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Tom Coffey

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When the Battle of Dak To was over, there were scores of dead, including the chaplain. Tom Coffey was sick to his stomach. He had warned against a direct assault on Hill 875. He had given precise instructions for a bombing run which were ignored, resulting in a disastrous friendly fire incident. Why did we do it this way? Part 3 of 3. (8:26)

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After his harrowing experience at Dak To, Tom Coffey was able to unwind a bit on R&R. This was followed by a New Year's Eve which featured his best friend getting hilariously drunk and falling in a latrine. As he focused on his intelligence role, there were disturbing signs of a build up of enemy forces. (2:51)

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Nobody believed him. Tom Coffey was seeing a lot of intel that indicated a big enemy build up. Then, at midnight on the Vietnamese New Year, all hell broke loose all over the country. Eventually they were beaten back, but the NVA and the VC had made their point. (5:32)

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It was like nothing was happening. Tom Coffey had just returned from Vietnam and he wondered, don't these people know what is going on over there? But he busied himself in his new assignment, a great post at Fort Bragg in an intelligence brigade. (5:20)

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After deciding to leave the Army, Tom Coffey got a big break when a friend set him up with a job working for Ross Perot at Electronic Data Systems. After five years, he started his own financial services firm and that was prospering when another friend came to him with an idea. (5:51)

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Tom Coffey was one of a group of Vietnam veterans who built the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Louisville. It is in the form of a giant sundial in a plaza on which the names of all the Kentucky natives who perished are inscribed. (6:52)

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Tom Coffey remained active at his alma mater, Eastern Kentucky University, serving on the foundation board for 20 years. In 2010, the university bestowed a great honor upon him. (2:45)

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Everyone makes some good friends in the Army. Tom Coffey reminisces about some of them from Officer Candidate School and from his tour in Vietnam. (Caution: strong language) (3:38)

Tom Dill

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It was a rough time getting through the end of the Depression, but Tom Dill was lucky enough to go to college after graduating in 1939. After being an alternate for an appointment to Annapolis, he went ahead and joined the Navy, anyway, in 1943. (3:58)

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When Tom Dill joined the Navy in 1943, the first stop was Northwestern University for three months of midshipman's training. He was next sent to the Small Craft Center in Miami and, finally, to Long Beach to await assignment. He became an officer on an LST, a new type of ship that became a vital part of amphibious warfare. (5:45)