COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  During his first operation in Vietnam, forward observer Jon Wallenius and his mortar crew were asked to hold a North Vietnamese prisoner until he was picked up. When it was time for chow, he felt sorry for the guy and untied him and gave him some C-rations. What he didn't know is that he was hiding a secret.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  John Cahill had just been wounded and was in a plane waiting on the runway. He really had to relieve himself but was unsure where he could do it. It turned out to be a little embarrassing. When he got to the hospital, he apologized to the nurses who had to cut away his filthy uniform. All in a day's work.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Was Vietnam a useless war? Not really. To Jon Wallenius it was a part of stopping Communism. While there, he saw a lot of men rise to the occasion and demonstrate true leadership. Much less often, he saw cowardice.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  After his Vietnam tour, the Army tried to send John Cahill to Fort Hamilton, where the chaplain's school is located. He wound up at Fort Dix, though, as an instructor for his last duty in the Army. Declining the chance to re-enlist, he started a career as a carpenter, which was very rewarding.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  His first squad leader was court martialed for shooting up more than he should have in a village. Manuel Vigil would never have that problem because he liked the Vietnamese people and got along with them really well.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  The 2nd of the 7th Cav went to Vietnam by ship and Jon Wallenius was having a good trip. First there was the blonde in the Corvette, then there were the jackpots from the card games. Eventually, he had to get there, though, and life got a little tougher.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  John Cahill was in the airlift into LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. As the battle unfolded, he took out some NVA using his grenade launcher and his .45. He saw another enemy soldier drawing a bead on him and then he saw the bullets hitting the ground until one of them found him.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  He was the next man up. That's how Manuel Vigil became a squad leader in Vietnam. The first night ambush he ran was aborted due to what can only be described as poor siting. He also cost the government some money when he dealt with an obstinate water buffalo.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  John Wallenius was in the best company in the battalion and he attributes that to the CO, who was fearless but not careless. The noncoms were good, as well, including one who tried to get everyone Air Medals for all the air assaults they had done.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  Manuel Vigil had heard the Marines were the best fighters so, when he decided to enlist in the military ahead of the draft, he chose the Corps. He didn't know anything about Vietnam but he was on the fast track to go there.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  He doesn't want to hear about atrocities. John Wallenius and the others in his unit did their jobs like professionals and were very careful with the Vietnamese civilians they encountered. He pays tribute to a replacement platoon sergeant who caused everyone to be skeptical, at first.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  The Marines rode around a lot in helicopters and it was always unnerving to Manuel Vigil when the door gunner would start shooting with no warning. For a while, he was based right on the China Sea, combined with a South Vietnamese unit in a camp they constructed themselves.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Near the end of his Vietnam tour, they made Jon Wallenius a lifeguard at a little beach on a river that no one came to. Then he was sent home early, where he tried in vain to get a room at a fancy hotel in San Fransisco. He did alright for himself at the hotel bar, though.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Having recovered from the wound he received at LZ X-Ray, John Cahill was waiting for the chopper to take him into the Battle of Bong Son. When the bird came in, he was shocked to see a door gunner dead at his weapon, shot through the head.

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  Manuel Vigil - Marines +4 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  When he returned to the States from Vietnam, they asked Manuel Vigil if he wanted to re-enlist. The challenge of being a Marine was something he could handle but the prospect of doing it everyday for years to come was just too much to think about.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Morale was good as Thanksgiving approached. It was pouring rain and Jon Wallenius had just got his turkey and fixings when somebody yelled for attention. General Westmoreland wanted to address the troops.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  After jump school, John Cahill assumed he'd go to the 82nd or the 101st Airborne. Instead he got orders to go to Vietnam with the 7th Cavalry. It was a real shock when he got there. First, the heat was staggering. Then, the strangeness of another culture baffled him for a while but he learned to like and appreciate the Vietnamese.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Jon Wallenius was near the Ho Chi Minh Trail looking for North Vietnamese when his unit got a call. They had to leave immediately to reinforce a place called LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. It was the beginning of the first major battle of the war. On the second day, he spotted some guys in pith helmets. Were they the Australians?

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  He'd been to jump school but John Cahill wound up in the 7th Cavalry as part of the new focus on air mobile units which moved by helicopter. They gave him an M79 grenade launcher and a .45, neither of which which he'd ever fired in training. That didn't faze him a bit.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Many men in his family had served so it was not unusual when Jon Wallenius enlisted in the Army in 1963. He was lucky when a friend was made acting Platoon Sergeant in basic training because he was picked as an acting squad leader. This made life easy for him right up until he got to Airborne training.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  The tough streets of Boston were where John Cahill came of age. His uncle was a paratrooper so when he enlisted in 1965, that was his chosen path. He learned there that you don't laugh at another soldier who's having a problem.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Jon Wallenius broke his leg on his last jump at Airborne School. Because of this he waited around on a temporary assignment there at Fort Benning until it healed. He was pleased to go to the 7th Cavalry Regiment, a storied unit with which he was familiar. They were trained and prepped for Cold War Germany but it was Vietnam that was in their future.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  He was wounded at LZ X-Ray so, naturally, John Cahill bought the book, "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young." He relates how he met Hal Moore and how he began to enjoy the reunions of his unit.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  At LZ X-Ray, his mortar platoon never fired a round. Jon Wallenius did fire his rifle, though, when he spotted an enemy soldier poking his head up in the crook of a tree. He fired a quick shot. In a little while, there was a second. He fired again. He emptied a clip toward that tree and it really paid off.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  John Cahill has all the respect in the world for the Greatest Generation but he does have one bone pick with them. They sent his generation to Vietnam but they didn't allow them to really fight the war.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  The Battle of Bong Son had already kicked off when they got a message. When the supply chopper comes in, the next man up for R&R can fly back with it. That man was Jon Wallenius and he hit the jackpot with a trip to Japan.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Don Cope loved everything about ROTC when he was in high school so it was natural that he join the service when his college ambitions were derailed. It was in the Air Force that he found his career calling in aircraft maintenance.

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  John Cahill - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  Just before he left Vietnam, John Cahill had a memorable demonstration of what air power can do when a Phantom came in low and leveled a hilltop. They rushed him out of the country when it was his time. He didn't even have time to say goodbye to his buddies, which really rubbed him the wrong way.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  355th Field Maintenance Squadron

  During the Tet Offensive, Don Cope had to fly into Da Nang from his base in Thailand to repair an aircraft. The part that was needed would take months to arrive. Undaunted, he made a makeshift part from a common household item.

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  Jon Wallenius - Army +12 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment

  When forward observer Jon Wallenius got off the chopper at LZ Albany, he was under fire and had to quickly get to cover. Eventually, he scrounged up a mortar and a few rounds and got ready. That night, he witnessed an enormous napalm drop that quieted the enemy. The next day, he was witness to the gruesome aftermath of the Battle of Ia Drang.