Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:51 | It was the toughest decision of his life. Jim Balkcom was a West Point graduate and was winding up a tough tour in Vietnam when he started to think an Army career might not be for him. He could put the lessons he'd learned at work in business.
Keywords : Jim Balkcom Vietnam Don Coles 3rd Armored Division Germany Creighton Abrams servant leadership Atlanta GA John William Vessey Jr. (Jack Vessey) West Point
A West Point assistant football coach was at Jim Balkcom's high school asking the coach there about any outstanding players. This set him on a path to get an appointment and he did manage to get an alternate appointment. He would have to go to Georgia Tech for a year before he could start.
Jim Balkcom was class of 1967, West Point. He was aware of Vietnam but didn't think much about it. To the graduates that year, it was pretty much a given that they would be going. Many did but he was sent to an assignment in Germany. It was a great post and he learned the value of servant leadership.
He had orders for the Americal Division but when Jim, Balkcom landed in Vietnam, he was diverted to an interview with the commander of the 1st Signal Battalion. Would he accept an assignment commanding a signal company at a troubled installation atop Vung Chua Mountain?
Servant leadership. You talk to every member of the company. You learn their wife's name, their children's names and what they perceive as problems. You sleep two hours a night between going bunker to bunker and checking that it's all squared away. This was Jim Balkcom's practice and the way he was mentored. Still, there could be problems.
It was a top secret communications installation and the monsoon rains could be a real problem for the electronics. Jim Balkcom was the CO at the site atop Vung Chua Mountain at Qui Nhon. Besides the climate he had sappers trying to get through the wire and blow up the antennas.
The guy was a pothead. Jim Balkcom was the company commander and he was talking to the man and suddenly a rifle was pointed at him. Another time, two GIs, obviously high or drunk were arguing and then began shooting at each other. The VC were enough of a problem, why do I have to deal with this?
Jim Balkcom only had one fatality in his company, a man who was possibly high on something and took off down the mountain in a truck. He had been trying very hard to turn the misfit outfit around and things had improved a lot since he arrived. It was late in the war and the brass began to lay down some ridiculous restrictions on ammunition and weapons.
A month after his tour was over and he left Vung Chua Mountain, Jim Balkcom's successor as company commander was fragged by one of the troops. He had never feared this when he was there because he practiced servant leadership and the men knew he cared about them. This later served him well in his business career.
Just before he rotated home, the Army offered Jim Balkcom the chance to go to graduate school. Great, how about Harvard? We don't think you can get into Harvard. So he put in his separation papers and went down off the mountain into Qui Nhon to take the entrance exam. Before he was done, mortar rounds started coming in.
