Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:07 | He was going to Vietnam but the first stop was Panama for more training. Brent Gulick's parents drove him to McGuire Air Force Base to catch the plane but when they got there, there were 3,000 anti-war protestors blocking the gate. Undaunted, his dad inched the car forward.
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It was a matter of duty. Just as his father answered the call when the Axis was on the move, Brent Gulick headed for the recruiter once he secured his college degree. The old man had been a B-17 pilot but the younger Gulick was denied the chance to fly because of poor eyesight. Well, if I can't fly them, I will jump out of them.
The guys in the dorm were mostly in agreement. They'd rather join the National Guard or even go to Canada than go fight in Vietnam. But one student named Brent Gulick had an uncle who served and suffered on Guadalcanal. How could he ever face him again if he didn't serve when there was a war to be fought?
After basic training and AIT, Brent Gulick headed to Fort Benning for OCS. But when he got there, there was no room for the new class. It was delayed. How'd you like to go to jump school in the meantime? Great idea but the NCO's that ran the school had it in for the officers-to-be.
The TAC Officers at OCS gave Brent Gulick a hard time after he ridiculed them with clever lyrics as he was calling cadence. He was dedicated, though, to learning how to be an excellent officer. After he graduated and got his bars, his first assignment was less than thrilling.
The first thing that Brent Gulick found out when he got to Vietnam is that there wasn't going to be any jump pay. Nobody was jumping from airplanes but there was a Ranger unit that needed a Lieutenant. His first night there was memorable thanks to some "ladies" with an American weapon captured during the Korean War.
Lt. Brent Gulick had three six man teams that ran patrols and ambushes in the Mekong Delta. The first thing he had to do when he got there was put an end to smoking at night, which could give away your position. These guys were very effective, though, so much so that the NVA put a bounty on them.
Things were heating up. There was a lot of contact for Brent Gulick and his Rangers down in the Mekong Delta. He was starting to get too jittery and slept with a .45 under his pillow. He was so tense that his buddy gave him the R&R pass he was scheduled for and a few days at China Beach helped a little. Until he got back and heard some bad news.
The ARVNs were in trouble. Their push into Cambodia was going badly so Brent Gulick and his Ranger unit were part of the force sent to help. He was ordered to assault a treeline that had been the source of heavy fire and, then, he and his men were cut off and lost for four days.
Brent Gulick got the word while he was eating lunch. One of his teams was in contact. He rounded up seven guys and took off in a chopper to go back them up. When his buddy was injured in an exchange of hand grenades, he called for a Dustoff and got him out of there. Then he realized that he, too, was injured. I don't have time for this.
Late in the war, entire units were disbanded and sent home. Brent Gulick still had time on his tour so he went to the Ranger company at the 25th Infantry Division up at Cu Chi. It was triple canopy jungle, completely different from what he used to down in the Delta.
Brent Gulick had only been at the 25th Infantry Division for two months when it was disbanded. He wasn't leaving Vietnam yet, he was sent to the Americal Division where he was made the S2 officer at LZ Stinson, near Laos. He was a stickler for thorough debriefings, something that was a mystery to many of his fellow officers.
Why am I here? Brent Gulick was in Laos searching for possible American POWs when that thought occurred to him. He only had a couple of weeks left in-country. When he did make it back to the States, he was waiting for his father at the airport when a little old lady did the unthinkable.
First lesson of Vietnam, don't blame the warriors. Like so many others, Brent Gulick was humiliated by people he didn't know when he returned from the war. Second lesson, don't ever do the job halfway. Do what it takes to prevail over the enemy. What happens when you don't? Boat people and reeducation camps.
He made a mistake getting out. When Brent Gulick got back from Vietnam he was so tense and angry that he left the service. Within a couple of months he joined a reserve Special Forces unit at Fort Bragg and began their specialized training. This led him to Europe and the Reforger exercises. He studied the movements of Soviet tanks at the Fulda Gap and met a charming lady at a little cottage in the mountains.
