Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
7:38 | As if the horrific battle he experienced during the Tet Offensive wasn’t enough, Rody Conway was nearly flattened by friendly fire in the form of artillery strikes. Back at his base, he relived the battle in his sleep, alarming his roommate.
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Rody Conway always wanted to be in the Army. His father was career Army, and Rody’s dream was realized in the West Point Class of 1959. Then it was on to Ranger school, which was to prove highly useful later on.
Fresh from training, Rody Conway was a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne, but his first duty assignment was less exciting, handling security in Minneapolis. Then he headed for the Advanced Infantry Course at Ft. Benning.
Rody Conway knew that it was a waste of time to be in the infantry and not go into combat, so he pushed to get sent to Vietnam. First was a six-week course on what to expect, like the fact that “friend” and “shoot” was the same word in Vietnamese.
Because of his Ranger training, Rody Conway was offered an unusual assignment when he arrived in Vietnam. He became an intelligence officer and advisor to a South Vietnamese recon company.
Captain Rody Conway had the best asset any advisor to a South Vietnamese unit could have, an experienced and knowledgeable sergeant, Harold Cook. At first it was relatively quiet and the most action was in keeping the road open.
Even in the field, Rody Conway enjoyed the South Vietnamese food and the French coffee provided by the troops he was advising. His first operations were uneventful, since any North Vietnamese troops were usually passing through and gone.
Rody Conway’s first action with the South Vietnamese unit he was advising, was to aid in the rescue of four other advisors who were surrounded after their unit withdrew. He found a wounded friendly with a most interesting note pinned to his chest.
The Viet Cong had set up a tax collecting post on a bridge, so the South Vietnamese recon company, along with American advisor Rody Conway, went to pay them a visit. The first piece of business was to take the high ground.
The activity in his area was picking up. Every time Rody Conway, and the South Vietnamese troops he was advising, went out on sweeps, they would find something. When they could not budge the enemy from a bunker, his solution was nearly comic.
In the field, a deer ran through the camp and was shot, dressed, and eaten by Rody Conway’s unit. Much later, this would become a sore point with his wife. There was also the incident in which a Vietnamese woman had an unusual complaint.
Tet came to Rody Conway’s area in a big way. Word of a large uniformed force nearby brought in heavy airstrikes and his unit went in to do damage assessment. When they got there, they found out that the wrong spot had been bombed and they were in hot water.
Tet was heating up, and Rody Conway’s unit was sent in to relieve another one, which was besieged. He had to make a gut-wrenching decision when his friend Lyle King was gravely wounded.
Overnight on the Tet battlefield, stinging beetles were swarming, attracted by the blood from the wounded. Rody Conway and the troops put down ponchos to block the beetles, but the ponchos were filling with blood.
Rody Conway survived the Tet Offensive, but he was not allowed the transfer to Da Lat that he requested. The belligerent colonel in charge told him he had no choice but to accept an assignment as HQ Commandant or that his career would be ruined.
