Why Would the Vietnam Soliders Served Again in the Vietnam War

Photo courtesy of Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace (far left) helps behave a 400-pound 106mm recoilless rifle through the streets of Huê´, Vietnam, during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

The Vietnam War helped shape a generation of Americans, none more so than the 2.7 one thousand thousand who served in Southeast Asia. In honor of National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29 (signed into law by then President Donald J. Trump in 2017), AARP spoke with half-dozen veterans of the state of war well-nigh their most bright memories and what they want Americans today to know or think.

Len Kirchner, Thou.D., 85, of Litchfield Park, Ariz.

Kirchner entered the Air Force in 1961, at age 25. He served in Southeast Asia as a physician and in combat missions from 1965 to 1971.

Photos Courtesy of Len Kirchner

Len Kirchner examines a Thai boy during civic action (left); Kirchner in his clothes compatible.

Most vivid memory: his starting time time landing in Vietnam, after being stationed in Tokyo

"We had flown a 10-hour reconnaissance mission from Okinawa, along the coast of Mainland china, and then into the Gulf of Tonkin, and did reconnaissance between Haiphong and Hainan Island, which was Chinese. When we landed at 2 in the morning time, we got out of that airplane — and understand, this is my outset trip to Vietnam. It's hot and it'due south sticky. The Marines are on Monkey Mountain, arms is firing out into the jungle, there are flare ships dropping flares. I got a sidearm and bandolier armament. And to be frank, when I remember dorsum, I call up, How did I go into this John Wayne movie, anyway?"

What Americans should know: Wandering into war doesn't always terminate well.

"I think the nigh important thing is that going to war is such an important decision made by our political leaders. And when y'all call up dorsum during my lifetime, Earth War 2, conspicuously the Japanese assault on Honolulu precipitated that. The second nation disharmonize was Korea, and Harry Truman fabricated a decision to stop the aggression from the North into the S. Vietnam, that was something that we just kind of wandered into over a flow of years. So going to war, I think, is ane of those disquisitional things that a president and Congress does. And nosotros haven't done a decent job, since World War Ii and Korea, in debating and articulating what the mission was and what our goal was and what our strategy was."

Keith Harman, 74, of Delphos, Ohio

Harman was drafted in 1967 and served in Vietnam in 1969, as a crew primary and door gunner on a "Huey" helicopter for the Regular army. He was the Veterans of Foreign Wars national commander from 2022 to 2018.

Photos Courtesy of Keith Harman

Keith Harman in a Huey Helicopter during the Vietnam State of war (left); Harman on his return visit to Vietnam in 2017.

Almost bright memory: beingness caught under fire in his helicopter on his first mission

"I remember my maintenance sergeant trying to talk me out of becoming a crew principal, but I wasn't listening. On my kickoff set on mission, my aircraft was badly shot upwards, simply we didn't go downward. The first thought that came to heed was, Maybe I should have listened to my maintenance sergeant. I had a good guardian angel and continued to wing for the remainder of my tour."

What Americans should know: Servicemen did what was asked and looked afterward one another.

"When you serve in the armed services, y'all are taught discipline. The company that I served with was told that we were going to Vietnam, and so off nosotros went. We did what was asked of us, and we looked after those that we served with. I have been back to Vietnam, and information technology is altogether different from when I left 49 years ago."

Mike Tharp, 75, of Plano, Texas

Tharp served in the Army from 1969 to 1970 and was a correspondent for an Regular army magazine called the Hurricane.

Photo Courtesy of Mike Tharp

Mike Tharp (middle) at the 16th Public Information Detachment.

About vivid retentivity: being shot at for the commencement time

"I was on guard in a wooden tower on the front end perimeter which faced Highway 1, which ran into Saigon about xxx miles southward. There was burn down coming from the Vietnamese village across Highway 1. I was in the bunker, the elevated bunker, and every eighth or ninth round was a tracer circular — carmine or dark-green. So yous know when you saw tracers, there were a lot of bullets you didn't see. The tracers started coming over the guard shack where I was standing, xx feet in a higher place the ground or so. And I bent downward below the sandbags with simply my head and my helmet peering over, and I peed my pants."

What Americans should know: Also many lives, both American and Vietnamese, were lost.

"We should have never gone into that war. We went in there in Vietnam and wasted 58,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. And when I speak of Amanuensis Orange, nigh 4 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orangish, and several hundred thousand of them died, and many of their children and grandchildren are messed up because of it. I call up the bottom-line lesson is that nosotros should not become to war unless information technology is clearly in our national interest, and there are very few places that would qualify for that in the earth."

John Rivers, 75, of Paradise Valley, Ariz.

Rivers served from 1969 to 1971, equally an Army infantry officer advising a Vietnamese military infantry unit of measurement.

Photo Courtesy of John Rivers

John Rivers (2d from right) later his final combat operation.

Most vivid retention: personal relationships with Vietnamese soldiers and families

"We pretty much lived and worked with the Vietnamese. And that gave us, in virtually cases, a significantly dissimilar view of the war than people who were in your typical American units, who simply viewed the Vietnamese as 'the other guys,' so to speak. I developed groovy respect and affection for the Vietnamese when I was there. Primarily because I had and then much exposure to them and their families."

What Americans should know: Vietnam veterans served with as much cede as any in American history.

"The men and women who served in Vietnam were as important to our state equally veterans who have ever served since the fourth dimension of the American Revolution. Those who did non come back live made as great a sacrifice as any solider who died at Iwo Jima or Omaha Beach or any of the other major battles of World War Ii. The grief and the sorrow of their families was every bit profound every bit the grief of whatsoever family who lost a family unit fellow member at Guadalcanal or the Battle of the Bulge or any of the other battlefields of our wars. For those of u.s. who served, our experiences every bit soldiers was very like in many respects to the soldiers who fought in other wars."

Bob Wallace, 72, of Arlington, Va.

Wallace served in the Marine Corps as an infantryman. He was the executive director of the Veterans of Strange Wars office in Washington, D.C., until July 2019.

Well-nigh vivid memory: fighting in the Battle of Huê´ during the 1968 Tet Offensive

"Many casualties on both sides, simply exceptional camaraderie de corps by my swain Marines."

What Americans should know: Most who served volunteered for duty.

"Americans should know that those of united states of america who fought in Vietnam answered our nation's phone call, and most of u.s. were volunteers. We served with honor and distinction."

Jim Doyle, 72, of Fresno, Calif.

Doyle served from 1969 to 1970, as an Army infantry soldier, to "seek out, close with and destroy the enemy."

Photos Courtesy of Jim Doyle

Jim Doyle in Di An, Southward Vietnam, 1st Infantry Division base camp, 1969 (left); Doyle today.

Most vivid memory: being wounded in a blast on patrol, along with a wartime buddy, Willie Henry, and non knowing what happened to his friend until 26 years later

"After two to iii weeks of recovery, I was back out in the field and never did discover out what happened to Willie. For years and years I didn't know how to get ahold of him. I didn't know anything. And and then when the [Vietnam] memorial was built, I looked for his name, didn't find his name, which was a good clue that he was nonetheless alive. And for some reason, I thought he was from Chicago. So every time I traveled through O'Hare, I would take hold of the phone volume, dorsum in the days when they still had phone books and pay phones, and I called every Henry in the Chicago phone book and relay the story: 'Then, do yous know this guy, I'k trying to find him.' 'No, never heard of him.'

"So in '96, a friend of mine was appointed to a task at the Section of Veterans Affairs as a deputy or banana secretary for something or other. And I relayed the story to him, and he says, 'Well, look, I tin can't give you any data. Merely if yous transport me a letter of the alphabet addressed to Willie, I will forward it to him. And if he wants to contact you, he can do that.' So I did that, and most a month subsequently, I was in D.C. I was on the board of Vietnam Veterans of America at that time. And I was in my hotel room, and the phone rang, and it was my wife.

"She says, 'You got a message on your machine that I think you're gonna want to hear.' So she held the phone over the motorcar, and it was Willie, who called and said, 'I got your letter of the alphabet.' I called him and left a message on his machine. About an hour afterwards, he chosen me back at the hotel, and that was when we connected, 26 years later." [Willie, information technology turns out, was in Chattanooga, Tennessee.]

What Americans should know: The men who fought didn't create the war.

"All the people who fought the war weren't responsible for making the war. If in that location is anything nosotros've learned from the Vietnam War, it is that we haven't learned anything from the Vietnam War."

Aaron Kassraie writes about issues important to military veterans and their families for AARP. He also serves as a general consignment reporter. Kassraie previously covered U.S. foreign policy as a correspondent for the Kuwait News Agency's Washington bureau and worked in news gathering for Usa Today and Al Jazeera English.

Editor's notation: This commodity, originally published on March 28, 2019, has been updated with new data on the veterans featured.

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Source: https://www.aarp.org/home-family/voices/veterans/info-2019/vietnam-veterans-day.html

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