William P. Aiello, Staff Sergeant, US Marine Corps, Vietnam War

okay today is the 4th of September 2007 and we are at the Henry Johnson charter school in Albany New York and we are doing an interview with mr. William Aiello and the interviewer is Wayne Clark and sir for the record please state your full name and your date of birth William Patrick Aiello 16 March 1949 okay and whereabouts were you born Brooklyn New York Adelphi Hospital okay and did you attend school there no I attended section high school and Lake Ronkonkoma New York where I grew up okay and when and where did Jenna the service ended Marine Corps in Fort Hamilton New York and Brooklyn in 25 June 1967 were you drafted or did you I enlisted okay and where did you go for your basic training shimozawa and was such a first time away from home first plane ride first time away from home yes sir okay and was the DES rude awakening for you I guess it was and how long was that basic boot camp was I got there the end of June we graduated August and what they did which people tend to forget is Friday Vietnam you have a 12-week we could train during the war they reduced it the Delaine but not the training so in other words during the pride of Vietnam you had Sunday's awkward pass on if you could call whatever they did off I'm sure wasn't nice but we didn't have Sunday's over the Parris Island and we trained later it and longer to get in the mandatory service and what the mandatory subject to Parris Island you know ninety hours of history and traditions you know you were gonna get that drill and ceremony you know you're gonna get that you were gonna get a rifle range for two weeks you don't was things you've got they probably skimped on things like junk on the bunks things on the springs because they figured you would get that down with the rope and basically yes they do okay and after your basic where did you go we reported to Camp Pendleton California to what they call staging protect and you'd go through an additional 30 days of training and basically it was training gauge to Vietnam why is you what I take that first I went to Camp Geiger for infantry training and then you know you go home on leave and then well you go to be on your way to Vietnam to go to staging battalion and that is gauged to that and then you're waiting for shipment and then we shipped out and we went to Okinawa dumped our gear and then we went to Vietnam landed and hanging the honeymoon began you went over on a commercial flight yes and the first thing we did is we lived on Thanksgiving Day from El Toro Air Force Base I have el Toro Marine Air Station which is no longer than existent which I feel bad about but el Toro we got there on Thanksgiving and you know when the service Thanksgiving is over you Charlie mmm-hmm so we're there and all the offices in the senior NCOs are in a dress blues the wives of the air and they're all in the best college and everybody's having a nice meal and every and all of a sudden we walked in and it was dead silence and you being in a service you know people on mess duty and cooks don't like ya anyway they gave us so much food they kept on piling about because they knew where we were going and when we got back to the barracks which we were which was kind of strange because we were segregated isolating they actually like this in like we were gonna go somewhere and then when he got on the cattle cars to go to the airstrip and we got there and it was very funny we had to line up and we won alphabetically and you still just cooled off your name and you had to run up to the stones you know it was just like reporting your own stuff because most of us we just that's what we just got a point ago and you ran up in the plane and in the old days all the lower enlisted is you never got to the back of the plane later on I guess they moved everybody to front when they found that it was safer for you to be in the back then we landed and Oken I don't know anyway to you know okay when you stepped off the plane in Vietnam what was your impression Oh besides being a scared little puppy yeah big-time and you know it was kind of almost dawn but not quite and the way Danang worked is and I'm sure because you and I caught planes didn't stay on the ground and you got off and the guys going home came right up and the plane took off and you'd hear cat calls from the guys hey yo you're not gonna make it haha nobody and you know understand that stuff that goes on and then you come down and you ask and you'd see what you thought was probably you know a half a click away which was probably 7 you know illumination and outgoing and you had no idea what it was and then you got our cattle cause and you're driving and you're driving to where you were going to get processed and the guys in the mango taking PT test I always that that was fun and how were what's your destination once you left the name I got a scientist Lima Company 3rd battalion 26th Marine Regiment 3rd Marine Division and Italian reader then we get into the infamous RIA RIA forward we and then finally they were you over had to go was it full body and we we flew up to full bite thank God because you know the Marine Corps is a little bit different I think than the other services we turned in on paperwork we wolf which we stood around for what we talked about how was it was probably an hour and half I think I just threw this manila envelope we yelled at your name and they had a letter on it and a number and in my case it said three slash 26 and that's where you went and then you'd have to say how do I get there and they say go to the airstrip well then you had to go find out what the airstrip was and customer service and all those things and luckily you know you've been good private you hooked onto some poor sergeant a corporal and they got you there and then when we got that we landed them fooled by there was a sergeant there he called up but she came for the sergeant and about half an hour after that Doosan have came for us and then we reported to the potato area where they gave us our equipment and they would tell that they told us we would be leaving next day which I always remembered when they gave us the equipment was the guy gave me a helmet and it was obviously a bullet hole on in this way and an ugly part of the bullet hole came out that way and that's the first time in the right hand told somebody no I don't want this I mean there's supplies that's what do you don't want this but I said obviously it wasn't lucky for this guy I don't really need it I got home and the next day they convoy it up to Camp Evans which as you know is north of fooled by South way and I was a machine gun on mariko machine cunning still a member was so what he asked for machine gun as they put me on a fifty caliber so I'm on a fifty caliber and it sounded d-ring on the truck and you know how that goes and it's very hell of recirculating that thing beat me up I'm telling you I held on it was the monsoon season so it's raining and the only thing we have is a poncho and still have a stateside utilities on and you know that just soaked up the rain and never let it go anyway and we've finally got and the same like you know all day and poured it out and we went into the s 110 and there's some clerk it's always some Clarke who says yeah and you guys better not want me to ever see your name again and this kid is a PFC and then and Marine Corps a PFC isn't he - well you know we're all peers and so uh you know wise guy from the other guy said yeah why's that he's just because I'm the guy who sends two letters home that get died so somewhere in my mind I said someday I'm gonna see that fellow again and then I reported into the bay we got scientific companies and I was wanted I was the only guy who went to Lima Company most the other guys went to my company because my company had gotten into a big fight up and Conti ended own operation Buffalo and they were just getting replacements and we were those replacements and I went to Lima company and you know the first sergeant gives the traditional this is hell with his speech and this applies of him standing there and all of a sudden if the speech was over so as everybody who's been in the service knows all right the first sergeant is done it's now time for you to leave and I said excuse me and I get to look like one what are you doing and I said I'm supposed to sign something because what do you mean it's supposed to sign something I said my brothers in Special Forces in b-52 here in Vietnam and the sergeant major came Pendleton called me in and he said that he thought I wasn't going on I said I wanted to go man which was stupid but having myself making a long story short the first but he said I had to sign some form he said I'd sign it and no canal or I excited here and at first I said oh my god and being a personage and he knew what was going on and he said who he said don't worry kid will make you two company driver you know there's no such thing as a company driver and an infantry company but that's okay so I want and when the first shot left our year later I said hey Versailles where's the for me notice I yeah it was a then I got a scientifical tone and I met one of the guys who got wounded during Operation buffalo you know which was the big battle work at the end and Tim killing two men and I was in his squad and he took good care of me when I got there and like you know how you imitate everybody especially when you have a brand new new guy mm-hmm so he would put his stuff up bunnies we were in tents and they had wooden structures wooden supports so he put this things up so beeping go ahead put it up there well we go to sleep that night and a little do I realize incoming from a coma nobody that's what been coming in that company's all said our children goes over and oh my god I got hit and I know my head is concave I just know and I'm bleeding I'm trying to wake John 10 Tablas Tim tins back from the hospital he's in the rear he's drunk he ain't getting up for nobody so I crawl out and do you remember how it was all Wow was he red-clay those little pebbles in that area so I'm cutting out my feet and I just kind of remember with it Coleman's tenez and I burst in then I say I'm hitting I'm hitting the guy opens up he looked at me what he said yeah I think I got four stitches what's it up here and I said gee my first night in my unit now I'm in a real I got one just gonna be alone to it and I wait back into my bunk and I'm saying what's gonna happen and I go out and it turns out what was it my helmet I had put my helmet up there earlier in a day I went to bed and when he outgoing artillery from her own onto T pieces fight damn you know how it vibrates and my helmet so that was my thing okay and when was the first time you were under fire actually the next day we went out to copy time time Valley yeah was a area meet you in the flatlands center outside of LZ Evans that one too the mountains and they had been enemy had used it to infiltrate so the battalion was after operating so I went out there you know and you're the new guy so what did I know why I made a field transport pack you know so I look Shades of World War two you know we're making the big base landing and of course I've got five gallons of water and the case erection is precise front rifle so we get up we get on the helicopter then we get off to helicopter LZ a battalion and then you know of patrol former company came up we go through that and you know whenever you see a guy fall or trip you fall a trip because obviously he knows what he says so we finally get there and we get to the thing and I get into the company and I get sent to the platoon and I'm beat already and all of a sudden my squad leader Steve Bennett says to me he gives me the how the world is gonna be in that's fine and next thing you know he tells me go see the platoon son for a TR EE so I'm Brandon fireman I go run up straight up to him son I said sir and he goes what a nice I said I need a TR EE and they said boy steps on James great kite what does to you or eat these felt and I said tree and he says tell you squad leader I want to see him I never forget and then so I get out to the position and you know they always told you remember from training that if you come into a position that's already been used you check it out for booby traps so the guys had been in this machine gun position for probably two days and it was an old machine gun position from some other unit probably he or two earlier but since they were short they didn't have a full format gun team so I get there and of course I do what you're supposed to do lay fly to take my rifle and hit the bottom lo and behold it's a punji pit and if twenties open and you know this part I'm very lucky because I'm stupid I'm a noob the old guys in war very lucky because they don't have enough guys to get intimate other position something that's okay so then I get to cook me clear clear fields of fire you know so they give me the machete so I'm Dan you know the machetes wanting on that I'm getting beat up by the machetes just walks it on swinging this one next thing you know I fall and I'll end up in the ground about six feet down machetes over there and I go oh my god and all I know is I see a towel and a grapefruit sound for me town and it's over there and I go oh my god go grab before I can I get it because I I thought it was all over I must have scared the guy or he was gone but anyway when I want to sell it out once I compose myself like very more Duncan let's see if I found it it's fight each other yeah but it was very funny but then we moved out the next night the next day of the movement up and it was the first time I used to see style do you remember the see status it's a big helicopter so what's the worst thing an oil to be is the last squad to be taken out of an LZ but with the sea stallion they can take a whole tuna and it so it hates a lot either so the seaside comes in and you know the permanent continually gets very small I was very lucky the unit I was in was very very good at what they did so that always helped so you learn just by osmosis as you know but the room I keep time getting smaller and smaller so they for the number of people you have you can protect it so now we all get on the helicopter and just as two helicopters lifted and one like that all hell breaks loose and all I know is they say stick your rifle out because you know what this system has to pick one doesn't so we put it out and when you're finding a partner that's the hot button and we talk we just say fine that's exactly as we kept up like that's over that's and I know I didn't and they have me lucky if I hit the ground you know me but it was fun I was gay mm-hmm and when did you get sent to case um well we went back to Evans you know and we were preparing to move up to see - we were gonna go to see - what see - was an outpost up and the Z we're gonna go there we were supposed to stay there until Christmas Day then what we're gonna move back - crispy on Christmas Day because it there was gonna be some kind of big operation but but what happened was we got declined tree and I did battalion was gonna headquarters was gonna be a quaint race so we took a convoy from evidence to coin tree and you know it's the typical service we're moving up and we finally get there and all of a sudden everybody else has got hardback and you remember what the hardback so those permanent structures except Michael turn on what you gotta set up tents one big GP meeting so we just we just finished putting up the GP medium and all of a sudden I start yelling tennis balls kotel our choice and I have no idea what that is tell your private you know I've been there about two weeks you just follow what mm-hmm and they said come on so we load up on this garbage truck wasn't even a I do things with sculpture and I looked at Steve Bend exit what's this he says Saigon is being overrun what and this is in this is before Christmas even what are we talking about I'm scared so next thing you know we get to the ester but our truck turns over because the truck you know the mud you know it's actually just terrible so the much looked over and we lost nobody got killed but some people like bocal aids and romps but luckily I had that feel transport back my fellows I didn't get hurt and we get on the chopper we fly out and you've been to Khe Sanh and you know the whole it's a whole different world I don't we were flying in forever and next thing you know we land and I thought it was in Korea was so cold I mean people don't understand how cold it gets a case on I mean you know you're used to 120 degrees the next thing you know was 70 that's cold and I did know and then somebody said I said too well and they said we're a case on that max and all they said and he says you know what that means I said no and he said that means the wagon of the dead that's all and then we stayed there that day that night the next morning we moved that when one on an operation and we went to hell 980 if I'm not mistaken ma'am you know we're doing sweeps and I never get that night and we counted that's the first time I saw the torches the enemy carry first time and they were literally hundreds of them and what we did was just watch you can very scary and yeah don't they called an artillery and stuff like that but yeah and Tim q line D god bless him you know it's it's true which just that was timberline god bless him from Michigan he had I can't kiss your typical victus I said no I have always this don't take this uh it was whiskey god bless to me just like the movies he had the canteen cantina what I sell anyway we did that then we moved back when we ran into a recon team that was down in the gully and we made our way back to Khe Sanh and we were there and they moved our position to another area I guess we was about three or four times our position and Khe Sanh base itself problem and all of a sudden Christmas Eve the 3rd platoon shot those six guys and lieutenant Buffington who was the company executive officer went out with the react force and these are the guys that had all the plans on them so Christmas Eve of 1967 when third Platoon opened up on these guys and killed him lieutenant Buffington went out captain cam was the company commander yeah he's an author now and he's a historian at Quantico Virginia he he was coming from and he sent lieutenant Buffington out and that's when I found all the map cases and all the information about the siege that was coming so they knew then and because I know the next day what's more important I thought that was a big deal for us money and your private private ever be fluent and that's when they knew something was coming they knew then and I guess it confirmed reports that they had earlier from all sorts of different sources well you know you'd dump what would they change this around again you know they kept on changing all positions right three companies went up to 80 81 and a 861 that would be killing Michael India we stayed at Khe Sanh combat phase one and I never forget we went under primitive one they differed that night and all of a sudden guys came in behind us well we will have been before and earlier that morning later that morning I found out that they will first battalion 9th Marines the walking dead great unit so all these short timers we had that even up to this point one really caring about anything that was seen going home that's all they cared about so when I woke the guy he's up that morning and you know from watch for Stan to you know there's Mike who you do Stan - whoa and I said yeah we have a unit coming behind us down he said what still who are they I said one night and this corporal god bless him he started cleaning his rifle and next thing you know he was all business because he knew was the 1st battalion 9th Marines that we were gonna get hit and yeah so I stayed there doing a CT and I got wounded there and I then we took a well let me ask you this what how are you wounded shrapnel or yeah I know what it was was unhealthy for me with the topography of case under there was the Montaigne village and I had a 50 calibers ition I think they put a number on it 101 which is the other interesting thing you know allegedly what do I know when allegedly Lyndon Johnson would walk at night and he would go down to the sandbox okay so we had all these positions outline and we have little numbers on our positions mine was 101 I never forget that and and allegedly Johnson would watch and look at that no wonder the man had a nervous breakdown but yeah he but he would look at this and so we it was where the road was coming to and we had so if the road was this way we were right here and we had the 50 caliber the brew village was over here and the SF compound Special Forces captain was over many gang was there which was always secure and the next position over was an anti-tank position and we worked in unison if intact because the only way the tanks could come as if they came this way and everybody and we had the 25th chemical company come from Korea of all places they laid the mines that was another joke I always loved that about babe you know the ng meters lay mines but you know who dig the holes for the engineers - grunts so you'd have to dig these holes so they can put that mines but yeah bad way so they did that day we had a lot of anti-personnel mines anti-tank mines of others and thank God my position alone at 15 claim was and then we had the Imperial Japanese Marine Corps because every hole had a claim one that the last man alive before was overrun was to use him it was always to blow up to hole neither say thank God that never happened but yeah we have in that and that was it men don't oh god bless us nobody ever had to see if we were gonna play that but we had anyway so the brew village was right there I would maybe it's as far as where is that skyscrapers right there what happened was earlier that day we had seen them moving into the village and there was the snipers one in you went to the positions one find him work detail guy had dropped some wire and they said let's give the guy a hand and what happened was the hand snipe they had snipers and the enemy snipers in there using Flores and we were just a target of opportunity they dropped them water on us Gary he nearly got wounded really bad the guy who was doing the initial work here - he got wounded really bad Tim queue line got a wounded really Benton I got hit in the head and corporal born great guy well it said come on bill the guys are hurt so we want we got them out we we picked them up we ran them into the hole Tim Gary Neal in the cell the guy we got him in a hole and all of a sudden you know it it's like firemen and policemen you never have you never have enough corn you have too many right away all the Colemans from the tomb guys day and that was great and so they've taken care of the guys so I go into the whole position and I stopped a smoke cigarette my goatee then you know the next thing you know what kind of medicine comes in and he says to the doc who young doc new guy and he was just looking at me he said anybody else it and he's looking up and he sees me and I would just scratching my head because it hurt but see when I initially got hit it felt you know ice it's that's the way everybody gets it you know I mean it I felt heat a light and I was off my back and when corporal boom head said bill that guy that snapped me out of whatever I was doing so I said no it's you know it's just it's just bleeding sure it's okay he says to doc put him on a casual is didn't go to battalion so what's a battalion aid station and do a lot of and if I said there with 20 there might have been 30 or I could have been Chabal but there was a lot of guys in this bunker and Don's forward that we had one battalion to battalion surgeon and the corpsman at the battalion aid station and they were working on him and I never forget I look in I see Tim but now Tim has been initially taken care of and Tim mrs. hi is the Georgia pine on him walking and he just said hey Bill tell the guys morphine is better than pot I love that line to this day I thought that was the greatest line I ever heard in the hole so I go there and because I was hit in the head and it wasn't serious so anybody I said all right we can't give you anything because it's a head so they put it more in here calm in here going on my own here combing on my own here another comb and hold on my head and they put that towel on you know tolling it where they gonna do it so they stop pulling and they and obviously it wasn't a bit but you know average people might start pulling the shrapnel out you'd feel so and alright by this time I just want to go to sleep you know you're a dump grunt you know hey I can go to sleep like I said it won't let me go to sleep me home Lana that's fine so they're pulling the stuff out then they say okay they start stitching me up and the head Coleman says to the doc oh-ho talk wanting to do this kind of stitch I said excuse me a plane won't be alright and the doctors it does not cooks and this broth you just shut up so they stitched me up and I go they put me over or the other guys up so I say hey great I'm gonna get a full night's sleep boom and the next thing you know a guy comes through to flap that Monken says all walking wounded back here positions they're coming so I go back and one with a bunch of the guys so it wasn't like I was the only thing and luckily it was a very uneventful night just like most of us and yeah and then we went to we did deceased attempted major coalfield was the s3 he later became a major-general good man and he came from one different nation and he always we'd always have to redo the holes because they'd always check and I remember made you Caulfield saying uh you got we just finished digging the hole this time those we talked was perfect he said no you got him over a little bit more this way yeah what are you gonna tell him major yeah and he says you're from Long Island yes sir he says remember you're too smart to get hit yes sir and of course that night I got hit Danny came back the next movie says I'm gonna take down anymore okay yeah but so it was my platoon sergeant and my platoon leader lieutenant lieutenant at stepson Jack and opportun guide that I forget his name oh great guys I mean at the time I didn't think they were great guys but they was they really cared about uh then we we did the siege and I guess the strangest thing was on Colonel lieutenant colonel stud stud2 the best officer I ever spent in all my 24 years in the service by the way best one ah he had us go out on an ambush now two-thirds of the tuna lieutenant Madison lemon no here's a 21 22 year-old person you know Dan he was a old - an 18 year old kid like we all were but jeez 22 you know this is a big burden on this guy shows if you look at it and it's a patrol we was supposed to be in reality the only warning system when it go out by the drop zone 7 what would you have disliked Lee Avenue approach with a regiment is supposed to come and hit the base at and we're supposed to initiate an ambush so you know we do the rehearsal like we always did you know we we god bless termite hill we would do that so we went through to rehearse um we did all that and one then they said but we're gonna have communion you know so father came and gave her service and I never forget it we're in a bomb crater and I was doing which I thought was home and all of a sudden in his sermon he said this he said you we are dead even to sin but not to God and I guess that sums up Khe Sanh well and you know and then we passed around the captive community then we passed around the wine and the father was expecting to have any wine to finish that didn't happen and they'll do it back and you know just like you know I hate to repeat it but it was just like the movies guys were old five bucks to all the sudden people who want going on for trouble give another five bucks like you've got to spend that MPC the funny money where we gonna spend it anyway but yeah so we went out that night and we said in and it was about two-thirds of but only half to two-thirds oh and we said it was oh I do mean a long long doing showed up antenna system at out as we get back to the perimeter the pretend commander standing there man lieutenant tells us kept us the tumescent you guys go to challenge and the Colonel's Yanam Adam what we're all sleeping out there didn't you say anybody well gee I'm sorry they didn't decide to come down our Road I don't hate him but yeah but yeah but yes that was it but then you know is every day we had two big 1,200 rounds you know the day they gave us the heaviest concentration of fire not what I think that was the lightest day of injuries I don't know if that make sense of him I don't know if it's true I would invest my regulation Michael - I didn't take any wounded that day or kill them I don't think anybody else did because it was just I was just coming all day and you know you've been here artillery is more damaging but rockets sound so bad I don't think anybody can ever understand what a 120 millimeter rocket terrorised sound that is unless they get shot at with it but yeah and somebody threw the head around us and next day it was almost as bad but not as much but yeah I don't really think anybody got wounded and we saw a lot of lieutenant Madison staff sergeant James and so sorry I can't explain but you were basically if you were what whatever you hold that huh like my machine-gun team had four people that's who you double it we had a lot of working parties you know where we would be digging holes and other stuff which was a lot better off than the poor guys I hate anyone and 861 because the night they hit that's where they wonderful they went for them and God bless those poor guys yeah they did a great job yeah they held they repulsed them from 861 and it was an hand knife tonight they did it they were just just super remember they were all eighteen year old kids most of them and that's what people have to remember you know we people can do that for their country like they should they should be given rights and privileges but yeah and they won't we did a great job before and then I never forget when you're on the campus you know indices was look to see it was over you know because you could tell we were we started playing football I know it sounds like a terrible thing to say you're not supposed to see it we started to play football and we had the first time I got sniped that I can actually thought it was abundantly and I'm saying what the hell is a bumblebee doing in Vietnam and but it turned out to be sniper so we and that must have really irritated but you know we're Marines and we're 18 years old and we're glad said we're a case I'm what are you going to do to us and we're so with some football and everybody said okay well next time he shoots I spent 12 of us we threw the ball it's a guy shot and we all fell down I think the guy had a heart attack but then the army came in and I never forget the army guy the army guy how do you I never saw so many staff sergeants in my life a platoon son who was a step touch we had one then every other guy in here on me it was a staff sergeant and they all put him in and they saying they were relieving us by whole today come into a hole we give it to him we give my fields of fire or range card and tell him what was going on and would again so here we automate to attack 881 North we can't even get a helicopter how and the Army's coming and dropping one case of C rations out was a health captain take it off with just um you know were you and you know and those days you were gunships for us then these guys should just drop the see right so they're fine but the army guys would say but didn't deliver is in a home but this is just a whole hey pretty good yes and any army guys get even with us because they said hey yeah the all missus clubs open it up tomorrow tonight yeah whatever you're so sure you know we're looking like this but take care now the helicopters and they're getting check helicopters dropping see where Asians 1k we're thinking hey maybe this isn't it yeah so we had to wait until we could get a helicopter to go fight the what so we we take off and allegedly the division commander 101st I mean that Dodger post the first Calvary division said this place is filthy and said he started a police call so what I guess it was time for us to but so we left and we we want to obtain anyone we run eight anyone and we were there and all of a sudden we were setting in in that night and one of the guys from the our mortar spot is the stair starts and makes man came by and it was movement beneath us and we have learned that a lot of rockets and yet you know that there is true stories about rockets and Marines you know yes dear Marines have we heard movement you were throw a grenade and it would be a rock a panda rocket would pick it up and throw back and so you know sometimes you might think you're being in a firefight would mr. Chow's but it might have been the record anyway so we had we heard movement down it so he says we got him over there and he's hearing it he is and he says all right we're gonna call them waters okay and he says you guys are gonna call him it and that's how I learned how to calm waters along with my buddy chief Rodriguez and Barry Miller from the stairs oh it was a deck we learned having to : mortise and we crawled in mortars in the gun it was interesting next morning were getting up and we're gonna go on the thing and we were told it was gonna be a raid situation well we took it anyone know if it's gonna be a raid and everybody said that's great let's wait not that we had any choice so all of a sudden we're waiting there and everybody's passing us down first you know how you wait to fallen you know here's the new company commander and it was very interesting he's got an ammo box machine canal box and I said to myself I'm a machine gun I got the combination she that's cool the company commanders carry an animal him one of guys look at me like saying it carry yeah well he's got dirty laundry man I said what I don't even have any laundry he's got dirty laundry yeah because you know what the moon how you get we everybody got dysentery and and the sad part about being a caisson was you know it was no supply so you know how dysentery oh and it's too late what you did is you scraped it out and hope for rain and that's how you stay you didn't get no new you know but anyway so and I so that's why it was really frustrating when this schmuck has got dirty launder know so he goes and so we get in there and we said in the first thing we hear is the guys that coming back saying are machine guns are gonna have to go on after the enemy machine-gun nest so chief Barry and I know chief didn't smoke cigarettes until he heard that she was sucked out a hole boy I think we finished up between the three of us we finished a pack in ten minutes so we just so then we go up so of course then we get online we get home and God bless the Mariko we have my company we have kilo company India Company I think was in reserve and we will lean with help me out of flooring and all battalion commander Col stud is leading the charge he's not doing anything he's the man he's there he's not done some helicopter there look he's with us and the company commander of my company who hadn't done such a great fight up there when they attacked them just got really but he's kind of he's doing all the coil coordinating on firearms with 106 rifles artillery aircraft Z's and mortars and he did a superb job he was chesty puller son-in-law but great guy I mean he and he was just it was good so what happens is we get on line only in America I do a little right up the middle so we go and we're cursor than yelling and doing the things Marines do and all of a sudden I never forget doing a brief they told us we didn't have to worry about any entrenched positions because aerial reconnaissance potential was I went in the gully and I came up and I'm telling you I saw the biggest bunker I've ever seen in my life it was half the size of this room this way and it was as long as this room and as high as that ceiling and it was in an opening and I never believe the earlier what kind of sense in the next 24 years of my military career but they swore it wasn't there so I ran in and I ran right out shooting my machine gun and we got up so then we got up in my platoon and first Platoon first Platoon second when I was in second so we were leaning with third Platoon and general reserve with the company commander Baghdad so we went and we got it just up to the last Knoll next thing you know in the middle of the attack they stopped us why they stopped us so we get pulled so 1st and 3rd 2nd platoon so next thing you know the company commander takes out of this 45 with dark blue tone and turpitude command that says challenge they go up to him what does but the NVA will wait they were right there they rolled guy comes right down double-team took a lot of guys platoon sergeant went down right away most in NCOs went down lieutenant Madison lieutenant everyone looked at each other said let's go we want well I was strange we got to the top of the hill 3rd platoon was led by a busted corporal who me say after this makeover yeah ok uh and he got what was left to platooning up to hell week and we reinforced them and we're looking for the wounded and we're doing this about 10 15 minutes over 70 tenant the platoon leader the third to him who had nobody has seen all the sudden he shows up everybody's looking like a family and I I was up against a dead end be a soldier my gun was down and I'm using him miss protection and he's got his head blown off and it was done by the 106 or by the morning sorry for the guy but it was a perfect shot and I who's been he know it's obvious to the crown of his head it's gone yeah this idiot bayonets the guy says only third heard guess souvenirs like number one who wants a souvenir I only want to look at him was a like he was some kind of and I don't know where came the patan commander because he was with my company and kilo company and doing that and he looked down he said yeah we leave the command he said get down to hell with that he did that to my company commander and he told the who tell you out of you too oh yeah because evidently they took an exit you know what I mean mm-hmm and yeah but yeah I would have said it then the next day what was very interesting is you know we took the hill and we brought the stuff back and when we when we go under your salt as you know Michael we do a hide a little up the middle you drop your packs well they took up packs so god only knows where they went but this one is lesser but they found a chopper that had gotten shot down weeks before during the siege and I'll call man who had been on I was in probably but at least they get their bodies which was a good thing and so then we were leaving I think and earnest is good man so now we were attached to kilo for the night said what was kill a company and where between 80 anyone knows it in anyone's out on this note and all the sudden choppers are coming in to take us out so of course when you're attached to another company you're always the less looks to come out and it's a c40 salty if the Chinook is a forty seven these 446 easy nights so they come in that make coming up next thing you know just so they let us know they're still in they drop water Silas so they hit a crowd we go to the side we return to buy it Sarge Ionis god bless him and he's another guy who's under 30 he's already gotten one tour in he says what's a charity game a dam mm-hmm one scientist he'll give me the MF war laws we had was but he had tuna bank ok Lester's but I seen him knock out six more positions in here for now yeah start notice that good and then this helicopter came and now which are James's deal with this turns on and we've got well Jim we've got dead we've got equipment and we're not wearing it back so wouldn't we're just setting up ready for what's going on I don't know where this chopper comes in Paul Messina this major comes out he's a pilot he says I'm leaving this goddamn Hill in 30 seconds with or without you hey well we're very happy to see that so we flew in the case I know we didn't even live yeah we flew in the case on and then we got off to helicopter and then we got on another helicopter and we flew to coin tree when we got the coin tray we landed and the division band was there and you know they played one of the saints come watching you which is the standard and now you look at yourselves because now you're in the rear all these people they go clean clothes they watched the shame that got haircuts I know it so the first thing they do is take a lot of seat now this is the first time we probably good food at least eggie days it's not more so what happens you're gonna go through that whole thing about going in the bathroom again no that's it but so Bob we check out shouting they give us new uniform so they let us sleep buddy s trip intense what you in hindsight was probably the biggest wrong to do not by anybody else's pot but was this wrong and that night they hit us with mortars and rockets we lost a lot of guys and it was just mr. Charles way of saying well see hang in and yeah we were really bad yeah but that that's there K something mm-hmm and after case on how long was before you ended up going back home oh geez well we got a case on April so I didn't go home to December oh yeah so that was just my hello how it is I was like God you know then we won look thrust which was a very big operation and that's and we cleared Charlie Rich and if you know what Charlie Rich was actually all cleaning a clearing of Charlie Rich made two redstone Omni magazine in 1971-72 or something like that because we all batarians tasking was to clear Charlie Ridge of Wallace Rockets that's where they had all the Rockets but demand week leave it that wasn't good you know that was an interesting thing about that was general Westmoreland had gone and general lateness now was their commander so where Stan and you know we're doing what we always did next thing you know we don't have to move out this day why don't we have to move out this day because you know dumplings you don't think about anything but you know what setting in moving out on it so next thing you know we see conex boxes we've never seen comics boxes being formed by helicopters before they land it's a mobile Phoenix we've never seen a mobile px on her life never saw one again we're getting number 10 cans of juice we never got number 10 cans of juice before that we didn't rob when we didn't get any after that we didn't run and all of a sudden next thing you know all these helicopters Leonard I got helicopters all right gentlemen we've come to and he's got all the steps of course he's got he's got to have a Marine aid somewhere never forgot these Schmucks who walk around with m-14s with slings and I guess they were shown this is a typical Marine unit in the field oh oh you know but then of course when he got a got his briefing and all left so did the conex boxes and so oh if I can step back about one thing about Khe Sanh now we get out of case on him that night that happened so then they move us around and do different things in the area that within a few days well these Red Cross workers coming you know they're all nice public and now Pataki Amanda's there and he's got a lot of things out his mind and he's handing out writing pens yeah that's a third Marine Division to write and about it's just I want you to write your wife or your mother or whoever you're next to kin is I just want them to know that your attic a sound and you're alive and well and then you could say anything you want you know you can say oh hey me whatever you got okay but just I don't know you saved myself so we do that you know because me I wasn't a priority so uh we do that he clutched him up he chose him over this pretty girl and then the next thing is she collects all the writing pads and takes up I'm not a big fan of the Red Cross but a lot of reasons that was one of them where is it dump one gutter you can't go to the PX number one number two but could go to the PX you ain't got no funny money you know so yeah it was there just amazing but yeah the red course is notorious for that yeah well you know but yeah so but anyway so what yeah so we did that so I hope that was a good thing so they left the we did our operation and I was going on or off so I I got a call that I am in America they told you where you were going for they told me I was going to Okinawa I said but first tell you I don't want to go to ok now I just came from Okinawa and he very nicely told me I can't say no you're going okay now I said but I want to go to our streets and only officers go to Australia okay well next thing you know this is a hello you're going to Australia what yeah don't get you get so I get my gear the guy and we get out of this chopper and this guy from Mike help me gets out his chapter and meantime he had a company clerk you know nobody likes company clothes and it's got me click very mousy kid says oh yes first side of it I'm ready to go he says you ain't going nowhere I'll see you in 30 days any amount of that was cool but kernel stuck did the same thing ready to water during the siege of Khe Sanh when we will lose the people yeah you know we lost a lot uh he would replace him with it you know he really believed every marine was a rifleman and what he did is that clerk I told you about that said and you don't want me to see your name because I assemble of his own well he came to spend money at night and my machine gun position because we were short people yeah he learned a different respect and but it turned out well because we had cooks do it and all the sons Duff so when I went back to their primary jobs after about two and a half three months when you came in they treated you are no longer treated like trash and because you know how everybody treated cotton know everybody wants to be but nobody will have everybody know but nobody once they'll be with you yeah so yeah so what he did that but yeah so well when we got down I got down and I had a report to the sergeant magic and all sergeant major and all Carl was always in the tree - they were always in a bush they won't let these guys they were there but he came in and he we had report to him and he's fixing up the SOOC and he's got this choir man there and it's other were dining we report and he says you're from will you're from Cortland he says my company so he said where you from hey hello man I said leave my company he says are you who's seen you here miss corporals not stupid he's as I am he says looks at the other guy says okay you're going to replace my company be on this trip in 20 minutes I'll take ya yours don't worry al we're gonna cook for you as soon as that landline works up get me to cook yeah and this argument you took a cook and a yeah we're nothing gonna end a wireman out to for replacements one on one that's how it was and so we get into delaying that night and everybody's looking at us we don't know why don't look at us and we we eat in this food and it was really good and waiting and that guy's giving us all the food I'm wearing but we noticed people almost moving away from us and we don't understand why people in Mormon and the reason they move away for us is because we stink to high heaven we've been in the jungle for 4050 days so you know we through terrible smell and that was and it was like oh okay so we did that and then I went back we flew up to country because that's where I've Italian realism and we get there and first Sun comes in this is alo uh what's going on out in the field and I'm only a PFC I've been to 15 so long time in fact I was the senior PFC in a battalion I got status and all of a sudden he said dem what's going on I tell what's going out in the field I told him this guys are doing great job what was going on and stuff he gave me my one allocated this got a couch that he had this thing and then it was okay no get done I want you to go take a shower go get your hair cut go get your seven new utilities and report back to me at dirty no hey you know you don't say anything but yes first sergeant and go to supply selling he tells me to go away typical supply seven I go take me so I don't have any town to take a shower but I know I'm taking a shower I don't have any clothes so I take a shower only private memory Co does that everybody is that so you go to the Bob chef Bob shop says it doesn't open to 1400 so I gotta be back there to them so I go back report to pressure and of course the first son has a baby why am I not and I told say come with me so you know I'm not walking left in the press with the person I'm walking behind him he was his flight Antony lucid splice out and he says you're out of here pack your year you're going to the bush corporal Bruno who used to be my squad leader who had many purple hearts and was a good guy says he said Bruno you're now the supply sergeant give this guy in uniforms it from me so and then he says al Ilocos no more problem yeah so uh what happened well I forgot where I was I apologize but no you're telling about Oh first notches don't there's no more crops are we go so I go get my hair cut and everything else like going on I have a great job I go to Australia great great great time I come back I come back to the weird and I I guess I had my malaria doing that incubation time between the time I got dead time I went on on time ago bang well the first night I'm back I get my malaria attack and I fall out of the tent and God bless go for porno he finds me picks me up and it brings me today corpsman step now the corpsman at the battalion aid station they're all new people and they ain't never been to the boys day well in that case and they don't know nothing because you know the corpsman god bless him dated six months and a boy six months a battalion aid station and some would rotate it either way and you know opposite did six months in abortion and the rest of the time manubrium the only thing constant Mariko's stayed out there what the staff NCOs on you and all of a sudden this young kid says what's he on drugs and they said this guy doesn't even drink in the window and so you know I had my malaria and they caught it very early and it was in there you know so I did that I was alright then I went back out to the field and you know we had we did a really good thing and then I remember coming back and we got a brand new first lieutenant and this guy was an MP and whatever attack we're now back in then I hang were already good to go back out so I made it there so I made you sit sale you want to go back to Australia I said something major I got no money he says I didn't say that Island you 500 mile deep you want to go out there I said no sound made shy of their job you know thank you but I can't so anyway I'm gonna stop you right here yeah first sergeant offered to pay your way to Australia's automated means it was a battalion cellmates big deal you know thank you so we're gonna go out we're gonna go back to the unit so now we're gonna go convoy which is fine but we're gonna kind of void by anthrax and foobie strike that's cool so all the sender's a new lieutenant because they have brought over all these people now they needed recut we needed replacements because we had not and we had used up a whole lot during Khe Sanh and then after we got a case I now won't move cause now we didn't have a priority anymore now they needed to give us more bodies so they disbanded one of the MP battalions so we got an MP officer and move it and we thought we were being nice no we got a wound filling up at the water buffalo ok antennas in we Sydney I lieutenant and oh good morning sir or something like that and this schmuck said take the cigarette out of your mouth and slowly so we made sure we saluted and what I feel - oh yeah he was a schmuck he didn't last longer a company command ate him we got a very good one I get rid of that one captain the next lieutenant company commander we got and got company gunnery sergeant coming sound gusta major Bennet was the company commander the best Marines you ever met in your life they were both enlisted guys before this and they worked as drill instructors together for years they they were they were the epitome of the Marine Corps and they didn't matter in fact the first time I think anybody was gonna kill me and I knew he would have but you know when you get that occasion you really think you were a bad guy you know I was like yeah what are you gonna do in a man for the big battle you know I mean and I came back on a one-day sweep on a convoy and I got into it the bulkhead that guy I said hated new Gunny came by and he said you better put you straight I'm big you're a element look right look terrible and he was gonna do it I said listen just tell I'm this ain't to drill pill he ain't no drill son anyone down either by the time I he ate me up and nicest man you have one about you gonna be Bruce - the first kind of firefight great man you made you Bennett even better that day were just that good fun anyway back on that yeah so what they they really did they really did well so we go out on this thing until we do the convoy they're like we said in and then the restive and what they did was for the insertion was in this nifty insertion you know how lonely when you insert people you don't they drop Chiapas and you know the NVA work and say all that they just made an assertion there so you know there yeah we inserted them we took them with us and we dropped the Recon teams behind us which was a very small thing and we kept that going and they being Amtrak's left we did our operation this was an elephant Valley which is North Italy and we're going nothing really special about good old elephant Valley but the Morse mosquitos ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever felt wouldn't be now how do we know about worst I mean there were as big as this table might pick you up they just took them something company fee the hard way you know terrible but yeah but we did and we were doing one day sweeps and up and we got back and we doing one day sweeps and they put us up in now full lock now fool I was just wants it tonight by the high bond passed north today and whatever that lead doing Ted the NVA had cut off the haibach piss on either right now they really just destroyed develop used a they did terrible things though and what was interesting about that was you want on the first patrol little patrol we leaving the 2nd battalion 5th Marines 2nd battalion 5th Marines great outfit Dave the guys that took away with one one first plan person we can't get better than that those guys so we see this over bought up schools we know it's a ball of glass because it's actually got a blackboard and it said welcome through 26 in good pie to five it was amazing I'm just amazing probably the guy did but yeah we were there and it was very interesting we had an interesting time there and one of the things that was interesting about it was about 5:30 that night we got a tenant shows up we're in the interim we had a molded tea officer as a lieutenant to is it's only good guy he's trying but he's more the transporter next thing you know he says I'm the new lieutenant is some strange but he looks a little bit older you know he doesn't have that typical second lieutenant look so they bring you up and I get a little radio and I call over there's a company because we're gonna put too much on basis and I said yeah we go the only thing about no lieutenant and they said there's no no lieutenant he's a turncoat because remember we had a deal with Tonka chewing them you remember what they did at marble mountain at 68 and that was just happened so we will everybody was looking for so they said tank knows nothing about him snatch him up and take it over to put an m16 on him they drive north to the time hey over here I corner chunko I can see the citation now I'm thinking this got to be good for three day yarn on I know one this is great what happens it was your old oh we forgot to tell you this was lieutenant Hoover he's been a Mustang I hit 12 years on the drill field he came back he was very good man he actually bought a big papa huh yeah he came in and he took a walk up with a toe lieutenant pack egauge jeeps waiting for you get out of here he came over and he did a very interesting thing we had the elf pizza and what he did was he opened up was an m79 you remember himself and he fire over the over out of the danger zone so nobody would get hit at dlp with the m79 fragmentation no nobody ever want to sleep anyone a healthy and we were doing what they calls killer teams you've taken patrol out they say we call it the estimate but shall we take you afternoon patrol out that form and kill a team one machine-gun squad leader or assistance quite a bit of patrol later two riflemen and you'd said it and you were a mobile ambush you would go all night long well what happened is they copied us from the British if we make contact we do a ring of fire that surround us with mortars artillery and good then we keep on moving and you haven't we had preset locations at preset types well don't be the patrol the thought they were gonna stand back and the sandbag patrol was as you know we wouldn't move from the position and everybody would go to sleep except for one guy and it was not the same Begum Joe well we didn't have to worry about that because lieutenant Hope who ensured that that didn't happen because he call an artillery on position you had just left and you meant to be where you were because it the only safe place you were was where you're supposed to be yes sir he taught us I he was very good at us a lot moment and but we got that one of the other strange replacement so he got was this day of sodium and we're in Dodge City now and this was in July where God City Dodge City is a main place we don't know we kind of such kind of a thing and next thing you know we see the snow tell me something we got no saint gee he's trying I mean he's got the wrong camouflage on but he's you know what you got the camouflage on this pack next thing you know we'll tell him who comes don't punches on and touristy stuff was a big one nineteen years old we're from New York where the heroes aka none of us know today who dis it was drying out marijuana oh yeah so boom boom boom so who would it so he dumped this muck and all of a sudden we're going on I'm going on I'm getting a lot of fire a lot of fun the fire and that man we set in and I never forget they fired at us from underneath us there were in the perimeter underneath us now we had a guy who had malaria and he had a real bed and you know how molarity it's Banquo yo and the Marine Corps choppers don't come out and God bless the corpsman they work this guy all night and they saved his life first light they took them out and the next day will happen again and water very hard very hard because like who you look like it must have been if we're talking miles and miles and nothing but old dried out rice paddies and in the middle of it was a rock Marine Mammal post and we had done and we're coming back him tell patrol and you know Mariko always believed in having a pilot on the ground with you so here's this yeah we're walking and we just happen to be buddy come and he says I need the air officer where is he always back there now this pilot was in typical I mean he could probably do well triathlon you know what I mean but he couldn't hump you know how people can't hump this boy could not help he comes running up and he kind of says he takes his hand senator ready beats him like a dog he says where are you when I need you boom boom boom boom boom boom and we're going you know what nobody felt sorry because he should have been there and so he calls anything against the air until any of the fighter aircraft and that's remember the OPD tens they were brand new I never forget the guys came down a guy came down swooping and one thing it's like that Oh Pete so yeah because that's what it looked like any through cigarette shows we thought oh thank god this is a great guy and all the sudden charlie stupid as he is sometimes opened up on him but unlike the piper clubs he can fight back and and I guess Charles thought he was a Piper Cub he wasn't as you know he opened up with that machine gun she made his date all bad but yeah so then we do that and yeah then we went to analog and I never forget going in or we went on a five-day mission looking for 10 tom coats we we didn't walk past two o'clock in the afternoon at all no time to me walk past two o'clock can be set in and we had strict orders if anybody came over to us from the latitude from the left from the rear or from the front and spoke English we would shoot his don't trust nobody because we woke up for 10 tone codes and and we found base camps and all the other stuff but we never but but those are the guys who did monkey mountain a marble mountain well they one guy dressed up as a major in Special Forces and he was a tunco he wasn't really amazing special forces in that and then you cut the wire and what happened was that night mr. Charles came in well he kept the wire yeah so we did that we went down then of course we did meet River meet River was again in Dodge City I think we had found so much stuff and died city that then that they plan the operation around that later on that was about that was July that was my last operation in December what they're you and then I went home I got home in December of I left 12 December 1968 and I never forget getting on that plane two things one I saw my junior drill instructor who was a real pain in the butt really mean nasty guy know what his job was in the Marine Corps to put you on a plane uh but there was a guy named Andre Diaz and they made Paul Rodriguez is like miserable when he was at boot camp and they told him how he was gonna die in viña Rodriguez was carrying four ak-47s on his shoulder and you know that meant that he killed adult ak-47s they were his he going to the hard way so making Owen so sure yeah then we're done we went back to Okinawa then we landed in El Toro and it was just simply amazing I never forget it we were taxing up in some very bored oh one can win it and you know came onto the plane was going on very bored then he had to give this speech if you have a wonderful people or compact event and I don't like messes and you can see all these offices and more wives and senior NCOs wife who was stationed in Camp Hamilton or we're out there waiting for see him and he says and nobody will jump off with a white fence because they'll be in trouble no so what happens as soon as the door opens the majors and the Colonel's and the captains and the sergeant majors and the staff said I'm just jump over the fence and they should go almost but the flight and it didn't hang was the most the students later said she never got over the fact that one of the guys left especially the Marines and we got there and then they stand there and the guy says we get on the line you know they give us these little cause you remember to Hong Kong flow guy says yeah and you'll keep these pawns your timed at all time why because if you fall out to help the pot with a low way to gain from that's why okay so then tell us about the Hong Kong flu and of course we got blamed for the hot guy so then we get online and the guy staying in an egos hat with a nation where you're getting your real orders till you get orders to get out of country now you're gonna get yours and he says okay you're going to the second Marine Division okay Canton's job I said boy like I have a choice and he says how you going now I bought a first-class ticket in freedom Hill and ma I'm only time I ever flew first-class in my entire life believe me Vietnam I was gonna go first-class plane ticket home no callable and so did my buddy Jimmy used who's filming you and he says okay he said no you're not you going by train it's no yes no no listen you get extra travel time to go boyfriend cuz he asked me what you know I wasn't pretty mama I told said okay you come watch me so my buddy's behind him and he says then how are you gonna know me says I'm going home but I says no you know you're gonna nobody points just yeah so we got up there I don't forget we got to the airport I'm not even in the country two hours yet and we go to the bar and we sit there at the boy and the first thing is a bartender hit this guy must be 23 years old he says can I help you guys says you can we have a beer you can't have a baby not over we'll both couples we're 19 all right so we have a cell it good you know you don't want me yeah but you can't have it at the bar you gotta sit at the table so then we go to the kid we don't know the restaurant so you know what you want to eat so I got it make salad sandwiches French lies another love check tonight with Jim time and we had two rudest nasties rottenness waitress you ever imagined and she was really rude and we gave her when we left I gave her $20 to Jimmy yet she was shot went over 1968 $20 around Christmas $220 that's what I said that's always whatever she was shocked her yet so we're walking down the airport and is that college kid was his wife and a brand-new baby you know how you can sit right outside I mean you know there was the entrance way to do it so we go in decision and this lady screams in the middle of the walkway hello baby killers everybody did that I mean you know I thought was just unbelievable and you know we didn't do anything and when we don't know we were already had a first-class ticket so late as soon as we got that we went up to do counter lady told us to go back in line of course it's a long line we finally get there 20 minutes later she said want any given line the first time your first question that's what well that was the kind no but yeah that was that was the that was the that was the negative side but like I said the reason I I enjoyed the Cerebus I stayed in the service and I don't think I reason I didn't have any problems or most of my friends didn't have any of their problems is because I'm saved my service Sam you want us to leave yeah bit close are they okay what man thank you very much for your interview any night okay

Channel: New York State Military Museum

Views: 53,889

Rating: 4.7025795 out of 5

Keywords: Veteran., United, States, Military., US Marines (Armed Force), Vietnam War (Military Conflict)

Id: x3QddFlgoCU

Length: 79min 35sec (4775 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2015