Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Honoring Veterans: A Vietnam War Story--FULL INTERVIEW

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Honoring Veterans: A Vietnam War Story--FULL INTERVIEW · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

• 0:02
  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 1: You know, all of us at Repcolite really wanted to
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: get into that and come up with a plan. So
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the plan that I came up with was this. I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: sat down with my dad, Mark Hanson to talk about
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: his experiences during the Vietnam War, and it's something he
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and I have never really talked about in depth before.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So today's episode is pretty much that that entire interview
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: just completely uncut. I guess there are a few cuts
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: just for consistency reasons, but overall this is the unedited
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: version compared to what aired on the radio. And one
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: last thing before I let Dad, you know, run with it,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: is I filmed this. I shot video of this, and
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: if you want to watch that, just go check it
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: out on YouTube. Got the video there again pretty much
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the straight interview uncut. Definitely think about checking it out.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: All right. Well that said, let's jump into our Veterans
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Stay Special with my dad, Mark Hanson. So let's start with,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you know, just the beginning of it. I know the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: draft was going on. How did you end up in
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the service?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I had no I was enlisted. You had to
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: sign up for the draft when you were eighteen. I
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: think you had a sign up for it. And Vietnam
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: was going hot and heavy at that time. And I
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: really I didn't think about it much. You didn't think
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: about as far as having to go. I knew that
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I would have to go if I had if I
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: enlisted in the army whatever, or got drafted. If you're drafted,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: you to be there for sure. But but either way,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: that wasn't the deciding factor. And then I thought, well,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: with the schooling, and I used to work at you
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: don't know him, but it was my great uncle Doc.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: He owned Hanson Machine, and I worked at Hanson Machine
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and as in high school and I was on a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: punch press, which I hated, you know, cleaning dyes with
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: my grandpa, his Doc's brother. Just just it was a
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: greasy job. I mean it was a good job, tuland
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I was a good job, and so Grandpa said, why
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: don't you go to the service and go to school,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and so you know, I went down to the Naval
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: recruiter and didn't hit me at the time, but I
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: think the Navy, well then Marine and the Navy recruiter.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Marines are part of the Navy, and so they could
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: stay in there together. And I thought, well, I didn't
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: think anything of it. I thought he didn't have a
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: room by himself, so they want to come over here.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: But I talked to them, and then they had said, well,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: here's a pamphlet. I got a little book and I
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: went through it and there was tulan dime making, there
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: was electrician, a lot of different schooling, and I really
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: didn't know what I wanted. But then I thought, well,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I'm going to enlist, and they gave me my time.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I had to be there for a boot camp was
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: in October October three, I think it was three or
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: four in sixty seven, and then we had to go
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to Detroit with a group for physicals and things like that.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And I passed the physical obviously, and we sat down again.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Obviously you've got the handsome physique exactly right, exactly physical,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: not real bright up on top, but you but we're
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: physically we're physically sound.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: But then I was He said, there's this guy that
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: came in, an officer. All I saw was gold on his.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Hat, and I thought, I mean he's important.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: That's what I thought. It turned out he wasn't. But uh,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: he said, you know, here's this catalog, your little book
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: that you go through it and look and see what
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you really want to do. Well, then he came back
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and he said to me, he said, okay, now you, you, you,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: and you. He picked four of us. You're going to
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: be corman. Okay, oh okay. I said, what's a corman.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Well they it's a medical and and you know they
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: do the medical things, work in the hospital, naval hospital,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: naval hospital ship. And I said, well okay, and so
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: then I had to go to boot camp. And I
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: went to boot camp.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: So Vietnam is cooking right now.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Oh it's cooking, okay, all kinds of stuff happening. And
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: never thinking that was a corman. You're going to go
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: anyplace other than hospital.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So that's what you anticipated.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Well that's what I anticipated, but it was you.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Know I didn't the schooling park camp, well.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I got it. I had to go to boot camp.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I think it was a twelve week boot camp, and
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: graduated from boot camp. I could march, I could you know,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: follow orders. And then I had to go to school.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: It was a class as school. We called it Core school.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: It was hospital Corman School and medical and so we
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: did the medical training and testing and learning. They told
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: us you could be a registered nurse after the service
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: if you went to school for another year.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, I thought, well, you don't want to.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to do that, and but I got
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: through that. And then they said you're going to go
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: to a naval hospital and so I got out. But then, now,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: how long were you there in the boot The boot
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: camp was twelve thirteen weeks if I remember right, fourteen weeks.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So you're doing all kinds of physical stuff that physical
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: camp with what we did movies some will Now.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: The Navy was a little different because you had to
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: learn you in the Navy, you had to learn how
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: to tie knots.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Are you making a joke or is that no?
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: No, you had to learn how to tie not And
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: then they have at the boot camp and we went
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: to San Diego a couple of years ago, and boot
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: camp is closed. But the name that they had a
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: big wooden ship, the Nymens named after the admiral and
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: World War Two hero Admiral limits Amals, And they had
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: a boat. I called it a boat. And so you
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: had to learn how to do that and that. But
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: again I didn't pay much attention because I was going
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: to the medical school after you boot camp.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: You were kind of phoning it in, kind of blew
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: it off. You know, you learn your knots. Is that
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: when you capture people?
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: No, No, the Navy ties a lot of knots. Uh,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the boat, the ships, the boat, you know, uh, hobbies, hobbies, clothesline.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: You wash your clothes every night on tables outside the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: barracks and then you have to tie them on the
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: line in a square knot.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Tie your clothes on the line. You tie your clothes
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and not on the line, square knot. Don't think it wrinkled.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: No, okay, well you just hang and then of course
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you got to iron them.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Oh that's fine, but I mean.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Uh, you you you had dungeries like like blue jeans
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: and other things like that. But uh, we had to
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: tie him in knots in a square knot and our
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: drill instructor he was an East seven, and we had
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: to call him. I don't forget what what it was.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I know what I called something that children might listen to.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know I knew what I wanted to call him.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: But yeah, but chief, his naval chief, baby chief. He
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: would come in in the morning early and if it's
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: not tied in the square, your laundry, my laundry, our laundry,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: he'd be.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: On the ground. He'd throw it on the ground.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Well he'd done tie and down it goes. I don't
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I think I graduated boot camp and the last time
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I had to wash, I think I did manage to
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: keep the clothes on the line.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, see pulled that.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I do know how to tie a square knot, although
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I've got to think about it.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Well, then I went to course school and that was
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: at San Diego Bel Bowl and Naval Hospital, biggest naval hospital. Uh.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: There we have right by the zoo and different things.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: We could walk over there because we could get liberty now.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: But then I went to San Diego Beilbola Hospital and
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: that was I don't remember. It was longer training because
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: it's all that's medical medical training class.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: You've got no medical background, no medical guys and stuff.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Yep, and I have not no medical background. I could
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: put a band date on at that point my finger.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: No, by the time you went done, by the time.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I was done, I know. But when I went I
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: could put a bandage, but I didn't do it right
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: because you know, you guys put it on and then
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you take it off and no, you got to take
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: it off and don't touch the little.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Feltberd or oh yeah, I do that all the time.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I still do it bandage, no.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Not whatsoever. And so I got that and we just
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: had basic training. But then I went to Long Beach
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Naval Hospital and that was a brand new hospital at
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: the time, and we had the barry because they were
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: like a apartment to to a room, you know, and
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: all these other people are letting bunks and everything. We
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: got rooms, colored TV not in the room.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: But the color TV's new at that point. Yeah, relative yeah.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: But they had it in the big lounge area. We
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: had a club because I was eighteen, so I couldn't
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: do any drinking.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And not tying and stuff like that.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Just had no normal good time and it was a
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: you know, a long time in school at twelve thirteen,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: fourteen weeks, it said we had a book like this
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: you had to learn. It was all training. And then
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: after I graduated from there, they shipped me my orders
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: and that says Camp Pendleton, California, fifth Marine Tank Battalion.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And I thought, oh, let's see here. I enlisted in
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: the Navy and I didn't want to pound gravel. We
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: used to say for two years in the Army, and
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: now I'm going to pound gravel gravel for three to
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: four years in the Marine Corps. That makes perfect sense
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: to me.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: When you enlisted, is there a certain timeframe that you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: thought you were in for?
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: There was it was four years. It was a four
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: year four years. Yes, and and and dad, grandpa, he
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: did not I was going to the Marine Corps.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Grandpa didn't. Was he surprised? Oh yeah, everybody concerned it
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: well because we didn't know. Well then I learned and
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: know now that the Marine Corps is part of the Navy.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: There there are the Navy's ground forces, and so that's
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: why they're on ships. They're guarding ships if they have to,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: because they're part of the Navy. So when I got there.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: They said, okay, now here you are, you're going to
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: do this. And so I had, you know, I worked
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: in the dispensary. I learned how to shoot X rays.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I was an X ray shooter at the at the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: at the hospital. But then you go out on bivouac
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: now with real toys, you know, tanks. We had antil
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in the US.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I'm in the US Penalton and uh, we'd go out
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: there for two weeks in the field, you know, and
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: train and train and train. And I even got to
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: drive a tank. The commander of you got to drive
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: a tank. The commander of the tank. I could I
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: had box. Uh, but but no, the lieutenant he came.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: He said Doc. That's what they told me. They called
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you doc, called me doc. That's really fun. And I've
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: seen you try to do things.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I know it and I'm not doc.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: No.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm not trying to fix anything. I mean
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: you I could fix.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: No, even when you slice your fingers over. Oh yeah,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: put yourself up.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Well, that's how you do it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Animal.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: You've got to stop the bleeding that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: You learned in all those weeks, that's.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: What I learned.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Uh, And they called you doc.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I was the only one. Well, we had other corman
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: out there, but they said, he said, Doc, do you
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: know what you want to drive a tank? Do you
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: know how to drive it? Yeah? I was riding and
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I got to shoot the cannon. You know, I couldn't
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: get the mountain, but I got to shoot it. And
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: uh yeah. And the sergeant in the tank commander, he
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: is a little bit you could have drive it. I
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: almost totaled it out that tank, I know. I just
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: looked and it okay, go back to your gun position.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: And I never drove it. And but I didn't want
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: to go to Vietnam in the tank. Yeah, because everybody
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: thinks they're so safe, they're not.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: You're stuck in it.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: You're stuck. And there's a little hatch down at the
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: bottom on the floor, about a twelve inch fifteen inch
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: square that that's your skate patch. Now you're coming out
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: of the bottom of the tank. And the people know
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: that they hit the tank and they know skate patches,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: and so you ain't got a prayer, Yeah, that's all.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And I don't have a prayer because I was the
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: littlest guy. I'm not going to be the first one
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: out of that hatch. These bigger ones are going to
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: beat me out, you know. And but we survived that,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: and then I was about a year. But then I
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: got my orders to Vietnam.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: So what was that like? Were you engaged to mom
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: at that point?
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I was engaged to your mother when I got my orders.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: To go to Vietnam? So how did that fly? How
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: did the whole family take that? I heard you were going?
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: How did you take that? When you you were.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Going, it didn't set in. I mean, you weren't worried.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: You didn't think about it. Month.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Isn't that generally how it was? Or was that no?
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Well that was me because I just don't think about it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: I never did, you know. Well, Mom, I believe I
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: forget when it was. I was at Pendleton, I think
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: yet when mary Anne's husband or Mount's husbands, your mother's
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: sister fiance was killed and he was driving a truck,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: you know, it for the army and it hit land
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: mine and whatever. I don't know all the details that
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: hit her, and they're side of the.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because all of a sudden, it's real.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And so still, you know, you were sad. And I
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: knew Bob a little bit. I mean he was a
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: year older than me in high school, but her sister
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: was in my class. And and uh, I couldn't go
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: home to the funeral. I didn't. I didn't go. But
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: when I got my.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Orders, that was brutal for a mom, for the family,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the family, your side of things.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Oh my mom, she she she put in her head
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: that he's going to be in a place in the
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: rear and the nang whatnot. And you know that's what
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: it was going to be. She just then focus and
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: that was it. And the dad. I don't think knew
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: my ear grandpa, but they they were bad. No, my
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: brothers they didn't go. They didn't go. They didn't go
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: into service.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: And so I mean they never were drafted.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: No, because I'll back it up, because they changed the
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: draft to a number system. I forget how many numbers
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: it was. And I saw I was home on leave.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I think it was before I went to Vietnam, and
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: as home on leave. And I've watched it. Well, wonder
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: where I go on? You know, if I how soon
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: i'd go get drafted? Brian, your uncle Brian, Uh, he
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: was way up in the numbers, Uncle, Uncle Mike, way
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: up in the numbers. Uncle Jim he wasn't old enough
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: in the draft. Uh me, I'm eight. Really, I thought, oh,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: cra you would have gone anywhere. I'm I'm on my way,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: you know. And uh so that's what they that's when
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I went. But when I flew out, I think, well,
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: your mom, when your mom went to the airport with me,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: but dad or grandpa, and I don't know my brothers
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: if they went or I don't think they did. Jim
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: may have, but uh my mom. Then Chris, your mom,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: your mom said that we grandma wanted to go, I guess,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: and shop in Grand Rapids, the big city and well
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: you know, you know, the malls and whatnot, and and
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: that was more of a get my mind off, yeah,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: a release, and but that's what am I want to
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: shop for? Well I went, you know, I flew off
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: and then we landed into Nang and they said they
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: we got off the plane and they said, run over
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: to the bunker. There's information we're going to get murdered tonight.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: So you're you you land and you're already in it.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: But they did.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: We didn't get hit, No, but that's what you're thinking.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And I think, well, then I had to go get
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: in there and then I went, I got to signed
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: to a CAP unit and that's what I went. It
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: was the third Marine Amphibious Force cap unit and it
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: was a combined action. And then my first patrol that
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: I went on, I had to go at night was
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: where the TET was.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: As a field metic.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I was given an sixteen. I had a weapon. I had,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: in fact a forty five caliber pistol also because Corman
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: would carry it.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Had Did you wear the little red Cross thing?
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: No, they didn't have that. In fact, I had a
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: caduce and I had to take that off.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: What's a caduce? Oh?
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I had that. But then they didn't let
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: let you wear that. Why because of the viet Cong
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: or anybody they would see it, they'd target and that's
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: why with the Red Cross on the bag. Yeah, and
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: it is. But I had to go and given the
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: same thing to the Marines. You had to carry your
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: pack one hundred and some punic pack with all medical stuff.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: And we had gone to patrol scared spitless. Yeah, because
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: you didn't know what was going to come.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: How old are you at this point, Well.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be twenty. I went over there at
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: twenty and so I did that.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Then we went to our little unit and it was
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: fifteen marines in me. Then you had fifteen vietname like
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: reservist and they they were all right, but yet not
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: not a marine, not an army guide. But we had those.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: And then that's where it was. I was there in
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Fu Bay for a little bit. And the Dinbon area
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: that was a hot spot.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: So is that mostly jungle area? Is that city? Obviously
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: it's Dinbon.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: We were on the in the mountains basically, and the
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: mountains or back of us. And they used to call
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: us the Keystone cops because we'd be chasing the Viet
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Cong and the next minute they're could be chasing us.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, just back and forth.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Back and forth, and that's Keystone Cops.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: How much fighting and all of that? Did you see
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: a lot?
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: A little, not as much as a lot of people did,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: but enough for me. Yeah, you know, you're guarding the village.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: You're living the village. The village is sixty five seventy sympathizers,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: So you're living in you don't know who your friends are,
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: and it's it's eerie. You know, you don't know, but
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: you know the village chief in the one area being
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: key we were at uh he was via calm all sympathety.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: But he had a radio and so he could get
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: on our tactical net because it's a tactical radio and
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: tell him where we are. So we had to change
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: up that and whatnot. It was. It was a different situation.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: So did you run into like traps and stuff like.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: That, booby traps, booby traps, We had a lot of
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: toe poppers. Just take the front of your foot of
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: and you you know, I never hit a booby trap.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: But people then you have to help people.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: You're on them. They get hit, you're on them.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: How did that go when that's got to happen? I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: didn't know when.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: When when I got on the plane to go I
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: to go there, I didn't know how was I handling
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: And I had no.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Idea you handle blood in general.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: It doesn't bother me. Okay, it didn't buy well.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: As I recover. Once I come back to consciousness, I
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: might be okay, but my first reaction is to.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: No, I uh, I'm not going to go into it.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Please don't great detail. But if somebody gets hit, you're
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: on them, and I can let you read the Book
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: of the citation. But you you you you do what
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: you gotta do.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Well, I would think, so your training takes over. But
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: also just the fact of the seriousness. I think, yeah,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I think even stumbling on an accident scene or something
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: like that, when that, when that, when that happens even
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: here here exactly have that ability to all of a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: sudden get it because you realize the life.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: And you know what not to do. Well, sometimes you do,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: sometimes you.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Don't, right, But.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there there was stuff that went on, and of
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: course I didn't see anything other you know that other
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: people didn't see and then probably seen more. But I
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: just you know, you just go would you do it?
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Check below?
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I remember one night I was on watch with Virgil
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Virgil Teski. We were two peas in the pot. He
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: was a lance corporal Marine and I was an EE
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: four at the time. Uh And we were on watch
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: and I took the starlight scope. You could see at
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: night and it's not like you got now, but and
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: when we walked out to the ambush site the vietnamme is,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: it was almost like and we didn't have Gridge Sales
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: at the time, but they were just hauling their furniture out.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: It would be like a gridge sale grid sal tomorrow.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: You know you said what you didn't think that? But
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: what's going on? Well, we were on I was on watch.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: It was about midnight and all of a sudden the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: village is on fire. And the captain comes on the radio.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: He said, what's going on? Don't know? He said what
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: I said, it looks like the village is on fire.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: What are you going to do? Well, as soon as
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I hang up from you all call the fire department.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: What do you want me to try? He didn't like that,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: but he said, you got a Marines, you got to
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: go in there. We did, but the Vietcong it set
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: the village on fire, and they knew, what did you do?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Then we went in? Oh yeah, but I mean you
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: can stop the fire, can you?
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: No? And they had one way in and that was
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: the main gate, and you know, we're waiting for where
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: they're going to be and we got in. No casualties.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: The fire just they just paper hat or hooches and whatnot, straw.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: They burned fast. But they all knew that it was happening,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: but nobody said anything.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: That's why they moved all their stuff out. That's why
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: they moved on they knew it was coming.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Uh and uh, but the vie can set the fire,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: but they would come in and you know, do damage
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: to people and whatnot. Who are sympathizers with us. But
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: it was it was a different You lived it. You know,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: everybody lives it, but you'd lived in there with them.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. How what was the morale like in the group
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: that you're in?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I mean pretty good? Uh, unless you got hit and
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you lost somebody, uh and and things like that. You know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: then then it's not good in the morning. And then
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: you then you're looking to you know, do something to
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: them and you have to hold your yourself back. But
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: it was the little kid. I got pictures of little kids.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And that you got to know and uh.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: You know pig pen garbage truck, we called them just
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: little ones. And uh, you know you still see them
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: in your in your mind. And uh so, I mean
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: you you get to know the people, but then you
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: get moved around to different units.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: You stay with. Okay, so you get to know some
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: people like you mentioned a Virgil guysp do you get
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to do you hang with him the whole time or
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: you get no?
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: No, You've got while you get split up.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you got to stay in contact.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I've never when I went home because I was in Vietnam.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: I guess one the longest in my unit, and I
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: went home. I was twenty one. I got to go home,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: but I was twenty one. And then you could buy
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: alcohol at the PX. I was at the PX one
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: time in my tour and they wanted whiskey and I
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: could buy it because I was.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Five then, okay, and in the dream at that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Point twenty one, and they said we want guy forget
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Jack Daniels. I'll say, you know, And so I bought
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: a bottle fifth and brought it back to the unit.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: But they could The Marines couldn't buy it unless they
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: were three fives and twenty one, whereas I could. Yeah,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: you could time, but but you know, so there you
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: did that. But I did. I think I did anyway,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: if I remember right when I left Vietnam, you always
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: tell everybody that, okay, I'll send you a bottle of booze,
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: and you know when I'm when I get home, when
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: I get back to the world called it, and nobody
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: ever does nobody never really did I think that I did? Oh?
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: You did I do? I think I remember sending a bottle.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: It's I think it was Jack Daniels to the unit. Now,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: whether the unit got it, I don't. I don't have
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: any idea. The only thing I did when I got
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: home was I kind of watched well. I wasn't when
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: I got home. It was after we'd gotten a computer
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: that I went through it and kind of looked up
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: the unit I was in and see how they had
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: fared out and whatnot. Because when I got sent to
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: the rear, I was going to fly out in three
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: days back to the country States.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Like your tour is done.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: My tour is done. And Captain Mallard, he was the
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: marine captain out there, he said, you know, we got
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: in and we had our unit, was going to move
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: to the like the ho Chi Minh trail area as
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: scared to death. You know, I got three days. I
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: lasted this long. I don't know. Captain Mallard, Doc, get
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: your stuff, throw it on the ground. You're not going.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Why not? You're just not going. And so I stayed
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: in the rear for two nights and then I flew out.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: So he kept you back because you guys.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Were going home, because I was going home, and he
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: didn't want to know he didn't want to anything to go.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: And Captain Mallard was one of the greatest marine officers
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: that I ever served with. I mean, they all were good,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: but he was more down to earth, you know, and
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: we picked on him, Uh, did different.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Things to him, and he still liked you.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but no I I uh.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: So tell us about I mean, tell me about, tell
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: everybody about. I guess I don't know the whole story.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Grandma wrote a letter your mom, didn't she get after
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: somebody didn't she write a letter to her?
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Well it wasn't as scathing as I thought. I've got
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: a copy of it.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, it wasn't quite the story.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Well, she said, well, your your mom. When we went
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: I went on R and R to Hawaii, yep, and
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: your mother went and uh she was skinny or something, skinny,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: like one hundred pounds maybe, I don't know. Uh, always
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: clogged up, Chris, I'm always clogged.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: On What does that mean? Does that mean?
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: I think it means her allergies?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: And so, okay, clogged up that way and no, not.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: The other way, because I was already scared where you
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: were going with that, and then now I brought us there,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: so you got stuffed up, and but allergies and whatnot
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: and and uh skinny, yeah, scrownie, scrownnie a little nothing basically,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: and uh, grandma wrote to my commanding office.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Your mom, yes, she took if she was.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: She she she wanted me and I can't remember that.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: She felt I should be taken out. He was in
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: in the lines or in the field for so long
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: and get get to their you know, rear. And and
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: then he wrote a letter back. I got a copy of.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Who is this anyway?
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: It's a lieutenant com under the Medical Corps. Uh, it's
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: it's it's a naval officer.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Did he tell you that?
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: He obviously, yeah, he's got In fact, it was fun
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: didn't know. Well, he thought it was, you know, he
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: this is he's see he sees a lot of them.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: And but he's he said, how are you? I mean
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: he was concerned.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you took grandma's letters, and.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I of course took it as I'm a hardcore combat veteran,
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: not as hard core as I thought I was. But
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I've been here for ten months. You know. No, I
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: don't want to go to the rear.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: And Mama, even though your mom said to I don't.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Think my mother ever knew that I said that I
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: talked to I said, no, I feel great. I mean,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: it's just you know, I'm great.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Did they send you to the rear then? Or you stayed?
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: I stayed. I stayed in the field.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: But you never told Grandma that you.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Well, I just didn't get out. No, No, I don't
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: think I would have had a chance. I don't know
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: if it would have had a chance or not.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Gotcha, that didn't feel right.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: But I didn't feel right to me. I didn't want
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: to leave my buddies.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, how many people were in that group?
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: It would be fifteen or fifteen, that's what I thought. Well,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: depending on if you you know, had a couple of metavacts,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: and we had metavacs at time to time the time,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: then you might be down a couple of guys, But
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: then they'd always get a new one brought in, and
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: uh you just take them under your belt and say, hey,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: you know, this is what it is.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Uh So the new guys coming in, how are they
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: coming from other places or are some of them fresh?
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Some of them are fresh just right from what.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Is their mentality when they get there?
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Well, the same as what everybody else they're kind of
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: just a lot of them. I think with some of
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: them they're they're macho and and it doesn't really affect them. Others,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Oh you don't have them crying. I never seen anybody
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: cry while I was there. I'm not saying they not.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Nobody did. But you know, you do a job. You
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: know what you got to do when you do it.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: And and that's where I feel that the military, any
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: any any any branch, they're there. They're there for you, you know,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: and we are abandoned brothers basically, and you.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Get to know the people so well. I mean because you're.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Like, you know, you'll take you you'll pick on them,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: you know, Army, Navy, we're still playing football. And and
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: but again you take it and say, okay, yeah we're
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: better than you.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Are, but you don't.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: I got it. It's it's tongue in cheeks, like.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: When the kids are getting after each other that one's
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: better than the other one, right, they'd.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Still uh, you know, like the Marines are Everybody thinks
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: that the Marines are so strong. No, they they they're
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: they're trained. If you're going to get into a fight,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: don't lose. Do whatever you gotta do to win and
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: that's what we are. But with state side duty and
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: individual American and other allies. No, I don't probably war zone. Yeah,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: don't mess with the people.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so how did you so grandma's writing letters? How
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: did you communicate with the people back home? Letter letter?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: How often were you writing?
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: I wasn't writing as much as they wanted me to.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Other things to go.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, but I mean I was never even state side.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: I mean my mother, my mother called me at the
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: barracks and I'm busy, but but but no, you don't.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: And I did, uh have a tape recorder, and I
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: did tape cylinders, and and uh we had one and
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: your brother, your uncle, Jim, I think, said it that
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: they played it, were playing it at supper and we.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Got hit and during the recording, and.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: I didn't turn the recording off. I didn't, you know,
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: we're hitting your rifle. Here we go, you know, And
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: they said we were living. Jim said, yeah, Dad and
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Mom they were listening and all of a sudden he
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: thought that was pretty neat, you know. Grandpa said, I
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: don't know what that was. You know.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Also, Grandpa's just so I stopped doing that.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't do it. Intentionally, I mean, but but
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: they they wanted to see and hear from you, and
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: it gives them of us, you know.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean it's so different than what it
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: is now. But I guess I don't know what it's like.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Well, it's the same thing now, I'm sure, you know.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: But we've got a little more connected.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Well you've got you well you've got that, but then
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: you've got your your telephones.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: How long did it take to get a letter from
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: state side? I mean, so they send it. How month?
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: How many months or weeks does it take?
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I don't remember. It would be about a week. I
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: would say three four. It wasn't bad. Uh. The funny
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: story was when I went uh to Vietnam, my last
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: day home, night home, last date with your mom. And
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: I came home and I put the car in the garage.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: The garage was a little kink, you know, and what
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: and I hit the side of the garage.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: You hit the garage, the car, that.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Car, and and the molding on the garage cracked it,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: you know, and everything straightened it up. And went in
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: the house and I thought, gee, what do I gotta do? Well,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: it's what are they gonna do? It's twelve, twelve thirty, going,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: what's going to happen to me?
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: You know you didn't tell it at a.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: First letter from Grandpa hand first and only letter from
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: your dad from my dad, your grand we noticed the garage,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: he said, I just wanted you to know. I saw
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: the garage. I told the VI it cong where you.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Were at say that he did?
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: He did, and I wrote back. I couldn't. I didn't.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: We didn't, but I said, I wrote back, and thanks Dad.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: We got hit last night. I didn't get another letter
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: from him at all, but that was his sense of humor.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: I saw it. I told to be at cong where
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: you were.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I just want you to know, and you'll never hit
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the garage again.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I never heard that again. Yeah, but that was one
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: that I just couldn't help myself, you know, And I
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: thought I hit it before and you had to tell
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: in Ratchers, right, Why would I want to do this now?
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be back here for a year.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: What was the toughest part, you know, the hardest. It
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be the toughest emotionally, I guess. I mean,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: just you know, I've never left home, you know, I went,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I went to school for a year. That's as far
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: as I've gone. You know, you've lived through things that
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: I've never even dreamed about walking through. You know what
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: was the toughest part boot camp? I think it was
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: boot camp the physical nature. No, no, no, the naval
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: boot camp is not anything like okay now, but because
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: there's more knots and stuff.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, and well that's what my buddy that I work
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: with at the condos now he's said, the people ask, well,
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: what what you were in? But we're both in Vietnam,
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: and uh it's where you know he was with the
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Marines And he said, yeah, Mark, he was. He was
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: with the Navy. But he can't swim and he can't
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: tie out, so they put him in the core. You know,
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: but I mean that that, but that's what it was. Uh.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: I think I had the worst time in boot camp.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: Why just because I was never never gone, I never left.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Home, so you missed home. That was tough.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: It did a little bit. And of course you didn't.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: You didn't like the the surrogate mother, you're your drill instructor.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: You didn't like him that well, you know, and.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Are they like they are in the movies, shouting, screaming.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: At you pretty much.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, pretty much pretty accurate.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: YEP, and and and and Army and Marines, I know
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: would be different. But I mean the Navy too, but
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: they don't yell and scream and holler as much. U.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: But but no, I mean you're you know, they're in
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: your face, and they're teaching you respect, they're teaching you,
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: you know everything. And but that I think was the
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: worst they had. Science. If your mother doesn't work here,
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: it doesn't live here, clean your own place.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: I remember you would always talk to us. I've never
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: seen you make a bed ever, but you would always talk.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: When we were supposed to make a bed that we're
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: supposed to be able to bounce a dime or dime
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: on the so you you were able to do that,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: make a beds? Why did you quit?
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: I got married. You're saying that I probably shouldn't have
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: said that.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that could air. But but no,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I mean you probably did make beds, right.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: I made beds. I mean I I didn't make a
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: double bed. You can't even reach across a b.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: You don't want to show up at a barracks and
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: see a double bed.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: No, that would make you what's going on and and
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: but a double bed or a single bed, oh, I
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: would have it torn apart when I first got in.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: And a lot of them did I mean again, like
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: your clothes and not being tied with the square not.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, they just tear it apart.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: They tear it apart.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: You could put it together and make them perfect. And
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: you remember that you actually showed us how to do that.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: And you have to have that. And then you have
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: to have the hospital corners. You got folds on the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: on the sheets, they have that all and everything's got
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: to be just right. And your blanket, it's got the
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: us N into my case, you had to see those letters.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, it had to be don't want it up, you know.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: And and then you've got your your locker or whatever
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: with your clothes, they better be hung up the way
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: that they told you to. Socks rolled. I still roll
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: my socks up.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Is that why we do that?
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: But we put them in like a little ball.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I do. But then, but my mom
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: did that.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Before you got to the military, okay, because dad was
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: in the army. And every when I when I show
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the little sock balls that we make that seems normal
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: to us people, but you.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Have to just so where they come together, you've got
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: to have the heel. I think it is okay sticking
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: right there, so that that's where it is.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: We're just happy to have a ball that that's what
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I've got that now.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: But but no, I I uh, it's teaching respect and teaching.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, you can see why that was the toughest part
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: for you. So that was hard. That was crazy, like
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: being in combat. You know, how did you deal with
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the stress or audio? You know, to compartmentalize it.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: It goes away, it goes away. You focus on what's
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: happening you You worry. I did anyway at night, don't
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: let anybody get hurt because I knew what's going to happen.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: And and uh, during the day, you have no problem.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Most stuff didn't happen during the day.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: It was always well, if you're out on a roll
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: or something, you might But and again the other places,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: like we're in a village for your situation, so my
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: situation it wasn't really that bad. You don't want to
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: like we would we would do exercising running, you know,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: you don't want to run the same direction every day
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: instead of pattern if somebody's going to lay a booby
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: trapped for you or could, but you didn't have a
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: real worry about it. Just when it gets starting to
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: get dusk is when okay, here we go again, you know,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: because you don't.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Know how much did you know about what was going
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: on in.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Other nothing groups?
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Well, different units around us. We knew a little bit
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: because we could get it on the radio and then
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: we would go out and sometimes we'd have to go
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: into reactionary force, you know, to get help. And so
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: we're heading that way, you got to run, you know,
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: a couple of miles.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Did you always come back to the same base camp
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: or the base.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: In the village? Okay, that's where we did.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: We did sometimes go out for these.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Things, sometimes not on occasion, but with us, it wasn't
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: a long battle. It might last not even twenty minutes,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: because it's a hit and run. It's hit and run,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: hit and run, hit and run. It's a it's a
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: we're gonna say, if we're waiting for you, we're going
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: to ambush you, you know, firesome shots and take off.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Like I never ran into the NBA, the North Vietnamese Army,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: they came to play. I mean they if they hit,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: they're going to be there. And we heard people say
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: that they're in their area, we'd get more ammunition. I
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: don't want more ammunition. I want a big truck here
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: so we can get I got fifteen people here, you know,
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: but we never got hit.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: As thematic. Did you feel responsible? I mean, obviously you
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: felt some responsibility for the group. I mean you're not
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: in command of anything, But do you feel like you
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: take care of everybody?
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: You've got to take care of them. I mean, if
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: somebody gets hit and I'm not going to go deeply
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: in it, but you're ear on them, you take your
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: rifle with you, but.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: You're you've got to run into whatever whatever. Do people
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: go with you?
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Nope, they're they're fighting back and shooting, you know. I
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: you go by yourself and you just go. You don't
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: think about it. You're you're shaking afterwards, or at least
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: you were. But uh, you know, yeah, you three four
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: people hit, you're they're they're they're laying down, cover fire,
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: you're patching.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: How do you get people pulled back as one single person?
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Or do other people join you?
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: If if they're out if they're out there then somebody's
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: going to go with you, because you know, we used
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: to laugh and in the boot camp or when we
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: were practicing, you know, they lay down. Now you've got
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: to carry them. Okay, now you're sick foot nine. I'm
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: five foot five, one hundred pounds. Well, but even even
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: even in the state side, I was one hundred and
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: fifty pound, one hundred and forty pounds. I ain't going
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: to carry you. No, You're you're gonna drag along anyway,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: because you're so much taller than right, you know, I.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Mean, there's only so much people our height can do.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: But you you do when you get the choppers coming
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: in and and I you know, you'd have people you'd
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: put them in a poncho and carry them to the
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: chopper and throw them in. Otherwise you know they'll come
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: in later and then they'll help. But they will help.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: I mean everybody. Of course, we're all buddies, you know,
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: all right, we're all there.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Thinking if they're busy, you know, when they're engaged.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: Great, But then you had to train somebody that if
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: you got.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Hit right, they could take care of you or take over.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: And I always said to oh, Sammy was the one
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: Sammy Sanders. But you're you're going to be my cover.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: And if anybody gets hit, two people are hit, and
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: I'm one of them, I'm first.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: That never happened, right, You never got no, never got hit.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Anything comes terribly close that you thought, Oh my goodness.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I tell you later, okay, But yeah, yeah, it was.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: It was brutal. But the most the the other thing
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: that really affects me is when we went to Washington
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: with Jeane and Phil.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: My sister and your sister. I just went to Washington,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: d C.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: Washington, d C. And then Gettysburg and and Jeanie had said,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: We're going to see the wall and I'll bust up.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah I did.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: It's some.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: That that you looked, you look back on that at and.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: For what.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Sacrifices for what you know? Yeah, And I don't want
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: to be a little that. I don't want to, you know, say, hey,
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't do it again.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I would, but so much, I mean, it affected so
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: many families, well you.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Know I I but like even with your mother's Yeah,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: that was my inland. Uh you know, mari Anne was
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: her wild you know, and I remember I got I
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: got a call. I was at Penalton, I think it was.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: And I got a call and Bob was killed and
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: I never saw it coming, you know where why how
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: you know? Yeah, hit him land mind with his truck
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: because I always started driving truck.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Was he he was training or he will he was
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: in Vietnam.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: In Vietnam and he was I don't know what what
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: he did. I mean, I I knew he drove trucks,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: but they ran. He ran over a landmine, and I
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: am you know, and mary Anne her his well, his
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: dad came over to tell mary Anne.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: And then I got orders and then you got to go.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they really didn't know. I mean they well
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: can do this all.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Over again, but so so hard. But Vid, it's it's
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: what about like things you were proud of, things you did,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, just learning the whole medical thing. I getting
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: that first knot.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: That school square not I can still tie that square knot.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Things like if you look back, I feel.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: Like you, I I I learned, I grew up a lot.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: I guess it's basically what it is. I mean, I
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: I've always been footloose and cure free, and.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: You learn so to your detriment. Sometimes Yep, you become
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: a fair amount for that.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Now I grew up. I grew up and and
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: and learned not to do it so fast, you know,
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, work into it slowly. But no,
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: you learned respect. You learned respect for people higher ups.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: My mother and dad. I mean when I got out
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: of the service and came home, your grandfather and grandmother
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: and my mom and dad, I thought had gotten pH ds.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: You thought they were brilliant.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: They learned a lot since I was gone. Uh, And
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: that's what you pick up. You know, people are looking
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: at even with your kids. Not not always, but I
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: mean they're they're thinking, you know, now they're you're older
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: and they're older. But on's he know, you.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Know, when they're teenagers, we don't know much. As I
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: get older in the encounter life a little bit.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: Then we know a little bit. You went to you
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: went to college when I wasn't looking. I mean, you know,
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: what is the deal? Uh, that's what I learned I got.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: I think I grew up a lot because I I
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: really didn't care before before. I mean, I you know,
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: to do what I want to do. You know, we
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: were going to that school crazy kid though, No no, no, no,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: nothing like that. But as far as your your mother
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: tells you don't do.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: That, you're going to do it. Grandma put her fist
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: through her hand through a window, banging on the glass,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: right because you were not.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I she was so right, and I
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: broke the window. That's what I That's what she told her,
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: you know, because she was broke. I was walking down
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: the road to school.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: You're probably picking up somebody.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: No, I was still my lunch bag up in the air.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: But again that's what I would do.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's kind of.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: A well Vietnam and you remember it.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: I remember my uh and she was.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: Basically like I was.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: She was nuts.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: And she sent a care package one day.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Those are the best from the.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: Bell and and we opened it up and there was
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: a can of peanuts. They said peanuts, and you rattle
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: it and it shook and sounded like peanuts.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen a peanut for yeah, you know, six months.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: And I opened it up.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: It was one of those snakes.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: The snakes got three snakes, and I thought, this is good,
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: and so I got my little can. An Old Virgil
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: and a couple other guys went with me Billy through
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: the village and you gave it tack to the hooches
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: and they had knock on the door, or they don't
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: have doors, so you just walk right in. They hate
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: one peanut, you know, mama sign come out and here
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: never seen it? Ever seen?
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Did they think? Oh?
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: They did? And then they would follow you to the.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Next house to see what's what happened.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: I had the whole village file like the exactly and
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: it was because of a mill mill. But again that's
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: what I would do, you know, I that's me, the
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: village chief. He was a known VI It call you're
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: going to his hoo jess on his little radio listening.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: To whatever, and she got the peanuts.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: I got him in there and he was even in
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: the back of the line. But no, but those are
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: the things I did. And I was always footloose and
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: cure free. But as time progressed, what was it like
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: coming home?
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Like you get home? I mean, because there was so
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: much reaction to Vietnam veterans, I mean it was you
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: will obviously it happened.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: I I have heard from other other veterans that they
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: have had problems, problems I never had.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: You they can read that end of it. The ugly
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: side of it. I heard about it but didn't see it.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: But I did not see it. They didn't really In fact,
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: they now they they they are. They're treating veterans differently,
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: I think, Uh, but but yeah, they don't really talk about,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: I know, a handsome machine. When I was working, the
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: guys they I worked there before I went and after
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: I went. Uh nothing and but then so no negativity,
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: no negativity though.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Were they happy to see you or are they just
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: business as usual?
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: They were happy to see you, yes, but but no,
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: I mean it was just business as usual. Now they're
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: looking at the veterans. They're really you know, especially this
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: day and age there they're doing a lot, you know,
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: and they should be, I don't say, treated like you know,
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: multi billionaires, but hey, they're they're sacked.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Well, and you've seen that ended things and even though
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: you came back, you sacrificed. I mean, obviously there's a
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: huge sact.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: But I look at my experiences there as a life experience.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: At the time, I didn't when I had my surgery,
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: heart surgery, heart surgery. Uh, there was a Vietnamese I think,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know if he was a nurse, sure, but
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: he was a nurse's aide or something. And he got
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: to talking to me, and uh, where he said he was?
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: And I took it as Dinbon. And I was at
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: din Bon, you know also and and he is one
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: of his family members had gotten killed over there, father,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: grandfather or something, probably a grandfather. Uh, and he would
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: We sat down and talked. Nicest guy you know. Said
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: he didn't know as grandpa apparently, and it was it
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: was a pleasure talking to him.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Do you ever stay in contact or you mentioned that
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: earlier you never really saw anybody that you served with. No,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: after you got home.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: Not after I got home. I will, like with the
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: guy I work with.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: You've run into people who were there, but people.
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: But I never knew anybody. He was stationed in the
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: bout the same areas, but he was it was a wall.
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: He was with the third Marine Amphibious Force two, but
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: he was in the headquarters with the CAP unit. But no,
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: I I never did. Never.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: No, I do know there was some story when you
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: got back. You know, I wonder how much of this
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: played through. You know, after you get home, how do
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: you leave that, you know, leave that scenario. I remember
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: you guys talked about mom. Maybe maybe you told me
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: we were walking. You guys were walking. I don't know
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: if I was around, but a car back fired or
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: something that was jumping infore you.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: That was our and R.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: And that was in Hawaii, okay, So that was okay.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: In the Crosswater okay. And the thing that really took
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: me off there was my hot dog rolled down the road.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: You're walking with a hot dog a car back fight? Yeah, yeah, bailed.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: You haven't eaten a hot dog in eight nine months,
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: you know. I I when we got there, I went
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: to McDonald's and I haven't seen a head and see
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: a Hamburger for eight nine months. And I bought two
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: big max order of fries and a moldy and I
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: ate it all, all of it and got sick. Yeah,
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: it was just I was just c rations, you know.
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: And but no I thought those things like loud noises
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: not so much now anymore. But yeah, it was a while.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: You'd never really ever got into watching any of the movies,
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: war movies of any kind. You don't really.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: Vietnam war movies. I don't really watch. I have been
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: listening and seeing, you know, with the wall and whatnot.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: That wall was something and that brought back memories, and
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: you remembered the nights, you know, when you've put them
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: on the chopper.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: And you found names you knew.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, And it was tough and they say that it is.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: And but for people that would be in a whole
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: lot of stuff, it's got to be terrible. It's got
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: to be terrible. I wasn't in that much more than
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: I cared to be in, but I mean nothing compared
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: to anything. So but no, there you think about it,
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: especially Veterans Day, you think about it, and you think
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: about families where they didn't make it back anybody, what
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: did they go through every time? You know, I don't know.
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: I never in our family, we haven't ever lost anybody
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: in the war that I know of. Now, maybe somebody
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: might have been a little big horn waight down way
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: down the line, but I don't remember. I don't know
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: of anybody. And Grandpa Hansen, he went to Germany occupation,
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: he captured Germany.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: He told you all kinds of stories, but not a lot.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: But he worries a little. He kept his boots and on.
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: I can still see me wearing his combat boots when
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: I was four or five years older, younger.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Did you guys talk about it after you got back
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: about his experience, you know experience. Just I have not.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Talked to hardly anybody. Why I didn't at first, Dan,
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: in all honesty, I just didn't talk. I will talk
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: to a veteran and we can get into it. You know,
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: some things exchange things that I don't, and it's just
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: I don't. Yeah, I can, I will now. I think you.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: I think the boys read that citation that I got.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: Oh that they read it and and and uh with
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: the and I didn't write it. But you know how
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: many patrols and whatnot you lived in a village. You
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: lived in the village, and yeah, every time you go out,
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: do you go to the well, take a shower, you
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: take your rifle. You're out of patrol. I mean it's
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: because it's a Viet Gong sympathizing village.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: When you got back here, like what you're saying, you know,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: when you got back here, did you ever get to
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the point where you stop looking over your shoulder or
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: did you got stateside and you just put that away?
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: No? I I looked over my shoulder a lot. If
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: you if you will, uh, now, like when I walk around,
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: you know, to do different things I see more things
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: than I think. Maybe you do only just because you're
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: so used to.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: Just I'm kind of a dope.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: Well no, not really. It's just that, you know, you
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: see all of a sudden you see movement. And now
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: after my eye surgery, now you can see movement again.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: I can't see movement, but there's so many floaters yet.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: Oh I'm slapping at bugs that aren't even there. But
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, you always watch for movement. I remember when
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: the little boy next door got ran away, you know, Ronnie,
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: when I was little, No, you were little too, ran
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: he ran away, and everybody's looking for. The neighborhood was
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: looking for. And we lived on a dead end street
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: with the woods there, and they'd ask I said, well, okay,
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: do you see I know, I have no idea. They said,
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: did you go into the wood, No, because it was
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: dark it was like ten eleven o'clock, And okay, i'll go.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: I went with your mom. I had a hard time
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: in there, yeah, because it's a dark trail, you know.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: And he wasn't in there, but I found we found
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: he was. He was in their car. Okay, I remember, right,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: but h but no, I I do that those things
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: were tough, but that was Yeah, that probably out for
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: maybe four or five years maybe at the time. It
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: hangs with you, and it hangs with it, but I
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: do I noticed that, and I'm always watching the cars
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: behind me, you know, rather than the lunch in front.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: Now, it's crazy, it's it's so hard to wrap our
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: brain around, you know, for people who have not experienced that,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: you know, and there's a lot of people who don't.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: You know, we don't even have maybe don't even have
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: family in the military, you know, So we've we've we
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: haven't experienced what you've experienced and walked through. And I'm
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: just grateful that you came here to talk about it.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: I do want to end with it just it has
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: really no relation other than it's about you. And it's
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: a story that I don't know that I've told it
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: on the radio, but I just want people at work.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: I've told and I don't think they believe me. But
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: you clocked Grandpa playing Cowboys and Indians, right, you did
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: the lone ranger thing where you hit him with the
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: butt of the gun, right.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: No, no, the handle?
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just well yeah, yeah, right, tell that
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: he was like doing.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: What well he was shooting at my brother Brian. He
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: was Brian is on my side.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: And Mike, the brother Mike, your uncle, Mike was on
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: grandpa's site. Jim wasn't around yet.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: And and I don't know how old. I was four
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: or five, old enough to know better, not really, okay,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: But I had to go upstairs to the restroom, and
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: Brian was in the furnace room behind the.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Door, shooting little cap gun see a.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: Little captain, bang bang bank. He had a bullet machine.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: Oh he never ran out of red, out of bullets,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: And so Grandpa's sitting on the staff and he had
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: a little black cowboy hat on his head, you know.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: And and he's sitting around the ledge or the chair
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: rail or the handrail, shooting at Brian, not really shooting
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: for the audience. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And uh he's
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: going bang bang bang bang bang. Mike. I don't know
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: where Mike was. Yeah, I had no idea he had
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: glasses on, you know, cowboys with glasses. They didn't you
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: know he did.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: You didn't even pay attention.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: We know he wasn't. He only had a little darringer anywhere,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: you know. But Brian and Dad were having a gunfight,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: and I'm coming down the basement.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Step after relieving yourself, after relieving.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: Myself with my little cap guns on. I think too,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: you know double and I don't think I had a
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: cowboy hat.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: All right, But there's Grandpa in front of you. He
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: doesn't see he doesn't see me. His back's too perfect.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: I get my gun on it and I watch it
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: on lone Ranger. You know the time just thunk him.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: You whacked him over the head, his little hat crumpled.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: Little hat crumpled in the middle.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: Did he slump over and he turned around?
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, he turned around, but he didn't slumble.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome. I love that story.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, I could still see you. I don't think
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: he played Cowboys and Indians with us again.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Oh he had to, you know, probably dealing with a
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: concussion after that. How would you have handled that if
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I'd have whacked you on the head. I don't know, Yeah,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know me.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, my, my, my, your training survival training might
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: have kicked it, might have.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Tied my arms and square knots. Anyway, Dad, thanks for
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: handing out not a problem, this whole big story. Well
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: don't uh, I won't hear anything that'll marass you. That's
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: what you're gonna say. No, Oh, you couldn't say.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: I think you're going to hear anything.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: No, I'm going to air some of it for sure. Okay,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: thank you and there you go. That's it. A heartfelt
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: thanks to my dad, Mark Hanson for his service and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: just for taking time to just share all of that
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: with me and with everybody out there. And I also
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: want to thank on behalf of Repcolite and myself. I
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: want to thank all veterans and their families. Your sacrifices
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: are not forgotten, and we're really grateful and thankful for
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: everything that you've given for us and for the country.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: So thank you for that. Don't forget. You can catch
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: the video for this interview. If you're interested, watch us
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: in full four K glory or whatever I filmed in
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: You can catch that at Repcolite's YouTube page, the Rep
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: Lite Home Improvement Show YouTube page. Check that out. All right,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: have a great weekend, everybody. I'll see you next week.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.