Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:37 | They thought it was a good way to avoid going to Vietnam. A reserve unit was forming in Augusta, Georgia and Jack Fishman signed up. He found out that it wasn't the best idea he ever had when his unit was activated as a combat support unit.
Keywords : Jack Fishman Vietnam Reserve Augusta GA college Fort Benning draft Lyndon Johnson transportation truck driver Joe Galloway
The men were newly activated reserve troops and no one knew what to expect when they flew into Vietnam. After getting used to the heat, the humidity and the smell, the support unit settled into their dangerous job, hauling ammunition to fire bases. Jack Fishman says it helped if you were twenty one and bulletproof.
The 319th Transportation Company had a saying. If you ate it, wore it or shot it, we brought it. Jack Fishman describes the job of resupply to the forward fire bases in Vietnam and the problems they faced, not the least of which was the danger of hauling all that ammunition.
Jack Fishman describes the daily grind of running the resupply convoys that brought everything to the front line troops in Vietnam. The constant work, the rats in the hooches, and the iffy food. If that wasn't enough, a shot or a mine could blow an ammo truck and leave a crater in the road.
Not having heard much news from back home, it was a shock when Jack Fishman got off the plane and found an active antiwar movement. He immediately returned to college and immediately got into fistfights. He wore his jungle fatigue shirt as an in-your-face statement.
When Jack Fishman went to Vietnam, he was an immature kid who had flunked out of college. Later, after a successful graduation, a career as an IRS special agent, and a law degree, he says all that can be attributed to his experience in Vietnam. His successful life has made it possible for him to help other veterans.
The lessons of Vietnam are forgotten today, says Jack Fishman, although the veterans of that war now have the respect they didn't get when they returned. He wants the draft reinstated for both men and women and not only for the military but for public service jobs. His reaction to the 50th Anniversary project? What took them so long?
