Stateline 1108 Master Script

BOOTH

IN 1950 THE UNITED STATES BEGAN SENDING MILITARY ADVISORS TO VIETNAM, BEGINNING THE LONGEST MILITARY CONFLICT IN AMERICAN HISTORY.  BY THE FALL OF SAIGON IN 1975 MORE THAN FOUR AND A HALF MILLION HUMAN LIVES HAD BEEN SPENT IN A FAILED EFFORT TO CONTAIN COMMUNISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.  58-THOUSAND AMERICANS DIED IN THE UNDECLARED WAR.

YOUNG OKLAHOMANS WENT TO VIETNAM.  MEN AND WOMEN, DRAFTED AND VOLUNTEER, OFFICER AND ENLISTED, AIR WAR AND GROUND WAR.  THEY RETURNED, THOSE WHO DID RETURN, WITH STORIES AS VARIED AS THE INDIVIDUALS.

THE UNITED STATES NEVER CALLED THE CONFLICT THE “VIETNAM WAR,” THE VIETNAMESE CALLED IT THE “AMERICAN WAR.” ON THIS EDITION OF STATELINE OKLAHOMA’S VETERANS TELL THEIR STORIES OF MY WAR.

TRT

Dan Baker 

21:52:30    C0003     S-106

Of course I was. To say I was brave was not true. I was naive.

Larry Palmer

4:24:32    C0001    S-206

I grew up over there, I grew up very quickly over there and all of the young ones did.

John Culbertson

8:59:36     C0007    S-302

You could tell some of them had seen some things that were harrowing and like one guy told me after I had been there for a while he said “Take a good look at me after a year here you will look like me.”

Joe Westerhiede

23:27:15    C0001    S-607

It is not easy to go kill somebody. It goes against a lot of everything about who we are. So you don't just go do that. A soldier goes and does it because it is his job, and with a belief that they are doing the right thing.

Delmer Rollins

0:54:02     C0001    S-207

You are only living day to day you are trying to get through the moment in time and you are trying to survive.

Robert Poolaw 

00:23:19     C0001     S-304

I would say that I prayed daily. Particularly the second tour. I don't remember the first tour. I prayed daily, "Dear God. Let me do the right thing. Let me make the right decisions." Cause if I don't, a lot of people are going to get hurt. I prayed.

Voiceover

No one hates war more than a soldier. The failure of politicians to settle problems peacefully robs the soldier of his youth, takes him from his family and can cost him his life.  War forces him to kill men he has never met, inflict invisible wounds that never heal and it can forge bonds stronger than most men will ever know.

Larry Palmer 

4:05:50    C0001    S-206

Like most kids my age at that time, 17-18 years old it was Beatles and trying to find that right girl friend, and seeing if you could sneak a beer out of the grocery store or whatever at the time, you know, just having a good time and going to school.

Paul Merchant

2:56:53    C0001   S-206

You know it's an interesting thing when your 18 years old you have a sense of immortality that follows you along. And all that you hear the news and you think you perceive what the reality is; I think that everybody at that age has a very high sense of adventure. And they set that back.

Voiceover

Oklahoma in 1966.  Life for the boys in that graduating class was simple. The summer ahead would be hot and dry, just like the 18 summers they had seen before.

Delmer Rollins

0:08:35    C0001    S-207

I think I didn't know nothing about the Vietnam War at that time. You know how you are kids you are in your own little world. And all you think about is girls and school, and having a good time and enjoying yourself. The Vietnam War was not even on our minds.

Dan Baker

21:52:30    C0003     S-106

I remember my dad drove me to tinker field and I hugged him goodbye and here he is sending his number two son who was a marine corps attack helicopter pilot to Vietnam where the life expectancy was not good, and I had no empathy for this at the time I was too naive, years later I found out he couldn't drive home. You know he had to stop and pull the car over he was crying. And it never dawned on me that anybody would be worried about me.

Thousands of parents watched as their children left home, ahead there was great adventure on the other side of the world and great danger.

Robert Poolaw

00:30:17     C0001    S-304

In high school, in Anadarko when you finished high school, unless you were a farm boy from a farming family or you work on the farm, you went into the military and if you were the rich guys you went on to OU or OSU but everybody just, you went to one of the four branches of the armed services.

Robert Poolaw

00:01:27     C0001    S-304

And I wanted to be an infantryman--what they called a grunt.

Larry Palmer

4:06:07    C0001    S-206

I started college and decided that wasn't for me at the time and started working for an electrician / and then of course I got my draft notice.

Larry Palmer

4:06:30    C0001    S-206

I got that little letter in the mail that said "Greetings, you are to report to your local draft board at such and such a date..."

Delmer Rollins

0:07:40    C0001    S-207

When I got out of high school I really didn't know what I wanted to do. So I thought the military was a good Idea. I had several other friends that were going into the military.

Delmer Rollins

0:08:00    C0001    S-207

So they decided to go to the Marines and I thought that was crazy, so I said you all go to the Marines I will go to the Army.

John Culbertson

8:56:34    C0007    S-302

I was one of the freshmen quarterbacks at OU. On the '64 team. I got hurt and finished my freshmen year and I was maybe a little disillusioned with college. I was 19 years old and the war had started. And we started sending Marines and I knew South Vietnam was fighting for survival. And I had always been raised and taught to hate the evils of communism. So I thought it would be a good thing to go join the Marines and go get my feet wet some. I went down to the recruiting office and signed up for four years.

The Oklahoma boys stepped off the bus and on to an assembly line that would train them to be killers and take them to Southeast Asia.

Delmer Rollins

0:09:07    C0001    S-207

I said, Viet-who? They said Vietnam. I was specially trained to go to Vietnam. Fort Polk was a basic training camp and they geared us to basic training and the whole time you are going through basic training you are hollering Kill! Kill! KiIl!

Delmer Rollins 

0:10:45    C0001    S-207

Our drill sergeant told us when, he had a talk with us. Guys don't go over there and try to be heroes. Don't go over there and think you are going to win the war. Don't think you are going to end the war. He said your job is to go over there and survive. Survive and come home. He was a Vietnam Vet.

Larry Palmer 

4:07:17    C0001    S-206

I went to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training. And down there that’s where we were indoctrinated into a group called Para-Rescue. / It was a Special Forces group; there were guys that were trained to jump out of airplanes, scuba dive, mountain climb. You know, they were medics that would go anywhere in the world and rescue people, treat them and bring them back to safety.

Larry Palmer 

4:09:26    C0001    S-206

And they gave me my base of choices of going to either Vietnam or going to Vietnam...so (laughing) I went to Vietnam.

Paul Merchant

2:58:59    C0001   S-206

The trip to Vietnam went through Seattle-Tacoma, and so we got on a 707 that

Was a contract airplane from World Airways and we flew to Cam Ranh Bay.

Delmer Rollins 

0:11:39    C0001    S-207

We went there, we arrived. Our plane taxied down there road. They opened the door. When you got to the walk way where you come down the stairs. And as you step outside there the heat just hit you in the face.

Billy May 

05:41:11   C0002    S-408

My Lord it ain't hot like that anywhere I have ever been. Sometime it would get up to 130 degrees. It was usually 110 to 120 during the day.

Paul Merchant 

3:00:56    C0001   S-206

I remember that as soon as I stepped off the plane the heat and humidity was very oppressive.

Paul Merchant 

3:01:28    C0001   S-206

So by the time we got to the processing center we were all soaked. So our nice starched uniforms were wet through.

Delmer Rollins 

0:11:39    C0001    S-207

Then as we came down the ramp and stuff like that, all the guys, there was a whole bunch of guys sitting there; they started shouting and Hoo Raahing! And Stuff like that; man they glad to see us. It is excitement they are so excited to see us. And what they Hooraying was we was getting off the plane they were ready to get on.

Dan Baker 

21:53:23    C0003     S-106

I landed in Vietnam on my twenty-third birthday. I didn't know if I was going to have to low crawl off the airplane or what to expect. But we landed in Dinang. And it was hot and windy and of course there is concertina wire every place. You know it was definitely a war zone.

Robert Poolaw 

00:08:34     C0001     S-304

The first landing we had-I was something called SLF, Special Landing Force. A helicopter carrier made just for marines. We were off the coast of Vietnam. This was going to be our first landing.

Robert Poolaw 

00:09:15     C0001     S-304

I started thinking back in high school. Before football games down in the dressing room I'd think, "Gee whiz, we're playing Chickasha, a bigger school. We're playing Frederick, playing Altus. Gosh! What's going to happen? Am I going to mess up? Am I going to really screw up out there? Hope I don't forget the plays."

Robert Poolaw 

00:09:34     C0001     S-304

I got on that hangar deck and thought, "That was nothing! This is-- You better know the plays now! And you better be prepared!" Once the helicopters set down and I got my feet on the ground, everything just fell into place.

Voiceover

Once acclimated and assigned the troops training was immediately put to the test as they were flown to the front.

Delmer Rollins 

0:24:27    C0001    S-207

We were trained for Vietnam, and it seemed like the training taught you how to deal with the villages or taking a village and stuff like that. But it didn't prepare you for the jungle, the jungle that was another thing.

Billy May 

05:42:20   C0002    S-408

I mean the jungle is so dense you are just worming your way through it the trees and stuff. It ain't like you see on the TV where somebody’s…and they got these paths and stuff. When we went in there was no paths there was nothing laid out. And some of it we had to chop our…what through.

Delmer Rollins 

0:25:17    C0001    S-207

And with rice patties you had to worry about leeches. A lot of times you take your boots and blouse them up and try to get real tight so when you go through the rice patties you won't pick up leeches. But leeches still got in your pants.

John Culbertson 

9:02:04    C0007    S-302

And we would walk sometimes probably five or ten miles through villages and rice patties and very difficult terrain. And naturally all of us lost weight very quickly. Got lean and mean and hard quickly. And the food that they gave us the C rations were very condensed high protein food with probably very little fat in them to keep you in an endurance mode.

Billy May 

06:54:15   C0009    S-408

We arrived in Vietnam on March 26th 1966 on operation “Jackstay.” We were in the Rung Sat special zone which is a swamp south east of Saigon in the Mekong Delta Area. Spent fourteen days in country in water ankle deep to hip deep.

John Culbertson 

8:58:57    C0007    S-302

You know it was like being in a different world. A different planet. You knew it was different. And then you would see the tanks go by, and the troops in their combat gear. Spattered with mud and dirt.

Larry Palmer 

4:11:34    C0001    S-206

It was a good wake up for a young kid. You know, you're not back home anymore with mom & dad.

If you ask any soldier what they are fighting for they don’t usually say “Democracy or freedom.” Almost all would say they are fighting for the man beside them in the foxhole.

Joe Westerhiede

23:05:00   C0001    S-607

They were risking their life for you. And you risked your life for them. Nobody had to talk about it but it was there.

Delmer Rollins

0:12:28    C0001    S-207

I met a guy by the name of Richard McKinney. Me and him were sharing the barracks or something together.

Delmer Rollins

0:13:10    C0001    S-207

We found out that we was going to the same unit. And it looked like we was going to be in the same platoon. And he told me he said, Rollins. I said yeah man. He say “You stick with me and I will get you through this.” And I thought that was just so funny. It is his first time there and we just met each other and he telling me “Hey you stick with me and I will get you though this.”

Delmer Rollins

0:13:33    C0001    S-207

And we became good friends after that. We stuck together.

Delmer Rollins

0:13:46    C0001    S-207

I was sent to the 101st Airborne Division, 3rd of the 187th. They were called the Rock-a-sons, and I was signed to Charley Company. So I and McKinney wound up in the same squad at the same time. So it was nice to have somebody on ground that you know. I got there and they told us we were

Paul Merchant 

3:45:00    C0002   S-206  

Let's put it from the guy in the back, his perspective. You put a flack jacket on, you grab your weapon, you get about 30 pounds of ammunition on board across your shoulders or whatever and you get a couple of quarts of water and you head out into the bush. Next thing you know you’re about knee deep in mud and leeches you can't see more than a few yards most of the time. And 80 percent of the time or better the enemy engages you rather than you engaging him which means they have the initial advantage.replacements for several other guys who got killed.

Paul Merchant

3:45:42    C0002   S-206

So you’re in a reactive mode most of the time. You’re tired, you’re worn out and you've lost some of your friends in a fire fight and your radio man has called for an extraction and just as things get really ugly the helicopter comes in, lands. You run across the clearing to the helicopter hoping that you don't get popped on the way to the aircraft, and you dive in this thing and you slide across this metal floor.

 

Paul Merchant

3:46:27    C0002   S-206

And then you'll sigh a sigh of relief...way too early. Because once the helicopter takes off you think you’re safe now which you aren't. And you can pause and be glad you’re still inhaling. And get on with your day.

In World War II the average infantry soldier would see about 40 days of combat over four years. During a one year tour in Vietnam soldiers would see 240 days of combat. For the first time helicopters were used to take troops directly into the action.

 

Billy May 

06:13:25      C0006    S-408  

There is so much noise from a chopper that no you really can't hear each other. So you are not sitting there chit chatting. You just taking a ride watch the country side and see what you see and just don't worry about nothing. I know some guys were scared to death. I mean you could see it in their faces they didn't know what was going to happen, none of us did.

Billy May 

06:14:00      C0006    S-408  

As soon as that touches down I would just focus, because I was always the first one off the chopper.

Paul Merchant 

3:25:28    C0001   S-206  

Most of the guys on the ground will relate to it from the sound. The UH1 rotor blades make a very distinctive pop.

Paul Merchant 

3:25:49    C0001   S-206  

We used to joke there's nothing like the smell of JP4 in the morning, which is the fuel that it burns. And there's nothing quite like the popping of the UH1 rotor blades in the evening as it comes in. It gives you a sense of security. So yeah, it’s kind of like a first love.

Paul Merchant 

3:27:04    C0001   S-206  

That aircraft would go anywhere you wanted it to go.

Dan Baker 

22:04:31    C0003     S-106  

I remember when they first started shooting at us these tracers are coming up and I am going, well look at that. All of a sudden my realization came true that I had never been shot at. Well when those tracers go by you they are the size of a bowling ball. I remember going gaw! My comment was that SOB is shooting at us and I got on that mini gun and I was gritting my teeth. It was this instant anger you know. It may not be funny to most people but it is to me.

Paul Merchant 

3:12:57    C0001   S-206  

There were times when I would take fire in the aircraft and it would be hit by small arms, and it’s a very unique sound when the A-K or a larger round hits the light thin metal of a helicopter. It has kind of a muffled thump like a small ball peen hammer hitting a piece of metal.

Paul Merchant 

3:13:25    C0001   S-206  

I used to liken it to the sound of a hailstorm on the barn roof back home. It’s just kind of like; you know...tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

Delmer Rollins 

0:37:08    C0001    S-207  

So they told us we were going into a hot L-Z. And we are going to have to support Delta Company.

Delmer Rollins 

0:39:44    C0001    S-207  

So what they did is they put us…we were going to try to surround the village so no body can't sneak out.

Delmer Rollins 

0:41:06    C0001    S-207  

So any way about one o'clock all hell broke loose. Man you see bullets flying everywhere tracers flying everywhere. Man people just unloading ammo left and right and what the enemy did is the people on my right and the people on my left. They went out in a V sweeping position. And what they did is they used the civilians in the camp the village that we are trying to take. They used the civilians in the village as shields. So most of they guys were wasting their bullets on the civilians, because you couldn't tell the civilians from the enemy.

Delmer Rollins 

0:41:56    C0001    S-207  

They wiped us out, just almost wiped us out. What they did they know they had did us so bad on that move they stopped and they picked up their dead and they also picked watches and rings off our soldiers.

Delmer Rollins 

0:43:35    C0001    S-207  

It took them maybe two hours to send us help. We was out there by ourselves for two hours Then we tried to regroup and about the time we grouped there was only about 30 of us left out of 130.

Joe Westerhiede 

23:09:37   C0001    S-607  

I remember that Gunnery Sergeant that was with us South of Dinang would wake up and shout “Incoming!” He had a way of being able to tell the sound of a mortar when it hits the tube and wakes up from his sleep. And it didn't take long before I could do that too. At first I thought it was kind of amazing but no you just hear the sound and you know what it is. And it is different from all the other sounds.

Joe Westerhiede 

23:02:01   C0001    S-607  

The radio operators with the infantry squads were prime targets because they carried that radio on there back. That was what people used to radio for help. So the radio operators stayed a closest to the command.

Joe Westerhiede 

23:02:47   C0001    S-607  

And B if you were able to take out, him and or the radio then the ability to calling for help or an air strike would be nil.

Dan Baker 

22:20:23    C0005    S-106  

They get a call for an emergency Medivac in the Que Son Mountains. And the weather was so bad the clouds were so low that the Medivac choppers could not get to the zone. Well Henry knows this young Marine was going to die if they didn't get him out of there.

Dan Baker 

22:20:50    C0005    S-106  

He finally got into the little LZ that they were occupying. My buddy jumps out of the back seat of the cobra. Now keep in mind the cobra is three feet wide with a front seat a back seat and canopies, that is it is a weapons platform.

Dan Baker 

22:21:25    C0005    S-106  

No place else two people. they load this dying Marine in the back seat where the pilot sits and strap him in he closes the canopy straddles one of the rocket pods and is hanging on to the stub wing and giving the guys in the zone the victory sign. And Henry lifts out and they fly out. I am flying gun cover that day. I am out over the valley listening to all this on my head set. And when they broke the clouds I did a double take. What is that? And it is Crawford literally, he is at fifteen hundred feet riding this thing like it is a bucking bronco holding on to the stub wing and he is giving me the victory sign.

Dan Baker 

22:22:10    C0005    S-106  

I am thinking my God, and in the back seat of that Cobra is a button and if this young marine would have hit it. It would pickle that rocket pod. And thank goodness he didn't hit that button. (Laughs)

Delmer Rollins 

0:15:01    C0001    S-207  

We went to a place called Phu Vinh. It was down south. / There was more heavy firing and more heavy action up north. Down south we basically did a lot of patrols and we were mostly worried about booby traps.

John Culbertson 

9:12:22    C0007    S-302

I was wounded three different times in Vietnam. One time in a Pun gee pit and you know they are so skillful at setting these traps that we as Americans have to be over there first hand to understand how good they had become at it. They took an area that was real sandy and cut the bamboo pieces into spears.

John Culbertson 

9:13:07    C0007    S-302

Is almost as sharp as metal. And if you walk through it which I did you get I piece of that punji stick right through your leg. A lot of those pieces they urinate on them and put excrement on them. You get violently ill. I had a temperature of over one hundred and five degrees.

Not every battle is fought on the ground. Troops often had their hands tied by red tape.

Larry Palmer

4:31:36 C0001    S-206

We would engage the enemy sometimes they would go across the border into Laos or North Vietnam. Well, we couldn't cross that imaginary border between Laos and South Vietnam or North Vietnam and South Vietnam. So our hands were tied. That’s what happens when the politicians run the war instead of the Generals.

Larry Palmer

4:45:23    C0001    S-206

We could have ended the war years earlier if we were allowed to do what we could do. But a lot of times we were handcuffed and they said "No, you can't do that."

Larry Palmer

4:45:52    C0001    S-206

The North Vietnamese were smart, they'd build their ammunition factories and things next to hospitals and schools because we were kind hearted and we wouldn't bomb them.

Larry Palmer

4:44:37    C0001    S-206

They're good. They were ill equipped, but they had a drive.

Billy May

05:25:51    C0002    S-408

And what they did at Hue and Quay Ku. They wouldn't stand and fight us, they knew we had too much power for them.

Billy May

05:26:39    C0002    S-408

They knew we were there. They would tell us yeah they are about five hundred yards this direction we would go try to catch them. We even set up blocking forces and how they got away we don't know. It was just they were slick.

John Culbertson 

9:05:12    C0007    S-302

They would go into villages and pilfer an execute people that didn't go along with their plans and you know we would try to catch them and they would hide in the jungle because they lived there.

Robert Poolaw

00:15:52     C0001     S-304

The NVA wore their uniforms, but the V-C are very few. They're scattered out. The NVA will come at you in regiments, divisions. In the thousands! I would rather deal with the NVA. They can send a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, a thousand. But you know what you've got. The V-C you don't know.

Robert Poolaw

00:15:23     C0001     S-304  

The more frustrating was the V-C. He's the rice farmer who can plant a mine at night or a booby-trap and let one of your marines trip it the next day and die and he's killed there. "Who was it?" Well, it could've been that guy over there hoeing away. That's frustrating.

Gail Loula 

29:20:01    S-550   C0003

The V-C was the mental edge of it. We had one young man that was there because, instead of being out in the boonies, they had finally got to come in and sleep in a regular bed in a hooch. And there was bunk beds and there was space for six. Well, they went to bed and the next morning they woke up and every other one, down up down, the young men had their throat slit. And the other three woke up and their buddies were dead. None of them heard a gurgle, there was not a cry. So they killed three, but they got rid of six. Because the others could mentally not accept. And why them? Why them?

Delmer Rollins 

0:22:45    C0001    S-207

It is just like one time we got into a fire fight. And what happened was. The enemy got between us and another company. What they did was they got in between us and they started shooting at us and then started shooting at them, and then got us shooting at each other. And then they low crawled out because you couldn't see who you where shooting at. And the only reason we know we were shooting at each other was because we were about to call in artillery, a fire support round on each other, and artillery told us “Hey you all are shooting at each other. You all are fixing to drop bombs on each other.”

Dan Baker

22:09:09    C0003     S-106

At the time I hated them. You know they were trying to kill me and I wanted to kill them. And since that time yes I have had lots of time to recollect and that is something. I don't want to get into it but it's. You realize that they are humans. They are people like me.

Billy May

06:58:15    C0009    S-408

I didn't feel one way or another about them. I figured if we can keep people free by killing them then I want to kill all I can.

Larry Palmer

4:19:54    C0001    S-206

The Vietnamese people that I was associated with were always very cordial, very nice. Some of them sometimes would become something you didn't think they would be...you know, the enemy. They were good at hiding that.

Larry Palmer

4:20:10    C0001    S-206

I had a barber for instance at Pleiku Airbase in Vietnam that was cutting hair one day and the next night he was trying to sneak on the base with a satchel charge to blow up the ammo dump. And then come to find out the North Vietnamese had his family and if he didn't do it they were going to kill them, so...but he ended up dying anyway cause he didn't get onto the base.

Paul Merchant

3:33:31    C0001   S-206

Sitting on a bunker in Doctu on morning with one of my favorite Vietnamese Ranger Captains. And we had just had a cup of coffee and these two infantry soldiers, both officers, US Army were walking by and didn't notice us up there and one was relating to the other how disgusted he was because the Vietnamese didn't seem to fight very well, very hard, not very dedicated.

Paul Merchant

3:34:04    C0001   S-206

And I'm sitting there grinning and I look over there and I said "How do you feel about that?" He smiled and he looked at me and his English was very good, probably better than mine. And he said "You Know, you guys come over here from what? A year? Some of you come over for a second or third year, but a year at a time. He said "You know, I put on my first uniform when I was 16." He was 22 at that time, and he said "I have lots of opportunities to die, you on the other hand you only have one year." And he says "So you come over here and you offer to do the fighting, it is only courteous of me to allow you to do as much of it as you want."

Dan Baker

22:34:08     C0005   S-106

Flying combat was unique because we would party at night. We would go to the officers club and we would have our cocktails. And our occasional floor shows would come in. Because you knew the next day, you never knew if the next day was going to be your last, it was very dicotmus. The whole thing was… fierce combat, good times, fierce combat, good times, and it just never ended.

Everybody from Bob Hope to the Company Commander tried to bring a little bit of home to the boys at the front.

Joe Westerhiede

23:24:51   C0001    S-607

They had service clubs where you could go in and get a hamburger. They have a liquor store like in Dinang. Then we would provision ourselves and try to bring some out to where we were.

Delmer Rollins

0:54:02    C0001    S-207

They had movies. They had movie nights where you could watch movies and stuff like that. So you can get a basic comfort of home.

Joe Westerhiede

23:25:26   C0001    S-607

They had kind of a beer ration which was a couple of beers not enough to get you too incapacitated and of course a lot of people started smoking pot over there.

Larry Palmer

4:32:09    C0001    S-206

We were at Eudorn, Thailand...Eudorn Air Force Base and Bob Hope's U.S.O. show was coming in. And so they picked a couple of the Para-Rescue men, because we were the combat air force enlisted people, to be in the show. And I was going to introduce Miss World and Mike Dodd was going to be on the stage with Raquel Welch or Bob Hope or whoever. Miss World was from Peru and spoke Spanish and I didn't.

Larry Palmer

4:32:50    C0001    S-206

Michael Dodd knew how to speak Spanish not me, so he got to play with, or introduce Miss World and I got to go up and dance with Raquel Welch.

Larry Palmer

4:33:39    C0001    S-206

I wasn't the only one up there but I was the one closest to her...let's put it that way. (Laughs) That's why she's turned around looking at me as she went by.

Paul Merchant 

3:27:39    C0001   S-206

Friendship is an interesting term for when you go to a place like Vietnam. Yes, initially when you go into the unit you meet a number of people and you develop a very close relationship with those people. People will refer to it as kinship, brotherhood.

Paul Merchant 

3:28:14    C0001   S-206

If those people are killed it has a significant impact on how you see the entire environment. And one of the impacts of that is that when the next new guy comes in you tend not to develop that close of a relationship with them.

Paul Merchant 

3:29:05    C0001   S-206

So by the time that I was 60 or so days out of finishing my tour I might not be able to even tell you the name of the guy I was flying with that day.

Dan Baker

22:14:39    C0003     S-106

Sent 11 of them home in body bags. And that was the hard part. Young good phenomenal cream of the crop guys, and you look back and you wonder why. That's what has bothered me more than anything over the years. / You become a little older and you think what were we...why did they die? And that has been hard to live with.

Larry Palmer

4:22:17    C0001    S-206

My very last mission I lost my very best friend. And it was actually my helicopter supposed to go in and pick this survivor up. We had some radio intercom problems and we pulled out, his helicopter went in and got hit by a hand held rocket grenade launcher. And they blew up three times before they hit the ground. And lost all on board.

Larry Palmer

4:22:46    C0001    S-206

I'll never forget Michael Dean; he was the best buddy I had at the time. But you knew that was always there.

Larry Palmer

4:23:05    C0001    S-206

Sometimes I feel a little bemused that probably should have been me instead of him, but you know, I'm not the only guy that feels that way.

Delmer Rollins 

0:32:35    C0001    S-207

Our squad leaders told us McKinney you are Rollins go down this trail. Go down so far. He just told us to go down a certain distance. He didn't give us how far he just told us to go down a certain distance, and look for bodies and you don't see any turn around and come back. McKinney was the machine gunner and I was his assistant. So McKinney starts down the trail.

Delmer Rollins 

0:33:14    C0001    S-207

So we come back to the area where the squad is at. And when we get there the squad is on the other side of these hedges. These hedges are about this thick.

Delmer Rollins 

0:33:51    C0001    S-207

We could have easily walked down to the end of the hedge and walked around. But being lazy soldiers as usual I started through the hedges and as I got to the edge of the hedges somebody called my name. And I turned around to see who called my name and as I turned around to see who called my name. Rich McKinney went past me and hit the booby trap. All I could think about. I looked around wasn't nobody there, back there to call my name. I didn't know who called my name, but it stopped me and I turned around. And I turned back around just as he hit the booby trap.

Delmer Rollins 

0:34:29    C0001    S-207

And when it went off I got dirt and stuff in the face. And he took most of the blast. As he went down I panicked, because you know I didn't know what was going on. I took off and he hollered Rollins! Rollins! I am hit. And I came back to him and he is laying there. And he was just talking and he told me to tell his girlfriend that he loved her; It took us about an hour to get him medivaced out of there.

Delmer Rollins 

0:35:06    C0001    S-207

I got to go see him. It took me about three days to get to the hospital to see him. When I got to the hospital to see him he was talking out of his head. The guy that was in the bed next to him said man he was having a good time he was high emotionally he was in good spirits. And then they amputated his leg. And once they amputated his leg he just went down hill. And after I had seen him and visit with him. He told me Rollins I am tired, you'll be here for a couple of days. You know like he wanted to rest and stuff. The nurse asked me what's his girl friends name I told her his girl friend was named Sheryl. And the next day when I came back he had died.

Delmer Rollins 

0:35:54    C0001    S-207

I think he gave up. You know. I say the weirdest thing about that is that somebody called my name and I missed the booby trap and also Rich McKinney was the guy that told me say Rollins you stick with me I will get you through this.

Robert Poolaw 

1:05:13    C0001    S-304

I had two really good friends. I've heard some people say "Don't make friends in combat because when you lose them it's hard. I made friends with everybody.

Robert Poolaw 

1:06:08    C0001     S-304

Two Lieutenants, my Platoon Commanders. They were hit and I get a call on the radio. Like I said things are going off, popping all over the place and some one says "The Actual has been hit." The actual, that's the Lieutenant, and he said "This is the Assist," that means that's his Assistant his Platoon Sergeant. He says "The Actual has been hit but I got it, we're going over here."

Robert  Poolaw 

1:06:41    C0001     S-304

Two or three hours later, things settle down there and he said "The Lieutenant was hit, how was he?" He's Dead. Here's a guy...talked with, probably drank with and got drunk with, passed out...buddies, I know all about his family...you never got a chance to see him that last time. The Actual has been hit...he's gone. (Weeps)

Poolaw

1:07:36    C0001    S-304

...And you wonder why...Good friends...best time of my life.

Billy May

05:33:27   C0002    S-408

Well we were out on a fire team patrol just, I was on an outpost and our fire team was chosen to make a four man patrol out into the little village, out through the jungles and just check.

Billy May

05:33:52   C0002    S-408

You never know where they was going to have these booby traps set up. And I just happened to walk past one and it blew up and just picked me up off the ground and set me back down on my feet.

Billy May

05:28:39   C0002    S-408

I didn't know I was wounded, I was in shock immediately. When I came to my senses I bent over a little bit and I had my hands way out here. / And I looked over my shoulder and two guys behind me with their mouths open just...And I told them “Get down. Get down face out.” My team leader came running back through the jungle he was hollering “Are you alright?” I said “Yeah I am fine.” He come through that brush and turned white as a sheet. And I knew right then something is wrong.

Billy May

05:29:34   C0002    S-408

I looked down I was covered in blood. He said “Can you walk?” I said “Nope…no I ain't moving no where, I am going to fall if I move.” I knew I was bad.

Billy May

05:29:53   C0002    S-408

He was going to patch me up. But every time he would see blood or guts he would puke. “You ain't getting near me, get away.” He was going to insist on doing it. “No I am going to patch you up.” I reached over and clicked the safety off my rifle I said “If you puke on me I will blow your head off.” He backed off and let another guy patch me up. But I knew he was going to let go and I said “No.”

Medivac flights improved the chances of survival dramatically in Vietnam. The average time between the battlefield to the hospital was less than one hour.

Paul Merchant

3:48:20    C0002   S-206

Once you get to the field hospital they have a triage process where they determine the severity of your wounds and how urgently you need care.

Billy May

05:37:10   C0002    S-408

They didn't know weather they was going to send me back to the states or what they was going to do. And finally they made a decision and sent me to Guam and I said “I don't want to go to Guam.” I said Tinker Air Force base has a hospital it is right there at home. “No, you are going to Guam.” And I am glad they did I had a lot of fun there too.

Gail Loula

1:46:59     S-550   C0001

Guam was a brand new hospital they built after World War II. It was huge.

Gail Loula

1:46:59     S-550   C0001

And so when they decided to use it as an evacuation hospital for the wounded, before then their average census they ran around 110 patients. Now when I left 13 months later we were running 1,200.

Gail Loula

1:47:56     S-550   C0001

We got in anywhere from 80 to 120 five nights a week. And we never knew how many we were going to get in on the plane until they passed the point of no return. Then they would radio and tell us how many they were bringing us.

Billy May

06:51:20     C0009    S-408

It was a naval Hospital. It was nice and clean. The Only problem was that the windows didn't have screens on them, but the weather was just beautiful and we didn’t have a problem with flies or anything so. But the Doctor almost threw me out the window one day. After they got the cast off my leg and pulled the wires out of the wound, got it all healed up. Every day he would come in he would raise my leg up. He would put his hand under it bend it down and see how much flexibility there was.

Billy May

06:51:54     C0009    S-408

And he was in a hurry one day. And he grabbed that leg and I nearly flew out the window. I said easy doc slow down. I said “Heck I survived the war now I am going to get killed flying out of a window at a hospital.”

Gail Loula 

1:37:30     S-550   C0001

The guys during the day did not comment on what had been happening to them or anything else, but at night it was the nightmares.

Gail Loula 

1:56:18     S-550   C0001

Baby killers...I'm going to tell you baby killers.

Gail Loula 

1:56:37     S-550   C0001

This young kid was sitting there crying. And you know me: I couldn't pass by so I sat down and said "Well now tell me what's going on." He and his buddy joined together. And as I said back then 365 days, you only had to spend a year in Vietnam. 365 days and it was a ticket home. So at 364 he said they were taking their duffel bags out to throw in the truck to be ready to leave the next morning. And his friend said "I have a lot of chocolate and here are some little girls. I'm going to give them the chocolate. He dug in his bag and started toward the first little girl. When he got close she raised her hand. Well, she was wired with a grenade and it blew them both...uhhh. And this kid was standing by the truck and when the body parts and the dirt settled the other little girl walked through all this and was coming toward him…and he shot her. And she had been wired with a grenade. And he cried, he said "I killed a child...I killed a child." It didn't make any sense to him that there he was, he would have been dead also. But the idea, and you know, what could I tell him?

Gail Loula 

1:58:01     S-550   C0001

The V-C used children quite a lot during the war, especially females because they were expendable.

Paul Merchant

3:36:11    C0001   S-206

When you are coming close to the end of the tour you would think and you anticipated that you would be elated. Every day is brighter, you know, everybody had their short timer calendar where they X'ed off the days...you know, "I have 5-4-3-2-1..." And we referred to it as "Going back to the world."

Larry Palmer

4:27:49    C0001    S-206

Those of us coming back from Vietnam, you had a rifle in your hand one day, maybe shooting at the enemy, maybe trying to stay alive and then all of a sudden you're pulled out of the jungle, you're put on a plane and you're shipped back to the states the next day going home. And with nobody to talk to about it.

Paul Merchant

3:37:37    C0001   S-206

It's not resolved, it's ongoing. And somebody's coming in to do what you have been doing and you’re leaving, and that gives you a little bit of a guilt feeling. I don't know when you actually get past that... (Tearing up) you don't.

Paul Merchant

3:39:10    C0001   S-206

You get on the airplane, you fly back, you land in Alaska and it is bitter cold and you’re in that same TW uniform and now your starch is frozen other than soggy. And they take you in my case in Seattle-Tacoma again. Landed there in the middle of the night, got off the airplane, and bused us over to this receiving center...immediately told us that any of us that had civilian clothes should change to civilian clothes which we did. And then they bused us in unmarked buses over to the civilian terminal and put us on the aircraft as covert a manner as the could possibly come up with. And we flew home.

Dan Baker

22:37:21    C0005     S-106

My and dad and my wife were there and that was it. I got my luggage and went home. No one spit on me but no one thanked me either.

Delmer Rollins

1:17:52    C0001    S-207

I think coming back there was no fan fair. It seemed like nobody cared. It seems like they snuck us back into the country.

Delmer Rollins

1:19:45    C0001    S-207

That makes you feel unappreciated. I mean really it was an unpopular war and I look at it and I say but somebody had to do it.

Gail Loula

1:59:39     S-550   C0001

This one had lost both legs and one arm and I wasn't for sure about the other one, if he was going to make it or not / and he was getting ready to go home finally and he was talking to me / and I noticed on his shirt he had a white piece paper and I started to tuck it and I said "What is this?" and he said "When I get my first leave its a shop close to the hospital where I can get a wig, a long wig so nobody will know I was in Vietnam."

Gail Loula

2:00:20     S-550   C0001

He didn't want to be spit on or called names.

Gail Loula

1:58:52     S-550   C0001

And those boys were just doing the job they were assigned to do, and why they took it out on them I do not know.

Larry Palmer

4:23:39    C0001    S-206

I came back after my first tour from Vietnam arrived in California and was met with the same enthusiasms as everybody else was coming back at that time, hatred and name calling and getting spit on. And unfortunately had a gentleman that tried to kick me and actually did trip me at the airport and so I got up and beat the holy hell out him.

There were very few protests in Oklahoma and veterans were treated better compared to the rest of the country.

Billy May

06:07:55      C0007     S-408

When I came home I could do no wrong. I couldn't spend money. If I went into a bar in my uniform here in Oklahoma City no my money wasn't no good. They would see those ribbons, oh we are going to take care of you.

Robert Poolaw

1:24:40    C0001   S-304

American Indians...probably, we've got it easier than the white man. We come home to welcome Pow-wows and dances, big give-aways in your honor, a big pat on the back, you are a welcome hero. The white man comes home to...no one has ever said anything to me bad about being in Vietnam.

Robert Poolaw

1:26:55    C0001   S-304

My Dad had this dance, organized this dance there in Carnegie, and Governor David Hall came there and I remember he gave me some proclamation and read it and put a little "Okie" pin on my dress blues...which another Marine said "That's not regulation." But it was a little enamel pin that said "Proud to be an Okie" or something.

Robert Poolaw

1:27:49    C0001   S-304

Perhaps because of that warrior heritage / and that warrior tradition. You welcome these people back home, like the Black Leggings. You come back and your proud, you're holding up all you war trophies, the red cape, the rope, the things like this. So it’s like coming home from a big raid, a successful raid or war party.

Most veterans found it hard to tell family and friends what they had seen. Somehow home was not the same.

Larry Palmer

4:26:34    C0001    S-206

As much as my family and friends were glad to see me home, I kept thinking that they had changed and it was me that had changed.

Larry Palmer

4:26:54    C0001    S-206

So I was treated differently. Not by my Mom and Dad...but even my wife at the time, she really didn't know how to treat me. Tried to treat me like she treated everybody else, but I didn't want to be everybody, I didn't want to be in that...I wasn't a hippie, I just was not a hippie. I was a guy that fought for my country; you know I was willing to put my life out there for my country. I felt like I deserved respect and didn't get any, so I was ready to go back.

Delmer Rollins

1:27:59    C0001    S-207

But I am proud of being in the military. And I am proud of my service in Vietnam. I didn't like it all. Everything wasn't a bed of roses, but I think being a part of that era and being a part of that made me a better man. I think so.

Out of the 103,600 Oklahomans that served in Vietnam 988 were killed and 35 were prisoners of war or missing in action. Those that made it back are still haunted by the country that was both heaven and hell.

Dan Baker

22:39:45    C0005    S-106

Going to Vietnam and actually returning safely from Vietnam taught me the enormous difference between the two words country and government. I was there for my country. I think my buddies died for the government. There was nothing to really gain for my country, as I look back and that bothers me.

Joe Westerhiede

23:36:00   C0001    S-607

I go over there to defend freedom and there was no freedom over there to defend and so I felt like I was betrayed.

Gail Loula

2:20:39    S-550   C0002

They knew from the beginning it was, the war was not a winnable war. You know the French was in Vietnam for 17 years and had pulled out knowing that they couldn't win.

Robert Poolaw

8:37:00     C0002    S-304

Had we continued, if the politicians would've let us continue, the country would not have fallen. / It couldn't mirror our type of government, but they wouldn't be dominated by North Vietnam.

Billy May

06:55:57    C0009    S-408

I have learned that we can't trust our Government. We can't trust our news media to report the news properly. They slant it the way they want it. They are going to make things happen the way they want it to happen. A lot of people look at Walter Cronkite as a great man. I thought he was sorry. Because he was the one that changed the attitude of the American people in Vietnam. He is the one that was telling them that we had lost the War.

Robert Poolaw

8:37:48     C0002    S-304

My intentions were good. As most people who volunteered and went over there. So I think our intentions make good the effort. The effort was lost in the final round, but if you believe in something, perhaps the lesson is, if you believe in something, go for it. I thought we were winning. We were winning. It just didn't turn out that way.

TRT

BOOTH

BETWEEN 17 HUNDRED AND 25 HUNDRED AMERICANS REMAIN UNACCOUNTED FOR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.  THE NOTION THAT SOME MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE PERSISTS IN POPULAR CULTURE, DESPITE CONGRESSIONAL AND DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DETERMINATIONS TO THE CONTRARY.

THE FATE OF THE MISSING IN ACTION, AND THOSE REPORTED KILLED WHOSE REMAINS WERE NOT RECOVERED, REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST TROUBLING ASPECTS OF THE CONFLICT REFERRED TO BY VETERANS AS MY WAR.