Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:01 | Richey describes coming home as a difficult experience. Colonel Fulton wrote that Vietnam soldiers were as brave as anyone but were under-appreciated. Richey could not agree more. While in the hospital at Fort Knox, Richey told his parents to come by themselves to pick him up. The following events understandably overwhelmed him.
Keywords : coming home Fort Knox Colonel Fulton civilian interaction
After eating breakfast early in the morning, a sergeant told Richey and some other men to inspect guns in the armors room. Richey was scared to death of messing up, and what would have been a harmless mistake turned into a painful one.
During a brigade operation in the Plain of Reeds close to the Cambodian border, Richey's platoon was asked to stay behind to see what the Viet Cong would do. That night the men encountered a few Viet Cong, but the next morning they found themselves far outnumbered.
While Richey's company was in reserve, another infantry unit got ambushed. Richey's unit came out to try to take the heat off of them, but they soon found themselves in trouble as well. Thomas Gordon and Chuck Cataldo were hit, and Richey suffered an injury as well.
While clearing post for a man in Japan, Richey entered the medical ward to give the man his records. He describes what he saw next as the worst thing he'd ever seen.
After being told to clean their ammunition their first time out in the field, Richey's company decided to instead use up all their ammo in free fire zones. When John St. Peters joined Richey's company as a replacement, he was not used to this particular procedure.
Richey tells several funny stories that happened during his time in Vietnam. One involves Laney Gardner, a man from Richey's home town, and a man named Arnt who liked to joke around. Richey tells a couple other stories about how his company interacted with the military equipment, specifically percussion grenades. While Richey's superiors typically got mad at the men in these situations, Richey knew it was important to keep loose once in a while.
