Vietnam veteran Rudy Gomez

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my name is Rudolph D Gomez and I was born December 4th 1946 in Los Angeles California my dad was in manufacturing and he was disabled and lost his right arm and he worked as a spray painter and my mom worked in the laundry a big warehouse type laundry area and I have three sisters now all younger oh well I graduated from Garfield High School in February 1966 and a few months later in July 1966 is when I actually entered the marine corps or having no family members that have previous military service I enlisted I saw too many John Wayne movies and I always wanted to be a Marine and it was just sin instilled in my brain growing up watching those war movies uh I John Wayne's because uh it's a small unit and I want to be with according to what I've read and what I heard about I want to be with the best and I want to be in the field in the action and that's why you and wrink were in this year of just previous to July 1966 my parents were already divorced and I lived with my dad for a moment and I enlisted and he had no problems with it but my mom is the one that took a little hard and so anyways I went to boot camp and it was it was very very good for me I had a lot of fun in boot camp and I was just able to first of all I was in shape and I never got in trouble and this is one thing I always heard and I I tell the younger kids that are going in just do what you're told when you're told and you'll get along just fine and I was very fortunate that I was able to do everything after graduating from boot camp I was sent to Camp Lejeune North Carolina and I went to supply school there and after I graduated from supply school I wound up getting assigned and stationed at Camp Lejeune regimental Supply and I had a very easy easy job I hated it 8 to 5 job and sitting at a desk or in supplies and my buddies and the war was heating up in Vietnam and here I had a desk job I had it made I was very unhappy and I wanted go Vietnam and didn't take me I volunteered a second time to go to Vietnam any MOS Lettieri occupational specialties what they call it and again our tonight I've on volunteer the third time go as a grunt or 311 you know I was on my way to weeks later when I first entered the military it was it was different you know living in a big giant room with about maybe 35 other Marines sleeping next to each other or above them or below them and just everything you know not having your own room it was low hard but not bad you just adjusted with it you know and there was people from all over the United States so you had to either put up with him you know what their habits or my habits whatever whatever or prejudice um there were it was different I didn't really care for it living in the barracks I went to Vietnam I believe I'm not sure of the month it was either August or September of 1967 and I was assigned to India Company 3rd battalion 26th Marines and my captain just happened to be captain Dabney and he was chesty pullers son-in-law and chesty puller was a very famous marine one I believe it was five Navy crosses and so I want to being assigned to captain Dabney that was Jesse Porter son-in-law and we wound up going north near the DMZ and Khe Sanh area and we were assigned after being there about uh four days or something in the caisson area we were assigned to go up to one of the hills there was a few Hills about three or four hills surrounding carry case on airstrip and we wound up getting assigned to Hill eight eight one south I was one of the it was to protect the caisson airstrip there was to yield a teat once I was solved and the other one was north I was assigned to hilly he went south and we wound up getting there the last couple of days of December of 1967 it was right after Christmas we want to hiking up there during my time in Vietnam I was not there that long like I said I was there around August or September of 1967 and I wound up getting wounded January 21st 1968 so I was just there a few months but during that entire time that I was there we had action here and there basically we were searching for them searching searching getting ambushed by them booby traps weather or whatever but the biggest action that I witnessed and participated in was January 20th 1968 when our entire company India Company went on a full-size patrol going toward Hill 881 north we had heard that there was the enemy was out there because two days prior did ambushed a recon team and killed all of them and so we went to search see what was going on and to find out what was the capacity as far as who they were how many and on our patrol going northbound toward the killed 881 north about 8:30 maybe in the morning we didn't know this at the time but we ran into our company ran into a battalion of the NBA that was hiding getting set up to attack our Hill eight eight one sell that next day so we Surprise them and we were surprised we didn't know he was that big of a unit and so we had basically an all day contact with them for about 8:30 in the morning the 20th of January like I said to roughly maybe two or three o'clock in the afternoon and we lost a lot of people then we lost a lot of people and it was just so we were so close that the went one of the snipers that they had who missed me four times from about maybe five inches away kicking up the dirt as I'm on on face down and laying on the ground moved to the right he shot again but a foot away backed up again he shot another round at me he missed again and I remember two grenades going to our heads and I'm yelling out chai calm calm to let my Marines behind me know what's coming over and the Marines are falling down beside me right and left my lieutenant of third Platoon ran up to me I was on we were all on line I was on the extreme right of this line that we were advancing up this little Knoll and he came up to me and he asked me Tomi that there's a sniper over here around ten o'clock probably about 75 yards away roughly that I can remember and and I at that time at an m14 rifle and I looked to my left 10 o'clock that was Bush there he told me he was behind the bush and why he came to me I don't know I would do anyone in the platoon third Platoon that had in him 14 I don't know why it came up to me but anyways he did come up to me and they looked to my left like I said ten o'clock saw the bush I took the shot and I never saw my lieutenant again and all this time all of this there's so much chaos going on within our little platoon that I didn't realize but our platoon was seemed like he was getting pretty beat up we were derpy tuned to tune first tune in second platoon were up on this other Ridgeline advancing the same direction that we were by ourselves and oh the word went out to the our captain Dabney what had happened to us to the radio and second platoon came over to assist us did we were beat up so bad and I was about maybe I don't know about 10 yards from the little Knoll peak the crest I was right over here and that's where the chai cops grenades were coming from and yeah it's been down anta and then this other lieutenant came up to me remember I don't know what's going on there's a lot of chaos going on and this is the lieutenant came up to me and uh I told keep your head down there right there so he he left me dead man straight up in front of me about about five feet remember I took your head right there and he did he picked up his head to take a peek him they'd be killed yeah it was just me I'll be to the Children's you keep your head down there right there but there was a lot of chaos going on at that moment and we were to the radio message came and they told us to get our guys who was left pull him back get into a circle and I didn't know why but I did what I was told I will crawled up there to the right and there was a foxhole yeah I'm trying to crawl into straight line so I can get these three other Marines that are over in this right corner of me to bring them back and I saw this foxhole I saw a chai cop right there in the bottom of the foxhole and I crawled right over that foxhole and I said please don't go off please don't go off I just member the dirt because I'm crawling over the foxhole and the dirt falling into the foxhole and I don't know why I just said don't go off anyways you didn't I reached the three Marines termed we're going to pull back and we pull back about roughly 15 yards we're still in the same area and then a couple minutes later uh if for Phantom comes remember we're on a crest so we're on this side and on this side is the enemy now for phantom to come in and drop their napalm and all the air in the immediate area just got sucked out and you gasp for air for about maybe two seconds and they got him pretty bad and then we got a report to break contact and I found out this later a few days later they had captured actually didn't capture a NVA officer that surrendered at Khe Sanh airstrip and he told the command that what was going on that next morning that they were going to attack all the entire area and overrun our shield and other Hills and that was the beginning of the Tet Offensive of 1968 and so we were told to break contact go back to Hill 881 south and get ready for the attack that next morning that they're going to overrun us and the only reason are held 881 South did not get overrun that next morning at 5:00 5:30 in the morning which we've been the 21st of January it's because our Tillery and the napalm of therefore phantoms we really destroyed that battalion that was going to overrun us that next morning so the only thing our Hill received at that moment at 5:00 5:30 in the morning was a mortar and it landed about one Red Alert were in a trench our heads are only exposed and we're looking down can't see anything is dark fire 5:30 in the morning and all of a sudden this explosion happened about 20 maybe 25 feet in front of me and the guy next to us remember heads our only exposed looking down the hill and when the explosion happened a piece of shrapnel just came and took his forehead skin off he was very fortunate and myself I when I visit the time of the explosion and I just got hit the left side of my face only with the blasts and the heat no shrapnel I was fortunate also and the later that morning at daybreak about eight o'clock 8:30 in the morning helicopter landed on our Hill 88 once out and I was our wounded were medevac to Keith on airstrip and now we're at the airstrip that case hunt awaiting our medevac out of the area completely and these five reporters surrounded me and do you want to know what happened what happened because they were not allowed up on the hill and I was just not in a good mood because of the action I just saw the previous day and I just weighed them off and just stayed there on the sand bag smoking my cigarette and contemplating of what had happened the day before and lots of little details and now I was in my own thought and till he left me alone but then now that I'm at medevac out of the area I mean I'm in Japan at a hospital there I'm going to look mazing life maze keeping up with my guys that we just left and Tet Offensive just started and I'm keeping up reading everything I can read that's at the hospital and I came across this Newsweek magazine to the Pueblo has just been captured and it was under cover of February fifth issue 1968 and as I'm looking through there about Vietnam I see my photograph in there and apparently one of the photo journalists over to my extreme left took a photograph of me smoking my cigarette at the caisson airstrip for my flight out of the area and my name was not given because I did want to talk to them but and I eventually was sent because in Japan roughly about after 10 or 15 days if you're going to get well you might go back to Vietnam you're not going to get well they were send you back to the means to the States and so I was not going to get well and he sent me back to the United States remains I chose to call it and I served my last time there my the end of my third year at Camp Pendleton my my thoughts going back now and my thoughts that when I was sitting on the sandbag smoking my cigarette to get medevac I was thinking about everything that I had seen witnessed during my short time in Vietnam and it was mm it's a hard to describe but I'll try to remember my thoughts and I wrote them down and seen the dead body put her in a wood stake like a pig and carry it off a mother selling her daughter for sex to the troops right there on the side of the road about 20 feet for me the sometimes the inhumane things that happen during war and battle some guys will get souvenirs body parts body being blown in half I just hate war it's terrible to witness it can be part of it the things you would do or the things you will not do I I know where I heard this from but I heard somewhere and this best not to make really good friendships close friendships branch up yes but not very close because that person could be dead next minute are you and a few friends but to be honest with you oh I forget their names I wish it didn't I just forgot their names I have lots of photographs we had our little celebrations when we are in the rear for that moment collecting our mail I may be not in the bush as they call it on the field 21 days without a shower and we spent pretty bad and coming back and getting our mail getting a hot shower getting some hot food you know all going through the same thing and that's what I wanted to be I wanted to be as a unit and being the dirt in the mud I want to that I do not want that desk job I want to be in the action and and all those that went through it we remember all those little things and dreaming of certain things like I was dreaming of a banana split and it was a little celebration when we came back he got our our mail and open our mail whether it be good news or bad news I wrote letters to my mom and remember my parents are divorced and I wrote to my dad and I did not write Spanish very well at all and so it took me a while to write oh maybe three paragraphs to my father in Spanish and I'm hoping that I spelled everything somewhat corrected he can understand my Spanish letter to him and it that was about it letters and it would take a while for the letters to catch up to you or a package to get caught up to you because remember you're moving around a lot and my mom it was funny everybody would get our packets not everybody but some guys would get a package from their girlfriend or their family and in my case my mom would send me a loaf of bread and in that loaf of bread she stuff in a half pint a rum stuff it in there and the bread became of that cushion and a pepperoni stick and that's what my mom would send me and my dad on the other hand he would send me all of this can Mexican food anything that was Mexican food that was can tortillas beans the mothers the whole bit you know and that's a treat compared to C rations I uh when I was before I went to Vietnam you met buddies and being that you're not from that area at that time I was stationed on the East Coast at Camp Lejeune and the some of the guys that I met would invite me to their home for the weekend and I went to Florida Baltimore New York and just for the weekend did invite me to their home and the same would be in Reverse you know if they were stationed here in the West Coast camp out in for example and I'd invite some of the guys to come over to my home in show me around a little bit you know because they're from wherever they're at raised that and so you make that little friendship here and there but that was before combat after combat we lost why you lost contact with everybody and everyone said well you'll see a posting of a reunion and if you're interested you can go to that reunion that unit is having and depends on what state it's in also and some hoping to go to one of these reunions very soon okay when I was in the military in the rink work from July 16 6 through July 69 three years active and when I came home it was in the air the news media it was pretty bad it was going on as far as the Vietnam in the protests and everything and I remember uh I don't know I was just got got off the bus and I'm walking in my own neighborhood and I went to this bowling alley which is looked hard and I just wanted a drink then I went to this in the bowling alley I went to the bar and the bartender walked me home he said yeah buy a drink and I told thank you and that's the only little Welcome I did have as far as then I really felt and that he kind of felt that this was this veteran what he must have gone through maybe he's gone through the same thing he was much older and so he bought me the bartender bought me a drink and that was very nice and then I continued going home and but my mom will live with at that moment she had just moved and bought a house and so in my letter I had a map and directions how to get home on this street turn right or turn left and walking the streets at night and it was funny not coming home to a home that you knew it was something completely new to me and the reception as far as there was no welcome home ban or anything like that like sometimes you see in movies or whatever and it was just coming home and very tranquil nor we Joyce in hugs yes but no big celebration my adjustment to civilian life after I was discharged in July of 69 it was someone like freedom a little bit and I can Amy back up a little bit just before I was discharged they offered me a promotion I was a sergeant at that moment in the offered me a promotion to Staff Sergeant and and the assistant manager of the NCO club at Camp Alton and I said no I just wanted to get out and then when I arrived and I'm now officially discharged from active duty oh and remember this late 60s early 70s and it everything had changed the music had changed lots of drugs oh and I was just partying a lot making up for lost time it seemed like forever that it was you know I accepted some changes but it was just some changes was just like I was just amazed of these things that were going on now in our country and the protests kept reading at what about the Vietnam War watching on TV and sadness wanting to be there not wanting to be there it was so much confusion going on at the same time and sadness and it was hard it was hard I I wound up getting a job as a life insurance agent and some life insurance and I didn't sell one life insurance policy for four months I worked there it was denied in me I'm not a Salesman and I was just did what I was supposed to do as far as collecting the premiums going to the homes going to the homes and collecting the premiums of previous sales but I did not make one sale at all I cannot sell somebody a life insurance policy that was not in me and and after that I wound up getting a good job at the post office and I put in thirty three years there and a total of 37 huh with military time and things like that so I retired from the post office in 2003 there's a couple of high school friends are also wearing the ring core and we keep in touch and we go out to breakfast roughly every three months we'll go out to breakfast but there is a from my actual unit in Vietnam they are having a reunion turbot had 26 Marines and that's coming up in August of this year 2016 which is just in a few months and I'm hoping to go to that that's going to be here in San Diego which is close to where I live now and I'm hoping to meet up with some other guys from my company which was India Company my wartime experience was just I have a PTSD oh I'm always for safety security here where I live wake up in the middle of the night do it like a little recon of the perimeter I don't actually go outside all do I have a couple more times going outside when I thought I heard something so I do suffer from that and but now in the age that we live in and whenever I go to a restaurant why had a part-time job also with the Senate Weber Red Cross and I also work for the Santa Barbara School District and in special ed and I would catch the bus with the students and just being aware of everybody's on the bus with us or when we go to a restaurant just keeping it up who is in the restaurant just that's just the way I am now and trying to always protect my group of fellow reigns students it's funny all the shootings that have been going on little in the past years the postal shootings the high school shootings and where am i working at I'm working at both locations and I I don't know why I just thought it was going to happen so it was always keeping an eye out and how am I gonna protect the kids where am I going to take the kids at the post office what am I going to do to get this person that's just the way I was thinking and I am and I retired from the post office in 2003 and a few months later the post of shooting in santa barbara happened and that was the time shift I worked I know everybody involved a new mall that one should've been there to do something to try to do something I also worked for the Red Cross in Santa Barbara I volunteered there only for about two or three weeks and this was a few years back and it was called a tea fire and I after all these homes were burned in the Santa Barbara area myself and my group of other volunteers we would take supplies that are needed rakes shovels water all the different supplies that the family that we just lost our home can add something I also worked with disabled adults there's another organization in Santa Barbara and these are disabled adults and when they go on vacation I would be their aid and they all had some form of mental disabilities or physical and it was nice to go on vacations with them and they're depending on their budget the most popular places were going to Las Vegas and Disneyland but the ones who can afford it would go on European trips just different location depends on what their budget was and I was fortunate one time to go to Hawaii with this group of disabled adults that was nice but a lot of stress and you're on duty 24 hours now because you have to monitor the medication monitor their money their safety especially when they're in a pool you can't be over the side reading a magazine you have to be right there at the edge of the pool watching them in case you have a seizure or something so whether it be at 2 o'clock in the morning 3 o'clock morning and something happens at the clean up the mess so it was not really a vacation for me I'm working 24 hours we all were and but it was fun to experience the slow travel or it may be for three days or whether it be for a two-week period it was nice to travel with these adults all right well Rudy thank you very much we appreciate the interview thank you
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Channel: mf3333
Views: 24,562
Rating: 4.7639346 out of 5
Keywords: vietnam, vietnam war, combat veteran, veterans history project, vietnam veteran, california veteran, marine corps, infantry, war, interview, kneelocoveproduction, michaelfernandezphoto.com, history, america at war, veteran, marine corps veteran, veterans administration, war stories, tet offensive, khe sahn
Id: RzqE1lnsD0U
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 40min 58sec (2458 seconds)
Published: Thu Jun 09 2016
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