Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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LTG (Ret) Freddy McFarren

Operation Desert Storm | 18th Field Artillery Brigade

The 18th Field Artillery Brigade supported a lot of units during Operation Desert Storm, including the French Foreign Legion. Should the war have continued on into Baghdad? Going home was OK with Freddy McFarren. He had already been in the desert for eight months. (4:54)
Over a 37 year career in the Army, Freddy McFarren learned that the strength of the Army is its people, from the cadets at West Point to the motorpool. That and the bond that exists between officers and NCO's. (8:22)
LTG (Ret) John LeMoyne

Vietnam | Multiple Units

College was expensive, so John LeMoyne took a year off to enlist in the Special Forces Reserve. It changed his life. When he returned to the University of Florida, he did half the studying and got twice the grades. (5:32)
After just a small taste of military training, John LeMoyne wanted more. He joined ROTC and then took a regular Army commission. Next stop: Ranger School. (4:45)
His first assignment was in a Davy Crockett platoon, but that field nuclear weapon system was short lived and John LeMoyne began training to be an advisor in Vietnam. When he got there, he walked out of in-processing and went looking for the unit he wanted. (5:05)
The enemy was mainly NVA regulars where American advisor John LeMoyne was working with a South Vietnamese Airborne battalion. They would pour out of Cambodia every couple of weeks and attack. Some of the men with the Airborne had been fighting the Communists for twenty years. (4:36)
His first day in the jungle was memorable. American advisor John LeMoyne saw his South Vietnamese paratroopers stage a daring frontal assault, called in his first air strikes and Medevacs and, after it was over, he wondered if every day was going to be like this. (4:49)
It was about the closest he came to a bad end in Vietnam. John LeMoyne had to low crawl up to a dug in machine gun position for the better part of an afternoon. Fortunately, there was a flaw in their building design. (2:31)
Six months after John LeMoyne had battled entire regiments of the NVA in the Tay Ninh area, there were only isolated small groups operating. The war had changed. As a new company commander, he had a lot of questions and he was fortunate to have superiors who were patient. (4:02)
It was lessons learned in Vietnam that John LeMoyne tried to pass on as an instructor in Ranger school. The candidates would soon have the awesome burden of being responsible for the lives of others. (2:35)