Street Roots • Nov. 10-16, 2017
News
Page 10
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Age 74
Service: United States Army. First lieutenant. Vietnam
and Fort Benning, Ga.
What were the most trying and difficult moments of
service?
called the coordinates to my artillery. If
there were casualties, I have no idea.”
That’s how I (get) out of that question.
The firefights, because that was always hard. You’re
in an extremely high state of activity and anxiety. Being
a platoon leader, the job was to maintain your cool,
organize your guys, direct fire and do all those things.
You’re trying to concentrate on what’s going on, and
the noise is pretty horrific. It’s very disorienting.
That’s one of the hardest things about the firefights.
It’s so disorienting because of the noise. All the guns
going off. You had machine guns, small-arms fire - you
sometimes had rockets. If we called in gunships, we
would have just an array of rockets from the gunships.
(We had) mini-guns that just sounded like a roar. You
don’t hear any individual shots being fired. My
recollection is, they would fire something like 3,000
rounds a minute. It was just literally a roar coming
from the helicopter. Or you’d have artillery being
brought in. When you had artillery being brought in, it
was always very close to you. Our artillery guys were
crazy. (Laughs).
Has serving in the military affected any
decision-making today?
Did you have a family after the war? How did the war
affect this?
I think so. As I say, I think I’m
disciplined in a lot of ways. I try to be
careful. I think the experience was helpful
to me in the long run. I didn’t think so at
first (laughter). I enjoy going to the service
clubs, and talking about the war and my
experiences. I really enjoy going through
all these thank-you notes. I think I’m doing
some good.
I would like to include the following
observation: we enjoy our freedom, as long
as we have young Americans who are
willing to look beyond their own
comfortable lives, go to dangerous places,
(and) hunt down those who would do us
harm. They are to be respected and
admired.
I did have a family after the service - two boys. I
don’t think it impacted me that way; (but it) certainly
had an impact. You have a kind of come-to-Jesus
moment. It certainly impacts your view of life, and
what’s important, what’s not important. The frivolous
kinds of things became even more frivolous to me, and
had no meaning whatsoever. I didn’t tolerate that very
well from other people.
VETERANS, from page 9
A.L.
That war achieves nothing. I just couldn’t say it any
clearer. It achieves nothing. Unless you are defending
your own country from assault, then there is no reason
for us to be there. I see the Iraq and Afghanistan
(wars) as totally worthless. They’re the same stupidity
that we exhibited for Vietnam. I don’t think they have a
rational basis. It would take a lot for me to justify going
to war again.
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IPLF
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That’s a double-edged sword. In my mind, I think
everybody should go through a traumatic experience
such as that to give their own life some meaning, give
them a stronger moral compass perhaps. A political
compass, I suppose, so that they have some idea of
what a real war is like and what it does to people -
which is not a good thine. Thev iust need to know that.
How did your military service affect how you think
about wars today?
DOUGHNUT
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What do you think the general public should know
about war?
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Everyone else
is just
sellin'weed.
M EOHR
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Which doughnut is named a fte r
Elvis Presley's entourage?
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Print answer here
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