Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:13 | There was a new guy, or FNG, in Robin Bartlett's platoon and, like all new guys, his first job was to burn the waste from the latrine barrels with diesel fuel. He followed his instructions to the letter except for a crucial mistake at the end.
Keywords : Robin Bartlett Vietnam FNG burning excrement latrine diesel JP-4 jet fuel Quick Reaction Force (QRF) helicopter (chopper) body count Vietnam Combat: Firefights and Writing History
It was the family business. His grandfather went to West Point. His father went to West Point. His brother went to West Point. Robin Bartlett turned down that opportunity but he still followed the military tradition with ROTC and then a commission in the Army. He decided to challenge himself by volunteering for Airborne and Ranger training.
Newly commissioned Lieutenant Robin Bartlett arrived at the 82nd Airborne as a "Leg," that is a non-Airborne qualified soldier. He did some staff work in the office for a bit and then it was off to Fort Benning for jump school, the Infantry officer's Basic Course and then the toughest school of all, Ranger training.
At the end of each phase of Ranger School, the soldier must face a confidence test. The first two involve high ropes up in trees and over water. The last one is the toughest, the night swamp navigation test. Robin Bartlett knew just what to do when he got in the swamp.
Robin Bartlett was only a 2nd Lieutenant but he got the job as S1 when he joined his battalion at the 82nd. One day he saw his name on orders for Vietnam. They were sending him to the 101st there and he was very apprehensive because it was just after the mayhem of the Tet offensive. When he got there, the plans had changed.
He was in it, now. Robin Bartlett arrived in Vietnam as an untested platoon leader. He attributes his survival to three things. First, you listen to your experienced NCOs. Second, you don't do stupid stuff. Third, you listen to your point man. The unit operated near the Laotian border and tried to stop the infiltration of the NVA.
Robin Bartlett was a new platoon leader in Vietnam and he had a sergeant who had just arrived fresh from the NCO course. The man had no experience but he wanted to be a squad leader and was frustrated when he didn't get the job. His reckless ways would lead to a tragic outcome.
When Robin Bartlett's platoon was assigned as the Quick Reaction Force, they would wait next to the helipad until they were needed. Then they would board helicopters and head for the action. He had a close call once when he was being extracted. The chopper rose to cruising altitude at which point the engine stopped and everyone except the pilot prepared to meet their maker. (Caution: strong language)
When it was time to leave the field and take a staff job, platoon leader Robin Bartlett got orders for a unit no one seemed to know about, the 14th MHD. When he got to the division base camp and found them, he looked around and saw cots, fans, a television and a fridge stocked with Cokes and beer. This was definitely going to beat life in the bush.
When it was time for Robin Bartlett to rotate home from Vietnam, he went to a lot of trouble to find out where his next assignment was. He could hardly believe it. When he flew into Travis AFB, he saw a man, a woman and a dog standing at the fence. It was his parents.
Robin Bartlett went from the heat of Vietnam to the cold of Alaska where he was in charge of the HQ company at a mechanized unit. He immediately found out that the vehicles were all junk. For his next assignment, he was told he was going to Vietnamese language school and was returning to Vietnam as an advisor. Uh, no.
When the division moved from I Corps to III Corps, Robin Bartlett noticed that the Public Information Office had thrown out a lot of photos and artwork. He gathered up some of it and, years later, developed it into a documentary video about his experience as a platoon leader in Vietnam.
