COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Dennis Smith - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  619th Tactical Air Control Squadron

  Dennis Smith flew on Air America a couple of times but he didn't work directly with the CIA, or The Company as it was known. They ran their operations out of Da Nang while he was doing air control for B-52 strikes in Cambodia.

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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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  Burrell Landes +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 3rd Marines

  They accepted the call. Burrell Landes and his fellow Marines considered it their duty to their country. The leaders he admired in the Corps and who shaped his career earned his admiration. His greatest fear in combat was that he might make a mistake and get young Marines killed.

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  Dennis Smith - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  619th Tactical Air Control Squadron

  Someone in Dennis Smith's squadron found a Vietnamese orphanage that was run by Buddhist nuns. Conditions were not good there and the men took it on themselves to supply it with baby formula. The money was becoming a drain on their paychecks but one day they captured a nine foot python. They didn't know it yet but that python would become the kids' meal ticket.

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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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  Myron Harrington - Marines +7 Total Videos

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

  In 1968, Captain Myron Harrington led the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in a challenging attack on the citadel in Hue City, Vietnam. The urban battlefield was heavily fortified with enemy machine guns and mortars, but the Marines had to move forward. This is the story of how he and his men meticulously planned and executed the prolonged charge on the tower; actions that earned Harrington the Silver Star and Navy Cross.

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  Dennis Smith - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  619th Tactical Air Control Squadron

  Dennis Smith feels sure that the South Vietnamese service members he worked with during the war were executed after it was over. He feels badly about that but he did make a return trip there as a tourist and that had the effect of settling his mind.

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  Ralph Colin - Army +7 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division

  Ralph Colin had been doing a good job, maybe too good, he thought. They made him point man so he was leading the way. He was working it jointly with a partner on the day they found a booby trap the hard way.

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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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  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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  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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  Bob Tibbitts - Army +10 Total Videos

  1st Infantry Division

  Bob Tibbitts and his platoon of APCs were near the Cambodian border in a bad area. That's why they were there. The NVA thought they had one of the vehicles in a nice ambush but it turned out there were two of them. Let the firepower commence!

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  Clebe McClary - Marines +10 Total Videos

  1st Reconnaissance Battalion

  It was a long night. Clebe McClary and his men were left alone on Hill 146 after an operation gone awry. The NVA was coming in and a grenade fell into his position. It was the first of several that would knock him right out of the war. During the fight, Ralph Johnson jumped on top of one of the grenades, saving Clebe's life and the lives of other Marines around him. Johnson would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his selfless service.

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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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  Dennis Smith - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  619th Tactical Air Control Squadron

  The brass were trying out some new things in Vietnam. Dennis Smith describes how they attempted to create instant landing zones with huge bombs. That didn't work so well but there was one area that new technology was making an important mark. That was in night vision.

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  Jim Harding - Air Force +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Artillery fire is no laughing matter but sometimes there is humor in war. Jim Harding recalls a funny story about a mad scramble for the shelter when the shells began to fall. He was a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam, a dangerous profession.

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  Dennis Smith - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  619th Tactical Air Control Squadron

  He had to get up to Long Tan. Dennis Smith was waiting for a ride on a helicopter and it was finally his turn. He started to board the ship and an army colonel kicked him off and took it for his own purpose. It promptly crashed on take off and he went to the motor pool where he wound up with a most unusual vehicle.

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  Jim Harding - Air Force +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  In the early years of the Vietnam war, all air strikes were controlled from the ground. When Jim Harding came in as an Air Force Liaison Officer he realized right away this was a poor method. Determined to get the Forward Air Controllers up in the air, he began to explore options for aircraft, starting with the O-1.

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  Dennis Smith - Air Force +13 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  It took years but Dennis Smith finally became involved with veterans groups and causes. He noticed that veterans seemed to stick with those from the same war. He remembered something his dad told him that explained this.