Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:00 | Don Rohde decided to re-enlist. The Navy Corpsman really had his eyes opened in Vietnam and civilian life just wasn't working out for him. He and his pregnant wife headed for Camp Lejeune, where no one knew it yet, but there was something wrong with the water. (Caution: strong language)
Keywords : Don Rohde Corpsman Vietnam Camp Lejeune Contaminated Water lawsuit Veterans Administration (VA) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Don Rohde took the advice of an uncle and enlisted in the Navy. He didn't think much about it. He just wanted to do his time. He wound up following the career path of his uncle and became a Corpsman.
His first assignment was right there at Great Lakes where he was trained. Navy Corpsman Don Rohde worked in a psychiatric ward where they were trying to figure out what was wrong with all these Vietnam veterans. Next stop was Camp Lejeune and it's notorious water, then Vietnam and it's notorious heat.
Just before he arrived in Vietnam, the unit that Navy Corpsman Don Rohde would join was involved in a grueling operation that nearly annihilated it. His first sassignment had been at the battalon aid ststion where he burned the latrine waste. How much worse could the field be?
Don Rohde went into one tunnel, just to say he did it. They were everywhere and the VC would just disappear into them. He was a Corpsman attached to a Marine company and he took no gruff from a doctor who didn't appreciate his field emergency work.
The Corpsman in Vietnam really saw the most difficult parts of war. Don Rohde will never forget the first Marine who died in his arms nor will he forget the first life he took, considering who she was and what she was doing. The Marines weren't arbitrary in their actions but if they took fire from a village, that village would burn.
Things got worse for Hotel Company after Don Rohde left. They went north and got clobbered. He feels better about the exit from that war than the recent abandonment of Afghanistan, that's for sure.
On his return from Vietnam, Don Rohde was greeted by Hare Krishnas and protestors who spit on and mocked him. He figured he was in for it when they wouldn't let him off the plane in Hawaii and refused to sell him a beer. Welcome home, Vietnam veteran.
It took a long time, but Don Rohde finally attended a reunion of his comrades from Vietnam. Men with common suffering at the hands of the powers that be who messed up that war. It was so bad that they don't teach about it very much in school. (Caution:strong language)
