Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Galen Foster

Vietnam | 196th Light Infantry Brigade

On search and destroy missions, you always had to be careful about booby traps, says Galen Foster, who has a couple of stories about that. Don't just open a door, either. You don't know what's on the other side. (6:11)
A hot landing zone meant that you could expect contact as soon as you set down. They might tell you that a landing zone is cold, but Galen Foster says you never could tell. He saw the lead helicopter get shot down as they went into a so-called cold LZ. When moving on foot, the point man used a compass the guide the unit. Once, an improper reading led the men straight into a Viet Cong base camp. (3:31)
For his last duty in Vietnam, Galen Foster moved to Chu Lai. The base camp was on a hill with a view of the South China Sea on one side and a village on the other side. One night, they heard a ruckus in the village. Women and children were screaming and crying. The soldiers were forbidden to go and help. (3:17)
After his Vietnam tour, Galen Foster returned to Fort Benning. He went from slogging through the jungle with muddy boots to spit and polish. He was assigned to an honor guard unit. One day his unit was sent to help a film crew and he wound up being in the film The Green Berets. He did not re-enlist and he reveals his only regret over that. (3:43)
Galen Hoover

Other Conflict | USS Escape (ARS-6)

Galen Hoover and all but one of his brothers joined the Navy as they came of age in the Sixties. He was assigned to the USS Escape, a rescue and salvage ship. He saw 17 countries, including the entire Mediterranean, where the ship's divers assisted the local sponge divers with safety training. (5:42)
One day, aboard ship, Galen Hoover got a notice he was being transferred to river boat duty in Vietnam. Soon after, the movie about the Green Berets was screened on movie night, so he had a lot to think about while he waited to go. First, he had to undergo four months of intensive training for the dangerous duty. (6:59)
After a quick leave, Galen Hoover and a buddy from a nearby town, started the long trip to Vietnam. He stopped in a frigid Alaska on the way, but when the airliner doors opened in Vietnam, it was a different environment. It was hot and it smelled really bad. And why was that chicken wire on the bus windows? (6:40)
The river boats operated near the Cambodian border. Galen Hoover was advisor to the Vietnamese crew of one craft, which was an old troop carrier. Every night, interdiction points were set along the river to catch infiltration from Cambodia. When he arrived at the unit, he couldn't believe the layout of the base. (5:27)
Living full time with his Vietnamese crew meant that Galen Hoover ate what they ate. His first night on the river, they served him a dish that was so good, he requested it regularly, even after he found out what it was. The crew knew he was really green, so the boat captain thought he would mess with the new advisor a little. (8:56)
He was supposed to teach the crew all about the boat, but Galen Hoover had just arrived in Vietnam and some of the Vietnamese crew had been doing it for years. So his job was to man the radios and call for air and artillery support and for medical evacuation. Besides the enemy, there was rain...so much rain, and poisonous vipers. (6:50)