Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:50 | He was a country boy, working on a farm in upstate New York since he was six years old. Then, Gary Cantwell was taken by the draft in 1968 shortly after high school. Designated as infantry, he got a good taste of the conditions in Vietnam when he went down to Tigerland at Fort Polk.
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When you get there your name is Cherry or FNG. Fortunately, for Gary Cantwell, when he got to Vietnam he was taken under the wing of a good squad leader. In his first firefight, he had to flank an NVA bunker and drop a hand grenade into the opening. He pulled it off and settled in to the war. Later, as a team leader, he saw firsthand what could happen if you didn't secure your grenades.
It was search and destroy. Looking for NVA. Looking for weapons caches. Gary Cantwell remembers a big cache next to a river surrounded by booby traps. At one point he was loaned to the Riverine force as a gunner. That was interesting.
Gary Cantwell broke a few M-16's in Vietnam. Once he shot so many clips so quickly that he warped the barrel. He was "volunteered" by his squad leader to act as a Forward Observer's radio operator on one operation. He wound up doing a lot more than that and it led to his first Purple Heart.
The elephant grass was deep and the pilot wasn't really low enough. When Gary Cantwell jumped from the Huey he rolled his ankle. He was evacuated to the rear and his ankle was so bad that he wound up assigned to supply for the rest of his tour. He also went down in a helicopter when a turbine failed but he was luckier then.
Gary Cantwell remembers the time he talked a Cobra pilot into giving him a ride. What a thrill! He was assigned to the rear because of a bum ankle but that didn't mean he was safe. He was hauling sandbags with a Mule vehicle across a landing area which the engineers had swept and cleared. They missed one land mine.
In his opinion, it was safer in the field than at the fire base. At the base, your position is fixed and they can find you. Gary Cantwell was staying at the base because of a sprained ankle and he experienced getting overrun by a large enemy force. He hung in there and was decorated for his actions during this battle.
His last post in Vietnam was nice. Gary Cantwell had a room and cold beer but then it was time to go. It was a long flight home, and then a cluster of connecting flights to upstate New York, but he finally got there. It would be fifteen years before he would want to talk about the war.
He enjoys hearing "Welcome Home" all these years after the war. Gary Cantwell didn't hear much of that when he came back from Vietnam. He pays tribute to one of his officers there who showed great leadership.
