COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  He had done construction work, mostly, but Manning Stahl became an insurance agent after his Vietnam tour. It was a good career and he was good at it. He has a couple of favorite songs that remind him of those days and he has vivid memories of the strangeness of that foreign land.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs was there to do a job in Vietnam, and he opines on why they were there and what it was like to be in the middle of that war.

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  Mike Pomakis - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  It was during Operation Desoto that the forward observer asked radioman Mike Pomakis if he'd like to go on a special reconnaissance patrol with him. They crept quietly into a village that they suspected was occupied by the NVA. It sure was.

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  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  82nd Medical Detachment

  No GPS, you had to find them with rough map coordinates and a radio beacon. Medevac pilot Jack Tragis had a reputation for getting in and out quick on his evacuations so you better be ready. He went down in a chopper seven times. The most memorable of those incidents was the time he spent the night in a rice paddy with a full load of patients.

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  Myron Harrington - Marines +8 Total Videos

  D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  Upon leading the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Myron Harrington had to help conduct an attack on the citadel in Hue City, Vietnam. This is the story of how he and his men charged the tower, which took longer to accomplish than expected. This action earned then Captain Harrington the Silver Star.

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  Bernardo Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  He was already dog tired from staying awake to keep an eye on his untrustworthy ARVN allies. Bernardo Lopez and his fellow Marines were told to gear up and head to Hue. The Tet Offensive was on. The combat there was intense but there was also some strangeness to the proceedings, like the Vietnamese girl who asked him an odd question and the TV cameraman who wanted a good shot. Part 1 of 4.

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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  John Bates had just recovered from a gunshot wound but the NVA wasn't done with him yet. When he was on a listening post, he saw them creeping toward his position and readied a hand grenade. Before he left Vietnam he would have two more Purple Hearts.

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  Myron Harrington - Marines +8 Total Videos

  D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  The attack on the citadel in Hue City, Vietnam was no easy task, as one can imagine. It is here that Myron Harrington goes into descriptive detail on how exactly they planned and conducted this tower attack. This action earned then Captain Harrington the Silver Star.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  There was water everywhere which meant that there were mosquitos everywhere which meant that Terry Caskey had malaria four times in Vietnam. His day at the hospital could be mundane or it could be terrible. He recalls a terrible day when a chopper full of dead and wounded Marines landed at the hospital.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  Word back at the Eagle Dust Off base was that Fred Behrens was dead. Shot down and hit with five bullets, he survived two nights in the bush and was airlifted out when he was found by some Rangers. It was a long recovery with sometimes indifferent treatment by the Army. Part 3 of 3.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  22nd Surgical Hospital

  There was a mortar attack going on when medic and operating room technician Terry Caskey arrived in Phu Bai. He was assigned to a field hospital where the flow of casualties and the enemy attacks were relentless. He could watch the rockets fire off from a nearby hilltop and track the contrail right into his compound. And as he ended an epic shift in the operating room, he emerged covered in blood. It was too much for a twenty year old to bear.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  At first light, downed Dust Off pilot Fred Behrens found himself in even more trouble. He took three rounds from a Cobra gunship and one from a sniper. He had already been shot while still in his chopper. The next day, the Rangers he had set out to evacuate took off and he was nearly hit with more friendly fire from a Phantom jet. Finally he saw the right uniforms heading toward him. Part 2 of 3.

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  Lee Riley - Marines +5 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Saddle up! The Marines were used to helicopters but this time they were ordered to board trucks. Hue City was under siege as the Tet Offensive raged across the entire country. Lee Riley recalls that they were under fire the minute they got there and it didn't let up for months.

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  Bill Gessner - Navy +9 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 9th Marines (Attached)

  The fighting was hard. One company was ambushed and the other two were having a hard time breaking through to support it. Corpsman Bill Gessner was in the thick of the fight and as he was treating a wounded Marine, a hand grenade came into the hole and wounded him and killed two others.

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  Freddie Owens - Army +11 Total Videos

  A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  After the column was devastated by an NVA ambush, wounded Americans were scattered in the darkness. After his captain heard one such group calling for help on the radio, Freddie Owens joined a patrol to find them, guided by a gunshot every few minutes. Once there, medic Daniel Torres volunteered to stay with those who couldn't move and protected them through the night with medicine and a machine gun.

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  Joe McDonald - Army +5 Total Videos

  A Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Division

  The RPG that severed Joe McDonald’s foot didn’t kill him. The machine gun fire that hit him as he still tried to help others didn’t kill him. The grenade taped to his hand might have killed him if the VC had found his hiding place.

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  Stuart Jamison - Army +9 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division (ARVN)

  Stuart Jamison recalls observing the reality and immediacy of death as his unit assaults a Viet Cong company during Phase II of the Tet Offensive.

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  Laurie Druyor - Navy +4 Total Videos

  USS Sanctuary

  One night, while Laurie was eating dinner, the USS Sanctuary got a call about a plane crash. She vividly remembers the patients coming aboard, and the aftermath of this incident, including one boy who was MIA. As difficult as this experience was, it was nothing compared to the Tet Offensive. New wounded were coming in constantly, and trying to care for all of them at once was emotionally exhausting. (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, the Military Heritage Museum- https://freedomisntfree.org/.)

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  George Forrest - Army +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

  They were hunkered down after fierce fighting when the call came from "Ghost 4-6." It was a group of wounded men who had pulled themselves together after the ill fated march to LZ Albany and were lost in the dark. George Forrest sent a patrol to find them, and in an incredible act of bravery, medic Daniel Torres stayed through the night with them and saved many men. Captain Forrest still had to write a gut-wrenching letter to the mother of a missing soldier. Part 3 of 4.

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  Tommy Clack - Army +8 Total Videos

  C Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  In a letter home, Tommy Clack expressed his worry that something bad was going to happen and it did when his unit engaged the NVA near the Cambodian border. He saw the enemy soldier stand and fire the RPG that changed his life forever.

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  LtGen Ron Christmas - Marines +16 Total Videos

  H Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  As Marine Captain Ron Christmas fought to regain the city of Hue, he found the enemy adept at concealment and surprise. Every soldier in a spider hole was armed with a rifle and a RPG launcher. His action during this time earned him the Navy Cross.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  Manning Stahl ran into the same stewardess while flying before he went to Vietnam and after he returned. Her attitude had completely changed. The public had soured on the war and the Lt. Calley situation did not help.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs was lucky. He didn't have to face the anti-war hysteria that so many veterans had to deal with when they returned from Vietnam. He stayed in the service and he lived in a small town so he was insulated from that. But he could not insulate his wife from what happens when you're married to a soldier.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  Occasionally, you would get an intel target called in by an aerial observer. Manning Stahl's artillery battery let loose one lone shell which took out an NVA unit which had paused their march. They also destroyed some Russian artillery pieces this way.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs moved around a lot. There were so many fire bases in Vietnam that he lost track of the names. Once he took part in an artillery raid. The guns were airlifted into an area where they shot off a hundred rounds and then they were airlifted out. At least they were supposed to be.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  At the fire base in Kon Tum, the VC would fire rockets from the top of the mountain next to the base. Manning Stahl recalls how coordinated artillery took care of that problem. It was there that he saw the most macabre sight he would see over there and it was also there that the artilleryman nearly killed someone that he could see.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  Mack Riggs came from a family filled with service members so it was not surprising when he signed up. His parents came to see him at an open house during his basic training and this is when he learned that his cousin had been killed in Vietnam in a very famous battle.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  Manning Stahl was an outstanding athlete in high school and he continued playing sports once he was in the Army. At Fort Sill before his Vietnam tour and at Fort Meade after he returned, he continued to stand out in football and track.

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  Mack Riggs - Army +6 Total Videos

  101st Airborne Division

  It was pretty country, if you could overlook the guys in black pajamas trying to kill you. Mack Riggs extended his tour in Vietnam because of his quest to finish his dead cousin's tour as well as his own. He didn't quite finish the complete amount of time but he did another tour at the Korean DMZ which was close enough in his mind.

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  Manning Stahl - Army +7 Total Videos

  5th Battalion, 22nd Field Artillery

  As Manning Stahl arrived at Quy Nhon, he was treated to the awesome sight of an F-4 buzzing the ship. He was in for some culture shock in Vietnam, like what the women would do for some K-rations and what would pass for a bathroom.