Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Mack Riggs

Vietnam | 101st Airborne Division

As a new guy in Vietnam, Mack Riggs had to sit in the front seat where he was a better target. After he'd been in country for a while, he began to wonder why they would take a place and then leave. Then they would return and take the same place and leave again. This was not like past wars. (3:44)
Mack Riggs moved around a lot. There were so many fire bases in Vietnam that he lost track of the names. Once he took part in an artillery raid. The guns were airlifted into an area where they shot off a hundred rounds and then they were airlifted out. At least they were supposed to be. (4:20)
It was pretty country, if you could overlook the guys in black pajamas trying to kill you. Mack Riggs extended his tour in Vietnam because of his quest to finish his dead cousin's tour as well as his own. He didn't quite finish the complete amount of time but he did another tour at the Korean DMZ which was close enough in his mind. (5:46)
Mack Riggs was lucky. He didn't have to face the anti-war hysteria that so many veterans had to deal with when they returned from Vietnam. He stayed in the service and he lived in a small town so he was insulated from that. But he could not insulate his wife from what happens when you're married to a soldier. (4:45)
Mack Riggs was there to do a job in Vietnam, and he opines on why they were there and what it was like to be in the middle of that war. (3:44)
MajGen Larry S. Taylor

Cold War | Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 264 (HMM 264)

He was in a platoon leaders course when he looked up from the mud and wondered if he could get into flight school. Larry Taylor made good on that desire and became a helicopter pilot. During an early shipboard cruise, the unit was dispatched to the Panama Canal Zone to stop rioting. (5:51)
As a Marine helicopter pilot during the Cold War, Larry Taylor participated first in hurricane relief in Haiti, and then got a taste of action in the Dominican Republic. (6:52)
Marine aviator Larry Taylor valued his stint with a ground unit as a liaison officer, but he was intrigued by this civilian outfit, Air America. It was an open secret that it was an intelligence operation supporting friendly locals in Southeast Asia. It could be mundane supply and refugee flights or it could be dangerous insertions on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (7:08)
How did that interview with Air America go? Aviator Larry Taylor got the job, but he found out when he got to Thailand that he'd been lied to about his interest in flying T-28's. He was satisfied flying helicopters, though, and since he was a civilian, he actually got some time off every month. (5:11)
Air America pilot Larry Taylor flew the Sikorsky H-34, the same aircraft he'd flown in the Marines. It could take a lot of punishment and keep on flying, which was something he really loved. Official policy was that the civilian pilots could not carry weapons, but in a war zone, that policy was fairly flexible. (6:03)