Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Dennis Haines

Vietnam | C Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 199th Light Infantry Brigade

Dennis Haines was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. The only brigade not attached to a division, the light infantry was so-named because they could move out on a mission at a moment’s notice. He describes the execution and fear of a frontal assault. (7:29)
Dennis Haines and his friend Jack Kirchner came across a Viet Cong bunker that they thought was empty. After Kirchner fired a shotgun round through a port, he turned to leave and was nearly cut in two by enemy rounds. (6:50)
After the Air Force came in and blew up the VC bunkers, Dennis Haines knew the job was coming that no one wanted to do: the body count. (3:56)
Dennis Haines had seen dead soldiers on stretchers but it was totally different with his friend Jack Kirchner. Dennis had been right there with him in the line of fire. He learned it was best not to be too close to your wartime comrades. (4:23)
Fire from an approaching enemy killed Larry Rycroft and wounded Bob Needham and Kenny Pepper. Dennis Haines laments that they could not fire in time because of the Rules of Engagement. (5:09)
The M-16 made every Army rifleman an automatic rifleman, explains Dennis Haines, who gave his up to become the M-60 gunner in his squad. The M-60 machine gun was the primary heavy weapon on patrols and ambushes. (4:50)
Dennis Haines handed his Instamatic to his friend Tom Reilly so he could get some pictures from the field. This was great until Reilly had to take cover by jumping in a pond. (2:54)
Dennis Haines had done the reconnaissance on a village at the Mekong River, so he manned the listening post overnight as his unit prepared a cordon operation. He thought he saw movement in a doorway, then a muzzle flash as he took two rounds to the head. (9:44)
“I was out of it for days,” recalls Dennis Haines, He had a head wound and would only regain full consciousness after he was evacuated to a hospital in Japan, where he learned the left side of his body was paralyzed. (4:12)
Years after his head wound, Dennis Haines found the surgeon, John Baldwin, who operated on him in the field hospital. Only then did he learn how close to death he had been, so close that he was put in the group of patients who were deemed not likely to survive. (6:15)