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Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
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- Notes:
- Michael Woods grew up in a poor neighborhood in New Orleans and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1960 at the age of 17. He was based on Okinawa in the early 1060s, and was sent to Vietnam with one of the first Marine units assigned there, and participated in a number of combat actions of varying size. After his tour in Vietnam was over, he stayed in the Marines until 1979, but did not return to Vietnam.
- Date Created:
- 2010-06-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Crans was born in Hastings, Michigan on July 8, 1947. He enlisted in the Navy in early 1966 and reported for basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois in June 1966. He served with the deck crew on the USS Lexington (CV-16) in Pensacola, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas from September 1966 to July 1967. He served aboard the USS Robert H. McCard (DD-822) in the laundry room and in late 1967 was stationed off the coast of Vietnam at Yankee Station supporting the aircraft carriers there. He also served on that ship as a barber and participated in Operation Silver Tower, a NATO exercise involving early stealth technology in the North Sea. The final ship he served on was the USS New (DD-818) as the ship's serviceman clerk. Due to downsizing of the military he was discharged 90 days early in late February 1970.
- Date Created:
- 2015-10-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Lawrence L. Dean served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1957 to 1959 in the U.S. In this account he discusses his pre-enlistment years, enlistment and training in the U.S., and his service. Dean concludes by discussing his life after the war and mentioning that he also served briefly for 3 months in 1968.
- Date Created:
- 2007-03-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Raymond Boisvenue was born in Trenton, Michigan on December 3, 1945. He was drafted in 1968 and received basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky and advanced infantry training in Louisiana (most likely at Fort Polk). He was deployed to Vietnam in late 1968 where he served at the 9th Infantry Division headquarters at Dong Tam processing paperwork for the division. He was transferred to a base south of Saigon and completed his tour there. Due to extending his tour by two months he was able to be discharged as soon as he landed in San Francisco.
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Terry Hodges was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1948. He graduated high school in 1966 and attended Southeastern Louisiana University for three years before he recieved his draft notice. Hodges attended both basic and advanced infantry training in Fort Polk, Louisiana, and rejected then opportunity to attend Noncommissioned Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then sent to Vietnam in 1970 where he was stationed at Camp Evans and then Firebase Kathryn with Delta Company, 1st Battalion of the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne. He remembered his unit coming under fire during the siege on Firebase Ripcord after which his unit suffered heavy losses. He also had to accompany his friend's body back to the U.S. for the funeral in Georgia. Having served eleven months and sixteen days in Vietnam, Hodges was eventually given an early-out in April of 1971 and returned to his home in Baton Rouge.
- Date Created:
- 2016-11-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Layton was born in Madison, Indiana on August 24th, 1946 and graduated high school in 1964. He briefly attendd the Univeristy of Arizona before transferring to to Ohio University where he participated in the ROTC program in 1966. Layton underwent Basic Training at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, in 1967, and graduated college in 1969. He then attended his infantry officer's traiing course at Fort Benning, Georgia, and completed both jump school and ranger training. His first assignment as an officer was to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in 1969 before he was deployed to Vietnam with the B Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. His unit articipated in combat at Firebase Ripcord as well as Hill 1000 before Layton was reassigned as an S-2 Intelligence Officer. After two years of deployment, he left the service and completed his Master's degree in Urban Planning and, later, in Economics.
- Date Created:
- 2017-10-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Randy Curry enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1962 when he was 17 years old. He served on a destroyer as a torpedo man. His ship sailed to the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Norway. He spent an extra 4 months in the service due to Vietnam and signed out after that.
- Date Created:
- 2007-01-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Herman Keizer was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938 and grew up in the suburb of Cicero. He attended Calvin College in Michigan and was drafted in 1962. He trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training, and on to Fort Dix, New Jersey for clerical training, and was deployed to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he served as a chaplain's assistant. He was on standby during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After completing seminary at Calvin College he became an Army chaplain and served in Vietnam with the 1st Infantry Division at the time of the Cambodian incursion in 1970. After the war he served as a high ranking chaplain in Europe, the United States, the State Department, and the Pentagon until his retirement.
- Date Created:
- 2010-07-25T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Isabelino Vazquez was born and grew up in Puerto Rico and was drafted into the Army in 1951 at the age of nineteen years old. Once drafted, Vazquez went through training in Puerto Rico before deploying to Korea and fighting in the Korean War. He served as an infantryman in the 7th Infantry for twelve months, and then as a platoon leader in the all-Puerto Rican 65th Regiment for two months. After Korea, Vazquez briefly left the military before re-enlisting and completing jump school, after which he served in both the 82nd and 11th Airborne Divisions, with the latter division while the division was in Germany. When he returned to the United States, Vazquez completed the training for the Army Special Forces and traveled between the different special forces groups, including the 8th Special Forces Group in the Panama Canal Zone and the 1st Special Forces Group stationed on Okinawa, Japan. While with the 1st Special Forces, Vazquez did a short tour in Vietnam helping train South Vietnamese Special Forces and nurses. After completing the short tour with the 1st Special Forces, Vasquez briefly returned to the States to join the 5th Special Forces Group before the group deployed to the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. During his second deployment, the enemy wounded Vasquez, forcing his evacuation, first to Japan then to the States. Once out of the hospital, Vasquez served a short period with the 75th Ranger before joining the 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as a company commander. While with the 506th Infantry, Vasquez helped set of the defenses for Firebase Ripcord, site of one of the last major battles involving American forces in Vietnam. When Vasquez left his company command, he served as a battalion S-4 before returning to the States and eventually retiring in 1980.
- Date Created:
- 2011-10-06T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Steven Faine, born in Detroit in 1947, enlisted in the Army in 1967 to avoid being drafted and choose his specialization. He took basic training at Fort Knox and then went to Fort Sam Houston to train as a medic. From there, he got into a new program run at Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, where army medics received the equivalent of nursing school. After completing this program, he worked at the base hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, and was sent to Vietnam in early 1970. Once there, he went to Camp Evans to join the 1st Battalion, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He worked at the battalion aid station, but also went out to several firebases at different times. During the first half of his tour, he had to deal with a fair number of casualties, especially toward the end of the Ripcord operation in July, when one of the companies in the battalion took heavy losses. He also observed the drug and racial problems in the rear areas.
- Date Created:
- 2012-09-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Bill Hardiman was born in 1947 in Pontiac, Michigan, and grew up in Grand Rapids. After graduating from high school, Hardiman briefly attended Grand Rapids Junior College, then left school and received his draft notice in 1966. Through efforts made by his church, Hardiman received the label of "conscientious objector", so when he reported in 1966, the Army sent Hardiman to Fort Sam Houston in Texas for both his basic training and advanced training to be a medic. Once Hardiman finished at Fort Sam Houston, he deployed to Vietnam, where he received an assignment to an artillery section stationed on a hilltop firebase near the city of Chu Lai. While on the firebase, Hardiman not only treated the wounded in his artillery section, but also wounded soldiers in the infantry unit also stationed on the firebase, as well as Vietnamese civilians living in a village at the base of the hill the firebase was on. Once his tour in Vietnam ended, Hardiman returned to the United States and finished his enlistment, finally leaving the military in 1968. He eventually returned to college and went on to an extended career in public service.
- Date Created:
- 2011-05-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Philip Shook was drafted into the Army in 1964. He spent six months in Vietnam in a small base camp at Phuoc Vinh north of Saigon. His main duty as a soldier was to go out on search and destroy missions on helicopters. He was responsible for calling in airstrikes and artillery fire.
- Date Created:
- 2010-02-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Susan Ryan Bowers is the widow of Vietnam War veteran Steven Bowers. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee and then grew up in Florida. She met Steven in 1963 after a deployment to Europe. He was in the Navy as a bombardier/navigator for an A5 Vigilante in RVAH 5 Squadron (reconnaissance). They were married in January 1964 and in June of that year he was deployed to Vietnam where he saw action flying bombing missions along the coast of Vietnam. During his time in the service she was an active member of the Sanford Naval Air Station community in Florida and ardently supported his involvement with the military and with the Vietnam War. After his tour ended in June 1965 he decided to leave the Navy and they moved up to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he worked for Lear-Siegler, an aerospace company, which allowed him to still be involved with the military, specifically the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
- Date Created:
- 2014-12-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Sally Robson was born in Muskegon, Michigan in 1937. She graduated from high school in 1955 and began studying to become a teacher at Albion College and taught second grade in Walled Lake, Michigan, after graduating. In 1969, her husband, Larry, enlisted into the Navy and moved his their family down to Texas during his Basic Training. When he was sent to Vietnam to work as a doctor at a base in Quang Tri, Robson and her children moved back to Muskegon and lived with her parents. After returning from Vietnam in 1969, Robson's reunited family moved to Chicago where Larry worked at the Great Lakes Naval Station before moving to Detroit where Larry started his vascular surgery residency. A year later, the family settled into Grand Rapids where Larry worked at both Blodgett Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital.
- Date Created:
- 2019-02-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- David Corradetti was born in Woodbury, New Jersey on January 1st, 1950. He graduated high school in 1968 and decided not to pursue college because he had a feeling he was going to be drafted. David was drafted in April of 1969 and did his basic training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. He did his AIT at Ft. Lewis in Tacoma, Washington and was sent to Vietnam after that. He joined up with the 101st Airborne Division. David received a purple heart medal after he was injured in Vietnam and was sent home.
- Date Created:
- 2014-10-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Tom Friar was born in December of 1948 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Friar attended Basic Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and then AIT at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he learned to become a truck driver. Friar was then deployed to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, in November of 1967 with the S4 Supply Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, First Cavalry Division at An Khê. He participated in the First Cavalry Air Assaults as well as Operation Pegasus. Returning to the United States in 1969-70, he noticed the increased general hostility towards the Armed Forces in Vietnam. He briefly served as a CBR NCO training recruits at Fort Eustis, Virginia, before leaving the service in May of 1970 and eventually became a tool and die maker.
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Raymond Hines was born on April 6, 1944 in Wellford, South Carolina, and graduated high school in 1962. Hines received his draft notice in 1965 and chose to enlist in the Army. He completed Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, where he became a Morse Intercept Operator. He also trained in Artillery OCS at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before transferring to Fort Bliss, Texas, as part of the Air Defense for only two months before being transferred to Wurzburg Germany. From Germany, Hines was deployed to Vietnam with the 2nd of the 319th as a Fire Direction Officer and proceeded to report to the Bravo Battery at Firebase Bastogne. He saw heavy combat with this unit. While in Vietnam, Hines also worked as an assistant S-3 fireman, and a Liaison Officer for the 2nd of the 506 at Fire Base Ripcord. After taking some additional advanced artillery courses, he deployed to Nuremberg Germany with the 3rd of the 70th House Artillery before transferring to the 7th Corps Artillery as a Nuclear Release Authentication System Officer. He would later return to Europe after recieveing his veterinarian degree in the United States to care for military service animals.
- Date Created:
- 2019-07-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Al Orr was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 5, 1935. He enlisted in the Marines Corps in November 1952 when he was only 17 years old. Al was sent to the Pacific in March 1966 and first arrived in Okinawa where he was assigned to a unit. He was then sent into Da Nang where he worked as an assistant operations officer of his battalion. Al was in Vietnam for a little over a year and was engaged in a campaign against the Viet Cong in his sector.
- Date Created:
- 2004-12-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Huizenga was born in Portland, Michigan in 1948 and grew up on a farmhouse near the town until he was fourteen, when his family moved to Hudsonville, Michigan. After graduating from high school in 1966, Huizenga enlisted in the Marine Corps. Following boot camp in San Diego, California and infantry training at Camp Pendleton, California, Huizenga received orders for motor transport school at Montford Point, North Carolina. Once he completed the school, Huizenga briefly served in the motor pool at nearby Camp Lejeune before deploying to Vietnam. When Huizenga arrived in Vietnam, he received an assignment to the 1st Anti-Tank Battalion. However, only a few months after Huizenga arrived, the battalion contracted to a company-sized unit and Huizenga transferred to the former battalion's sister unit, the 1st Motor Battalion. While with the 1st Motor, Huizenga worked in the battalion's shop repairing vehicles and rode in convoys, first as a machine gunner then as an assistant driver. While Huizenga was with the battalion, it transferred to base at Gia Le outside of Hue just prior to the start of the Tet Offensive in 1968. During the offensive, the battalion helped transport men and supplies into the forces stationed inside Hue. He chose to extend his tour by a total of nine months rather than be posted back at Camp Lejeune, preferring to stay with his unit, which eventually moved to the Da Nang area, where it remained for the rest of his tour.
- Date Created:
- 2012-01-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Jakubczak is from Grand Rapids Michigan and was born in May of 1946. After high school he worked at Lowell Engineering and as a farmer. He briefly attended Kendall School of Design, but dropped out in 1966 and he and his brother joined the Navy and volunteered for training as medical corpsmen. He completed his basic training and medical training at Great Lakes, Illinois, and then went to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, for field training. He then worked at Great Lakes Naval Hospital for ten months, and went to Vietnam in February, 1968. He was assigned to the First Shore Party, which provided logistical support to Marine combat units in the field, and was regularly attached to combat units when on operations. He was based near Da Nang, and supported Marine units involved in Operations Allen Brook and Mameluke Thrust. He left Vietnam in February, 1969, and completed his enlistment at Great Lakes.
- Date Created:
- 2011-10-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)