Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:59 | It was a long night. Clebe McClary and his men were left alone on Hill 146 after an operation gone awry. The NVA was coming in and a grenade fell into his position. It was the first of several that would knock him right out of the war. During the fight, Ralph Johnson jumped on top of one of the grenades, saving Clebe's life and the lives of other Marines around him. Johnson would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his selfless service.
Keywords : Clebe McClary Reconnaissance (RECON) Vietnam An Hoa Operation Rocket Spooky Gunship punji pit hand grenade Ralph Johnson Ron Hunter Bob Lucas North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
There was plenty of hunting, fishing and sports for Clebe McClary growing up in South Carolina. He wanted to enlist in the Marines right away, but was persuaded to go to Clemson. After a time as a football coach, he saw an American flag burned and that was it. Straight to the recruiter he went and during basic training, he was selected for OCS.
He wasn't the best at drilling and he struggled with the academics at OCS, but Clebe McClary made it through to become a newly minted Marine Lieutenant. Then he was promptly sent to Vietnam, where he volunteered for Recon Battalion.
Marine Recon units were small and specialized. Young Lieutenant Clebe McClary led such a team in Vietnam. If you were seen or made contact, you messed up. He had sympathy for the locals because many of them were forced to fight or lose their own lives.
Lt. Clebe McClary told his dad that running Recon patrols was a lot like hunting back home. It could be deadly, though, especially if you were the point man. He describes two of his men, one of whom he's still close to and one who was destined to save his life.
Recon was a dangerous business when you were moving through the bush in Vietnam. Clebe McClary and his men once got caught in a crossfire between the enemy and their own side. Another time, he became separated from his men for three days.
He didn't see a lot of snakes, but the wildlife was plentiful when Clebe McClary was in the field in Vietnam. The birds were beautiful, the monkeys were annoying and the water buffalo did not like Marines. As for the enemy, he could not be trusted at all and the truces were a joke.
It was round after round of surgery for wounded Marine Clebe McClary after several hand grenades worked him over. He was a white lieutenant from rural South Carolina, and a black man from Charleston saved his life at the cost of his own. The blood is red and the uniform's green and the rest doesn't matter.
It was a long, hard recovery for Clebe McClary after being wounded in Vietnam. When it was over, he had a new career as a public speaker. He figures he recruited way more than any recruiter but something bothers him about that.
He returned from Vietnam on a stretcher, so Clebe McClary didn't see much of the anti-war sentiment directed toward returning vets. After his recovery, he did encounter someone who didn't appreciate his service.
We could have won any of the recent wars outright if the troops had been turned loose to do the job. That's the position of Vietnam veteran Clebe McClary, who wondered when he was there why they were taking the same hill over and over.
