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Mike McCormick

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For Mike McCormick, who worked in counterintelligence in Vietnam, there was a lot of time spent outside the wire in small teams, tracking down and apprehending VC and NVA agents. He could have easily qualified for an Air Medal with all the time spent on choppers doing this. The unit recovered some documents that proved the Michelin plantation was paying protection money to the Viet Cong. (6:55)

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If you were smart, you could avoid the booby traps, but what you couldn't avoid were the questionable tactics. Mike McCormick wanted to know why they were going back to the same piece of land over and over, taking casualties and then leaving. The brash young lieutenant got no real answer. (4:19)

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Mike McCormick remembers Christmas of 1966, celebrated in the first permanent structure completed at the new base camp in Vietnam, the chapel. They were treated to a show with Bob Hope and other celebrities. (1:48)

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When he was a young lieutenant, Mike McCormick had an embarrassing incident during an inspection by the commanding general which caused the general to remember him in a lighthearted way. (3:15)

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Fortunately, Mike McCormick did not encounter any of the dangerous wildlife in Vietnam. Death found you easily enough at the end of a Viet Cong rifle. The enemy, though, had to deal with the massive power of a B-52 strike. (5:30)

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Mike McCormick gives his honest assessment of what went wrong in Vietnam. Although we could have easily prevailed by doing what the leadership was unwilling to do, for him the greater mistake was allowing the French to re-assert their colonial power there after World War II. (5:38)

Mike Morris

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He was in the Marine Reserves, but in training, a doctor told him he needed hernia surgery and he was out. Mike Morris still had a military obligation, though, and the draft put him in the Army as soon as he was able. He did well because of his previous experience and was sent to NCO school. (4:10)

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It was a culture shock, arriving in Vietnam. Mike Morris remembers the wire mesh on the bus windows to keep out hand grenades. He was an NCO, but totally green, and the old hands began to groom the newbie. The first night, artillery shook him awake. Was it theirs or ours? (4:29)

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When Mike Morris got to Vietnam, he was issued an M-16 rifle, which was new to him. His first mission ended with him covered in mud, but he still had access to a shower at this point. That wouldn't last. In his backpack you could find socks and candy, supplied by his mom, which was a big help. (7:23)

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Before the Tet offensive began, there were reports of enemy movements and infiltration, but no one expected the size or scope of the attacks. For Mike Morris, it was the beginning of three months of chasing the Communist forces away from Saigon and back to the north and west. (7:06)