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Tom Reilly

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When he arrived in Vietnam at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Tom Reilly was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade at Long Binh, and began a routine of sweeps, patrols and ambushes. Long periods of monotony were the rule, but he soon got a taste of action. (5:02)

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The Viet Cong were tough and smart, recollects Tom Reilly. He describes the twin tactics of hit and run, in which they presented no target, and the rigging of booby traps, which made targets of the GI’s, long after the guerillas were gone. He clearly remembers the incident at the Sea of Reeds when Edward Powers was killed. (9:31)

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Tom Reilly was nearly killed in Vietnam seven times. Once, an RPG landed in a pond next to him and sizzled like a giant Alka Seltzer in the water. His friend, Dennis Haines, was not so lucky when three snipers opened up. (5:27)

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The Viet Cong ruined a USO show with a rocket attack, causing Tom Reilly to dash for cover. He remembers the civilians, though, as unfailingly polite and gracious people, especially the Le family of Saigon. (5:17)

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Tom Reilly’s Vietnam service took a new direction when he took an assignment as a war correspondent. He carried a camera along with his rifle, and documented the action for Stars and Stripes and the Army Times. (10:30)

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The marksmanship of many of his fellow soldiers was subpar, according to Tom Reilly. He also asserts that the bombing halt ahead of negotiations caused a great increase in VC and NVA attacks. (3:16)

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Eyewitness to an accidental massacre, Vietnam War correspondent Tom Reilly was forever changed by the experience. After the war, it was thirteen years before anyone thanked him for his service, and that was all he ever asked for. (3:46)

Tom Seybold

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Tom Seybold is originally from Stony Brook on Long Island, New York. Although his father died when he was five, his mother took on the role of single parent. He never actually graduated from high school, and instead went straight to basic training when he was old enough. He had orders to go to Fort Bragg to be in the 82nd Airborne, but quickly transferred to Fort Wolters. After that he had orders to join the 582nd Aviation Company in France, and was then sent near Soc Trang Vietnam for the war. (4:20)

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Once he arrived in Vietnam, Seybold was ordered to go down to Can Tho. There his job mainly consisted of flying support missions for advisers from the ARVN. As he spent more time there, he noticed how much he disliked being in the Army and wanted to transfer somewhere else. Later on, it was discovered that he had never graduated high school and so he was forced to get his GED through the University of Maryland. (6:10)

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After his time in Vietnam, Seybold went back to the US to Hunter Army Airfield to help teach ground school. At one point he was prompted by a man named Harry Dawson to get his commercial pilot license to join Air America. Through Air America, he mainly flew UH-34 Helicopters and had really good civilian interaction when on his missions in Southeast Asia. (7:24)