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Honoring Veterans: A Vietnam War Story--RADIO VERSION · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Well, good morning, everybody, Happy weekend. We made it yet again.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Repcollite Home improvement show sponsored by
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore, and today's episode is unusual. It's the most
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: unusual episode I've ever aired. So buckle up. This past
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Monday was Veterans Day, right, and with that in mind,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to do something this year to honor
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: our veterans, to really do that as well as we could.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Know.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: All of us at Repcolite really wanted to get into
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that and come up with a plan. So the plan
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that I came up with was this. I sat down
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: with my dad, Mark Hanson to talk about his experiences
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: during the Vietnam War, and it's something he and I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: have never really talked about in depth before. So today's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: episode is going to feature highlights from that conversation. For
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the full interview, check out our podcast or YouTube channel.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: All right, let's jump into our Veterans Day special with
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: my dad, Mark Hanson. How did you end up in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the service.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I was enlisted. You had to sign up for the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: draft when you were eighteen, and Vietnam was going hot
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and heavy at that time, and I really I didn't
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: think about it. Much you didn't think about as far
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: as having to go. I knew that I would have
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to go if I had if I enlisted in the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: army whatever, or got drafted. If you're drafted, you're going
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: to be there for sure. But either way, that wasn't
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: a deciding factor. And then I thought, well, with the schooling.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: And I used to work at Hanson Machine and As
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: in high school, and I was on a punch press,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: which I hated, you know, cleaning dyes with my grandpa,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and so Grandpa said, why don't you go to the
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: service and go to school, and so you know, I
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: went down to the Naval recruiter and didn't hit me
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: at the time, but I think the Navy, well then
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: marine and the Navy recruiter. Marines are part of the Navy,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and so they could stay in there together. And I thought, well,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: I didn't think anything of it. I thought he didn't
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: have a room by himself, so they want to come
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: over here. But I talked to them, and then they
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: had said, well, here's a pamphlet. I got a little
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: book and I went through it and there was tulin
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: dime making, there was electrician, a lot of different schooling,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and I really didn't know what I wanted. But then
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I thought, well, I'm going to enlist, and they gave
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: me my time. I had to be there for a
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: boot camp was in October in sixty seven, and then
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: we had to go to Detroit with a group for
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: physicals and things like that. And I passed the physical obviously.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: And obviously you've got the handsome physique.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly right, exactly physical, not real bright up on top,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: but you know, but we're physically. But then I was
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: he said, there's this guy that came in, an officer.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: He said, you know, here's this catalog, your little book,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: go through it and look and see what you really
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: want to do. Well, then he came back and he
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: said to me, he said, okay, now you you, you
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and you. We picked four of us. You're going to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: be corman.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I said, what's a corman. Well they it's a medical
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and and you know they do the medical things, work
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: in the hospital, naval hospital, naval hospital ship. And I said, okay,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: never thinking that was a corman. You're going to go
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: anyplace other than the naval hospital.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: So that's what you anticipated.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Well that's what I anticipated, but it was you know
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I didn't schooling park. Well, I got it. I had
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: to go to boot camp and graduated from boot camp.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I could march, I could you know, follow orders?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And then I had to go to school. It was
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: a class as school. It was we called it Core school.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: It was hospital Corman School and a medical and so
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: we did the medical training and testing and learning. They
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: told us you could be a registered nurse after the
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: service if you went to school for another year.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Okay, I thought, well, you don't want to.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to do that, and but I got
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: through that. And then they said you're going to go
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: to a naval hospital and so I got out. But then, now,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: how long were you there in the boot The boot
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: camp was twelve thirteen weeks if I remember right, fourteen weeks.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: So you're doing all kinds of physical stuff. That physical
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: camp like what we did in the movies. Some Now
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: the Navy was a little different because you had to
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: learn do in the Navy.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: You had to learn how to tie k nots.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Are you making a joke or is that no?
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: No, you had to learn how to ty not. And
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: then they have at the boot camp and we went
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to San Diego, a couple of years ago, and the
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: boot camp is closed. But the name that they had
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: a big wooden ship, the Limit Nimts named after the
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: admiral and World War two hero Admiral Limits Admirals, And
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: they had a boat, I call it a boat. And
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: so you had to learn how to do that and that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: But I didn't pay much attention because I was going
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to the medical school after you boot camp.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: You were kind of phoning it, kind of blew it off.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: You know, you learn you not that when you capture people.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: No, No, the navy ties a lot of knots.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Uh, the boat, the ships, the boats, you know, uh, hobbies.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Hobbies, clothesline. You wash your clothes every night on tables
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: outside the barracks and uh, then you have to tie
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: them on the line in a square knot. And our
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: drill instructor, he was an East seven and we had
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to call him. I don't forget what one it was.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: I know what I called something that children might listen to.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know I knew what I wanted to call him.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: But yeah, but chief, his naval chief, bavy chief. He
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: would come in in the morning early and if it's
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: not tied and the square not it'd be on the ground.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: He'd throw it on the ground.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Well you're done, tired, and down it goes. I don't
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I think I graduated boot camp and the last time
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I had to wash, I think I did manage to
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: keep the clothes on the line.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Okay, s pull that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I do know how to tie a square, knot, although
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I've got to think about it. But then I went
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: to San Diego Bilbola Hospital and that was longer training
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: because it's all that medical medical training.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: I've got no medical background, no medical guys and stuff, yep.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: And I have not no medical background. I could put
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: a band diate on, but I didn't do it right. No,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: not not whatsoever. And so I got that and we
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: just had basic training. But then I went to Long
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Beach Naval Hospital and then after I graduated from there,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: they shipped me my orders and that says Camp Pendleton, California,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: fifth Marine Tank Battalion, And I thought, oh, let's see here.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I enlisted in the Navy and I didn't want to
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: pound gravel. We used to say for two years in
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the Army, and now I'm going to pound gravel for
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: three to four years in the Marine Corps. That makes
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: perfect sense to me.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: When you enlisted, is there a certain time frame that
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: you thought you were in for.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: There was, it was four years.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: It was a four year four years.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, and and dad, Grandpa, he didn't I was going
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: to the Marine Corps. Well then I learned and know
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: now that the Marine Corps is part of the Navy.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: There are the Navy's ground forces. So when I got there,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: they said, okay, now here you are, you're going to
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: do this, And so I had, you know, I worked
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: in the dispensary. I learned how to shoot x rays.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I was an X ray shooter at the at the
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: end of a hospital. But then you'd go out on
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: bivouac with real toys, you know, tanks we had done
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: until in the US. I'm in the US penaltanel and uh.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: We'd go out there for two weeks in the field,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: you know, and train and train and train. And I
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: even got to drive a tank. The commander of you
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: got to drive a tank, the commander of the tanks.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I could I had box, uh, but but no, the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: lieutenant he came, he said, Doc, that's what they called me.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: They called you Doc, called me Doc. That's really fun.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: And you try to do things.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: I know it and and I'm not doc.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: No.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm not trying to fix anything. I mean
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: you I could fix.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: No, even when you slice your fingers over. Oh yeah,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: but yourself up.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Well, that's how you do it them all. You've got
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: to stop the bleeding that you learn all those weeks.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: That's what I learned. And they called I was the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: only one will We had other quarman out there, but
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: they said, he said, Doc, do you know what you
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: want to drive? A tank? Do you know how to
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: drive it? Yeah? I almost totaled it out that tank,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I know. I just looked at it, says, okay, go
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: back to your gun position. But I never drove it.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: And but I didn't want to go to Vietnam in
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the tank because everybody thinks they're so safe. They're not.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: You're stuck in it.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: You're stuck and there's a little hatch down at the
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: bottom on the floor about a twelve inch fifteen inch
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: square that that's your skate patch. Now you're coming out
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: of the bottom of the tank, and the people know
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: that they hit the tank and they.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Know you're where the skate patches, and so you.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Ain't got a prayer, and I don't have a prayer
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: because I was the littlest I'm not gonna be the
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: first flee out of that hatch. It's bigger ones are
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: going to beat me out, you know. But we we
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: survived that, and then I was about a year. But
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: then I got my orders to Vietnam.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: All right, I think we're gonna pause right there, take
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a break, and then we'll pick up this conversation on
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the other side.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: Stick around, and we're back.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a special Veterans Day episode of the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Repco Lighte home improvement show, sponsored by Benjamin Moore. Now,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Veterans Day was Monday, and everybody here at Repco Light
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to do what we could to honor our veterans,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and that's what we're doing on.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: The show today.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: This entire episode is an interview that I had with
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: my dad, Mark Hanson, about his time in Vietnam. Now,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: at the end of the last segment, Dad had just
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: received his orders to head to Vietnam. Let's pick it
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: up there. So what was that like.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Were you engaged to mom at that point?
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I was engaged to your mother when and I got
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: my orders to.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Go to Vietnam. So how did that fly? How did
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: the whole family take that? I heard you were going?
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: How did you take that? When you heard you were going.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: It didn't set in. I mean, you weren't worried. You
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: didn't think about it.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Month was that generally how it was? Or was that? No?
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Well that was me because I just don't think about it.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I never did you know it?
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: You started this?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Well, Mom, I believe I forget when it was. I
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: was at Pendleton, I think yet when mary Anne's husband
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: or Mount's husband, sister, your mother's sister fiance was killed
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: and he was driving a truck you know it for
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the army and it hit land mine and whatever. I
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: don't know all the details that hit her and their
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: side of the fat.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, because all of a sudden it's real.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And so still, you know, you were sad. And I
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: knew Bob a little bit. I mean he was a
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: year older than me in high school, but her sister
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: was in my class, and and uh, I couldn't go
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: home to the funeral. I didn't. I didn't go. But
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: when I got my orders, that was brutal.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: For a mom, for the family, the family, your side of.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Things, Oh, my mom, she she she put in her
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: head that he's going to be in a place in
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: the rear and the nang whatnot. And you know that's
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: what it was going to be. She just then and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: that was it. And Dad, I don't think knew. But
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: my brothers they didn't go. They didn't go, they didn't
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: go into service.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: And so I mean they never were drafted.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: No, because I'll back it up, because they changed the
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: draft to a number system. I forget how many numbers
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: it was, and I s I was home on leave.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I think it was before I went to Vietnam, and
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I was home on leave. And I've watched it. Well,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: wonder where I go on? You know, if I how
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: soon i'd go get drafted? Brian, your uncle Brian. Uh
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: he was way up in the numbers, Uncle, Uncle Mike,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: way up in the numbers. Uncle Jim. He wasn't old enough.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Right in the draft.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Uh Me, I'm eight.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Really, I thought, cra you would have gone anywhere.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm on my way, you know, And uh so
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: that's what I went. But when I flew out, your
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: mom went to the airport with me. You know, I
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: flew off and then we landed in the Nang and
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: they said they we got off the plane and they said,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: run over to the bunker. There's information we're going to
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: get murdered tonight.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So you're you you land and you're already in it.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: But they did.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: We didn't get hit.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: No, but that's what you're thinking, and I think.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Well, then I had to go get in there. And
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: then I went I got to signed to a CAP
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: you unit. It was the third Marine Amphibious Force CAP unit.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Now the TET offense of the sixty nine was just
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: over that's the big one, and that was at Way City.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: That's where our headquarters was. And then my first patrol
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: that I went on at night was where the TET was.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: As a field medics.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I was given an sixteen. I had a weapon. I had,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: in fact a forty five caliber pistol. Also, because Corman
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: would carry you had to carry your pack one hundred
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: and some pound pack with all medical stuff. And we
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: had gone to patrol scared spitless because you didn't know
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: what was going to come.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: How old are you at this point?
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to be us twenty. I went over
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: there at twenty and so I did that. Well, then
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: we went to our little unit and it was fifteen
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Marines and me. Then you had fifteen Vietnamese like reserve
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: fust and they they were all right, but yet not
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: not a marine, not an army guide.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: How much fighting and all of that did you see?
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Not as much as a lot of people did, but
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: enough for me. Yeah, yeah, you know, you're guarding the village.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: You live in the village. The village is sixty five
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: seventy BC sympathizers. You don't know who your friends are,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: and it's it's eerie. You know, you don't know, but
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: you know. The village chief in the one area ben
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Key we were at, he was vit com all sympathety.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: But he had a radio and so he could get
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: on our tactical net because it's a tactical radio and
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: tell him where we are. So we had to change
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: up that and whatnot.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Sod you run into like traps and stuff like that.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Booby traps we used to have. Oy had booby traps.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: We had a lot of toe popper. Just take the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: front of your foot off and you you know, I
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: never hit a booby trap, but people then.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: You have to help people on them.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: You're on him, they get hit you're on him.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: How did that go? When that's got to happen?
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I didn't know when when when I got on the
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: plane to go I get to go there, I didn't
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: know how would I handle it?
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: You know, I had no idea you handle blood in general.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It doesn't bother me.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Okay, it didn't buy welles.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I recover once I come back to consciousness, I might
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: be okay.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: But my first reaction is to.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: If somebody gets hit, you're on him, you know, you
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: just go?
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Would you do what you got a little?
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I remember one night I was on watch, was Virgil
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: virtual Teesky. We were two peas in the pot. He
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: was a lance corporal Marine and I was in the
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: four at the time. Uh And we were on watch
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: and I took the starlight scope. You could see at
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: night and it's not like you got now, but and
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: when we walked out to the ambush site the vietnamme is,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: it was almost like and we didn't have gridge sales
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: at the time, but they were just hauling the furniture out.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: It would be like a gridge sale gride shell tomorrow.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: You know, you said what you didn't think that? But
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: what's going on? Well, we were on I was on watch.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: It was about midnight, and all of a sudden, the
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: village is on fire. And the captain comes on the radio.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: He said, what's going on? Don't know? It looks like
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the village is on fire? What are you going to do?
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: As soon as I hang up from you all call
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the fire department. What do you want me to do?
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: He didn't like that, but he said, you guys are marines.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: You got to go in there. We did, but the
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: be it coong, it's at the village on fire, and
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: they knew.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: What did you do?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Then we went in?
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but I mean you can't stop the fire,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: can you? No?
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: And they had one way in and that was the
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: main gate, and you know, we're waiting for where they're
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: going to be and we got in. No casualties. Uh,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: the fire just they're just paper hat or hooches and
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: and and whatnot. Straw. They burned fast. But they all
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: knew that it was happening, but nobody said anything.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: That's why they moved all their stuff out. That's why
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: they moved all their They knew it was coming.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: And but the viet Cong set the fire. But they
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: would come in and you know, do damage to people
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: and whatnot. Who are sympathizers with us? But it was
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: it was a different You lived it. You know, everybody
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: lives it, but you'd lived in there with them.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: And I think we're gonna pause right there, take a break,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and then when we come back, we'll pick up the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: next part of the story.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Stick around, and we're back.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a special Veterans Day episode of the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Rico White Home Improvement Show, sponsored by Benjamin Moore and
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in honor of Veterans Day earlier this week. I'm interviewing
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: my dad who spent time in Vietnam. Let's get back
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to the conversation. So you get to know some people
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: like you mentioned a Virgil guys. Yep, do you get
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: to do you hang with him the whole time or
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you get no?
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: No, You've got while you get split up, sometimes you.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Got to stay in contact.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: The only thing I did when I got home was
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: I kind of watched well, I wouldn't know when I
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: got home. It was after we'd gotten a computer that
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I went through it and kind of looked up the
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: units I was in and see how they had figured
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: out and whatnot. Because when I got sent to the rear.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I was going to fly out in three.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Days back to the county States, like your tour is done.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: My tour is done. And Captain Mallard, he was a
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: marine captain out there, he said, you know, we got
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: in and we had our unit going to move to
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the like the ho Chi Minh Trail area. Scared to death.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: You know, I got three days. I lasted this long.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Captain Mallard, doc, get your stuff, throw
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: it on the ground. You're not going. Why not, You're
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: just not going. And so I stayed in the rear
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: for two nights and then I flew out. So he
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: kept you back because I was going home. He didn't
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: want anything to go. And Captain Mallard was one of
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the greatest marine officers that I ever served with. I mean,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: they all were good, but he was more down to earth.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: So tell us about I mean, tell me about, Tell
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: everybody about. Grandma wrote a letter your mom, didn't she
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: get after somebody didn't she write a letter to her?
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: It wasn't as scathing as I thought. I've got a
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: copy of it.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: Oh it wasn't quite the story.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Well, she said, well your your mom. When we went
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I went on.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: R and R to Hawaii, yep, and your mother went
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: and uh she was skinny or something.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Skinny, like one hundred pounds maybe, I don't know. Uh,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: always clogged up, Chris, I'm always clogged.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: What does that mean? Does that mean?
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I think it means or allergies?
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: And okay, clogged up that way and.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: No, not the other way, because I was already scared
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: where you were going with that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: And then now I brought us there, so you got
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: stuffed up.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: And but allergies and whatnot and and uh.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Skinny scrannie a little nothing.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Basically, and uh, Grandma wrote to my commanding office.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Your mom, yes, she she was.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: She she wanted me and I can't remember that. She
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: felt I should be taken out. He was in the
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: lines or in the field for so long and get
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: get to their you know, rear. And and then he
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: wrote a letter back.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: I got a copy of who is this anyway?
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: It's a lieutenant come under medical corps. It's it's it's
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: a naval officer.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Did he tell you that? He obviously, yeah, he's got it.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: In fact, it was fun No, Okay, didn't know, well.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: He thought it was you know, he this is he
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: he sees a lot of them, and but he's he said,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: how are you? I mean, he was concerned. Okay, so
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: you took and I of course took it as I'm
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: a hardcore combat veteran, not as hard core as I
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: thought I was. But I've been here for ten months. No,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: I don't want to go to the rear. I'm great.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Did they send you to the rear then? Or you stayed?
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I stayed. I stayed in the field, but I didn't
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: feel right to me. I didn't want to leave my buddies.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, how many people were in that group? It
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: would be fifteen or fifteen, That's what I thought.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Well, depending on if you you know, had a couple
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: of metavacts, and we had metavacs at time to time
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: to time, then you might be down a couple of guys,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: but then they'd always get a new one brought in.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So the new guys coming in, how are they coming
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: from other places? Or are some of them fresh?
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Some of them are fresh, just right from.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: What is their mentality when they get there?
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Well, the same as what everybody else. They're kind of
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: just a lot of them, I think with some of them,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: they're they're macho, and and it doesn't really affect them others.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Oh you don't have them crying. I never seen anybody cry.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: You know, you do a job. You know what you
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: got to do when you do it. And and that's
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: where I feel that the military, any branch, they're there,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: they're there for you, you know, and we're abandoned brothers basically.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: And you get.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: To know the people so well. I mean, because you're terrible.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But even like you know, you'll tell you you'll pick
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: on them, you know, Army, Navy, we're still playing football.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: And and but again you take it and say, okay,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: yeah we're better.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Than you are, but you don't.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I got it. It's tongue in cheeks, like.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: When the kids are getting after each other that one's
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: better than the other one. Right, So how did you
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: so Grandma's writing letters? How did you communicate with the
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: people back home? Letter letter? How often were you writing?
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I wasn't writing as much as they wanted me to. Yeah, well,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: but I mean I was never even state side. I
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: mean my mother, my mother called me at the barracks
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: and I'm busy. But but but no, you don't and
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I did uh have a tape recorder and I did
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: tape soles and and uh we had one and your brother,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: your uncle, Jim, I think, said it that they played it,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: were playing it at supper.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: And we got hit and during the recording, and.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't turn the recording off. I didn't, you know,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: we're hitting your rifle or here we go, you know,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: and they said we were living. Jim said yeah, Dad,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: and they were listening and all of a sudden he
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: thought that was pretty neat, you know. Grandpa said, I
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: don't know what that was. What was that? You know?
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Also Grandpa's just so I stopped doing that.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't do it intentionally, I mean, uh, but
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: but they they wanted to see and hear from you.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: How long did it take to get a letter from
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: state side.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: It would be about a week, I would say three four.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: It wasn't bad.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: The funny story was when I went to Vietnam my
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: last day home, night home, last date with your mom.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: And I came home and I put the car in
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: the garage. The garage was a little kink, you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: and what and I hit the side of the garage.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: You hit the garage car with the car and and
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: the molding on the garage, cracked it, you know, and
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: everything straightened it up and went in the house, and
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: I thought, gee, what do I gotta do? Well, it's
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: what are they going to do? It's twelve twelve thirty
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: going to what's going to happen to me? You know
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: you didn't tell it. First letter from Grandpa hand, first
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: and only letter.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: From your dad from my dad, your grand we noticed
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: the garage, he said, I just.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Want you to know. I saw the garage. I told
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: to be at cong where you were at say that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: he did? He did, and I wrote back. I couldn't.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: I didn't.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: We didn't, but I said, I wrote back, thanks Dad,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: we got hit last night. I didn't get another letter
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: from him at all, but that was his sense of humor.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I saw it. I told to be at Kong where
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: you were. I just want you to.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Know, and you'll never hit the garage again.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I never heard that again, but that was one that
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: I just couldn't help myself, you know, And I thought
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I hit it before and you had to telling rats,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: would I want to do this now? I'm not going
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: to be back here for a year, all right, Time
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: for one more quick break and then we'll wrap up
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: this conversation on the other side, stick around.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to our special Veterans.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Day episode of the Repolite Home Improvement Show sponsored by
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore and Yeah, in honor of Veterans Day.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: It happened Monday this past week.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: In honor of the day and in honor of our veterans,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I'm interviewing my dad, who spent time in Vietnam.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Let's jump back into the conversation. What was the toughest
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: part boot camp? Why?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Just because I was never never gone, I never left.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Home, so you missed home. That was tough.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: It did a little bit. And of course you didn't.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: You didn't like the surrogate mother, your drill instructor. You
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: didn't like him that well. You know, they're in your
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: face and they're teaching you respect, they're teaching you know everything.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: But that I think was the worst they had signs
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: if your mother doesn't work here, it doesn't live here,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: clean your own place.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: I remember, you would always talk to us. I've never
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: seen you make a bed ever, but you would always talk.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: When we were supposed to make a bed that were
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: supposed to be able to bounce a dime or a.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Quarter of dime on.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: So you you were able to do that, make a beds?
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Why did you quit.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Because I get married? You're saying I probably shouldn't have
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: said that.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: I don't know if that could air.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: But but no, I mean you probably did make beds, right,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I made beds.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I mean I I didn't make a double bed. You
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: can't even reach across a bull.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: You don't want to show up at a barracks and
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: see a double bed.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: No, that would make what's going on? And and but
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: a double bed or a single bed. Oh, I would
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: have it torn apart when I first got in. And
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of them did. I mean again, like your
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: clothes and not being tied with the square not.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, they just tear it apart.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: They tear it apart.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: You could put it together and make them perfect. Being
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: in combat, you know, how did you deal with the
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: stress or audience?
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: You know, to compartmentalize it. It goes away, It goes away.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: You focus on what's happening.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: You you worry. I did anyway at night, don't let
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: anybody get hurt because I knew what's going to happen.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: And uh, during the day, you have no problem.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: We most stuff didn't happen during the day.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: It was always well, if you're out on a patrol
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: or something, you might but and and again the other places,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: like we're in a village for your situation. For my situation,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: it wasn't really that bad. You don't want to like
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: we would. We would do exercising running, you know, you
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: don't want to run the same direction every day instead
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: of pattern. If somebody's going to lay a booby trapped
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: for you or could, but you didn't have a real
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: worry about it. I just want to get starting to
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: get dusk. It is when okay, here we go again,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: you know, because you don't know. But with us, it
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: wasn't a long battle. It might last not even twenty
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: minutes because it's just hit and run. It's hit and run,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: hit and run, hit and run. It's a we're gonna say,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: if we're waiting for you, we're going to ambush you,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: you know, fire someome shots and take off. Like I
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: never ran into the NBA, the North Vietnamese Army. They
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: came to play and we heard people say that they're
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: in their area. We'd get more ammunition. I don't want
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: more ammunition. I want a big truck here so we
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: can get I got fifteen people here, you know, but
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: we never got hit as thematic.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Did you feel responsible? I mean, obviously you felt some
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: responsibility for the group. I mean you're not in command
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: of anything, But do you feel like you take care
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: of everybody?
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: You've got to take care of them. I mean, if
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: somebody gets hit and I'm not going to go deeply,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: but you're ear on them, you take your rifle with you, but.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: You're you've got to run into whatever whatever. Do people
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: go with you?
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Nope, they're they're fighting back and shooting. You know, you
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: go by yourself and you just go. You don't think
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: about it. You're you're shaking afterwards, or at least you were.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: But uh, you know, yeah, you three four people hit,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: You're they're they're they're laying down, cover fire, you're patching.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: How do you get people pulled back as one single person?
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: Or do other people join you?
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: If if they're out, if they're out there, then somebody's
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: gonna go with you. Because you know we used to
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: laugh and in the boot camp or when we were practicing,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: you know, they lay down, No, you've got to carry them. Okay,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Now you're six foot nine I'm five foot five. I
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: ain't going to carry you. No, you're you're you're going
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: to drag along anyway because you're so much taller than right,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're so much people our height can do.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: But you you do when you get the choppers coming
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: in and and I you know you'd have people, you'd
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: put them in a poncho and carry them to the
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: chopper and throw them in.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Otherwise you know they'll come in later and then they'll help.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: But they will help. I mean everybody, we're all buddies,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: you know, all right, I'm all there.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: Thinking if they're busy, you know, when they're engaged.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Great. But then you had to train somebody that if
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: you got.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: Hit, right, they could take care of you or take over.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: And I always said to well, Sammy was the one,
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Sammy Sanders. Uh, but you're you're going to be my cover.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: And if two people are hitting, I'm one of them,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: I'm first.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: That never happened, right, You never got never got hit.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Anything comes terribly close that you thought, oh my goodness.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you later, okay, But yeah, yeah, it was brutal.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: But the most the the other thing that really affects
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: me is when we went to Washington with Jeane and Phil.
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: My sister and your sister. I just went to Washington,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: d C.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Washington, d C and then Gettysburg and and Jeanie had said,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: We're going to see the wall and I'll bust up.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah I did. H It's some Yeah, but.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: That that you looked, you look back on that and
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: for what the sacrifices for what you know, Yeah, I
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: don't want to be little that. I don't want to,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: you know, say, hey, I wouldn't do it again. I would,
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: but so much.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, it affected so many families.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: But like even with your mother's Yeah, that's my and uh,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: you know Mary Anne was her Viob, you know. And
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: I remember I got I got a call. I was
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: at Penalty I think it was, and I got a
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: call him Bob was killed And I never saw it coming,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: you know where why how you know, Yeah, hit him
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: a land mine with his truck.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: He was training or he will he was in Vietnam.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: In Vietnam and he was I don't know what what
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: he did. I mean, I I knew he drove trucks, uh,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: but they ran he ran over a landmine and by
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: am you know and Marianne her his well, his dad
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: came over to tell mary Anne.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: And then I got orders and then you got to go.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they really didn't know. I mean they well
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: can do this all over again.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: But so hard. But David, it's it's what about like
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: things you were proud of, things you did, I mean,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: just learning the whole medical thing. I getting that first
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: knot that.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: School square, not I can still tie that square.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Not things like if you look back, I don't feel
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: like you.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: I I learned. I grew up a lot. I guess
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: it's basically what it is. I mean, I I've always
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: been footloose and cure free, and you learn.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: To your detriment sometimes I'm a fair amount for that.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Now I grew up. I grew up and learned
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: not to do it so fast, you know what I mean,
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: work into it slowly. But no, you learned respect. You
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: learned respect for people higher ups, my mother and dad.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I mean when I got out of the service and
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: came home, your grandfather and grandmother and my mom and
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: dad I thought had gotten PhDs.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: You thought they were brilliant.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: They learned a lot since I was gone. Uh, And
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: that's what you pick up one. You know, people are
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: looking at even with your kids. Not not always, but
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I mean they're they're thinking, you know, now they're you're
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: older and they're older. But what's he know?
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: You know, when they're teenagers, we don't know much. As
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: they get older in the encounter life a little bit.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: We know a little bit you went, you went to
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: college when I wasn't looking. I mean, you know, what
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: is the deal? Uh, that's what I learned. I got
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: I think I grew up a lot.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: What was it like coming home like you get home?
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, because there was so much reaction to Vietnam veterans,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, it.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: Was you what, Well, obviously it happened.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: I I have heard from other other veterans that they
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: have had problems, problems I'd never had.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: You can read that end of it, the ugly side
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: of it. I heard about it, but didn't see it.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: But I did not see it. Well, now they're they're
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: looking at the veterans. They're really you know, especially this
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: day and age, they're doing a lot, you know, and
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: they should be. I don't say treated like you know,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: multi billionaires, but hey, they're they're sacrificing.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: Well and you've seen that end of things, and even
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: though you came back, you sacrificed. I mean, obviously there's
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: a huge fact.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: But I look at my experiences there as a life experience.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: At the time, I didn't.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, now, you'd never really ever got into watching any
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: of the movies war movies of any kind. You don't really.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Vietnam War movies. I don't really watch. I have been
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: listening and seeing, you know, with the wall and whatnot.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: That wall was something and that brought back memories and
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: you remembered the nights you know when you've put them
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: on the chopper and.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: You found names you knew, okay.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: And it was tough and they say that it is.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: And but for people that would be in a whole
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: lot of stuff, it's got to be terrible. It's got
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: to be terrible. I wasn't in that much more than
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: I cared to be in, but I mean, nothing compared
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: to anything. So but no, there you think about it,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: especially Veterans Day, you think about it, and you think
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: about families where they didn't make it back anybody, what
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: did they go through every time?
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know, really something really something I heartfelt.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks to my dad, Mark Hanson for his service and
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: his story, and to all veterans and their families your sacrifices.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: They're not forgotten, and we're grateful and thankful for every
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: single one of you. Now, don't forget. The full interview
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: is on our podcast and YouTube. Have a great weekend, everybody,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and I'll see you next week.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.