VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Edward K. McCaffrey - Navy

Stars and Stripes

Published: March 5, 2015

Losing two good friends then coming home to San Francisco and being spit in the face and called baby killer, landing in Newark, N.J., and having a cab driver refuse to take me home but willing to take my bag to Kearny, a 15- minute ride, for $25.

It took me almost 40 years before I would tell someone I was there. Now I wear it proudly.

Readers' stories

Lawrence T. Motzer
Air Force
Thomas J. Madigan
Marines
Lem Genovese
Army
Gary Nolan Wright
Army

The worst night of my life! In May 67 I went to work with LSI and ended up at Phu Loi as a chopper mechanic.
Roy L. Whittaker
Army
Suzanne Miller
Army

Learning from the New York Times newspaper of the attack on Song Be where my husband, Capt. Austin Miller, was. It took four days before he could make a call transferred from the Philippines to tell me he was alive and not wounded.
Charles DiNatale
Marines

I can still smell the air, the stench, the heat and mainly the smell of death.
Jack Perkins
Army

After discharge and attending the University of Kansas on the GI Bill, the girls would answer, "Oh, I don't date veterans. I can't be seen on campus with a killer
Orlando Ramirez
Marines

Survival guilt, loss of innocence, remembering our brothers and trying to get together with those who shared the pain and suffering of combat!
Michael Amato
Army

My best feel-good memory of the Vietnam War was whenever we had to go from Cu Chi base camp to a forward area, we would load up on C Rations so we could toss the food to village children as we passed through in the convoy.
Joe Becerra Jr.
Army

Flying at night in a C-130 over the central highlands while under attack by the NVA anti-aircraft batteries and being at Camp Alpha at the start of the NVA-Viet Cong 1968 Tet Offensive.
Wayne A. Lehmann
Air Force

A Christmas respite before all hell broke loose.
Anthony V. Fasolo
Army
Jon "Pete" Peterson
Navy
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

David G. Duchesneau
Marines
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Ray E. Wood
Air Force
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James Dowling
Army
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Charles Schwiderski
Army
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Russell W. Smith
Air Force

Tet offensive at Tan Son Nhut Air Base.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Ronnie Smith
Army

The heat, the rain and smell. Also I was scared as hell.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Alvin Burk II
Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Francis Hayes
Army

I was an MP out on patrol in the Delta. We were stopped by two NVA soldiers. One pointed his M16 at me, and he shot at me and missed.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Charles DiNatale
Marines

I was more devastated coming home than my time in 'Nam — the outrage we received, the betrayal.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

M. Needham
Army

The alienation I felt and still feel from fellow Americans who never served.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Martin Rose
Air Force

Fear of the local people of what would happen to them when we left.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Ysmael Ramos
Navy

Giving up my youth for country.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Walter J. Irwin
Army

The heat, the rain, the mud, the dust and the first time I was shot at.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

William H. Barnwell - Marines

I remember being very glad I was stationed at Marble Mountain instead of a rice paddy.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Gary McClellan - Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Helen Fuller - Civilian
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Dan Hendrix - Air Force
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Joe Small - Army

The constant feeling that you might get hit at any moment.
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James C. Nave - Army

The recovery of CH47A on May 21, 1968.
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Dennis C. Latham - Marine Corps
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Philip J. Milio - Army
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William F. Daly - Navy

Troops' continued devotion to duty when abandoned by politicians and public in general.
Chris Daley - Navy

I was a supporter of containment until it all unraveled into a political lie.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Taylor 'Ted' Stowell - Army

The heat and voracious bugs.
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Brent Houston - Navy

I was fighting for my country but mostly trying to get home in one piece.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Peggy Lato - Civilian

The damage to my husband, who is deceased now. His suffering, and mine, began in 1970 when he came home from Vietnam.
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Gerald Lee Green - Air Force

All the hair on my arm stood straight up, so I knew something was wrong.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Albert D. Spratley - Navy

Four months, 24/7 bombing with no letup.
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Greg Kleven - Marines
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Charles Wilson - Army

Did not care for the bullets and explosions.
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David Ziemke - Army
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Daryl 'Angie' Evangelho - Army
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Edward Hickey - Navy
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Joseph De Frank - Army

On Jan. 30, 1968, the eve of the Vietnamese New Year, we heard there would be a two-day cease fire. The Vietnamese would celebrate with family, feasting, fireworks, and were very careful about what they did on the first day. That day, all hell broke loose
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Calvin Guthrie - Army

When I found the ID card and dog tags of one of my buddies who had been killed.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Noelle Thomas-Patton - Civilian
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Brad Willoughby - Army

Being a medic and cutting off arms and legs of a lot of young men.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Dwight R. Stevens - Army
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John Nickle - Air Force
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

David Graham - Civilian

As an Army brat, I recall waiting for letters and hoping not to see a notification team.
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Charles Hollis - Air Force

Airlifting out our battle dead, some in body bags and ponchos and some not covered at all. The finality of life so young, gone.
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Roger Dale Campbell - Air Force

I still can see him in my mind, 40 years later.
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Bob Herbert - Air Force
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Cliff Riley - Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Ralph D. Starr - Army

He was only 20, with his whole life ahead of him.
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John R. Duncan Jr. - Marines

Our platoon was brought ashore by the old green grasshopper choppers and dropped off on a ridge inland of the beach.
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Bob Baker - Army
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Lem Genovese - Army

"How can we lose a war we're not allowed to win?"
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Bill Knoop - Marines

Only two of us from our M60 Machine Gun Squad of nine came home alive.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Danny L. Breeding - Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Chris Steve Tragakis - Army

The loss of my Company Commander - killed in action.
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Leonard E. Edwards - Army

Concern for the safety of the troops under my command.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Tom Rizzo - Army
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John Wood - Army
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Austin Miller - Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Tim Petersen - Army

I came to the terrifying conclusion that there were people all around us that really, really wanted to kill me.
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Leigh Livermore - Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Dennis M. Haney - Army
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Wilburn J. Holland Jr. - Marines

The sunken, shallow look in the eyes of my brothers.
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Ronald Auble - Army
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Tony Chliek - Army
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Jeff Whitted - Air Force
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Joe Kline - Army
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Michael John Lukasavage - Army
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Meg Irish - Civilian

I will never forget the terror of the moment my oldest brother was drafted.
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Carl C. Dodd - Army
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Ronald How - Army

Walking through the Seattle airport to catch a flight home.
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Rodman Germain - Army
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Robert Parrish - Army

Death of your best friend, all the bodies pieces and parts, getting shelled and shot at, seeing Bob Hope, racial tensions, friendly fire incidents.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Raymond P. Keen - Navy
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Patricia Hugle Biggs - Army

The damage done to the 71st Evac hospital during the rocket and mortar attacks of Tet '68.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Lee Bishop - Army

The time a little rest and recreation became a lot of escape and evasion.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Joe Weaver - Navy

Hearing Marine radio man telling of being overrun during Tet Offensive.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

James B. Purkhiser - Army

Scorching heat followed by cold monsoon rains.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Edward K. McCaffrey - Navy

It took me almost 40 years before I would tell someone I was there. Now I wear it proudly.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Dave Alperovitz - Navy

I served off the coast of Vietnam on a Navy destroyer. We were either on Yankee Station plane guarding or on the gun line firing support fire.
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D.E. Sanders - Army

Strongest memories? My brothers, and the fact that I came back literally unscathed and so many far better than I did not!
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Edward M. Evans - Marines
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Chuck Carter - Army

I can't forget the many enemy deaths I saw caused by all of the artillery I was responsible for firing
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Bobby Killough - Army

We were fighting all night long under heavy enemy small arms, machine gun and RPG fire.
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Joe Becerra Jr. - Army

Part of the in-processing was to prepare a will.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Tom Tesmar - Army

My last mission as an Army combat helicopter pilot on Nov 28, 1966.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Clark Foreid - Air Force

My first strong memory was the horror of battle during an early-morning rocket attack. My second was at LAX.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Howard Daugherty - Army

Sometimes it all seems a dream or maybe a nightmare to have my 20th and 21st birthdays so far away with a brotherhood of pilots, crew chiefs, and the infantry that we carried or supported in our combat roles protecting other ground troops that came under fire.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

George Fryett Jr. - Army

I was captured by the Viet Cong on Dec. 24, 1961, and held only six months until June 24,1962.
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

Lonny B. Lester - Air Force

I like to think that what they did kept a lot of us alive.

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Joe Becerra Jr. - Army

Part of the in-processing was to prepare a will.
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William Pearson - Army
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Francis Hayes
Army

I was an MP out on patrol in the Delta. We were stopped by two NVA soldiers. One pointed his M16 at me, and he shot at me and missed.
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Charles DiNatale
Marines

I was more devastated coming home than my time in 'Nam — the outrage we received, the betrayal.
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William F. Daly - Navy

Troops' continued devotion to duty when abandoned by politicians and public in general.
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Jeff Whitted - Air Force
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Mark Richardson - Army

We lost 37 guys that night.
Anthony V. Fasolo
Army
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James Dowling
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE

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The damage to my husband, who is deceased now. His suffering, and mine, began in 1970 when he came home from Vietnam.
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David Ziemke - Army
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Roger Dale Campbell - Air Force

I still can see him in my mind, 40 years later.
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John R. Duncan Jr. - Marines

Our platoon was brought ashore by the old green grasshopper choppers and dropped off on a ridge inland of the beach.
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John Wood - Army
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Tim Petersen - Army

I came to the terrifying conclusion that there were people all around us that really, really wanted to kill me.
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Raymond P. Keen - Navy
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Edward M. Evans - Marines
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James Speed Hensinger - Army
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Turner James - Army

There was a hush on the aircraft; one could hear a pin drop.
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Robert E. Garcia - Army
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Richard Mazurkiewicz - Army

I was lead man for a forward observer team and had to choose two men to accompany me on a mission near the Central Highlands.
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Bobby Killough - Army

We were fighting all night long under heavy enemy small arms, machine gun and RPG fire.
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R. Pearsall - Marines

A recipe. Thanksgiving Day soldiers' meal on the FEBA (front lines):
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Mark Richardson - Army

We lost 37 guys that night.
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Bill Riedel - Air Force

To this day I feel very uncomfortable sitting in any public place with my back to the door or the outside windows.
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Please note that Stars and Stripes could not verify every account. Reader submissions are presented as first-person stories.

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