American dream is something that makes our country so special. The fact that you can choose your path, set your goals, and achieve success however you define it. That is why we're known as the last place on earth to escape to. Well, that comes with a cost. The cost of freedom is paid for by our veterans, Vife, liberty, Happiness. Is happy to be playing a small part in capturing our heroes stories. Our series, called Veteran Voices, will focus on getting to know the men and women that have sacrificed so much. We hope you enjoy this series like we are. If you're a company that wants to sponsor this segment, please contact our staff at four three four four four four, eighteen seventy four or email Emma at mediasquatch dot com. Be a part of preserving our history for future generations. Stay tuned as Veteran Voices is about to begin. Welcome to the show, Sergeant Steve Boseman, Well glad to be here. Thank you. So for those I'm sure most people who do know you probably know you for your the monument steps right. Yeah, Momentary Son mid rally every Friday from twelve to one. So I don't know I don't do a lot of research on purpose, because I'm curious about your life. So tell me, tell me kind of where your journey began. Where you were born and raised. Montgomery, Alabama, nineteen was September twelve, nineteen forty six. I was probably one of the first baby boomers born that year. My dad was a World War Two Navy vet and he was stationed here in Lynchburg, Virginia, at the Preston Glen Airport. And that's where you met my mother. She lived here, born here, and they somewhere in the movie house they met and threw popcorn at her, and the next thing you know, they got involved and became a boyfriend girlfriend. And when the war ended, they moved back to Montgomery and got and got married in Montgomery. And I was born in September forty six, and then two other of my siblings, Pat and Gail. So we stayed at the stay down in an old country of Alabama for a while. And he was a mechanic at the airport, actually fixing, repairing air aircraft. And kind of ironic that I here, I am the next generation. I'm a helicopter aircraft mechanic myself. Wow, so high school years. When did you start thinking military was was going to be in your future? Well, typically, I had a girlfriend and I old beat up card that I drove around, and the Vietnam War was heating up in nineteen sixty five, and we had an old black and white TV. And actually my brother I was living with my grandmother. I had moved back to Montgomery after I stayed here for a few years when I was ten or twelve thirteen years old. So here I am back in Montgomery and my dad was in construction and so he kind of pawned us off to Grandmama, a big I call it granny, So she took care of us for about four or five years until I had joined the Marine Corps. So at the time I had a part time a full time job making a little peanuts and girlfriend. I was pretty happy. And then to Uncle Sam sent me in there noticing come for your induction to check out your physical and see if you're a one to be ready to fight the war. So that was probably a summer, late summer sixty five. That were you scared when you got that? No, No, it was just where I was living in the projects. I had government housing projects and a lot of the guys in there had joined the Marine Corps in an army and before they got drafted, they just joined the service just to get out of the environment they were living in. So when I got my induction, I went to the physical and there was about, of course, you know, about two hundred people in the physical taking the guys, and within a couple of days we were done. Back home and then within a week it comes to Marine Corps recruiters dress blues knocking on my door and he saw my car out front. I had actually had raised the hood and working on it, and he said, you're a mechanic. I said, well a little bit. He said, well, the Marine Corps needs helicopter mechanics, aircraft mechanics, and we need if you join us, we'ld like to have you. And where I was living, I was, you know, my grandmother. We were poor. And I said, well, Miles Wall joined and make some money and send back to her. Nice. Yeah, so enlisted. They called it the Delayed Entry. In October sixty five, raised my right hand and mont Grummery, Alabama then signed up, and then the hit Paris Island and January second, nineteen sixty six. And then from there, after basic training, where do you what do your travels take you? Then? Typically the Marine Corps, it's about twelve thirteen weeks at Paris Island, but Vietnam was pretty hot, so they were trying to rush us through. Oh okay, so we did everything and expedited in motion method and we didn't have mess duty or anything. We just did all the grunt training and everything that the Marine Corps boot camus about. And then after that, it's about ten weeks. Then we called a bus to Camp Tiger, which is up near Camp Rejune. Camp Geiger is the Marine Corps Infantry Advanced Infantry Course. You stay there about three weeks going through all the infantry training, and then you go and leave and then you report to your next study station, which was Millington, Tennessee, where they taught how to do electronics, mechanics and all kinds of stuff on aircraft. So I stayed there about four months, five months, and then September I was in Camp Penllington going through another two week infantry training. So even though your MOS is different throughout the Marine Corps, you're basically a rifleman no matter what you do. So I enjoyed infantry part of it, and then of course I had signed up for the aviation guaranteed. I was thinking, my gosh, I should have just stayed infantry. But I didn't know what was waiting for me on the aviation side of it until I got to Vietnam. And then I had orders to the helicopter squadron through HMM three sixty one, which was old reciprocating engines kind of left over prior to the I guess at the Korea, Sikorski had made another kind of helicopter that was perfect for Vietnam. So when you get when you get sent to Vietnam, we're at in Vietnam. Are you at this point do you do recall like where are you getting dropped in at? Well, you land in d Nang Airport, Okay, And thank god, I flew over commercial airlines, so made about two hundred other marines flew over landed and during the daylight and then of course when the door opened up and the heat and the smell of Vietnam hit you, everybody remembers that until you know, you just remember that, yeah, and then you off board and then you go through processing and figure out the which unit need you the most. And I guess this particular helicopter squadron needed a mechanic and I was assigned to that one. And they were stationed down in near July, which was about fifty miles south of d Nay. So I had to catch a sea one thirty hop down there and then find my way to the squadron and then report in. Are you when for you just being in Lynchburg, a little bit in Alabama going to Paris Island? Were you before you even get to Vietnam? Were you ready for that? Are you you know the war is coming, so that you're ready to go? And then you travel to Vietnam and probably hadn't traveled a lot in your life. Now you're only nineteen years old. Yeah, I just turned nineteen and I never heard on a commercial aircraft, never have flown, and here it was eventually going to be flying a helicopter. So were you ready? I mean, did you feel ready? Or you're like you're nineteen and don't know what is even about to happen to you? I was, you know, still thinking that I was a young man. I had dropped out of high school to kind of help with the finances with my grandmother. And plus I was bored in high school in eleventh grade, so I said, okay, I'm out of here. And back in those days, they didn't have any counselors trying to keep you there. They just say, well, dumbass, go ahead and drop out it. So I in long story short, I did get my four year degree in college education later on after the Marine Corps. But anyway, back to your question, I was well trained as a Marine infantry, going through all the different training jungle for warfare, warfare, and then uh, when I got to Vietnam, I wasn't really scared at all. I just figured I felt like I was invincible. But I've found out later you're not. Yeah, but reported to my squadron and started to become a mechanic. But all the others, you know, I've seen other reports and other people who you know, the draft draft dodgers, and they want to they just mentioned Vietnam, they're going ahead to Canada. But I thought that was just my duty. And of course President Kennedy his his words were what can not what you can do for your country your what what the country can do for you, but what you could do for your country, and that resonated with me back and when I was thinking about, okay, do I want to join? You just let the army you draft me, or join rink Corps or even the Navy if I had that time. At that time, I had the choice. I could go off for branches if I joined. But I wanted to be a marine because I've sold all the Pacific landings. They did all the heroic duties, you know, the imachima. Yea and the dress blues and the dresser. They hooked. They hook you every time. You're right about that. Yeah, they do get you. How long were you mechanic? I mean, is this the whole time you're there or what? Uh? Just that first part take us through your well time while you're at Vietnam. Good question. I was a mechanic royal the bat So I was trained on a reciprocate engine and the aged thirty four, you aged thirty four had a eighteen cylinder UH engine and a big powerplorn engine Skorski built, and they could carry about eight fully armed loaded marines and maybe ten or twelve Vietnamese type troops. But yeah, when I got there at Keiha, Vietnam, which is just north of July. I was a mechanic for about three months and they didn't let you let me fly until about January February. As a door gunner. Oh lord, So you're on the side. So the each aircraft you had two pilots and two door gunners, one of a crew chief and the other one is a on the other on the other side of thirty four was a window and that was my job to make sure that anybody is shooting from their position. I shot back with my M sixty machine gun. I went and you picked up that training while you were before you got to Vietnam where you got there and they said, hey, jump up on the sixty. Fortunately they did let us go out over the ocean and shoot. There's some barrels with the M sixty machine gun. Oh you know, we had about probably three hours of training. Kind of you know, it depends how fast the helicopters flying. Yeah, you kind of you you figure out how to lead, uh and now yeah, yeah, And every fifth round is a tracer so you can see your your red tracer going word your barrel's points. You know, most people don't know that. When you're like watching the movies or watching video, you see the tracers running, but there's bullets in between those that are going to It's just bullets. And one tracer. Yeah wow. So anyway, I had enough wherewithal to point and shoot properly. Yeah. So once you got your first flight as a door gunner, of course you're very anxious. Nonetheless, I'm still okay at that point, I'm going out in a jungle and were going to a hot zone. And then that's where you figure out all this training is gonna pay off or not. So would you like, so you were a mechanic, so you work on the fleet and you're a gunner. You're doing both things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So yeah, when you get back the aircraft, you had to clean it up, get it ready for the next mission, and then if there's any technical issues with your engine or anything it could be fixed right away you start working on that, or some wheels or a flat tire or anything that relates to the aircraft the helicopter. I imagine you being in that hole and you're the gunner. They certainly know you're either bringing supplies or marines the ones that are on the ground, the Vietnamese. They also know that you're the guy with the sixty. The lifespan of the gunner was not much, right, I mean it. Says about two weeks. If you a door gunner you were once the boy to start flying, you're about probably a couple of minutes. So that was the question that I wanted because I've off I mean, you're getting in this thing. You know the dangers obviously, But if you go out and come back, are you are you upset if you don't get some sort of act? I mean no, no, not really? Are you happy just to get back going? I have to get back to the squadron, to get back to your hooch and check out, and then come back next day and do it again. So that my first mission was, like I said, January of February, I'm not sure of the date, and sixty six, yeah, no, sixty seven, I'm sorry. So it was it went to a hot zone and we were just offloading some water and five gallon jugs, some bullets, and some sea rashing, sea rationing. So you're supplying the ground trips. We are, and that's what they're basically. Marines in the air wing do we support the infantry on the ground, either the fixed wing or the helicopters, and typically you have probably for every grunt on the ground in the junkle, you probably got ten to twelve marines back in the rear taking care of supporting that guy. Wow. So in our case, we were supporting the infantry and bringing in supplies and taking out the wounded or dead if needed. Was there when you had to work on the helicopter that you just landed on the next day or that afternoon or whatever, did you ever see like a hole a bullet or something like? Wow, that was a little close. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Typically it's a big the skin of a helicopters by as thick as of paper. I mean, it's very light, very thin, wow yeah wow, And bullets come in and it's a very noisy environment when you land, and you know when you're flying your land So once you get in the zone, the pilot is typically full of throttle to take off on a moment's notice. So you're either off loading or loading up doing that quick. You know, it could be a minute that the longest, or two the really longest. In this case, my pilot on you had, yes, he had headsets and he's telling me to shoot. Once we got on the ground and I'm looking out this tree line and I don't see anybody shooting at me. And I wasn't told you could just freely shoot, so I was going to hold my trigger. So I'm thanking God. He's yelling at me shoot, And then I was getting ready to pull the trigger, and thank god I did not, because about twenty feet in front of me was two Marines helmets and behind a bunker type thing, and my barrel at that time, because I was so dag on nervous, was pointing at their Dagon heads. So I quickly raised the barrel just enough to shoot over the heads into the tree line. And that moment, right there, when we took off, I thought to myself, I just could have I just could have killed two Marines on my first Dagon mission. Wow, And that would halt me forever. I learned real quick on the job training. Yeah, make sure you know where that barrel is pointing and not at a friendly marine. Yeah. Wow, So do you did you? Did you have any that you started taking fire that became a hot mess that quick? Well, that protective ones we didn't take fire, but yes, the pilot won't make sure, so we both me and the crew chief. We shot out and then we took off and we landed back at the base and we looked chucked the aircraft. There was no bullet holes in it, so we assumed that we did get did not get shot at on that mission, but in future missions we did. Oh yeah, so how many I mean, how long did you stay? How long were you there? Well, the Marine served thirteen months, and everybody else Air Force, Navy, Army served twelve months. The Marine Corps for some reason, felt like that we're going to keep you there one a month alone, which made you get shot at one mouth longer or a chance to get to Caroll. But but you you went. You volunteered to go back, am I right? Yeah, And that's a lot. That's another long story. Yeah, yeah, sure, Well we're here. This is your story. Is we want to hear this. And just to let you know, by the way, I know you have grandkids and great grandkids. And the reason Brian and I want to do this is if I could go back and listen to my grandfather talk about being in the Philippines and the tanks in World War Two, I do everything that I could. These things that you're telling we want your grandkids and great grandkids to be able to hear, or even their kids to be able to hear. It'll be on YouTube and it'll be here forever. So tell the stories that you want to tell. That's really what it's about. I'm gonna try to be very honest and not too much bs, y'all. No, no exactly, Yeah, yeah, sure, thing. So you did you did decide to go back. Well, the first tour was exciting. I put it that way. More more I flew as a door gunner, the more the more you found out that you're picking up dead marines and barely warning marines, and you're thinking, okay, this is real, and you're getting your hands bloody, you're you're getting shot at and you're shooting back, and you're going back to the base afterwards and you're decompressing. And typically we didn't really talk that much with each marine. Unless there's the same guy you flew with that day, you might want to share some of the anxiety you have if that, but typically just you did not. I'm not sure if that generation was different than what it is now. Yeah, So after many months of into June and July and August, well actually the May twenty May fourth is when I got shot down on my meta fact And that was May fourth, nineteen sixty seven, and about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we were the Army had typically they had the Red Cross metovacs and they would fly particular missions, but Marine Corps didn't do that. They had if you were in the area and you had an infantry calling to help you, that particular helicopter was spin off and go down to help, or you would have dedicated helicopters like that day we had. We had two helicopters dedicated for medovacs. So we were supporting these infantry just not too far from where we were at the base. And we did it all all morning, all early afternoon, and it was starting getting routine because they were taking a lot of casualties. We'll get shot at. And then five o'clock we got called again to go back out, so we had to back out there, and of course I know we're gonna we're gonna get shot at, but we didn't get shot They had going into the hot zone. But what the grunts did, They had them at the air four phantom jets come in and kind of they couldn't drop any napalm because they were too close to the Marines, But they just flew like treetop level, you know, four hundred miles an hour and making a hell of a noise. So I'm watching all this going on in the air, and then here the pilots talking to each other, and then as we rotate down into the hot zone, I'm just expecting fire, but we didn't get any. So we landed in the zone. And what the enemy does? They know if you keep coming back, they can set up another place to shoot at you later as you exit. But a lot of times they they try to shoot you in the zone so they can shut their zone down to keep any helicopters coming in. So anyway, we got one valley stretch of patient big black marine with got shot in the chests, and then this other marine and he got shot in the leg, so he kind of hopped up on the chopping himself. So we took off, flew about treetop level, maybe I thought about four football fields links maybe a quarter mile. All of a sudden, I'm hearing fire, you know, bullets, and I'm looking at my window. I don't see anybody on my side shooting, but all of a sudden, I hear my crew chief on his side shooting sixty fired away, and then I look up and the what they did all that the enemy had shot the transmission fluid in a helicopter transmission and it caught fire and was dripping down into our compartment. So I looked behind me and I moved the stretcher patient a little bit to get the dripping fire out of off him, and then I went back to my gun. I'm thinking, okay. Then I heard the policy says we're going down. I said, okay, get ready, and I would make sure that the grunt was okay behind me, so I moved him by the way, I picked my machine gun up, grabbed about, you know, two feet of ammo, and then got ready to hit the ground. So just as I got to the ground, it hit hit pretty pretty pretty hard. So I just kind of fell out of the door. Actually I didn't know if I had jumped or what, but I just hit the rice patty and I had my sixty hugging like you wouldn't believe, real close to me, and I got banged up pretty pretty good there. And then uh, my first thought was okay, the helicopter was on fire. We got two wounded inside, we got you know, two pilots and then the crew chief. So I guess we're all going to get out somehow. And the helicopter down did not roll over on the side, so the pilot was able to control it enough to hit the landing and bounce and roll. So I went to the nearest dyke, Rice Petty Dyke, just to get behind the rice Petty expected the more see, you know, a couple of dozen or so goots coming at me, and nobody's coming at me. I'm looking around. I don't see any enemy nowhere. So then I, uh, you know, this is a split seconds. So I'm looking around and turned around, looked back at the helicopter and I saw this one hand still hanging waving, and I knew he was still in there. So I rushed back over to the helicopter. And you don't think about it, You just split second you want to save somebody, That's what we do. So he was in a Bernie helicopter and it was burning pretty good, so I rushed over. I tried to get the structure out first, trying to keep the aching on it, and they wasn't moving, So then I had we had to reach up and I my crew chief, finally came over and started helping me, and I reached up inside to unbuckle the strutcher, and then then we was able to drag him out of the helicopter. And about that time, the we had bullets in our in our animal box, and I guess one of the bullets the boxes was on. It was in the heat, so it was starting to cook off. So here we're gonna get shot by our own deg on bullets. So we dropped him on the ground real quick, and then the pilot and someone else rushed over and the four of us grabbed two arms, two legs and hauled the ass across the rice patty and got probably about fifty yards away. And then another helicopter always fly two or two helicopters for this purpose. If one gets shot down, the other one can come in and get you out. So he came in and we loaded up the two wounded, and then I was I had fire. I had burns on my arms and hands from reaching up in the fire, and a few cuts on my face and that blood coming down, so it kind of looked like I was hurt, but I wasn't really filling that bed, so all the crew stayed on the ground, and then we had infantry come over from the ground and to help security, so they kind of gave three hundred and sixty greet security around us. And at that time we still weren't getting any enemy fire coming in, so I guess we were pretty lucky. We landed somewhere of a safe zone. Anywhere that behind enemy lines anywhere it is not safe. So anyway, we were Another helicopter came in about a half hour later, and then I boarded up and we all got on the chopper flew back to Marble Mountain and then I got off and they wanted me to go to the hospital get patched up. So I got a ride over to the hospital and and I went in there and I kind of I didn't know how bad it was, but then it started hurting. My second third degree burns on my arm and leg. So anyway, they started patching me up and stayed there about two or three hours, and then I got ready. The doctor said you're okay, you can go ahead to leave now. I said okay, And the corman he slipped me a little, you know, the small bottles of whiskey yeah, he slipped me a bottle. He said, you probably need this. Wow. So when I got back to my hoot, within the half hour, I popped that thing open and drank in one big group, one big slug, and then I had to go. Uh So, anyway, everybody's okay, The crew chiefs okay, two pilots and we all didn't We didn't talk at all. We just get went our separate ways. So the next day, apparently I found out later long ago that they interviewed the two pilots and the gunner about what happened. They didn't interview me for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I had to. I had to go to the doctor the next there's a day or two later to get a mental checkout where you're okay physically and meniately to fly again as a door garner, and I got okay to fly again. So within two days I'm back flying again. Yeah. At this point, are you hoping? The doctor says, no, you're not well. Even though it was a near death situation, and I think about it almost every day, how close we all could have been killed that day, just crashing and burning or just getting shot. I I didn't feel like, okay, I felt like I was gonna I could have been killed, but I felt like, okay, my job is to be a mechanic and door garner and help marines on the ground infantry. So I just got back in the fight and was willing to keep flying as a door garner. So anyway, of course, the other crew member, other helicopter mechanics and pilence kind of because at that time, I think we were the first one to get shot down by the enemy. So it was it was quite a something to be talked. About enlisting, life, liberty, happiness. We are talking to Sergeant Steve Boseman the United States Marine Corps at his time in Vietnam. So now that you've you've got that under your belt. So this was your first tour, right that this all happened. So that was enough for you. You thought, let's go back again. Well after that happened May in June, about July, yeah, July, I went on orn R to Bangkok. They give you every marine a week to go somewhere orn R resdom relaxation, and so I got Bangkok, Thailand chosen. So I went to Bangkok. I was gonna go to Australia, and I had orders for Australia. But this pilot came to me. He says, I really want to go to Australia. Better if I give you a case of beer, you go to Bangkok? I rap, so I why not? So I got a case of beer and went to Bangkok and he went to Australia. That's amazing. So when I was going for that week, my squadron had orders to go up to the DMZ AT which is only eight miles from the DMC, to help support all the infantry up there. So when I got back from or and R, I well, first of all, when you fly from Bangcock, you stop. I forgot was it Guam? Or could be in Guam to refuel? And you could go to the PX and get four bottles of alcohol. And Ted Lensky, my buddy of mine, we flew a lot. He was a crew chief and I was a dual gunner. He said, when you go an on Or, get me a two bottles of cotch. And I got two bottles of bourbon. And at that time they were only a bucking bucket a quarter. So I got four bottles and we caught the hop back to the day. Then I had to catch one thirty hop up to dog Ha. So I landed that afternoon, probably about six o'clock and dog has only eight miles away. So the enemy was constantly shelling with the one twenty two rockets and right off across the border. And of course we couldn't go to DMC and and fight them, I mean to destroy their their weapons, so they rocket us all the time. So soon as we landed, the rockets were coming in and C one thirty just turned around, took off again and I offloaded. So I knew I did not know where my squadron was. They had the helicopters there, but I didn't know where my hoochs was, so I had to go find Mike Hoochs. And I finally found it and Ted was there, and Ted said, well, we got incoming, so the guaB a bottle each and head to the bunker. So we did, and we didn't. We're not we're not expected to be overrun or anything. We just knew that about half an hour they're gonna quit and come back and do it again around midnight. So we went to the Hoochs and we started uh tedy one to know how my own order was, and I had to go in a little good time what I had, well, in fact, I had six hundred dollars. I said, up, six hundred dollars, wow, And it wasn't much you think about now, but back then in nineteen sixty seven, six hundred bucks was a lot of money. And when my squadron rotated up there, I knew that when I came back to Vietnam, my life expected was not going to be very good. So my goal was to spend every penny of the six hundred dollars, and I did, and I spent every penny of it. So when I came back, I was broke until next month. But when I got back to the Dung Hovey that night, I got rocketed and I reported next morning to the radio shack to check in. And the. Mission I called it the radio shack was where all the you're checking to find out what your flight patterns are and what you're going to do. So I was assigned the fly gunner that day. So here we got half a little hangover going on, So we flew up the DMC area and just supported grunts up there. So every day we got rockets. You know, four or five six times a day. And then on August, the last week of August, we got to hit real bad. They destroyed probably two or three helicopters, and I was getting shell shocked a lot. We were starting to get non immune to the rockets coming in, but we were getting you know, any minute this when you hear all these big rounds coming in and exploding, you're starting to get a little fearful that the rocket's going to fall on top of you, no matter where you're hiding at. So that August the week of the destroyed helicopters, so the general flew up and decided to keep us there for another, you know, a little bit longer. So September third, which was only a week later, the enemy hit the fuel dump, animal dump, and the and the helicopters in the hoots, so everything was blown up. So that morning I had flew that night on a meadowvac so I just got in the hoots, just got my clothes off, just got ready to lay down on the cot. And it comes in coming about probably seven o'clock and then real quickly jump up, run to the back door, and the hooch is about four about forty feet long, and I hit that back door, and behind us was a big fuel bladder, like big as a tanker, and it hit the tanker and fuel batter blew up, so it knocked me back on my butt. I didn't get burned or anything. But then I turned around and hit the front door and jumped in a bunker. And then that day was a long day. They hit the Amo dump, the fuel dump. So September, third of forty four of us in the squadron got wounded with swap, no burns, and all kinds of injuries. So after about four hours up from jumping from bunker to bunker, after each one collapsed on top of you. The last one I was in was about six feet deep and it's about just shoulder wide. So I got into that one with about six seven marines. And then because all the AMO Dump fuel dump, all the hooches were catching on fire. You know, we've got ten roof, but we got plywood. So all the plywood's catching on fire, and it's falling on top of the hoot of the bunkers, which is cloth, so the cloths catching on fire. So then here we are in the middle of this big rock attack and we didn't know whether we get overrun or not. I didn't have any weapons when I hauled outside of the I didn't gravel weapon down, so we had to. All of a sudden, the smoke was so bad that we had to get out of that bunker. So then I was the last one out. And when I went out, I had to dive through a fire again to get out of it, and I had a shirt on. I'm not sure where I got a shirt from, but it caught fire and I rove on the ground, put it out, got up haul but to another bunker, and stayed there for another hour, and by that time going my gosh, we'll go be here all day. So then it quite a down. The AMMO was still cooking off, so then that time they started assessing who's hurt who's not. And I was hurt enough to where they said go to the first aid, which was a big underground bunker where they do surgeries. So I went in there and they patched me up, put galls on my burns and arms and my hand, and then they went back out top side. And then they had another helicopter come in and they loaded all us up at different times. It took us out to the helicopter, I mean a hospital ship USS repose, and we used to fly when we took wounded out to the repose. We would take them out and fly and land a little small spot on the navy ship. And here I am, September third, I'm landing on it. So they went down below and they patched up. And. I felt like, okay, I'm safe, Thank god, hear him. So about four days later, here comes the marine general come around and we about six of us lined up, and he's giving about purple hearts. So he comes up to me and he looks at me and he says, wait, you thinking about these female nurses? And my of course, I my mouth that big smile on it. And then someone took a photo which I for some reason another how I got it, still have it, I don't know, but I did. So that question was what do you think about the female nurses? And then here I am thinking, I'm alive and I love it. So it gives miss purple Heart. So anyway, two purple hearts near death, and I'm thinking my life is getting pretty uh gosh, am I gonna get killed the next yesh. I go on. And in one instance we were on this one supporting his one grunts on this hills and what not a tree on the hill or nothing. And we kept going into every hour, almost breaking up food, water supplies, bullets, and sea rations, and then taking out the wounded and dead because they were getting watered constantly. And then when we landed again, and we believe me, the helicopter pilot want to be in and out real quick, so we were throwing water out the door, bullets and sea rations, and then all of a sudden the big explosion and then what happened when Watar came in hit right underneath the engine compartment and the shrapnel came up, and we had put three quarter inch thick steel place underneath the engine for that purpose, but one of the some of the swrapnel went up into the engine and got a couple of cellinders, so we lost power. So as soon as he went full power on the helicopter, he knew he couldn't fly back to base, so we had to kind of fly out of rotate down into the valley. And I had enough time then to thinking, okay, grab you him sixty, get ready again, because it's not going to be a nice, nice landing again. So we landed and the pilots saw another company of marines down on there and he was able to land right smack in the middle of him. So we were okay. Yeah. So that afternoon, more helicopters came out from my squadron, so me and the crew chief we helped peel the blades back. You could do that where a big aircraft would come in, a big helicopter could come in and pick up on a sling and take you take the helicopter back to Oh wow, So that one was okay, yeah wow, we landed okay, and but that one could have been another tragedy. It's amazing what your mind and body adapt to, you know, adapt and overcome. I know is a philosophy therese, but it's it's just amazing to me that your mindset and to go back. So so when in that in that time frame, when did you a second tour? Did you go back to all of that again? To tell one more story, but sir sir, well, typically everybody, all the listed crew members, all the officers, this is something that was normal. You know, we weren't out in the jungles with the infantry doing their thing, but what we were doing was pretty normal. And believe me, a lot of infantry when they get on the helicopters after you drop them off and they get back on the helicopter glad to get on the helicopter and get back to their rear. And I think that when I had the chance, that I chose my path in the Marine Corps was aviation because I support, I regard for anybody that was on the ground on the infantry, and I just God bless them. Yea. So the next time I was getting near my thirteen month and listening, just get like September again, yeah, September and I and typically you get a little nervous the last thirty thirty days. But then again here I am a marine and I was going to re up again, stay with my squadron. You could do that. They would let you real not re up, but actually extend your tour of thirteen months to stay with your squadron because they will go and get ready to go off on a ship and cruise up down Vietnam and support the infantry. So I was going to do that, and I was going to extend six months. And you get to either fly back to the States or you can go any place for thirty days and I just going to fly back to the States, but anyway for then about two more another week or two, a close incident scared the heck out of me, and I then decided not to extend. We were doing a milk run flight with some high ranking officers going out to the hilltops just to give a hourah and a few metals and shuck a few hands. And we had corne and a major and then we were just flying back to the base that evening and I was sitting where I was st set like this, and I'm looking out the window over sixty and right behind me is a little small engine like a lawnmower engine. And we call it the auxiliary power unit. And we had to start that up first to get juiced to the power of the start the engine. So it's a little small engine, so it's right behind me. It's got to be a little muffler, and the muffler goes outside the aircraft. So we're flying about thousand feet maybe less, flying back to Marble Mountain. I forgot to tell you when we got this rocketing attack, we only lost we lost so many aircraft. We had about four left helicopters. So they fluor what was remaining of the crew and everybody else back to the Marble Mountain that night, and then we kind of stole helicopters from other squadrons to kind of bringing our We typically had twenty four helicopters, but we only had like maybe eighteen or nineteen. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So anyway back. A little engine behind you. Oh yeah, So then the uh, somebody on the on the ground, some little Vietnamese or NBA. He decided to shoot at this helicopter, right, so he kind of points his rifle and he shoots, and that bullet came up in the fuselage into the through the fuel bladder. But then it split second and he hit the fuel I mean hit the auxiliary power unit behind me exploded and the and the muffler hit my back and I got a flag vest on. But typically you leaning over, you got about that much four five inches exposed of your spine, and that muffler hit my back spine flat. Thank god. It had it been sharp, it would have probably cut into my spine and I could have been in paralyzed or I could have been shot by that particular bullet because it was had my name on it. But I found out later than my mother and my grandmother both prayed every day. Oh yeah, wow. So we got back to Marble Mountain. We have fuel bladder which is kind of like a self ceiling. So I told the pilot I couldn't see no fuel leaking out. We're okay. So that night I spent probably four o'clock in the morning taking up thousands of boats put pulling the old fuel bladder out, putting you flew fuel bladder in, put the boats back in. So, yeah, your mechanic duties is not over just because you got shot shot at back to the mechanic and so at that point I went back that night and I said, you could have been paralyzed or dead. You know, God send you a signal. Yeah, get the heck out of Vietnam. Yeah, you got your sign So I said, okay, I'm rotating, and I got orders to Glen View Naval Air Station, which is a small base up in just north of Chicago. It's kind of a cushy job because it was a fourth Monon Air Wing headquarters. The fourth Munon Air Wing was just a reserve unit, and he had two star general and he had two aircraft which were reciprocating engines, and one had one was fifty four with four engines, and one was to see one seventeen with two engines. We called the Goody Bird. So I reported in and that was typically May maybe twenty of US mechanics and pilots and so forth, and then a whole bunch of Navy guys. And of course we didn't know it. In Chicago, We're only twenty miles away. So I got a chance to drive down to Chicago. I bought me a car. I had some money, so I bought a car, and then living a good life, but being a combat marine and seeing all the carnage, death and everything kept eating at me. And even TED Defensive happened. I was watching them in barracks. This is January thirty first and February first, TED Defenses when nineteen sixty eight, when the enemy came out and tried to overrun all the bases and try to convince the South Vietnamese here's your chance now to overthrow these ugly Americans and join us. But it worked that way, so they killed a lot of innocent Vietnamese, and we killed probably a million, not a men but a lot of the enemy, and we won the one that particular battle of all the all the TED defensive. Yeah. And I'm watching this on TV and I'm thinking I'm seeing all those helicopters and all the infantry. I'm thinking, hey, I could be back in that. That've been pretty good. But then I just going into the springtime of sixty eight in the summer, I finally, I guess I didn't know I had PTS D. I didn't know that. And and what it is the drilling, the drilling that you have in combat, you just. Yeah, it's hard to get get away from it to a normal life. Yeah. So I kept went to my first orgeant and I said, I'm want to go back to feed He said, hell, no, you just got here six months ago. So he said, you've supposed to be here for another two years and then your listener might be up. So I said, I want to go, No, you're not. So then a few more weeks I've just kind of nudged him here and there. He's sorry, you think you change my mind yet? So after about two months, I guess he felt like, Okay, he is crazy. He wants to go back to Vietnam. I gosh, maybe if he goes somebody else won't we will not have to go. Yeah. So anyway, run my more, run the orders up my request, and they got to approved to go back to Vietnam. And I wanted so badly to get back in helicopters for god knows what. I just wanted to get there. So when I had when I got the orders, I had to go back to Camp Pendleton again. I had to go through two or three weeks in jungle training again. And I asked the uh sergeant major there, I said, why am I going through this again? He said, well, now you're in CEO, you're a corporal. Oh wow. So before I was just a Pfcah, Can. I always cant on? Can I always kut on the train? So I did that and I got back to Vietnam. And like I said, they depend on who needs you the most. And when I got there in the helicopter squadrons didn't need me. So I see when seventeen down in Chuli, I needed me. So I had to catch a flight down there. Well, first of all, long story was the see when seventeen was sitting out in the Nang airport with a blown engine, that's why the need was a mechanic and the gunnery Sawyer was already out there working on it and the uh. So I just took my sea bag, took it out to the airplane and said, I'm a new new guy. What can I do? So I started working on it right there. We got the engine changed out and fixed up a little bit, and then we flew from there back to Juli. Wow. And then that's where I stayed for the next thirteen months. Wow, and became a crew chief on that aircraft. Now did you find like when you went to Camp Pendleton and you're going through that training again, did you feel like your experiences that you were probably as good at teaching them or what? Is? So? I felt the actual what the real reality is? I felt very salty. Yeah. Yeah. Here it was a corporal E four and there was only probably two other Marines recycling back going back to Vietnam. Yeah. All the rest of Marines were brand new. They were headed to Vietnam. So I was a squad leader. My ranked then was E four, So I was a squad leader and I had to go through all the grunt training as a squad leader. Yeah, And I didn't know nothing about being a squad leader. But I had to quit quickly learn. But here I still had the old combat boost when the first tour, so we convinced the first sergeant to let us were our old combat boots, which was jungle fatigue jungle type boots. Yeah, and everybody else had black boots. So we felt like, hey, we're pretty cool here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So when did you become sergeant? When is that? Well, yeah, when I got to Chuly, I flew as a crew chief many times on flights and see what's seventeen was used primarily to do the hopscotch pretty much from Chu Li to d name, which is fifty miles away from the name to Fubuys another fifty miles, Fubui up to dong Hoo's another forty miles. So in helicopter wise, is that a long distance or short distance? Short distance? Okay, yeah, I don't know, like a helicopter, what's a long one hundred miles? Well, before we reported to Dung Hall back in the summer of sixty seven, we would fly, we would have four aircraft every morning fly from the name Marble Mountain up to Dangha because we didn't have any helicopters up there, but the infantry up there needed us. This is prior to Kaison, all the build up the Kaison, So we flew four helicopters every morning and fly back every night. Sometimes we would go over to Kaison and spend the night there on the base and then fly back to Marble Mountain. So this was needed to have a whole squadron up there, but it didn't turn out to be a good decision because we got tore up and destroyed pretty much. So see what was seventeen The other duties. It was to take off the door, put a big pile of the flares in it, and go support the infantry on the ground at night when they needed some night vision night to liolights. So my hoots, we actually had a phone in my hut and at night when the infantry needed us, they would call and they would relay. The next thing you know, I'll get a phone ring and then I had to jump in the vehicle and drive to the airplane, crank it up, wait till the two pilets get there, then get ready to taxi out. And by that time we had a crew of guys who would take the door off, put the pallette of flares in, which is about three and a half feet tall, almost four feet tall, and then we would fly over the besieged area and throw out flares, and then we'd get a few pot shots that way too. So I got fifteen air metals the first tour and three air metals and the second tour. And typically it's about twenty to twenty five missions to get an air metal. Yeah, so. The second tour was a piece of cake, really was. I mean literally, you're throwing illumination rounds out right so that they can see. Yep. Obviously the enemy doesn't want you throwing light out, so I'm sure you're taking fire on that too. Yeah, we turned the lights out on the aircraft. Yeah, the lights. But but yet, yeah, when when you throw the flare out and it pops and they can hear the they can hear the engine, two engines of this aircraft, and they probably they shot just randomly hoping to hit us. Yeah, And but the other side of us was, Yeah, if a bullet came up and threw that palette and hit those flares, we would be flaming rocket. Wow. We would be one charred up Marines, but it didn't happen, thank god. We did get shot a few times. When I read your bio was over three hundred missions combat missions. Yeah, three to four hundreds somewhere in the area. It's just amazing, amazing things. I mean, I know where in the middle of this, but I mean that just makes me want to say thank you for your service. It's just incredible. But there's something that just part of my early life that I never thought much about. You did it. And you's like any of the soldiers, Marines, sailors, airman from World War you know, one two career Vietnam. He just stepped up. You did what you did. You did it, and you know, I have all the respect for the World War Two guys. My gosh, I had my dad's World War Two, but you never did go to overseas. He was state side because he came in right at his age was such that he came in right at the end of World War Two, but my mother went when he died. My mother remarried twice, and she married another Navy guy who served stateside, but then he died of Ironically, both of them died of pancreatic cancer. My dad and my stepdad and my Then my mother waited a while, she remarried again, this time she married an army guy from Bedford. Yeah, he joined the arm me before D Day boiled Earl Wilson, and he landed in Africa, he with the Big Red One, and then he went to Sicily, landed there on D Day, and then he went to Normandy, landed on D Day. There, he had three D Day lands and he got a purple heart on D Day Normandy. So his wife died and so anyway they're married. So I was able to be at the dedication of this memorial in two thousand and one with him and my mother to see that he was so happy and for you. So when you transition back out for it, so you're done and you finished your second tour, did you have thoughts about making it a career or were you had had enough and you're ready to go to Lynchburg, Virginia. How to what happened and you're thinking. There, life comes at you, not as plan. My plan was then just one day at time actually, and then as I was getting near my four year listment and list went up. In my thirteen months in Vietnam again I'm thinking, well, back up a little bit. I think. I met a young lady in between tours in Vietnam, and she was a nurse and a student nurse. And long story short on this one was my other buddy of Vietnam Vet Marine helicopter Meganic combat related. He and I were buddies. So we go out drinking a lot in Chicago area and in clear View. So every month, toward the end of the month, we broke So the local hospital will give you fifteen dollars a pint. So we went to the local hospital and we met these two young nurses. One was my future wife Jan So we gave pint of blood. We got fifty bucks, and typically marines, we say, what y'all doing tonight? You want to date? So we took him out for a pizza and beer. Blew the fifteen dollars. So he that woman, the lady, young nurse was his girlfriend for a while. Then my. Well, we were a girlfriend boyfriend. But really I had that time, I already had orders back to Vietnam. I had cut and try, I was going back to Vietnam, and I did not want to get in a relationship at allah. But she got pregnant. Oh wow, Yeah, same thing happened with my dad. My dad went with my mom pregnant the second time. Yeah. So I learned about that on my way back to Vietnam and Camp Penington, and she was able to fly out to Camp Penitons to say goodbye. Oh wow, and she probably thought of that. I never never gonna come back, but I married married her. Well, I didn't marry then I should have, but to make sure my child had a last name. So when I got to Vietnam at July, let's see about December, yeah, late to say, almost Christmas time. It probably was Christmas, I gotta call go into my captain's office, and I'm thinking, what in the world four So I got in there and he said nighttime. He looks at me sternly. I heard you got someone pregnant, and I went, oh, how'd you know that? So he says, I got orders here. Now I got a request, and you don't have to do this. You're in Vietnam, your marine, we need you. But the request is for you to take emergency leave and fly back to Chicago and marry this young lady. No kidding, yep. Apparently her mother was able to find out somehow through the Red Cross that this could happen. Wow, yeah, this could happen. Never would have thought that. Nope, and I didn't either. I think I was the only and I'm not sure if I was the only one in Vietnam the got this request. That's incredible. So here I am looking at this. Cant you think about it? Did you think about it any or did you just got a you know? I had to. Well, he's looking at me and he said, here's your decision. That the most decisions, that the best decisions you have to make, or worse, do you want to do it or not? You don't have to. You can stay right here and just stay in the Marine Corps, or you can go. An honorable man. Mhmm. That's a greatness. I said, well, it is my son, and I didn't know what the son. Here's my baby, So I will go back. So I had I had one week to get to Chicago and get married and get back. So we got married January eighth, nineteen sixty nine. She's still going to nursing school in her last year. So by the time I got orders back to the States, she was six. The baby was six months old. As a boy. Yeah, so I found out he was a boy went in Vietnam someone I know that. I found me a good bottle of whiskey and nice the tours. Anyway, we were married and then so here I am going back to viet coming back to Vietnam, and my thirteen month tour had orders to Andrews Air Force Base to be with the presidential fleet, and I guess, like I had a bunch of medals, and I guess they just want to use me as a you see the list they step off the helicopter to salute the president and so forth. So I was headed that way, even though I had only three months left on my thirteen month tour. But I was gonna go to Andrews and just find out what's going what's going to happen. But when I got to Okinawa, we've always processed in and out through Okinawa, and the lieutenant came up and said, anybody with three months or less, even though you have orders somewhere, you can get out. And I knew my wife wanted to be out, and I knew it was probably the best thing for me to be OUTA raised raised my hand and got to Camp poundon and processed out in about four days and flew to just Lockport, Illinois and became a civilian. Yeah. Yeah, and then right away I had to get a job, start making money and take care of the wife and the kid while she's still going to school her fourth year of degree there. So how do you get from Illinois to Bedford? Can How's that true? Well, like I said, my mother's from Lynchburg and I lived here twelve thirteen years old as a young boy when they got divorced, and my father's in Montgomery. My mother's up here. So when I was thirteen, I went back to Alabama just to visit my grandmother, not my father, just to see her that summer and then come back up. When I got there, he had already remarried his third wife, and she had he had two she had two young daughters, and my brother Pat was already living with him. He already moved down a year earlier. Now. Just had a good time in Alabama with him and my dad, and then decided of stay. And there was a very cheerful moment when I had to call when my mother called me and said, well, are you coming home on the bus? I said, no, Mama, will stayed out here, Oh, Dad, I was thirteen years old and stayed down there. And then my father was construction guy. So we got divorced with his third wife and he started construction and that's why we got handed off to my grandmother to take care of us for he well, as he said, I'm gonna get you later. Later, that never happened. Well, my grandmother took care of us very well. Yeah, incredible, incredible stories. I'm so glad that you took time out to spend with us today before you leave, though. How did you get involved in monument Terrace? Tell us a little bit about that. Well, when I I went to school, I went through my first job at the year I went to I was a security guard at Joliet State Penitentiary Andie and Joliette, and I worked my way up pretty good. I was in charge of the whole in six months where they shipped all the inmates and who were really the worst of the worst. So I was in charge of the hole and they shift and it was a cushy job. But I had some incidents here and there that I knew that this was out my career path. I wanted to go back to school and get my AMP license, which is airframe and power plant license to work on any aircraft commercial or private. And I went to Joliette, I mean Lockport, Illinois. We had a university there called Lewis University, and they had four year degree and a two year degree program. And I went a year and a half, got my AMP, took my federal license, passed it, and then I was going to work on my two years later on if I got my I got a job at old Hair Airport, which I did not because the airline industri was going through a slump and I couldn't get a job nowhere. So I worked as a technician at Joliet Mobile Oar refinery and making gas, making light gases, and about three years and I couldn't stand the It was miserable coal snow. And my mother down here in Lynchburg was getting ready to sell her house and downside us to a condo. So I came down here that summer prior to moving down here, and she said this is going to her husband had died, her second third second husband died, so she's going to sell. And I looked at the house and sad, how much? And she said reasonable. So at that time was in nineteen sixty, nineteen seventy one, No, seventy five, I'm sorry, I move on seventy five December seventy five. So I bought the house for fifty thousand bucks and moved down here. So my wife and I went back and forth talking about it, and she was a nurse by that time or in so she got a job here in the Virginia Baptist and Lynchburg General. So our marriage was not perfect. We weren't made for each other. So we stayed married seventeen years, had three wonderful children. But then I found my soulmate, Debbie Winebarger, and married her. So then I got a job with Framatoma. Came down here with no job opportunity. I just knew I could find a job no care of them. So I got a job with BMW nineteen seven, actually seventy six January seventy six, and then retired twenty years ago with the twenty nine years as a retired as a purchase purchasing agent. And it's a good job I had made. But then I just retired, and so I got involved with veterans organizations back in nineteen eighty six when they dedicated the monument Terrace downtown. They dedicated Worldward Korea, World War Two, in Vietnam memorials. At that time, they did not have any memorials for particularly World War Two, because ever since World War Two ended in forty pretty much forty five forty six, it took them another forty years to build a memorial for one hundred and eighty something men that died from Lynchburg. Wow. Yeah, I did not know that. Yeah, but the city limits of Lynchburg was small back then in World War Two. So one hundred and eighty six men died in World War Two. So you were part of the group that does the rally every Friday. Yeah, and you guys have been doing that since November December two thousand and one. November thirty of two thousand and one. Wow, after nine eleven. Yeah, So I got involved with the Vietnam Vets in the Marine Corps League and then the American Legion and then Davy. Next thing, you know, I kind of came out of my bunker in nineteen eighty six when they dedicated the three memorials, and I felt like, Okay, life is good, get on with it and I started being more active in helping organize the yearly Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and all the World War two guys have been doing it. So they need someone else younger, Yeah, step up, And I was. I just couldn't say no. And next thing you know, I've gotten I was putting charge of a lot of stuff. So when nine eleven halven, that was our that was our pro Harbor Day. Yeah yeah, wow, Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing with us and taking time out of your schedule to do that. Before you go, you've got the toughest question to answer yet. We always asked our guests if you could spend twenty four hours with anybody, whether it be past or present, who would it be and where would you hang out with them? Mhm, that's that's easy. Okay, my grandmother, Oh. Yeah, that's awesome. The one in Alabama, Oh man, what a story.
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