COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  There were tropical diseases around in Vietnam but what got Army nurse Sue Stohr sick was eating out in Saigon. Everybody took their malaria pills on Mondays but she had to stop because of the side effects. Halfway through her tour she was made head nurse at the hospital which, unfortunately, didn't come with a promotion in rank.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  His father was a Navy lifer but the Navy wanted a four year enlistment so Mike Carey went with the Marines. It would be the best training for Vietnam and he knew that's where he would be going. He had a specialist MOS but when he got there, he was just another grunt.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Sue Stohr had just gone through a very tough last month in Vietnam due to the Tet Offensive. Her duty was done at the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon and, when she arrived stateside, her brother was just flunking out of college and becoming exposed to the draft. She gave him a piece of advice that led to a very nice career.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Not long before he left Vietnam, Mike Carey had an in-country R&R at China Beach that was memorable, at least the part he can remember. He had three Purple Hearts so he got sent to Okinawa and eventually home.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  Word back at the Eagle Dust Off base was that Fred Behrens was dead. Shot down and hit with five bullets, he survived two nights in the bush and was airlifted out when he was found by some Rangers. It was a long recovery with sometimes indifferent treatment by the Army. Part 3 of 3.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  22nd Surgical Hospital

  There was a mortar attack going on when medic and operating room technician Terry Caskey arrived in Phu Bai. He was assigned to a field hospital where the flow of casualties and the enemy attacks were relentless. He could watch the rockets fire off from a nearby hilltop and track the contrail right into his compound. And as he ended an epic shift in the operating room, he emerged covered in blood. It was too much for a twenty year old to bear.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  After a short survival and orientation course, Mike Carey was on his way to Vietnam. All his romantic notions about war from all those war movies were immediately gone when he found out what his first assignment was. Eventually he made it to the field where he wasted no time in becoming a target.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  At first light, downed Dust Off pilot Fred Behrens found himself in even more trouble. He took three rounds from a Cobra gunship and one from a sniper. He had already been shot while still in his chopper. The next day, the Rangers he had set out to evacuate took off and he was nearly hit with more friendly fire from a Phantom jet. Finally he saw the right uniforms heading toward him. Part 2 of 3.

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  Bernardo Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  He was already dog tired from staying awake to keep an eye on his untrustworthy ARVN allies. Bernardo Lopez and his fellow Marines were told to gear up and head to Hue. The Tet Offensive was on. The combat there was intense but there was also some strangeness to the proceedings, like the Vietnamese girl who asked him an odd question and the TV cameraman who wanted a good shot. Part 1 of 4.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  There was water everywhere which meant that there were mosquitos everywhere which meant that Terry Caskey had malaria four times in Vietnam. His day at the hospital could be mundane or it could be terrible. He recalls a terrible day when a chopper full of dead and wounded Marines landed at the hospital.

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  Freddie Owens - Army +11 Total Videos

  A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  After the column was devastated by an NVA ambush, wounded Americans were scattered in the darkness. After his captain heard one such group calling for help on the radio, Freddie Owens joined a patrol to find them, guided by a gunshot every few minutes. Once there, medic Daniel Torres volunteered to stay with those who couldn't move and protected them through the night with medicine and a machine gun.

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  Stuart Jamison - Army +9 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division (ARVN)

  Stuart Jamison recalls observing the reality and immediacy of death as his unit assaults a Viet Cong company during Phase II of the Tet Offensive.

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  Joe McDonald - Army +5 Total Videos

  A Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Division

  The RPG that severed Joe McDonald’s foot didn’t kill him. The machine gun fire that hit him as he still tried to help others didn’t kill him. The grenade taped to his hand might have killed him if the VC had found his hiding place.

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  Laurie Druyor - Navy +4 Total Videos

  USS Sanctuary

  One night, while Laurie was eating dinner, the USS Sanctuary got a call about a plane crash. She vividly remembers the patients coming aboard, and the aftermath of this incident, including one boy who was MIA. As difficult as this experience was, it was nothing compared to the Tet Offensive. New wounded were coming in constantly, and trying to care for all of them at once was emotionally exhausting. (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, the Military Heritage Museum- https://freedomisntfree.org/.)

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  George Forrest - Army +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

  They were hunkered down after fierce fighting when the call came from "Ghost 4-6." It was a group of wounded men who had pulled themselves together after the ill fated march to LZ Albany and were lost in the dark. George Forrest sent a patrol to find them, and in an incredible act of bravery, medic Daniel Torres stayed through the night with them and saved many men. Captain Forrest still had to write a gut-wrenching letter to the mother of a missing soldier. Part 3 of 4.

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  Tommy Clack - Army +8 Total Videos

  C Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  In a letter home, Tommy Clack expressed his worry that something bad was going to happen and it did when his unit engaged the NVA near the Cambodian border. He saw the enemy soldier stand and fire the RPG that changed his life forever.

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  LtGen Ron Christmas - Marines +16 Total Videos

  H Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  As Marine Captain Ron Christmas fought to regain the city of Hue, he found the enemy adept at concealment and surprise. Every soldier in a spider hole was armed with a rifle and a RPG launcher. His action during this time earned him the Navy Cross.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Army nurse Sue Stohr arrived in Vietnam, was issued her fatigues and patches, and taken on a bus to Saigon, where the 3rd Field Hospital was located. Saigon was chaotic and busy and the surgery ward only a little less so.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Mike Carey had just arrived in Vietnam and on his first patrol, the platoon leader told him to take the point. Why would he do that? He got through the patrol and it was the start of "paying his dues." Two other Marines joined the unit at the same time and they became a close knit group.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Army nurse Sue Stohr kept up with the news during her Vietnam tour so she was aware of the turmoil back home. She was not unsympathetic to the protest movement but she was not going to join it. She enjoyed the songs of Anne Murray while she was there and that's the music that takes her memory back.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Mike Carey has some advice for politicians if they dispense with diplomacy and send in the Marines. Let them do their job. His favorite song from his Vietnam days is one that many veterans of that war will mention and he had some leaders there that made an impression on him.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  The shifts at the hospital were 12 hours and there were all kinds of injuries and wounds. Army nurse Sue Stohr describes the area of Saigon around the hotel, which had many important locations including General Westmoreland's villa. The roof of the building where she was billeted was her living room.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  The unit was in place for the night when a Marine heard something. Denied an illumination round, he was allowed to toss a grenade and he then found two dead NVA who'd been sneaking up on them. The next morning they made a security sweep of that area and Mike Carey describes the deadly ordeal that became.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Sue Stohr had already served three years in the Army Nurse Corps and got out, but when Vietnam heated up, she felt she should be there. She volunteered to go and, after a few months of preparation, she arrived at Bien Hoa. Nothing could have prepared her for the heat and humidity.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Mines and booby traps can be devastating and not just because of the carnage. It was depressing to Mike Carey because there was no opportunity for payback. There was no one around to go after. He describes one that gave him a Purple Heart and took out his platoon leader.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Sue Stohr had a roommate in Saigon and they still correspond. Her roommate was a Red Cross worker and she and the Red Cross in general were a tremendous help to the nurses at the 3rd Field Hospital. Many more wounded men were saved during the Vietnam War as opposed to previous wars because of the advent of helicopter evacuations.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  101st Aviation Battalion (Assault Helicopter)

  The plane had to circle Tan Son Nhut airport because of incoming rocket fire. That's how Fred Behrens was welcomed to Vietnam. He was assigned to the Kingsmen, an assault helicopter company with the 101st Airborne. He received his baptism of fire at the battle of Fire Base Ripcord, where he took a piece of shrapnel and ignored it.

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  Mike Carey - Marines +7 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  On Hill 214, a new fire base took shape as the Marines cleared off the hilltop and brought in artillery. Mike Carey recalls that it was very thick jungle there but in the middle of it they found an NVA supply trail. They also found malaria.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  Fred Behrens was extracting a wounded man with a hoist up through the forest canopy and it was time to turn on the lights so the other chopper pilots could see him. That meant the NVA could see him, too, and as the tracers flew he got out of there quick. After dropping off the wounded and refueling, he returned to the site of the battle where he got a second load of wounded and watched as an RPG bounced off one of the skids. Part 2 of 2.

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  Sue Stohr - Army +8 Total Videos

  3rd Field Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade

  Army nurse Sue Stohr did get R&R while she was in Vietnam. She also got to meet a lot of entertainers who toured the hospital in Saigon as part of their USO activities. She missed the Bob Hope show but he came in to greet the wounded troops and Richard Nixon came through, which prompted an innocent but hilarious question from a soldier.