VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Walter J. Irwin
Army
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 20, 2015
The heat, the rain, the mud, the dust and the first time I was shot at.
Readers' stories
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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.
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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.
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I can still smell the air, the stench, the heat and mainly the smell of death.
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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
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Survival guilt, loss of innocence, remembering our brothers and trying to get together with those who shared the pain and suffering of combat!
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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.
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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.
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A Christmas respite before all hell broke loose.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Tet offensive at Tan Son Nhut Air Base.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The heat, the rain and smell. Also I was scared as hell.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I was more devastated coming home than my time in 'Nam — the outrage we received, the betrayal.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The alienation I felt and still feel from fellow Americans who never served.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Fear of the local people of what would happen to them when we left.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Giving up my youth for country.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The heat, the rain, the mud, the dust and the first time I was shot at.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I remember being very glad I was stationed at Marble Mountain instead of a rice paddy.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The constant feeling that you might get hit at any moment.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The recovery of CH47A on May 21, 1968.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Troops' continued devotion to duty when abandoned by politicians and public in general.
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I was a supporter of containment until it all unraveled into a political lie.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The heat and voracious bugs.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I was fighting for my country but mostly trying to get home in one piece.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
All the hair on my arm stood straight up, so I knew something was wrong.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Four months, 24/7 bombing with no letup.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Did not care for the bullets and explosions.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
When I found the ID card and dog tags of one of my buddies who had been killed.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Being a medic and cutting off arms and legs of a lot of young men.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
As an Army brat, I recall waiting for letters and hoping not to see a notification team.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I still can see him in my mind, 40 years later.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
He was only 20, with his whole life ahead of him.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
"How can we lose a war we're not allowed to win?"
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Only two of us from our M60 Machine Gun Squad of nine came home alive.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The loss of my Company Commander - killed in action.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Concern for the safety of the troops under my command.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I came to the terrifying conclusion that there were people all around us that really, really wanted to kill me.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The sunken, shallow look in the eyes of my brothers.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I will never forget the terror of the moment my oldest brother was drafted.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Walking through the Seattle airport to catch a flight home.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Death of your best friend, all the bodies pieces and parts, getting shelled and shot at, seeing Bob Hope, racial tensions, friendly fire incidents.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The damage done to the 71st Evac hospital during the rocket and mortar attacks of Tet '68.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The time a little rest and recreation became a lot of escape and evasion.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Hearing Marine radio man telling of being overrun during Tet Offensive.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Scorching heat followed by cold monsoon rains.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
It took me almost 40 years before I would tell someone I was there. Now I wear it proudly.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
We were fighting all night long under heavy enemy small arms, machine gun and RPG fire.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Part of the in-processing was to prepare a will.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
My last mission as an Army combat helicopter pilot on Nov 28, 1966.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
My first strong memory was the horror of battle during an early-morning rocket attack. My second was at LAX.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I was captured by the Viet Cong on Dec. 24, 1961, and held only six months until June 24,1962.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I like to think that what they did kept a lot of us alive.
Most read
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Part of the in-processing was to prepare a will.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I was captured by the Viet Cong on Dec. 24, 1961, and held only six months until June 24,1962.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The heat, the rain and smell. Also I was scared as hell.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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
Editor's picks
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
The damage to my husband, who is deceased now. His suffering, and mine, began in 1970 when he came home from Vietnam.
-
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
-
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I still can see him in my mind, 40 years later.
-
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Our platoon was brought ashore by the old green grasshopper choppers and dropped off on a ridge inland of the beach.
-
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
-
VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
I came to the terrifying conclusion that there were people all around us that really, really wanted to kill me.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
There was a hush on the aircraft; one could hear a pin drop.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
We were fighting all night long under heavy enemy small arms, machine gun and RPG fire.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
A recipe. Thanksgiving Day soldiers' meal on the FEBA (front lines):
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
We lost 37 guys that night.
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
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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VIETNAM: MY EXPERIENCE
Please note that Stars and Stripes could not verify every account. Reader submissions are presented as first-person stories.
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