with that but the company and with security with the national team and I stayed with them and then when they bought out I continued career in security and laughter venture with the A&P supermarkets are stay there for 26 years as a director of loss prevention and I used my criminology degree and I call justice degree information in that for context for this semester the friendships that you built from whoever still survived through you know the pipat you're in do you still have friendships with a lot of people that you serve or no no besides the two guys in New York which I've talked to on Facebook no I've the friends that I have that had passed away I visited their graves every so often I'd read it back and they almost and what have you the friends I had in the army when they're in Fort Knox I they were all from Detroit and from Iowa and stuff like that so they were going to make Chicago kids around there and it wasn't like we were and as far as reunions they don't have any reunions not for where I was you know I think in the Navy they have reunions because my friends go to be in June they because they were on a ship for two years or year what have you but in in the army why was concept colonel yeah and I mean that seems to be the clear thing the difference between them and I think how maybe they do it differently today and stuff like that or it may be an entire unit that goes in and out what are your right during the whole time that you were there if you got to know somebody it was like they could be gone in a blink of an eye and stuff like that and then a new person comes in so so did have you joined any like veterans organizations well I belong to VFW I want to be has to be first announced in Louisiana and it was okay but there were old guys all they wanted to do was drink and talk about world war ii didn't so then i joined a group called Vietnam which was a Vietnam veterans organization initially out of here it was good at first they got some bad publicity cuz they got some bad people trying to ask for money and stuff like that but a lot of guys similar shared similar experiences in Vietnam which could be a National Convention in New Orleans I was just chapter secretary for that convention it was pretty good the chapter in New Orleans was good until it got almost like 75% biker gangs in LA and then all they wanted to do was talk about we deserve to get some money forget about that stuff you can't change history you know do what we can now let's have our bingos let's get as much much we can let's give that money to the v-2 there Hospital for the guys for socks for underwear and stuff like that you know let's do that well now we got no let's let's do that so I kind of got burnt out after those guys started we had a nice camaraderie in the beginning but at the end there that too many guys were they were just complaining and since that time I've been up here I have joined the VFW as a at-large member so I can run a BFW Hall I want to I have a couple friends up here who were in the Navy and I go in there Vietnam that - they're out there they're all extreme will not have like that but they were just guys in a blog that I grew up with okay well that's good to know for that part we're gonna enter a place or phase of what the Library of Congress recommends here and what we call reflections how do you think the whole military they next you know experience change your life well it kind of like made you self-sufficient and to make you grow up they can see the real world instead it's being at home and coddled by your mother and stuff like that so I enjoyed that part I didn't enjoy the part where there's there's fighting in wars and stuff like that but I came out okay and what are some of the life lessons that you learn from this whole thing sounds like you know you've already explained a little bit of there yeah anything to add and be self-sufficient and always have a back-up plan always don't take chances to check yourself the friends come and go family's there forever you know just like in Vietnam the friends I had there but my came home the family's there so so what are your thoughts just in general in today's day and age about war and our military in general well you're supposed to learn from the past but they seem like we're doing a good job you know you get in and get out the Vietnamese said oh we beat the Americans and stuff like that they have monuments to all that kind of stuff but really they they didn't make the war could have been one in a year because the reading didn't have a Navy they didn't have an air what had politicians got involved and all the kind of stuff nowadays with FBI Afghanistan the Russians were there didn't work out where there didn't work out I just don't see any young guys killed anymore needlessly yeah I agree with Union so now that we're doing this recording here Annette what would you like to tell future generations who get a chance whether it's a year from now ten years from now 100 years from now what would you like to tell them about you know what what the process was of the military and everything related to that and your experience with the military there's nothing wrong with been a military just going to military get a trade get something that could be useful when you leave the military okay yeah I had friends who went in there or air traffic controllers they came out they worked over at O'Hare you know I went into the 11 Bravo an infantryman not really qualified do anything else here but if you go into the military whether it's Air Force which you probably have more of a career in the Air Force going into it you get mature spit self-sufficient and get something that's useful like a trade or something like that and use that as a stepping stone when you get out of the service very good I do have to ask sort of a backwards question because I wanted to ask it earlier but I didn't and I've been asking a lot of the veterans that I've been interviewing is when you were out in Vietnam did you have any like equivalent of good luck charms that you bought what if their knew of or did you have any superstitions no superstitions but my girlfriend who ended up being my wife gave me a cross before I left it was a chain in the cross and that's gonna protect and everything was fantastic the night that other worst thing happened my life is December 26 1969 when we went that ambush all my friends got just got shot and killed himself like that I made it I did not get wounded did it Frank and I went like this to feel across and at the next following morning I couldn't find the cross it was gone and I looked around and it was down in the dirt I picked it up it worked his magic and that was early on in your turn yeah there was yet a new summer yes god you're one of the first ones that has actually told me that there's there's sort of a good luck charm did you have that the moment that you aren't in Vietnam yes okay and then I sent it back to Denise and then she got me a new chain and sent it back I put that thing on there it's like it was like armor is it what happens the other word we're gonna probably be getting out to the conclusion part of our interview here since I've been doing all the questions and everything like that is there anything that I haven't asked or anything that you would like to share about a topic or anything about your military service that we haven't covered no just in w-9 war was a terrible war and there's a lot of teachers and a lot of you know the misinformation on that stuff but there were some good things that came out of it okay at least where I was what had was a lasting no but just remember that even though the lot of things happened to be at Nam in the country the labels on your shirts Vietnam look if you like Egyptians made in Vietnam so something good came out of that yeah so but you know just just look at the military and guys who are in the military a lot of them are not making decisions and high reps and making decision don't blame the guys here each on the ground that's all like a good tip over there what do you wish more people knew about veterans in general yeah the good guys it's a noble profession if you if you make if you make a career out of it what have you in immigration there anything that people who aren't and military can offer things to that trench that would be a nice help to disappoint him you're in the parades that's all that's up speaking of that I do have to ask you that because you're a Chicago yeah and I know there was really net a welcoming kind of thing that was going on in Chicago into a years after and there was a parade were you aware that the deal I what I'm there okay yeah there was an actual parade that took place in Chicago to welcome back to Vietnam that's I do remember that but it happened way too many years after the I know one of my favorite groups Styx had Dennis DeYoung he wrote a song I'm one of those things called the wall and that was kind of healing off sense I thought those played at the parade and when it was stuff like that makes you feel good you know that their support and there's good things okay anything else you'd like to add I appreciate you give me the time to explain I'm sorry well then this is this is going to conclude our interview this concludes our interview of William Herod US Army with the veterans history project thank you Bill for your participation in the veterans history project it means a lot to us as individuals into the nation as a whole the Gear story of your military service will live on for all future generations to reflect the plan thank you so much for sharing with us your story of your military service thank you for your service and it has been an honor and a privilege to be able to interview thank you very much you

Channel: Schaumburg Library

Views: 5,409

Rating: 4.7402596 out of 5

Keywords: Veterans History Project, Vietnam, Vietnam Veteran, veteran, Bronze Star, Bronze Star for Valor, Library of Congress, genealogy, library, Schaumburg Library, Schaumburg Township District Library, libraries, Schaumburg, Schaumburg Township

Id: d-EjHN_Ce0E

Length: 74min 36sec (4476 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 06 2019