T. Harry Williams Center for
Oral History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Gilly A. Marshall COLLECTION: 4700.0966
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Paul Moore
PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam
DATES: 3/26/74
FOCUS DATES: Oct. 20, 1968-Jan. 5, 1973, March 1969-Feb.
1970
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1412, Side A.
Born in New Orleans in 1948; went to Catholic grammar school, Jesuit high
school; was involved with Marine ROTC in high school; everyone he knew went to
private school, stigma around public school; came to LSU for two years, then
joined military; parents are from Italy, mother came over on boat; mother is
CPA, parents are divorced; mother went through night school to become CPA, are
middle class family; used to live in lower middle class neighborhood; got draft
notice because he wasn't far enough along in school; joined Marines because
several family members had been Marines, had had Marine ROTC; thought he had
the best chance of coming back alive as a Marine; mother wanted him to appeal
draft board's decision; now he doesn't regret going, would do it again, but
maybe would have joined Air Force; 8 week boot camp in Alameda, CA; lots of
people didn't make it through boot camp; guys switched from reserve to regular,
stayed in much longer than they had to; Marshall was in Delta Company 66; get
more privileges every week if you're good; easier on you every week; the secret
to boot camp is not letting them know your name; Marshall tried to stay hidden
in group, never be leader; two-hour watch every night, watch continued 24 hours
per day; classes on Marine Corp history, VD, safety, first aid; encouraged to
write home; got 15 days off after boot camp, realized it might be his last 15
days at home; returned to Alameda for more training; knew he'd be sent to
Southeast Asia; sent to electronics school, hated electronics; for Marines,
infantry comes first, specialty comes second; spent several months in Pearl
Harbor; then went to Vietnam, spent ten months there; came back after he was wounded;
ranks, promotions; became E4 after Honolulu; teletype school in Memphis; worked
radar, teletype, planes at same time; probably would have returned for second
tour in Vietnam if hadn't been wounded; worked with third Naval helicopter
division, lots of Medevac; went to Guam; transferred to assault division with
Cobras, still flew Medevacs; had lots of helicopter experience; definition of a
hero; saw people throw themselves on hand grenades to save other people; saw
people lose hands; acclimated after a month; learning about VC tactics, NVA;
respect for the NVA, a fine army; hates VC, would kill one now if he had the
chance; cruelty of the VC; acclimation to war is no excuse for behavior of VC;
atrocities VC would commit against village elders, their families, little
children; ideologically we fought on the right side, militarily we fought on
the wrong side; knew Vietnam was lost when US troops pulled out; North Vietnam
has more of a cause than South Vietnam; Marshall never lived in village, set up
camps near villages; sometimes warned Vietnamese to clear out of villages; shot
them dead if they didn't provide ID cards; didn't have that much contact with
village people; opinion of South Vietnamese army; South Vietnamese versus VC;
lots of Filipinos were employed by the US; residents of Saigon's feelings
toward Americans; had only superficial dealings with Vietnamese; black market,
rate of exchange; people of Saigon were cosmopolitan, normal people; village
people were friendlier; when he got wounded, villagers saved his life;
prostitutes, blacklisted bars were most popular; prostitution was preferable to
marrying a nice Vietnamese girl and having to bring a gook back home; lots of
guys ditched Vietnamese wives before coming home; prostitutes were much better option;
low morale was big problem; realizing they might never get back home; guys that
got killed, made careless by girls who sent them Dear John letters; Marshall
had a letter from his girl every day; if she'd found someone else he would have
wanted her not to tell him; how much it meant to get letters; doesn't know what
happened to Vietnamese girls left behind; military was against US soldiers
marrying Vietnamese; had to put in request to get married, talk to chaplain;
military discouraged marriage to Vietnamese, but you could if you really
wanted; if Vietnamese girl was beautiful enough was worth it; friend in New
Orleans who married beautiful Vietnamese girl; rich father of his friend's
Vietnamese wife, upper class; class differences between Marshall and his friend
and rich Vietnamese; their wedding, children, her father's beautiful house;
figures ten of these marriages failed for every one that worked; more about the
rich and well bred Vietnamese father of his friend's wife.
Tape 1412, Side B.
Majority of people he knew in Vietnam smoked marijuana; military did
rehabilitative work with drug abusers; if Marshall had been US president, he
would have leveled North Vietnam; thinks just as many people use drugs on
college campuses as over there; Vietnamese drug dealers; how to find
prostitutes, prices ranged from two to five dollars; you could buy $35 or $40
worth of stuff for five dollars there; how to maximize your currency; Saigon
was a busy, compact city, reminded him of New Orleans; people who got rich off
black market, war; was glad he was an enlisted man; hates officers for looking
down on enlisted men; generals know how important enlisted men are; lower
ranking officers don't appreciate enlisted men; Calley should never have been
an officer, wasn't educated or mature enough to handle situation at My Lai;
people that have been through college for four years are probably more mature;
military needs more liberal arts people who are critical of the military.
Tape 1413, Side A.
Tape is blank
Tape 1413, Side B.
Went out in assault helicopter in
1969; didn't know VC had machine gun set up there; got machine gunned as they
were coming off helicopter; felt pain in leg, knew he was hit; hit in the butt,
passed out cold; recuperating in a camp hospital; surgery, skin grafts; sent to
Guam, stayed there till mid November; Naval hospital in Guam was bad, lots of
death around him, old buildings; sent to Army hospital in Honolulu, wanted to
be home for Christmas; arrival at Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco; had
47 days leave left, terminal leave; got home to New Orleans on Christmas eve
morning, surprised family; got to visit Tokyo, enjoyed it; also sent to
Philippines for R&R; when he was wounded, the guys from the helicopter
carried him in a stretcher; someone snuffed out the machine gun; Marshall was
unconscious, carried to a village, doesn't remember much; limited medical care
in the village; personnel at MASH hospital; description of hospital; not many
American women in Vietnam; hospital similar to TV show MASH; lengths of time he
spent in different hospitals; had to wait two weeks for a flight out of Guam;
very satisfied with the medical attention he received; Marshall knew he wasn't
going back out to field, no matter what; would have got home about the same
time even if he wasn't wounded; was back in school at LSU in January; had been
overseas for more than one year; Marshall was in combat zone the whole time he
was overseas; society doesn't like Vietnam veterans; Philippines was full of
talented, industrious people; people are educated in Hong Kong, don't fool
around; duration of his R&R trips; Okinawa was his worst R&R trip, lots
of resentment against Americans; went to a geisha house, took a bath; liked the
Philippines the best, wished he could have been stationed there; all the people
were industrious in the countries he visited; black market; better rate of
currency exchange on black market; can get into trouble dealing with black
market; prostitution has an ugly stigma attached to it here, but not a dishonorable
profession there; guys who got homesick for their girlfriends, got married
there, didn't want to take her home; Marshall fooled with prostitutes but
didn't love them; girls in Philippines especially beautiful; organization of
prostitution; in Philippines you could rent a girl for a whole day, like
renting a car; didn't go for going to a village and raping girls, much easier
to pay one a dollar; safer in bars; enjoyed the prostitutes more than anything
else, Oriental girls just turn him on; didn't have women out in field;
prevalence of drugs; could have found heroin easily if he'd wanted; thinks
60-70 percent of people he knew there used drugs, just about everyone smoked
pot; believes in legalizing pot because people seemed to be able to do their jobs
on it; rehabilitation centers for soldiers in Vietnam; wasn't exposed to many
hard drugs; thinks statistics on heroin use were exaggerated; Philippine
hustlers near US bases in the Philippines; inefficiency of military; too many
old generals in charge of a young army, this wasn't America's kind of war;
importance of helicopters; wasn't that much corruption; not enough quality
people in military; Marshall plans to join Air Force after he finishes college;
looks at it as a job and way to serve his country, but not gung ho; many able
people in military, some incompetent.
TAPES: 2 (T1412, T1413) TOTAL
PLAYING TIME: 2 hours
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 5 page index
RESTRICTIONS: None