Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:11 | We won all the battles. How could we "lose" the war? It was the political evolution in the country, according to Jim Teixeira who was a Marine rifle platoon leader there. He describes the change in leadership in the Marine Corps that seemed to be a change for the worse.
Keywords : Jim Teixeira Vietnam Tet Offensive politics Raymond G. Davis Robert Barrow William Jones
When Jim Teixeira saw the Sands Of Iwo Jima, he knew he would be a Marine. He didn't know when or how it would happen, but it was inevitable. It came a couple of years into college when money got tight. He enlisted, tested well and was able to go to Officer Candidate School after his basic and infantry training.
OCS was less mentally challenging than basic training but more physically challenging, at least to Jim Teixeira. The newly minted Marine officer went to Vietnam where he got his dream job, rifle platoon leader. He didn't really know what that entailed but he had some first rate help from his squad leaders.
It was overwhelming and it happened fast. Marine Lieutenant Jim Teixeira went from the States to Okinawa and from there to Da Nang and points north until he found himself on an idyllic beach with the 9th Marines. There were a couple of months before the action was heavy and that was good. He could get his feet under him as a new platoon leader.
Up in I Corps, Jim Teixeira's platoon was out a lot but they were finding no NVA. That all changed with Operation Dewey Canyon. They went out on long patrols around their fire base and he lost his first Marine, a point man who stumbled on some NVA. Then there was the excruciating wait for a chopper to evacuate the body.
The patrols had not picked up the sappers who were doing recon on the firebase. Then the attack came on the lightly defended perimeter. Jim Teixeira's Marines fought well and there was no damage to the artillery battery. Awards were handed out but the criteria seemed all screwed up.
It was near the Laotian border that Jim Teixeira's Marines were ambushed. They won that fight but were then nearly killed by their own air power in a classic Vietnam screw up. They were there to intercept traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The built up infrastructure was very elaborate.
Life in the field got miserable when Jim Teixeira was socked in by bad weather and there was no resupply for quite a while. Rations and old cigarettes were at a premium. Out on patrol there was the sound of pigs and an old farmer suddenly appeared. What were they going to do with him?
Tommy Cincotta didn't fit the profile of your regular Marine. His family was well off and politically connected in Marin County, California. He just wanted to be a Marine and made a real impression on everyone in the platoon. But he was the point man on a fateful day and Jim Teixiera was very upset that it didn't look like they would be able to recover his body.
The post-Vietnam period was not a great time to be a Marine. Jim Teixeira remembers how no money was available for training or much of anything. Then he got a chance to go to Ranger School and he jumped at it. It turned out to be the best training he ever received and it led to the regular commission he wanted.
